The Electra Forums

Hehe, we all got our projects The lucky ones, are those who actually get the time to do something with them......

Interesting experiments those guys has been up to, and I see where you're getting at! It's quite a simple circuit, and the parts for it is easy-peasy to find. Just a shame it works best together with the bridge pup (for those with H/H guitars), I think they sound best at bridge pup's...
But, as for fixing the piezo speaker to the trem block, does this system require having a magnet nearby? If so, you'll have to have a magnetic strip to fix to the trem block as well.
That's the case with eBows, but then again this works a bit different than an eBow!
Could be interesting to test one of those piezobased systems, wonder what they sound like! Check back to us when you get somethings done with it

I've finally gotten a couple days off to do nothing, rest. So of course I got busy wiring. One thing led to another and I decided to go ahead with all the features I could. After a lot of soldering,a lot of troubleshooting, I finally have success. Here it is:



With the four knobs, two switches, and a chickenhead, it looks like an MPC, but it's not. The chickenhead (love the gold pointer knob!) turns a blend pot instead of a selector for the two pickups.

The first two knobs are volume and tone, as usual, but pulling them activates coil tap and phase reverse. The first toggle is a series/parallel switch!

True to its ancestry, and making good use of the module bay is an onboard EQ pedal, converted from a Guyatone 5-band pedal. I picked this pedal for its compact size, and it's worked well, so I decided it would get a new life aboard the explorer.

If you chop most of the case off a pedal, here's what's left:



One thing I was careful of was not to change anything more than I had to wth the EQ, keeping it in stock configuration as much as possible. I just soldered signal leads directly to the pc board, even leaving the jacks in place.




The EQ fits neatly into the module bay. I mounted it at an angle for convenience when playing- just rock the guitar forward and the EQ is at more or less the correct angle.

I love having an onboard EQ. It's by far my favorite pedal, and first on my list of effects I'd want onboard. the ability to crank out a midrange-scooped signal with enhanced low and high end makes for a nearly acoustic jangle, and if you punch up the midrange and drop the high and low, you can crank out a distorted tone like no other. EQ is the secret tone weapon, as far as I'm concerned. THe MPC was a great concept, carry your electronics onboard so you can literally plug 'n play, and this guitar does that, par excellence!




The EQ is activated or bypassed by pull switch on the third knob, which is a blend pot to mix dry and EQ signal to the output jack. This is a nice feature I don't even have on my normal EQ pedals, though I wish I did.

The fourth knob and second switch are dummy right now, not hooked up, room for further hot rodding modifications and controls. There's also those two remaining switch holes to fill...

This Explorer's come a long, long way to where it is now. I'm loving it, another Electra comes back to life!

Great work X189player ! Very inspiring !
MPC modules are mounted in chasis that I guess also serve as Shielding , did U encounter noise/interference problems ? I mean with the EQ circuit exposed ? Just wondering .
How do U intend to mount the EQ controls to the cavity cover ?

That is a bloody good job. What pickups did you finally go with?

Thanks!

The module bays are shielded with foil. I'm getting a little interference but I think it's because I'm running without back covers- when I get those installed they'll be shielded too.

I'm of divided mind on the cover over the EQ. On one hand it might be nice to have a solid cover for complete stealth. The only reason I'd need to open it would be to change th EQ setting, and once I got it dialed in I imagine I'd leave it. On the other hand, I could run a cover with a window in it exposing the EQ sliders, that would be most convenient in the real world. I'm not planning on banging this guitar around in a setting where I'd worry about protecting the EQ controls.

I really love the MPC's that have wood back covers, I'm tempted to find some mahogany and go that route.

The pups are MMK protomatics, supposedly from an Aria Pro II CS. They're pretty hot (~11K) and have a really nice warm vintage humbucker tone, yet they split and phase nicely for plenty of twang.

To be honest I'm almost convinced I have the pups reversed. They're almost identical in resistance, yet right now I have to adjust the neck pup way way down, and the bridge way way up... then again, that's the way the pickups sit on this guitar, lotsa neck angle. I'm tempteed to swap em but it might not make a difference (and I don't wanna fire up the soldering iron again...)