Jackson Kelly Eerie Dess Swirl

[alessandroarzilli]

By the way, here it is, today, nice and shiny

https://ibb.co/1RzYZRJ

[skullfunkerry]

That looks great, you did a fantastic job cleaning it up

[alessandroarzilli]

Thank you! Everything works pretty good, though I'm waiting for a couple of Alnico 5 magnets to arrive home, I read very positive reviews on the Seymour Duncan forum, so my intent is to switch the stock Detonators ceramic magnets with those. The ones I bought are like 4.00 euros each, from Alegree.
Lets see what happens, I'll be extremely careful 🙂

[Number Of The Priest]

Would love to hear a "before and after" comparison of the Detonators with ceramic versus alnico 5 magnets!

[alessandroarzilli]

Will definitely make a video for it 👍👍👍

[alessandroarzilli]

So I'm still waiting for the Alnico 5 magnets to arrive, surely due to covid19 delays. However, I re-opened the back electronics cavity once again to check things more in details. And this is what I found inside:
1) https://ibb.co/mRg7Tjc
2) https://ibb.co/XCkH4s2
3) https://ibb.co/NtbywfD

I don't understand how the ground wires are setup, anybody could give me some help?
This is a very simple (yet effective) wiring configuration, 2 humbuckers, a 3 way toggle switch and just one master volume, no coil-tapping or phase switching, but there's something I don't understand.
I see that under each pickup, in their cavities, there's a ground wire screwed into the body of the guitar and they go along with the pickups' 4 connector wire into the wiring cavity. Are those two black wires useful, since each humbucker is already "grounded" with its bare and black wire to the side of the 3-way toggle switch? Isn't this a useless ground loop?
I'm thinking of de-soldering those screwed wires and re-solder them all together on the back of the volume pot, but I might be totally wrong and would like to understand why. Thanks!

[ed]

The cavities are painted with conductive paint and the black wires connect them all together. Some companies use copper tape to do the shielding.

[alessandroarzilli]

Finally managed to make a quick video of this KE3 Eerie Dess Swirl! Hope you'll enjoy it! https://youtu.be/v8OJm5j8KSg

[Number Of The Priest]

"This video has been removed for violating YouTube's Terms of Service."

[alessandroarzilli]

Haha, maybe it was too heavy? :-) Funny enough, I got a copyright claim for my own song "Grind" you're hearing in the background. Had to file a contest report, now it's back online. YouTube's kinda funky sometimes!

[Number Of The Priest]

Nice video! The guitar cleaned up very well.

THAT is how you shoot a stationary, prone guitar to showcase it. Nice long, slow, graceful, unidirectional sweeping motions with the camera so the viewer can appreciate the fine details, with even and flattering lighting. This is in sharp contrast to the sudden, herky-jerky, blurry, easily distractable, unsteady camerawork that plagues Essex Recording Studio's amateurish method of filming.

[alessandroarzilli]

Oh thank you very much! I messaged them and tried giving some suggestions about making videos for such rare guitars, for the community at least, at least using a tripod, we'll see what happens.
I work as a video editor myself, didn't really use more than a 150 dollars camera (Panasonic DMC-TZ100) and just some color correction. I really appreciate your words!

[Number Of The Priest]

I got too carried away with my anti-Essex tirade that I forgot to note an observation: You wound your G, B, and high E strings "backwards" around the tuning post, which makes me suspect you did that on purpose to maintain a less severe string angle when the string leaves the nut, especially on a long headstock like Jackson's. If so, I can understand why you did that on the thinnest strings but not the thickest strings. Interesting!

Also, I noticed you repaired the paint chip. How did you do it? In the video, the repair is virtually undetectable, and I had to revisit your first photos where you showed the damage to remind myself that it existed before. Great job with the repair!

[alessandroarzilli]

Oohh I have to admit my ignorance, I really don't know how to wind the strings correctly. Next strings change, will do.
foe the touch-ups, I used a mix of acetone just to tame the paint on the edges, then three coats of different shades of purple nail polish, very very gently and trying to match the existing swirl patterns to trick the eye. You'll definitely see more pictures and details on my next video about the kbx repair, which had a bad chipped edge! Thanks again

[alessandroarzilli]

So, after some weeks, I finally managed to find the time to edit the final video where I completely disassemble this KE3 Eerie dess swirl!
It's pretty long, so if anybody's interested you should definitely click on the timecode stamps.
Next thing to do, probably swap the Detonators' magnets with some AlNiCo5 I bought from Alegree for like 10 euros. Hope you'll like it!

https://youtu.be/4DnMQDhpFfU