Whats on your work bench?

[glasshand]

New Pickups Day #2!

I'd never been happy with the pickups in this Xaviere XV-500. The originals were kind of hot and one-dimensional, IMO. I tried replacing them with some Epiphone HOTCHs that I'd done a magnet swap on, which was a little better, but still not great. Finally I got around to ordering some Tonerider AC4s, in zebra because I'd always thought this guitar would look good with zebras.

These are kind of the polar opposite of the Fishman Fluence I installed the other day - super-traditional construction, very much in the traditional PAF vein. And they sound damn good! It's really interesting to A/B them with the Fishman, because you can really hear the difference at extremely high gain, where the AC4 gets sort of flubby and indistinct in the bass and the Fluence does not. The neck pickup on these might just make me a neck pickup aficionado again!

[honyock]

Got a new project body. Very light and looks beautiful.

Fender CuNiFe WRHBs

Warmoth pickguard I got in this lot of 22 pickguards I used my Fantasy Football winnings to buy.

Need to figure out what neck I want to use...thinking maybe another Musikraft.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

[jtcnj]

Squier SE #1 got a maple fretboard neck. Took a chance on a cheap China ebay thing.
Came with a little shipping damage at the tip of the headstock.
First go at mounting a new / no screw holes neck.

It was unfinished; I did 2 coasts of satin wipe on poly and called it good.
Could use just a little nut and fret file work but otherwise good - except:
I cant get quite enough neck relief; hoping it will settle a bit under string tension.

[jtcnj]

First go at installing the Fender 2- pin tuners too. (got them used a while back)

[mozz]

Mistake turned into relic. Due to the overwhelming LACK of tweed cabinet availability, at a decent affordable price, i am forced to buy stuff from China. This was $260 shipped. Best you can do for a US made cabinet is about $400 or a little less. Chinese shipping was $100 so the cabinet itself is about $150. If they could get cheaper shipping it would be a real bargain. I've built 2 champs with these cabinets before. This one is the 5E3 tweed deluxe size.

The GOOD : it's built to spec size, nice straight lines, speaker screw holes line up, back panels fit great. Grill cloth looks like genuine fender, nice, straight and tight too.

The BAD : It's not finger jointed (i don't plan on standing on it), that doesn't seem to matter but time will tell. Hardware is metric and slightly undersized. T-nuts for the speaker are small, so i pushed them out and installed 8/32 sized. Handle is held in by wood screws. Took them out and put real nuts/bolts/washers and lockwashers. Speaker baffle has 5 wood screws, why they did this is beyond me, tweeds use 4 . Took those out and installed real nuts/bolts/washers and lockwashers and finish washers. 5th hole in the lower center i covered with a emblem. Glides are nice but only have 1/4" of screw into the wood, had to use longer screws.

The UGLY: Tweed is not real tweed, it is some sort of vinyl/tolex. So me being the genius that i am, i tried to dull the finish just a little bit with some......................acetone. It seems the red-ish stripe melted and bled. I could not get it to blend back in/wipe off. At that point, out came the sandpaper and hand sander, wire brush,stain, and a few curse words. Overall i think it came out decent, i am going to beat it up a little more on the weekend.

[Partscaster]

i recently put an old set of giovanni-gvh-2 (8.0/8.8, heavy formvar wire) in an sx callisto CUS tribal/2T-sunburst before offering to sell it to a friend's son who needs an inexpensive guitar to keep at home when he visits from his new location. Anyhow, this sx CUS is heavier than another SX CUS Goldtop I also need to get rid of, so it was prioritized to move out of the collection.

long story shorter, the Tribal/2tsb sounds so good with these pups I wont part with it. Its not quite as open as some boutique HB sets I have tried, but it almost is, and with a voicing with some sweet xtra upper mids. So I put another set of gvh-2 in the goldtop and it has the more typical tonal curve Im more used to with these pups and bodies., and that one will be sold. The 7lb-11oz GT has a richer low end, pretty open, nice top end. But the 9.0 lb tribal/2tsb is the keeper for now. Really nice cutting through a mix.

[BrianSkeezer]

i recently put an old set of giovanni-gvh-2 (8.0/8.8, heavy formvar wire) in an sx callisto CUS tribal/2T-sunburst before offering to sell it to a friend's son who needs an inexpensive guitar to keep at home when he visits from his new location. Anyhow, this sx CUS is heavier than another SX CUS Goldtop I also need to get rid of, so it was prioritized to move out of the collection.

long story shorter, the Tribal/2tsb sounds so good with these pups I wont part with it. Its not quite as open as some boutique HB sets I have tried, but it almost is, and with a voicing with some sweet xtra upper mids. So I put another set of gvh-2 in the goldtop and it has the more typical tonal curve Im more used to with these pups and bodies., and that one will be sold. The 7lb-11oz GT has a richer low end, pretty open, nice top end. But the 9.0 lb tribal/2tsb is the keeper for now. Really nice cutting through a mix.

