Whats on your work bench?

[mozz]

resistor hiss and a little heater hum

You must have very high gain. You can get rid of both of those problems. Touching the strings means something isn't grounded in the guitar properly.

[BatUtilityBelt]

Today the 2 Duesenberg Les Trem II units I ordered directly arrived in fairly classy packaging. I think both will go on (semi) hollow guitars, but one for certain was bound for the Harm 1 P90.

Despite hating the process of restringing with a trem (have to maintain tension on the string the whole time, or pop goes the weasel), I love it. For anyone wondering whether a Duesenberg Les Trem II will go on a Harm, the answer is yes with no complications at all. The metric screws went right in, and the flat harm top meant the trem went on with no washers added. I'm still stretching the strings a bit, but I love what this adds to a guitar I already bonded well with. To my ears it didn't change the sound of the guitar beyond having fresh strings. It does not get in the way of my palm muting either. No downside at all. This bridge has some play on its posts already, so I'm not yet convinced it will need a roller bridge. Time will tell me that.
Edit: I did swap for the roller bridge, a touch more stable.

[voodoorat]

Uh....everything?

20230119_135524.jpg

Maybe it's time to clean up.

!! how'd you get in my house!?

[bc rich]

Today the 2 Duesenberg Les Trem II units I ordered directly arrived in fairly classy packaging. I think both will go on (semi) hollow guitars, but one for certain was bound for the Harm 1 P90.
image.png

Looks great. Out of curiosity did the package or trem say what country it was manufactered in ?

Also Goldo is part of Duesenberg and sell this trem and others .

https://www.goeldo.de/en/guitar-parts/t ... -topmount/

[tobijohn]

Maybe it's time to clean up.

It's not perfect, but it is better.

20230121_134232.jpg

It's definitely better than mine:

[BatUtilityBelt]

Today the 2 Duesenberg Les Trem II units I ordered directly arrived in fairly classy packaging. I think both will go on (semi) hollow guitars, but one for certain was bound for the Harm 1 P90.
image.png

Looks great. Out of curiosity did the package or trem say what country it was manufactered in ?

Also Goldo is part of Duesenberg and sell this trem and others .

Thanks! Yes, Goldo (they also sometimes spell it Goeldo) is part of Duesenberg, and I think they made these trems. On the VISA manifest and FedEx Int'l bill of lading, country of manufacture is listed as DE, so Germany. The packaging and paperwork seem to interchangeably refer to the manufacturer as either Duesenberg or Goldo. I don't know whether they make any of them elsewhere. The ones I received are identical to the one on my Backlund, and that was my hope. I ordered these from Duesenberg's web site, and the prices dropped considerably after I started the checkout process, so I think the site was waiting to see where they were going before actually pricing them.

[glasshand]

I have been very slowly working on my SX Hawk project, and I am finally almost done polishing it. What I have learned is that a rattlecan (Rustoleum, in this case) finish will polish up to a nice gloss if you take your time, but the finish remains pretty soft forever. I think I originally painted and clearcoated this thing about nine months ago and it still marks easily and probably always will.

[tonebender]

Remington semi-auto 12ga shotgun. I need to clean it after shooting clays.

[andrewsrea]

1950 Silvertone Lap Steel restore. My grandfather bought it new and it probably was last plyed in the late 1960's. Been in my Dad's closet for 45 years.

Wish I had the original Bakelite 'volume' knob.

[Rollin Hand]

Finally got the EVH Wolfgang pickup in my Watson Wolfgang copy.

I screwed some of the wiring up because the neck pickup doesn't work (and it's one wire, so it figures that I would eff that one up). I'll redo that one, add.some foam in the routes to raise the pickups, and it should be good to go at long freaking last.

[mozz]

1950 Silvertone Lap Steel restore. My grandfather bought it new and it probably was last plyed in the late 1960's. Been in my Dad's closet for 45 years.

Wish I had the original Bakelite 'volume' knob.

Closeup of the remaining knob? Dimensions? I've got a bunch of boxes full of knobs, might be able to get you a matching pair of something close.

[Mr. Leyvatone]

My workbench has been very busy lately (being jobless does have some benefits). I’ve done some pickup swapping, and rewired anything that wasn’t working for various reasons. (I’m a weirdo who prefers linear volume pots thanks to my #1 axe, an Agile AL-3100MCC with Buddha pickups and everything else stock…including linear volume pots.)

