Whats on your work bench?

[glasshand]

Got the Frankenpeavey wired up today; I used a CTS stacked pot, and I wired it Peavey/Rhodes style, with the center tap of the humbucker attached to the otherwise unused lug of the tone pot. The soldering actually didn't go too badly, but I had to scavenge the capacitor from an old wiring harness I had lying around. Resistor color codes are wonderfully easy compared to trying to read capacitor codes. Anyway, it seems to work pretty well from my thirty seconds of messing around...by the time I got everything back together I was too worn out to actually bother playing!

[jtcnj]

RR JCM800 MIcro 1w chassis running.
working on some minor tweaks but startup went without a hitch.
Sounds HUGE at 1w cranked up into 1x12, at reasonable volumes but its still pretty darn loud.

[Partscaster]

Snows gone here, so I spent a good part of last 4 days-off working on 4 guitars to which I wanted to add some brass saddle bridges to 2 of them, relocate 2 Bigsbys, and swap some pickups. Re-did set ups.

[glasshand]

Speaking of Bigsbys, my Xaviere is now Bigsby-fied, thanks to a trade with @Gear_Junky and a Towner adapter kit! Plus straplocks, also from G_J! This is definitely my blingiest, most "heavyweight" guitar, at least visually, but sometimes you need that extra flair.

[Partscaster]

Speaking of Bigsbys, my Xaviere is now Bigsby-fied, thanks to a trade with @Gear_Junky and a Towner adapter kit! Plus straplocks, also from G_J! This is definitely my blingiest, most "heavyweight" guitar, at least visually, but sometimes you need that extra flair.

xaviere_with_bigsby.jpg

That looks nice. I love the Towner down tension kit. Looks like you, too, needed the extender at strap button. Its a good system he sells.

I might want to grind the stop-nub by my bigsby handle so it can rotate up a little farther. Anyone have experiencce with that? TIA.

[glasshand]

That looks nice. I love the Towner down tension kit. Looks like you, too, needed the extender at strap button. Its a good system he sells.

I might want to grind the stop-nub by my bigsby handle so it can rotate up a little farther. Anyone have experiencce with that? TIA.

The funny thing is that I barely needed the down tension bar, because the angle was just about OK even without it. But the guitar looks incomplete without it!

I didn't quite understand the need for the v-block at the strap button until I tried fitting everything together and I realized the Bigsby has that weird "shelf" at the bottom. I don't know why it has that, unless it's because that works on a semi-hollowbody or something.

[JimyTheAssassin]

I have my friends mid-60s Kalamazoo Model 2 here. It came to me with the mains disconnects from the fuse and otherwise in all original condition.

- It had a 3-section electrolytic cap where one section went open. That’s been replaced with the 2-section RED firecracker, and a F&T mounted behind it.
- .01 coupling caps replaced with Sozo
- 10uf Bias cap replaced with a Sprague
- one 3.3k dropping replaced with NOS carbon comp.
- 3 prong cord added

I still need to just do some basic service and contact cleaning and minor lead dress, but it’s almost ready to be brought up on a variac. Hopefully the tubes all check out good, but my tester is acting weird so I haven’t been able to check them for quality prior.



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[glasshand]

A while back I picked up an Ampeg 2x10, because as much as I loved my Harley Benton 2x12, it was too big and heavy for my fourth-floor-walkup apartment. This cabinet was made for bass, but it works pretty well for guitar too, which is actually good since it's high-wattage, and it's 8 ohms, unlike a lot of bass cabinets.

I got it for cheap, because the previous owner had re-done the tolex, and well, let's just say I think his name might have been Frankenstein, because the tolex was held together with tape and staples(!!!) which gave it a less-than-appealing look...



So I ordered some new tolex, and even though the grill cloth was in decent shape, I decided to replace that too, because I wanted to convert the cab from a vertical orientation to horizontal and the cloth would have looked a little weird. Also, no point to nice new tolex if the grill cloth doesn't look good too, right?

And it came out pretty good! My tolex work was not great, but it's certainly "10 feet good". An unusual thing about this cabinet is that it's not just closed-back, it was built totally sealed, so there wasn't even a way to remove the back panel to cover it separately. I ended up using one piece of tolex for top and sides, and one for back and bottom. It worked out OK, although I wonder if it would have worked better to use one piece for top, sides, and bottom, and one for the back. I put new feet on the new bottom, since the old feet were pretty chewed up, but otherwise I reused all the same hardware.

