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A Dean Zelinsky "Dellatera"...
I fell in love with the design, looks of the Dellatera. Had to order one! Got in touch with Dean B. Zelinsky and discussed options. I wanted additions to the Private Label series, essentially a Piezzo pickups and small options in the pickups combination selections. Dean was great, they accepted to make a custom guitar with the additional routing the battery would ask for. All this for a very reasonable added cost.
A few months of waiting, and Fedex delivers a beauty in a very nice hard shell case. My options are there, there's even a stereo jack to double mono out accessory for getting separate piezzo/mag signals.
I initially though the body would be CNC carved, but with the level of detail in the body sculpting, it seems made by laser engraving the wood. Some of the details are less than 1mm thick, carved about 1.5mm deep or so it *really* is neat work. The paint is a little too silverish but I can live with that, no problem at all. I can always whiten it later (in a few years!) if I want.
As for the playing guitar: Fabulous! Even with strings lowered... not a buzz. Good. Great sound (s). And the look.... <3
What's inside?
Well, on that side a little disappointment from Dean B. Zelinsky, the guitar was not wired as I expected; Power from the battery was on all the time, resulting in an unnecessary battery drain, and even at a relatively low1.8mA, a 9V battery will drain in less than 2 weeks' time.
I did discuss the issue to Dean B. Zelinsky but at the same time told I would take care of it, rewiring the inside electronics. So, I gathered my screw drivers, soldering iron and pliers and went on this task. Below some pictures and a few words on the rewiring process:
Picture left:
The chosen options result of a mix of two proposals from Graphtech: enabling EQ options on the piezzo, and ensuring power would be completely off when the guitar is not plugged to an amp.
As for the magnetic side, I kept the single coil tap for the bridge humbucker and added a phase switch for the bridge single coil.
New Wiring
Output jack, guitar control plate and pickgard have been removed
Initial wiring
<-- New pots installed for the control plate, all three equipped with pull switches:
Mag Volume - neck pickup phase
Mag Tone - bridge pickup single coil tap
Piezzo volume - piezzo EQ
After new soldering done... busy! -->
I now have the power OFF when the guitar is unplugged, a phase control on magnetic pickups, a coil tap control on the bridge humbucker, and a piezzo blend with EQ on piezzo! Great sound combinations, and lots of possibilities.
Final touch:
I decided to personalize the guitar neck plate; got some plates shipped home and engraved the plate:
Future work:
A 4-way (well.. 5-way as they are much more common than the 4-way) switch instead of the 3-way; the goal is to be able to set the two mag pickups in series; more punch and probably less trebble. This would certainly be acceptable for this setup/guitar.
Done! (and more). I actually bought a slim double-blade humbucker pickup I installed while I was to setting up a 4 or 5-way switch. Below is the wiring I used for the switch; which is actually typically used for Fender Stratocaster guitars. No problem for me if positions 3 and 4 give the same config. Position 5 (two HB in series) is indeed a beefier signal, good for rock solos.
A different output socket, with proper power switch; This will enable again a stereo out (piezzo only & piezzo/mag blend), still having a power switch when the guitar jack is plugged in.
No change to the look... a real beauty!
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