To give myself some sanity I cleaned up my guitar room and hung some brand new shelves I found in the garage recently. Thanks to my fiancée’s primenesia I now have a nice way to display the pedals I don’t have on my board.

[andrewsrea]

1950 Silvertone Lap Steel restore. My grandfather bought it new and it probably was last plyed in the late 1960's. Been in my Dad's closet for 45 years.

Wish I had the original Bakelite 'volume' knob.

Closeup of the remaining knob? Dimensions? I've got a bunch of boxes full of knobs, might be able to get you a matching pair of something close.

@mozz Thanks!

[mozz]

That's a tough one. I see a set screw so i am taking it is a solid shaft 1/4". I don't have one that matches that. I do have some pairs old knobs, probably 40s'-50s. 9V for size comparison. Top 2 pairs are brown, same style 2 different sizes. They have a white line and a white dot. Bottom 2 are black, with a small pointer. I do have others for splined shafts and "D" shafts.

I am thinking i've seen them on old radios. When i go to Kutztown antique radio show in May i can look if you want, there are usually thousands of knobs, Mike Koste/Gobs of Knobs usually has just about anything made.

EDIT: knew i seen them before, these are listed on some website as Philco, Kay, Harmony knobs.

[jtcnj]

beater Squier SE strat. The black one.
New bone nut from blank, fret level, swapped in a Dragonfire pick guard I had in my SX Hawk that came out before I sold it. New Oak Grigsby switch. the bridge is ok and stays in tune well, the tuners are meh but usable / ok. The pickups are a vintage wind A5 set from BWG guitars.
They are quite good, but I have a Bootstrap 54 Sparkle set ordered.

The sunburst classic vibe 50's in the last pic is great, but the SE neck profile is a bit thicker at the nut; the CV will likely get sold.
I'm looking for another SE, may get a super distortion I have on hand at the bridge, Dave Murray inspired.

[honyock]

Needed a little mindless task for the night to get over having a crappy afternoon at work to end the day (hate firing people for stupid reasons). I decided to work on my Cozart Gold Top LP headstock reshape. Just a few random rasps, coarse file, a little bastard, and a fine little detail file to finish it off.

Not going for exact, more just close enough to get the point across kind of look. I had free hand sketched a Gibson shape a good while ago, but never bothered to finish this thing.

Going to just shoot the top with matte black and leave a little edge so that it wraps around and hope that it looks like a faux black veneer.

A
Before I do that, I am going to strip the finish from the back of the neck and apply something like tru-oil to the neck instead for better feel.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

[mozz]

I have a plexiglass headstock template from Aliexpress, for strat and les paul, they were pretty cheap. Will find the link.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/22518326 ... _shipto=US

[glasshand]

From the "why can't anything ever just be simple" files: Did you know that the legs on Fishman pickups are ever so slightly wider than those on most other pickups? Most of the time it wouldn't make much of a difference, but if your pickup rout is tight... *sigh*

Here we see it pictured against a Railhammer Hyper Vintage.

[andrewsrea]

That's a tough one. I see a set screw so i am taking it is a solid shaft 1/4". I don't have one that matches that. I do have some pairs old knobs, probably 40s'-50s. 9V for size comparison. Top 2 pairs are brown, same style 2 different sizes. They have a white line and a white dot. Bottom 2 are black, with a small pointer. I do have others for splined shafts and "D" shafts.

I am thinking i've seen them on old radios. When i go to Kutztown antique radio show in May i can look if you want, there are usually thousands of knobs, Mike Koste/Gobs of Knobs usually has just about anything made.

20230423_180504.jpg

EDIT: knew i seen them before, these are listed on some website as Philco, Kay, Harmony knobs.

2x-harmony-kay-old-philco-radio-knobs-cream-tone-volume-for-cts-or-emerson-potentiometer.jpg

If you feel like letting the Creme Kay knobs go, PM me with a price.

[mozz]

I don't have those Kay knobs, it was from a website picture. I do have the knobs in the picture above it if any of those interest you.

