Butchery or how to install a GK3 Internal kit badly

normula1

A couple of years ago I bought a Roland GR55 and mounted the standard GK3 controller to my SG. At the time I also bought the GK3 internal kit with every intention of fitting it sharply. However, my woodworking skills are not exactly what you could call on a par with the good folks who do marvellous work here. I can wield a soldering iron, screwdrivers and wire cutters quite merrily, butdespite my good intentions I'm not too hot with chisels, routers etc.

So after prevaricating for a good while, I decided that my Blue Partscaster that was quite happily being a standard partscaster would have some surgery butchery.



Firstly, I bought a new HH pickguard and routed out for humbuckers. First cockup was not thinking to use my acrylic template to make a second template and somehow, I managed to run the cutter into the acrylic. I think the guide bearing shifted a touch.

I successfully misused a set of assorted cutters to widen the cavity and wide create grooves between the cavity and the jack socket route do so that I could run all the wires round without interfering with the standard jack function.

Thankfully the pickguard covers the bad routing. 



I have had a set of Schaller Golden 50 humbuckers since the mid - late 80s and I quite like them. Their mounting screw holes have stripped over the years so I widened the holes a tad and soldered a couple of 3-48 nuts onto the baseplates - result

However cockup number 2: I'd made a template to route a GK3 pickup sized hole in the scratchplate and did a load of successful dry runs. However when doing the cut for real, the router but kicked a little and shifted the template a touch (I was using double sided tape and some spring clamps). It's not too bad but is annoying.
The switch is one of the EYB megaswitches. Positions 1,3 and 5 are wired conventionally with positions 2 & 4 being partially split voicing the screw coils.





I initially mounted the the two huge push switches that came with the kit for the S1 and S2 function to the pickguard as I was wary of visibly butchering the body too much, but I found that they were extremely sensitive and cock up number 3, I didn't realise that my strumming hand goes right over where I'd located them. I'll get a new scratchplate at some point but the bit of green tape serves as a reminder.

I had intended to leave the synth / magnetic switch to be hardwired to synth only, but as I now reverted to using a mini toggle switch for the S1 / S2 function, I put both behind the bridge. I did lots of careful measuring to ensure that they were in a line with and equidistant from the jack socket in a place that was also reasonably ergonomic to use. However.... cockup number 4. When I was doing all this measuring, I'd left the rear cover off, so when I fitted it back on realised that the cover was now a touch too close for comfort.



So a but of judicious filing of the cover I'd made was in order. At which point I discovered that the rear plate was a lot more white than the bit of the parchment pickguard I used. in fact I've only ever bought parchment coloured backplates so it must just be a touch lighter..



The GK3 socket installation was also a touch painful. My (cheap) large forstner bits were really struggling to go from the side through to the jack socket route so I played safe and went up in normal drill sizes and just  ran the large forstner at the end and squared up with a jigsaw. Cockup number 5: one of the drill bits wandered a touch so the hole wasn't as central as it could have been, however this means that cooling won't be an issue The gap isn't visible from the front and looks worse in the pic than in the flesh so I'll live with it.




Here's the final result. It works pretty well all things considered, and in my defence, I know I'm cr*p at woodwork, but I'm going to blame all the wonkyness fairly and (not too) squarely on the fact I wear varifocals and it's completely impossible to trust them to judge when a line it truly straight or not as that would depend on holding my head in one position, looking through a specific part of the lens and hoping that the moon is in the right phase



BTW, I've no idea what this body is finished with, but it stinks to high heaven when drilling through it.

Funkfingers

I cheated by starting with a donor guitar that was mostly cavities to begin with.

https://i.imgur.com/4tYtzS4.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/TE1vVq7.jpg?2

ICBM

If you think that's butchered you haven't seen some of the things I've been asked to "finish off"/"put right" over the years .

Well done for at least making it all work properly and not look too bad from the outside. I'm not sure it's worse than my original attempt something similar either...

Andyjr1515

As long as a structural weakness hasn't been added (and it hasn't ), then the main test is 'does it look alright?'

And it does

I've used the varifocal excuse for years with MrsAndyjr1515 to explain wonky shelves and similar. And she doesn't believe me either

Well done - it's not an easy job installing one of those...

normula1

Thanks chaps. It's the GK3 pickup route in the scratchplate that p*sses me off the most as for once in my life I did things properly by making a template and doing muliple test runs on scrap scratchplate material before doing it for real. I was so pleased with myself until the kick happened.

But, it's only a scratchplate and I can easily order another and have a second go. TBH the reason I've not done that yet is I'm considering going HSH as it would make it a touch more versatile and I've a reasonable quality single coil sitting in one of my many boxes of bits

Sporky

Nice. Those aren't easy to fit.

Now add a Sustainiac.

Andyjr1515

normula1 said:

Thanks chaps. It's the GK3 pickup route in the scratchplate that p*sses me off the most as for once in my life I did things properly by making a template and doing muliple test runs on scrap scratchplate material before doing it for real. I was so pleased with myself until the kick happened.

But, it's only a scratchplate and I can easily order another and have a second go. TBH the reason I've not done that yet is I'm considering going HSH as it would make it a touch more versatile and I've a reasonable quality single coil sitting in one of my many boxes of bits

If you follow my builds at all, you will see that, as I have got progressively better with sharpening and using chisels and similar, I have also started progressively dropping the use of routers.  There are some things where they are really the only tool for the job - but I can't tell you how many times I've done something similar to you here....and worse....much, much worse.

normula1

@andyjr1515 I don't believe you for a second... I follow your builds and am constantly amazed how good they are.

The real annoyance I have is that my father in law was a brilliant engineer and had his own workshop where he built fully functioning scale traction engines and the like stuff from scratch. When he died my mother in law offered me my pick of his machines one of which was a lovely milling machine that would have made jobs like this so easy and through not wanting to go through the trouble of shifting it as it was a bit of a beast plus finding somewhere in the garage to house it, I passed on it.

prowla

Interesting; having just picked up a GR-1 for a tenner, I'm considering putting a GK-? on a MIM Strat (which previously had one, so has holes there anyway).

It'd also be cool to put a Sustainer on it.

Andyjr1515

normula1 said:

@andyjr1515 I don't believe you for a second... I follow your builds and am constantly amazed how good they are.

I'm sure I can find plenty of photos to prove that your belief, while flattering, is wholely misguided

Funkfingers

prowla said:

I'm considering putting a GK-? on a MIM Strat (which previously had one, so has holes there anyway).

If the hex pickup holes are already there, you have nothing to lose by reusing them. Likewise, if a hole for the control PCB housing has already been drilled, use that.

For GK variants with the strap pin bracket, using this saves further drilling. The downside is that the GK controls will be too far away from the playing area to operate without momentarily ceasing to play.

Given what the S1/S2 Up/Down switches can be programmed to do, it makes better sense to have the Roland momentary press switches than DPDT or DP3T mini switches. I generally use them as performance controls. Patch changing duties are relegated to remote foot pedals. 

normula1

That's how I'm using them too. I've configured my MIDI footcontroller to do patch changes and multiple expression with the S1 & S2 doing things like selecting virtual neck / bridge pickups.