holes. Do not over tighten the screws. Just snug them up to the
body.
COPPER FOIL SHIELDING
Line the control portion of the pickguard cavity with the self adhesive
copper foil. Be careful that you do not cut your fingers with the edges
of the copper foil. Stick the large contoured piece of copper foil on
the bottom of the control area first. Then adhere the 1 1/2” wide x
11” long foil onto the sides of the control area. Fold a portion of the
side wall foil onto the top of the body. This will make contact with
the aluminum foil underneath the pickguard. Make sure that you
press the foil tightly onto the wood. At Carvin we use the end of a
piece of 3/8” wooden dowel to press the copper down. If the foil peels
away from the wood and contacts the componants, it may cause a
short in your guitar.
TREMOLO STUD & SPRING CLAW INSTALLATION
(for GK1T tremolo guitars)
To install the tremolo studs, leave the threaded stainless steel studs
screwed into the brass inserts while you pound them into the two
predrilled holes on top of the body. Tape the head of the hammer to
protect the top of the stainless steel studs and gently pound them
in until the top of the brass insert is slightly below the surface of the
body. Adjust the stainless steel posts so that they are sticking out
of the body 3/8” high. Now you can install the spring claw. Turn
the body upside down. The claw hooks must face up toward you.
Feed the black colored ground wire that’s attached to the spring claw
through the drilled hole that goes from the rear tremolo spring cavity
into the control cavity. Feed it through the copper shielding foil that
lines the control cavity after you have pierced the copper foil with a
sharp object. Using the #2 phillips head screw driver, screw the two
#8 x 1 5/8” phillips head screws into the two angle drilled holes in
the upper portion of the rear tremolo cavity. Screw the screws into
the wood, leaving 3/4” of the screws sticking out of the body.
NECK & NECK PLATE INSTALLATION
Install the neck onto the body. Gently slide the neck into the neck
pocket of the body. Do not force the neck into the neck pocket or you
can actually break the wood on the treble side of the neck pocket. If
you painted your body, you may have excess paint build up in your
neck pocket. If so take a file or medium grit piece of sand paper and
wrap it around a small flat piece of wood. Now carefully remove
some of the paint or wood from the inside edges of the neck pocket.
Check the fit of the neck frequently so that you don’t remove to much
material. When the neck fits perfectly into the neck pocket, carefully
turn the guitar and neck upside down on a table with a soft towel on
it. Take the NP6 neck plate and set it on the body. Carvin waxes the
threads of the Four #8 x 1 3/4” wood screws so that they are easier
to screw into the hard maple neck. Its important to use a #2 phillips
head screw driver with a good tip to prevent rounding out the phil-
lips head screws. Press down hard on the screwdriver while you are
securely screwing the screws down. Turn the guitar over and check
the fit of the neck. If the neck is not snug against the bass side of
the pocket, you can slightly loosen the four neck screws and pull the
neck over to one side or the other to get the proper alignment. Now
tighten the four neck screws while you are pulling the neck to one
side or the other.
FT6 FIXED BRIDGE (for GK1 fixed bridge guitars)
First turn the guitar upside down onto the soft towel to install the 6
press in string eyelet’s into the rear of the guitar. Pound one eyelet
in at a time with a heavy plastic headed hammer or use a metal
hammer, but first put a piece of masking tape on the head of the
hammer to prevent scratching or damaging the eyelets. Just pound
the eyelets in so that the collar of the eyelet is flush with the surface.
Now you can turn the guitar over to install the bridge. Before install-
ing the bridge, run the extra 8” long piece of black colored ground
wire through the angled hole leading to the control cavity. Before
feeding the ground wire, first take a sharp object and pierce the
cooper shielding foil that lines the control cavity. The bare end of the
ground wire should lay on top of the guitar body. Now lay the bridge
carefully onto the end of the bare wire and screw the bridge firmly
onto the body with a #2 tip phillips head screw driver. Use the five #5
x 5/8” long wood screws.
JACK PLATE
Feed the jack wires through the 1/4” hole running from the jack
cavity to the main control cavity. Before feeding the two jack wires
to the main control cavity, take a sharp object and pierce the cooper
shielding foil lining the control cavity, so that you can feed the wires
through. Screw in the two #4 x 1/2” wood screws until the plate is
snug to the body. Use the #1 tip phillips head screwdriver for this.
PICKGUARD WIRING & INSTALLATION
See Diagram 1. AG1 assembly for 3 single coil.
See Diagram 2. AG2 assembly for two single coils & 1 humbucker.
TREMOLO (for GK1T tremolo guitars)
Set the tremolo into the tremolo cavity and place the tremolo knife
edges into the notched area toward the top of the 2 threaded stain-
less steel pivot posts. Now turn the guitar upside down while you
are holding the tremolo in place. Install the 3 tremolo springs one
at a time by hooking the loop end of the spring onto the center claw.
Stretch the spring with your fingers and insert the other end of the
spring into the center hole in the tremolo block. Now insert the 2
remaining springs onto the outside spring claws and into the outside
tremolo block holes. Some players using lighter guage strings prefer
to use only two tremolo springs instead of three. In this case remove
the middle spring.
STRING IT UP
Feed your low E string through the rear of the guitar until the ball end
of the string comes to a stop. Feed the string through the tuning key
hole and use a wire cutter to cut off the excess. Cut the string about
2” longer than the string post for standard Carvin tuners and 1” longer
for Sperzel locking tuners. See your maintenance instruction sheet for
other tips on stringing your guitar up and making final neck and fixed
bridge adjustments. See the Wilkenson tremolo instructions for more
information on stringing up and adjusting your tremolo equipped
guitar. After you have made the proper adjustments, you can install
the rear tremolo cover plate.
CHECKING THE ELECTRONICS
Plug your newly assembled guitar into an amp and make sure that
everything is working properly. Now you can adjust the height of your
pickups with a phillips head screw driver. Depending on how loud you
want your pickups to sound you should adjust your pickups so that
the top of the coils are between 1/8’ AND 3/16” away from the strings.
At Carvin we generally adjust the neck pickup 3/16” away from the
strings, the middle pickup a little closer at 5/32” away and the bridge
pickup closer yet at 1/8” for single coil pickups or 5/32” away for
humbucking pickups. See you in Riffsville!