IMG_0681 2.jpg

Where are you getting those pickups? I have 2 sets in 2 guitars and I love them. I've been trying to get some more sets, but haven't been able to find them lately.

[mozz]

Looking a bit better, have to wire up the speaker and check cathode bias once more. Maybe have a beer and pull out a tele (not this thing) over the weekend to see if i remember any songs.

[andrewsrea]

Looking a bit better, have to wire up the speaker and check cathode bias once more. Maybe have a beer and pull out a tele (not this thing) over the weekend to see if i remember any songs.

IMG_20230524_200110497.jpgIMG_20230524_200135217.jpg

1958 Tweed Deluxe?

That guitar is pretty cool as well. Reminded me of a baritone Rick Turner guitar.

[mozz]

Yeah, it's a 5E3 tweed deluxe clone with a few mods.

There's a added choke, which is supposed to get rid of some of the tweed flubbiness/farting instead of lowering the 0.1 coupling cap values. There's a added filter cap before the choke so 4 stages of filters all 22uf. The scrounged power transformer has a 5u4gb and a pair of 6V6's and a pair of 12ax7s. For some reason whatever i pulled the transformer from used a 5U4gb. If i use a 5Y3, the 5v filament voltage is near 6v, (which would probably burn it out) with the 5u4 drawing 3A it goes to 5.2v. Also the 5y3 drops the plate voltage too low, 5u4 gives me 360v on the plates which is perfect for a tweed.

The guitar is not really a guitar, well, I'm sure you could play cowboy chords on it. Put it this way, if i gave you 6 pieces of wood, glue, and a bandsaw, and told you that you have 12 minutes to make a guitar, this would be it. Definitely handmade by someone , first attempt, glued the neck in, action is about 1" above the frets, semi hollow in various places inside. Story behind it: Gone to the flea market, one of the rare times the wife comes along. So i see this guitar for $15, wife gives me the evil eye, i bought it just for the neck pickup which is a De-armond soundhole , worth about $300-500. Anyway, there were 4 " wood screws through the body, because it was screwed to a wall. I guess you can play slide on it. Decal was a Hendrix Monterey white strat build decal that i ordered the wrong size, so i used it here. Jimi plays Nashville.

[jtcnj]

Squier SE #1 did fret level with a slight back bow to get a little more relief. Not sure if this will work out with summer humidity.
New bone nut from blank, not glued in yet.

[jtcnj]

Bootstrap '54 vintage sparkle pickups in stock aged white pickguard, Clapton Blackie style.
Like it lots.

[Mr. Leyvatone]

I had to put the SX bass under the knife today. Tim wound a set of @Buddha Pickups for it.

Upon installation I realized I had a little issue to resolve. The SX stock pups had a ceramic bar magnet below the bobbin that gave each pup a 3/16” lift. I tried putting some pieces of foam inside to compensate, but it wasn’t providing the necessary support.

I ordered a set of proper foam blocks w/springs. But realized that wouldn’t do anything to close the clearance gap necessary for the stock magnets.

Lowe’s had a set of wood planks 3/16” thick. I cut two pieces to roughly match the dimensions of each pup cavity. Inserted those, added the foam blocks and screwed it all back together.

It sounds great!! Another home run, Tim!

Both of the pictured instruments are Buddha-loaded giant killers.

[mozz]

Fender Bassman 10, about 1979, the 70w version. These don't really have any following and there's a few reasons why. This was used back in the 80's in a local (Scranton) band called Davis Street Exit. I don't know if the bass player used it or the guitar player. It has been sitting for many years. 1 tubes was missing and 7 out of the 9 knobs. It was used as a 4/10 cabinet after it blew up. Odd design/marketing/, as the full CBS takeover was implementing "their" engineering ideas/mods/cost cutting measures. Output transformer is a ultralinear design, meaning it has taps for the tube screens (no screen dropping resistor)beside the plates. This lets you get a little more wattage/clean sound.
70W is really bullshit for a pair of 6L6's, Not even at 5% distortion. Sort of like the Fender 22W amps they sell with a pair of 6V6's, not going to happen. But 50W for the old model or 70w for the new model, marketing exaggeration sells more amps. Anyway, 520v on the plates is kind of steep.

So 1 output tube shorts and it blows the 2.5A fuse. Owner/bandmate/operator puts a 30A fuse in there. Now there is smoke. Power switch has a hole blown in it, screen resistor cracks in 2, socket arcs over to ground, bias pot burned and a few other things. 30A fuse doesn't blow yet. He is lucky the power transformer didn't blow, it's a voltage doubler circuit (cheaper transformer) and you would be hard pressed to find a used one. There's a 30k 20W resistor just hanging by 1 lead. Why would anyone design a circuit using that huge of a resistor is beyond me.

