Hey all, greetings from Colorado! Long time listener and first time caller!
Thought I'd post this little project I built to pass some time last weekend.
It's a pickup from an old pawn shop fake Telecaster, a piece of spruce I had laying around in the shop, and a Uke tuner. The Bridge and nut are both pieces of cherry wood. Nothing too dramatic, but plugged into my computer and run through Guitarix with some pedals/FX it sounds pretty interesting...gritty, dirty, and bluesy!
One issue with it however, is when I plug it in, I get a really loud hum that I can't seem to get rid of...Any thoughts?
Replies
Glad BrianQ got you all fixed up. He is good at that. Glad you got that sorted. Sure would like to hear it. I got a soft-spot for diddley-bows.
Ray - Once I get it soldered up, I'll post a couple of sound clips with me messing around on it.
There were a few motivations behind me building this, least of all the "stay at home" stuff...I do the FOH sound for our church, and many of the members like to mess around with hardware. I have quite a few old amps/cabinets/drivers/etc lying around (long story), and I also have a literal ton of old tubes as well. Well, long story short, one of the guitarists wants me to build him a tube boost pedal....seeing as I don't play an instrument, I figured it was high-time for me to have an electric guitar of sorts to test out the tube boost pedal I'm building for him (I'd hate to destroy his gear if something isn't quite right)...another reason is that I am still in the process of converting my home office into a multi-use room, being an office and a home recording/mixing studio (see my note about about FOH sound)...and in order to test things as they are now, I needed something I could use as "input" for sound...
Sorry for the long winded story, but suffice it to say, I really enjoyed building this diddley bow...and with the amount of cigar boxes/scrap wood/etc I have in the garage (don't let my wife see it), I could make plenty more! They are a blast to build and play!
Looking forward to hearing it! My first electric diddley-bow started off as a quick way to test the primitive low-z pickups I had started building. I liked piddling with it so much, I started playing with it for fun. Hooked up with some effects in the micro-cube can net some pretty neat sounds. I concur! Since I started building these things, (CBGs in general), my wife and my schecter electrics and acoustic 6-strings get very little love.
:D glad to hear
Try wrapping a wire around that washer, it’s in a perfect spot under there? Kool build tho :)
The washer (and string ball) are located about 3/4" from the jack...so connecting them will be very easy to do...
Well, aligator clipped a jumper from the string ball to the ground on the jack, and sure enough...that's all it took! I"ll make a more permanent solution when I get a chance (probably solder a jumper from the washer to the jack)... THANKS BRIANQ!!!
Is the string grounded to anything, almost looks like an acoustic string, could just be my bad eyes :) Usually when there’s hum it’s either a ground and/or soldering issue? I would triple check those?
BrianQ, thank you for the reply.
I have not grounded the string, but I will try that...currently it passes through the wood "body" at the back and has a washer to prevent it from pulling through. I'll play around with attempting to ground the string and let you know.
I believe you are correct for the string being an acoustic string. It is an old string (probably 40+ years) from an antique dulcimer that I picked up at a thrift shop for $15...I'll post some pictures of that in the photo album when I get a chance...but I needed a string, and I "stole" one from the dulcimer until my Amazon shipment arrives with some new strings.