I was a little nervous about the grill cloth, but I think it came out pretty well - maybe not 100%, but pretty damn good for a first try. My wife, who is a professional tailor, helped me with neatly mitering the corners of the grill cloth. I added (re-added?) the ribbon loops to the end of the grill frame so you can pull it out without prying it out with a screwdriver.

And if the blue is a little loud, at least it goes with my Orange to make New York State colors!

POSTSCRIPT: now that I look around, I see that the Ampeg 210 was in fact offered in red, so maybe it was factory? But a) if that was a factory rolex job, it was amazingly bad, with the tolex peeling up, seams too near corners, etc., and b) the grill cloth it had when I got it didn't match what I see in other pictures of red ones. So I dunno.

POST-POSTSCRIPT: New York City colors, I realize now, not State. (State's colors are blue and gold.)

[mkgearhead]

I rescued this $20 Strat copy last weekend. With some clamps and heat I was able to get the excessive backbow straightened out. I also loaded up a HSS pickguard and swapped it out.

[voodoorat]

I rescued this $20 Strat copy last weekend. With some clamps and heat I was able to get the excessive backbow straightened out. I also loaded up a HSS pickguard and swapped it out.
1D52C887-3A2C-467C-84BF-1EF493481220.jpeg


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5FDB5C70-1409-4836-9BFE-2832A073B763.jpeg

whoa, that is nuts:

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i had to strap a p bass neck to a similar rig to rehab it a while back although the other way (excessive bowing), but it didn't look like a banana like that to the naked eye, lol. nice job salvaging it!

[glasshand]

Yeah, I was pretty shocked by that one too. I probably would have just written that one off and not even bothered trying to salvage it!

[JimyTheAssassin]

I’m steadily making progress on the Kalamazoo Model 2, woot woot! It feels good to make forward progress. I’ve begun startup procedures after giving the circuit a final once over.



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[artandsoul]

I rescued this $20 Strat copy last weekend. With some clamps and heat I was able to get the excessive backbow straightened out. I also loaded up a HSS pickguard and swapped it out.
1D52C887-3A2C-467C-84BF-1EF493481220.jpeg


5BBCC2CB-239D-4F0B-9686-0DD5C6B0F236.jpeg97C0D8EB-BFD8-47E6-8B8F-4BD4A624A607.jpegC3DA255F-D14B-4B00-8F4D-F5A7B374A9E0.jpeg
5FDB5C70-1409-4836-9BFE-2832A073B763.jpeg

I did the same thing on a bass last year. Guy left the bass in corner of closet for years under tension and it was crazy bananned . Heat gun and clamp like U pic worked great! I useed a thick piece of rubber on the clamp and set it pretty tight in reverse bow. Most people think its trash but it can be salvaged good enough to play. That neck looks worse than the one i did though lol good job!

[artandsoul]

I just finished this triple pickup jackson rhoads natural guitar little over a week ago, was a stock 2 pickup but there was the perfect amount of room for a middle pickup so I routed it out and it came out really nice looking. The only triple pickup jackson rhoads around other than some 2500.00+ custom shop model. yeah nuts to mod a 200.00 new guitar but it looked so cool afterwards. Middle pickup was off in color compared to the other 2 but didnt look bad 3 feet away. Modded it just for a wall hanger but decided on the agile ad3200 buy and sold off jackoson last week to help fund it. Was a fun 1 day project only had about 3 hours in it and turned out nice sounded huge, wired with middle always on so neck middle, neck middle bridge, middle bridge.

[ID10t]

well it's not often I post to the workbench, but here I am.
Just a tiny background.
My first guitar was in 2002 I bought a MIM HSS strat from MF for a discount because of a wonky pickguard. I was learning with my neighbor. A LOT of life happened and it was put away. Back in 2017 I started again. To be clear I don't play guitar, I play Rocksmith and guitars are involved, but I'm making progress. I learned about intonation and that was an improvement. I decked it and honestly if I had known about that sooner I might have kept with it. BUT....the pickups were like a raw tofu and oatmeal sandwich. Just left a lot to be desired, but to some extent I just thought that was the way it was.
So...thanks to Sir @LancerTheGreat who mentioned dragonfire pickups and my attention span and and and, I ordered a HSS screamer set of pickups and started working on a wiring diagram while I waited. Oh my word, so much better.
Don't confuse my words with solid logic or reason. This is what it does.
Foil everywhere!
3 push/pull pots and normal Fender 5 way switch. 500k CTS volume and tone2; tone1 is a 250k musically (I had it and due to footprint and real-estate I probably won't change it.) All knobs down it is a regularly wired HSS strat except position 2 doesn't split the bridge. Volume up bypasses all knobs and goes directly to output (no load!) Tone1 up is bridge always on so I can have more combinations. Tone2 up coil splits the bridge. Tone1 is for neck and middle, tone2 is for bridge, orange caps T1 0.047 and T2 0.022. All in a new pickguard and a new TUSQ nut. I need to order knobs to match everything.
I'll update and try to post a couple of pictures but it is a challenge right now.