[glasshand]

As a followup to the Fishman Fluence issue: after working with it for a while, I have some real issues with the mechanical design of them. I can't say anything about the sonic qualities yet but

- The legs (at least on the covered humbuckers) are plastic.
- There is a tiny metal insert in the plastic legs for the screw to go through.
- If the screw binds up in the insert, the tiny insert can begin spinning freely in the plastic leg, since there's less friction between the insert and the leg than there is between the insert and the bound screw. At this point you are screwed, no pun intended, since you have no way to remove the screw from the insert.

Ask me how I know. It seems to me that a traditional metal leg would have completely obviated this problem.

[glasshand]

Tada! Not my cleanest work ever, but there it is, the Fishman Fluence Modern ceramic humbucker in my Frankenpeavey! My mechanical work was "meh", but I am getting better at soldering, at least. When I first plugged it in, I got a very low-output, distorted tone, and I groaned, thinking maybe I had a defective unit...but it turned out my cable just wasn't plugged in all the way. Lesson: always check the obvious stuff first!

Things I like:
- This thing is incredibly quiet. Maybe that's common to all active pickups, but I didn't even realize how much noise and interference I'd gotten used to even from my better passive guitars.
- It sounds exactly like it should. If you want that modern active sound, this is definitely it!
- The two voices definitely have some distinction, but they're not wildly different, so they're both quite usable. (unlike a lot of coil splits/coil taps I've tried)
- The box contains everything you need for the install other than extra wire: two pots, the cap, the jack, jumpers, springs, etc.
- I really appreciate Fishman's fresh thinking in modernizing pickup manufacturing and not just worshiping 1950s technology.

Things I don't like so much:
- The cover is plastic and scuffs way too easily.
- The legs are part of the cover, not a separate frame, and are also plastic, and are slightly bigger than what seems to be humbucker standard, based on my comparisons to a few others.
- Instead of one big chunky shielded cable containing all the conductors, you have to wrangle about four separate very thin wires; this makes the wiring messier and it felt a lot more fragile.
- Fishman's wiring diagrams and accessories are OK, not great. For example, one of the diagrams included a comment about the blue wire; there was no blue wire on mine. Also, it wasn't even really clear what to do with some of the accessories.

I think you can tell that my praise is mostly about the sound quality and my complaints mostly about mechanical design and manufacture. The pickup is of very modern manufacture, for all that means both good and bad: plastic not metal, thin wires not thick ones, plugs not solder, etc.

[jtcnj]

Another beater Squier SE strat.
Again, these have decent necks and full size / thickness wood bodies (agathis but not plywood / laminate).
The neck profile is thinner on this one but is tolerable. (I dont like the thin modern C Fender shape).

This one wasn't as dirty as the first one, but more rust / oxidation. But on closer inspection is a bit of a basket case.
5 of 6 tuners screw holes were stripped, one tuner bushing / tuner itself was stripped. A little crooked too.
Stuff the holes with wood shavings and had almost matching tuner on hand (A string).

Electronics work well / smooth after some Faderlube.
The stock ceramics are not bad sounding and sound best to me a bit lower in height than typical.
I have other plans anyway......

Action is sky high with the saddles almost decked - would likely be considered unplayable by most experienced players.
Add a maple veneer shim at the pickups end of the pocket - good now.

[jtcnj]

Nut wasn't cut horribly, tune up with a little file work.
Worst fret work I have come across so far - really sharp ends, several lifted up in the slot at the ends that did not stay down with hammer, and not very good for level.
Glued them, leveled them, took the most strokes with leveling beam to get there of any I have done.
But - it turned out very well.

Polishing this turd hoping to find ... well, not a turd.

the bridge binds using the trem arm and will not hold tune if not decked.
I thought of just decking it, but view this as a skill building exercise.
The block binds against the front of the cavity, and it turns out the mounting holes were either not centered, or the screws were just driven in really crooked.

Filed the cavity a bit and plug and re-drilled the holes (several do overs on some) Still couldn't get it right with just the D string screw binding.
Put it back together without that screw and no bueno.
I realized the block is very short and the springs drag on the bottom of the cavity, and is mounted farther forward on the bridge plate.

[jtcnj]

I took the bridge from the first one - very different (block is longer and more centered in cavity) and better quality (the angle cut on the bottom leading edge is consistent) - and doesn't bind at all with all the screws in place so I didn't have to plug and drill the D string hole (again). This bridge holds tune at least fairly well. The Fender Mexico trem I put on the first one is really good. Not perfect, but really good.