Electrics and Wiring

All my Custom Built guitars are fitted with high quality CTS volume and tone potentiometers (pots), Oak Grigsby pickup selector switches and Sprague "Orange drop" capacitors, all individually hand wired in house with vintage cloth covered 22awg stranded wire

Potentiometers

The CTS volume and tone potentiometers are the same that have been fitted to Fender® USA, Custom Shop and Gibson models for many years and are renowned for their reliability and longevity 

Single coil circuits are fitted with 250K pots and humbucker circuits with 500k versions, both of the logarithmic / audio type. These spread the change in volume / tone across the full range of the pots action. rather than bunching it at one point and acting more like an on/off switch

Switches

For Fender style guitars I use Fender® Oak Grigsby switches in usually 3-way form for 2 pickup guitars and 5-way for 3 pickups versions. I am also able to offer extended switching options to add flexibility without compromising the basic look and sound of the guitar with a popular choice being the 4-way Telecaster giving pickups in series or parallel switching to thicken up the sound

Capacitors

My tone capacitor of choice is the Vishay Sprague "Orange drop" type, and I use these as standard across all my custom builds. Default choice is the 0.047uF which gives a little more sparkle to the middle and top end, but this can be substituted for the traditional 0.022uF or halfway house 0.033uF if required

Wire

I use vintage style cloth covered 22awg stranded wire similar to that which has been used in high end USA Fender® guitars since the 50s throughout including pickups leads. The only exceptions are for my P90s and humbuckers where I use Gibson style vintage braided wire, some earthing leads or areas with restricted access eg hidden earthing for Gibson style stop tail posts

Volume Mod

This is also known as the "treble bleed" mod and is fitted to all my Custom Built guitars. It consists of a capacitor and resistor network to compensate for the loss in treble when the volume is rolled back

Shielding

All pickups and control cavities are fully lined with copper foil to minimise any problems with unwanted interference and hum.

Other features and options

Some models are fitted with features options that are specific to that instrument, eg Fender® Esquire (single pickup Telecaster®), others fitted with options to make them a bit different from the expected norm. 

If you require any specific circuit / option / facility or wish to have the same circuit as a particular artist then that can usually be accommodated, please contact me here