Rock_v500

Hello Again Psarkissian, Thank you for taking the time to respond further to my post and for your additional explanation of the situation. I now understand your insights regarding the likely negative impact of trying to modify the wiring of the piezos to the flex circuit board more fully. I appreciate your suggestion for modding the tones of the strings with Workbench, but the reason that i want to attempt the mod in the first place is to change the way the guitar would be played physically, especially in regard to bending the strings by pulling them down rather than pushing them up as is normally the case, which would require the "inverted String" arrangement. If you wouldn't mind one final additional question i was thinking that one possible way to achieve my desired result in a less invasive manner might be to flip the ribbon cable that connects the flex board to the "hard Board" in the guitar's cavity ? The potential issue with this may be if the two wider traces on the cable are distinct circuits rather than a common ( Ground ? ) connection. In that case i was wondering if i could create a "crossover cable" out of another piece of ribbon cable which would reverse the piezo traces but leave the two wider traces in their original orientation, and use ribbon cable connectors to attach it on the end of the existing cable ? This well may be a ridiculous idea, but i was considering that if it would work it would be a very non-destructive and reversible modification ? Thanks Again for taking the time and effort required to respond to my questions Psarkissian I very much appreciate your assistance and expertise in this area ! Rick

Thank you for your reply to my question, psarkissian ! I am not actually trying for a "lefty" conversion, but rather a right handed guitar with the strings inverted, such as were used by Albert King & Otis Rush, but I'd want to play it right handed and keep the controls at the bottom of the guitar. I understand your statement about the fact that working with the bridge on a 500 is a delicate operation, but if i understand the situation correctly i would not need to mess with the bridge mechanically, and could make the needed changes by de-soldering the leads from the piezos and after extending them, re-solder them in the reverse order. I found a video on the internet archives that shows the method for disconnecting & removing the circuit board and the bridge assembly which looks pretty straightforward. The only part of the replacement i am unsure of is whether having soldered on extensions on most of the wires would cause issues with interference or signal loss, and was wondering if it would be possible to buy replacement piezos with longer leads in order to avoid this potential problem ? I would certainly defer to your experience and appreciate any further insights you might care to offer on this question. Thanks Again, Rick

Hi Everyone, I would like to be able to string my Variax 500 with the heavier strings at the bottom ( using an Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom set -w- gauges 10 to 52 ) I understand that i would need to replace the nut with one suitable for this purpose which i don't think would be difficult, but as I understand it, i would also need to reposition the piezos in inverted order as well. I have no experience with working on piezos and am wondering how difficult this process would be ? Any advice and/or information anyone could provide on this modification would be most appreciated ! Thanks, Rick