marauder project

connor

thought it would be interesting to try and make a fender marauder, the one i like the look of the most is this one

the shape reminds me of a jag/strat and the nearest body i could find to this was a jazz bass (a jaguar doesn't have enuff wood on the top to make it like a strat) although obviously it's gonna need a lot of modifications.

my ruff idea for the shape is

which shouldn't be to difficult apart from the adding of sum wood on the top right corner.

so far i've started altering the neck pocket and marked the bits i need to cut off

i think this is gonna be a lot of fun to try and achieve an accurate replica, if anyone has any ideas/suggestions particularly with the wiring of all those switches i'd be most gratefull 😁

gilmourish

this looks great. . look forward to seeing it done!

Cymastar

I like it!

You seem to know what you're doing, so this project will hopefully be a great success. I love the Marauder...

feedbackismyfriend

Do you know what you're gonna do with all the switches? Here's what I'd do:

3 vertical switches on lower bout- on/off for each pickup

2 horizontal switches on lower bout- phase for neck and bridge pickups

switch on upper bout- rhythm/lead

rollers- volume and tone controls for rhythm circuit

regular knobs- volume and tone controls for lead circuit

switch on the same plate as the regular knobs- strangle switch for lead circuit

Also, it might be cool to use 250k pots for the rhythm circuit and 500k pots for the lead circuit. Another thought I had is it might make your life easier to simply use an all inclusive pickguard that contains all of your electronic components instead of getting all of those little metal plates custom cut (a la Jazzmaster). Additionally, the Jaguar type slider switches might be easier to find than the ones shown in the picture. Oh yeah, and the trem appears to be a standard mustang trem with a fancier baseplate, so you could prolly just buy a mustang trem off ebay and use that. Although imo a jag/jazzy trem would flow better with the aesthetics of the Marauder, and, from what I've heard, are all around better trems than the Mustang trems; So I personally would go with one of those (plus they have the advantage of being able to function as a hardtail). After all, the Marauder never made it past the prototype stage of it's development, which imo puts you at liberty to make a couple of changes.... Anyways, I hope you find this post at least slightly useful.

(PS sorry for offering all the unsolicited advice, I find Marauders EXTREMELY interesting, and have a hard time controlling myself)

connor

😲 wow, thats a lot of information lol. your suggestions for the uses of the switches sounds like a good plan and i think i will probly use the jaguar style switches but i'll get them in white . i've already ordered a mustang trem simply cos i wanna make it as near to the picture as possible and i got a big piece of stainless steel sheet delivered today which i'm gonna use to try and make the switch plates etc myself....not to confident bout that part but i figure the best way to learn is to try.

thanx for the help 😁

feedbackismyfriend

np. you seem to have put quite a bit of thought into this project, I can't wait to see the end result. BTW are you planning on using the same color scheme from the picture?

Fran

Cool project. I had a similar idea with a Jazz body after gassing for a John Squier Jazzuar. What have you done there... built up the neck pocket size to suit a Strat neck?

Look forward to seeing this progress.

connor

someone said: BTW are you planning on using the same color scheme from the picture?

ye i've seen the john squire jazzuar it's a real nice guitar, thats were i got the idea to use a bass body, i've started building the neck up but it's still to deep so i'll need a couple of pieces of ply wood to give it enough hight plus theres gaps at the side which will also need filling but again a piece of ply wood planed till it fits is my plan, it's the first time i've tryed converting a bass neck for a guitar so it's all a bit trial and error at the mo but so far it seems surprisingly easy 😀.

i am planning on trying to do a sunburst effect myself which again i've never done b4 but i have plenty of experience with spray paints so hopefully it shouldn't be to difficult,and i'll be cutting a red tort pg myself which i have done b4 (hooray) i'm basically wanting it to be as close as i can get it to the picture.

i've got a little further today, one side has been trimmed down a bit and i've added a bit more wood on the other side so i can get the proportions right. i think the side i trimmed down still needs more trimming but it is definately starting to look more like a guitar bodie rather than a bass now.

Earth

You only need one switch for out of phase for three pickups if you wire the middle pickup as the one that reverses. This leaves the other horizontal switch for either a series or thin switch. Or use both if you want more phasing/pup options.

So I'd wire it:

3 vertical switches for each pup on/off

1 horizontal for phasing (this allows neck and middle phase or bridge and middle phase)

1 horizontal for thin switch

1 switch(on master control plate) for a kill switch.

rhythm circuit like a jazzmaster or jaguar for either the bridge or neck pickup.

S'pose ya could do other stuff too, but this is what I'd do.

tragictravisty

if you only phase the middle pu, you can't put the bridge/neck out of phase with each other, which would theoretically be the most useable sound since it would have the most fundamental.

Earth

someone said: You only need one switch for out of phase for three pickups if you wire the middle pickup as the one that reverses.**Or use both **if you want more phasing/pup options.

That's exactly what I said:

One switch is needed if you only want mid/neck and mid/bridge out of phase but if you want all three options you need to use both switches.

connor

😕 oh dear i've gone cross eyed.

glad i've got all that written down lol

tragictravisty

think of it this way: phase is relative. you just need to have multiple pickups, with one phased relative to the other(s) (since it's a 3 pu guitar). model w/neck + bridge phasers:

no phasing

Neck out of phase:

Bridge out of phase:

Middle out of phase:

and just subtract from there. BUT you won't get a phased sound w/out multiple pu's. however, if the guitar (even electric) is out of phase with the amp, it will lead to a prominent attack, and will change the feedback characteristics - brian may did that allot.

jacksonjackass

You can actually put humbucker coils out of phase with each other.

I did it once and there was virtually no output. You could overcome that to some extent with fancy wiring though

gilmourish

WHERES'S MY FEEDBACK LOOPER MCPEDO!!!!

jacksonjackass

gilmourish said: WHERES'S MY FEEDBACK LOOPER MCPEDO!!!!

Left it in my 'mainframe room' when the pedo squad raided 😕

Earth

mcconnachiea said: You can actually put humbucker coils out of phase with each other.
I did it once and there was virtually no output. You could overcome that to some extent with fancy wiring though

As for putting the north and south out of phase with each other, that's perfectly doable but wouldnt sound that great as they are too close together to work like phasing is supposed to.

A standard HB is two single coils(one north/one south) run in series, this makes the resistance double. But you can also run the humbucker run in parallel, this makes the resistance way less output and its rough equivalent output is a two single coil guitar like a stock jazzmaster with both pups on. The pup out put wont be over around 5k (depending on the output of each coil of the HB of course) yet each single coil is 8-9k and if you had them in series when both where on the output would be 16-18k. But in parallel its only around 5k.

Big difference!

I put humbuckers in my Jaguar a few years ago...then I used the stock thin switch (which I never used) to reverse the phase of the bridge pup so I can have out of phase....there's plenty of output (standard parallel output) when out of phase, pretty much like a stock mustang. I just done the standard phasing with each HB with the other, not each coil.

tragictravisty

i wired the gfs/dimarzio pu's out of phase in my jag by accident. one's a filtertron like thing, and the other's an under-wound x2n, but out of phase, it's a sound much more nasally and bright than the bridge by itself, and feeds back almost instantly, even when playing clean.

gilmourish

gilmourish said: WHERES'S MY FEEDBACK LOOPER MCPEDO!!!!

no seriously. . where is it?

jacksonjackass

Its not done yet. I still need a case for it.

Last time I went to maplin, they were out of stock. I might try Oxford Street today...... we'll see