[LancerTheGreat]

@ID10t that sucker's looking nice as hell man, glad you liked the pups.
I'm kinda glad to hear they're still around, absolutely no regrets on the set I have... Except for the part where I needa get a new locking nut for the guitar they live in

[JimyTheAssassin]

The Kalamazoo Model 2 has been put through its paces. I started it up with the help of Rob Robinette’s guide. https://robrobinette.com/Tube_Amp_Startup.htm

I feel it’s a bit overkill in procedure, but it definitely seeks to leave no stone unturned. Since I’m still learning,
I went for it in its entirety. Well i finally arrived to the end with all the tubes in and no faults left to discover. So now all that’s left is metering some voltages to make sure things seem totally normal, mainly for my own learning.

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[zisme]

the neck pickup has been going in and out on my tele for a while, so i opened her up to check the switch and wiring. didn't find any obvious issues, but re-soldered the neck pickup connections at the switch and pots before buttoning her back up. didn't fix the problem unfortunately. turns out all it needed was a healthy application of contact cleaner...derp...

working fine now. really dig this guitar. but it is making me think i need a traditional tele in the stable at some point. my drummer sneaked this shot of me during our last practice

[zisme]

gave these two some tlc saturday morning. new strings and some setup tweaking for the SG - it always seems to need some adjustments this time of year.

worked out a few kinks on the gilmourish strat. i finally got around to sanding down the nut - i've never been able to get the action quite where i've wanted it. i may have been too aggressive, because i'm getting a little bit of buzz at the first fret on the A and D strings. guitar plays and sounds great plugged in, so it's not bothering me much for now. i may replace the nut entirely eventually...or the whole neck this guitar continues to be quite the costly labor of love, but i'm sorta letting myself be ok with that

[redman]

Speaking of Bigsbys, my Xaviere is now Bigsby-fied, thanks to a trade with @Gear_Junky and a Towner adapter kit! Plus straplocks, also from G_J! This is definitely my blingiest, most "heavyweight" guitar, at least visually, but sometimes you need that extra flair.

xaviere_with_bigsby.jpg

I love the body shape on that guitar it reminds me of an acoustic Parlor body only in a singlecut with a Bigsby WOW. The problem with this place is how severely it entices you to spend. I just bought a Gretsch G2210 and don't like a wrap around bridge on it so now I know what to replace it with.

[zisme]

stopped by the practice space this morning to get the foam inserts for my amp case arranged for my twin

and picked up my pedalboard so i could wire up my new gig rig power system. went pretty smoothly. it's a well thought out and designed system once you wrap your head around it. they could probably stand to include some instructions for running the power cables into the distributor and isolators, but there are some useful tutorials on the gig rig youtube channel. i definitely recommend spending the extra $12 on the power path diagram service. cool stuff!

[redman]

Just put a set of SD "Whole Lotta Humbucker" humbuckers in my AL-3200.

[mkgearhead]

This one is going under the knife as soon as the rest of the parts roll in. It’s a ‘95 MIM Fender Squier Series. It’s getting vintage tuners, and a new Fender trem with stamped saddles and a full size block. I’ve got a set of pickups from a newer Fender Player Series with new pots and switch. It’s getting a mint green pickguard and aged white covers and knobs for that ‘60s vibe.

[mkgearhead]

This one is going under the knife as soon as the rest of the parts roll in. It’s a ‘95 MIM Fender Squier Series. It’s getting vintage tuners, and a new Fender trem with stamped saddles and a full size block. I’ve got a set of pickups from a newer Fender Player Series with new pots and switch. It’s getting a mint green pickguard and aged white covers and knobs for that ‘60s vibe.

2C6397E0-C608-4325-8F8C-D5B2B5A24EC1.png

I got most of the parts today. I'm still waiting on the bridge.

[jtcnj]

Ibanez AS73 - I put a used Dimarzio PAF PRO in the neck, but the output was very low, even with the height very close to the strings.
found the leads were incorrect, as I received it.
then the lead was a little too short for the vol pot to reach the hole.

I spliced a longer wire and handled the harness carefully.
But, I had to pull and re-install it several times as leads or grounds broke off the pots or switch.
Finally got it sorted and it is great.

I have a set of better tuners on deck and am ready for a string change, so I will have at it today.