Only new 6L6GC tubes i see that are rated over 500v are the TAD, at 550v. Almost $90 a pair, plus filter caps, a socket, knobs, few small things. $200 in parts, guy says go ahead and fix it.

Me, i would have modded it into a super reverb style or something and opened the back up somehow. Supposedly these are very clean for guitar and will make a nice pedal platform.

As to CBS being cheap, power transformer and output transformer are held to the chassis with.........sheet metal screws.
It's got lots of mojo and stories to tell.

[tobijohn]

Fender Bassman 10, about 1979, the 70w version. These don't really have any following and there's a few reasons why. This was used back in the 80's in a local (Scranton) band called Davis Street Exit. I don't know if the bass player used it or the guitar player. It has been sitting for many years. 1 tubes was missing and 7 out of the 9 knobs. It was used as a 4/10 cabinet after it blew up. Odd design/marketing/, as the full CBS takeover was implementing "their" engineering ideas/mods/cost cutting measures. Output transformer is a ultralinear design, meaning it has taps for the tube screens (no screen dropping resistor)beside the plates. This lets you get a little more wattage/clean sound.
70W is really bullshit for a pair of 6L6's, Not even at 5% distortion. Sort of like the Fender 22W amps they sell with a pair of 6V6's, not going to happen. But 50W for the old model or 70w for the new model, marketing exaggeration sells more amps. Anyway, 520v on the plates is kind of steep.

So 1 output tube shorts and it blows the 2.5A fuse. Owner/bandmate/operator puts a 30A fuse in there. Now there is smoke. Power switch has a hole blown in it, screen resistor cracks in 2, socket arcs over to ground, bias pot burned and a few other things. 30A fuse doesn't blow yet. He is lucky the power transformer didn't blow, it's a voltage doubler circuit (cheaper transformer) and you would be hard pressed to find a used one. There's a 30k 20W resistor just hanging by 1 lead. Why would anyone design a circuit using that huge of a resistor is beyond me.

Only new 6L6GC tubes i see that are rated over 500v are the TAD, at 550v. Almost $90 a pair, plus filter caps, a socket, knobs, few small things. $200 in parts, guy says go ahead and fix it.

Me, i would have modded it into a super reverb style or something and opened the back up somehow. Supposedly these are very clean for guitar and will make a nice pedal platform.

As to CBS being cheap, power transformer and output transformer are held to the chassis with.........sheet metal screws.
It's got lots of mojo and stories to tell.

Definitely a labor of love...

[dabbler]

I had to put the SX bass under the knife today. Tim wound a set of @Buddha Pickups for it.

Upon installation I realized I had a little issue to resolve. The SX stock pups had a ceramic bar magnet below the bobbin that gave each pup a 3/16” lift. I tried putting some pieces of foam inside to compensate, but it wasn’t providing the necessary support.

I ordered a set of proper foam blocks w/springs. But realized that wouldn’t do anything to close the clearance gap necessary for the stock magnets.

Lowe’s had a set of wood planks 3/16” thick. I cut two pieces to roughly match the dimensions of each pup cavity. Inserted those, added the foam blocks and screwed it all back together.

It sounds great!! Another home run, Tim!

Both of the pictured instruments are Buddha-loaded giant killers.
C77C39DF-D176-485F-81F7-661527F90731.jpeg

Your solution is definitely more solid than mine, when I wanted a little more even pressure across the pups on one of my Harley Benton basses (they used a single square under the middle of each coil of my JP-55OP).

I went to Dollar Tree and bought a set of dish sponges (they are sponge on one side and plastic scrub on the other) that I cut to be about the same length as each core. Worked great! The foam has much larger pores than what HB used and they will probably deteriorate over time, at which I'll replace them, but for $1.25 plus tax, they were a good solution AND a good value!

[andrewsrea]

Fender Bassman 10, about 1979, the 70w version. These don't really have any following and there's a few reasons why. This was used back in the 80's in a local (Scranton) band called Davis Street Exit. I don't know if the bass player used it or the guitar player. It has been sitting for many years. 1 tubes was missing and 7 out of the 9 knobs. It was used as a 4/10 cabinet after it blew up. Odd design/marketing/, as the full CBS takeover was implementing "their" engineering ideas/mods/cost cutting measures. Output transformer is a ultralinear design, meaning it has taps for the tube screens (no screen dropping resistor)beside the plates. This lets you get a little more wattage/clean sound.
70W is really bullshit for a pair of 6L6's, Not even at 5% distortion. Sort of like the Fender 22W amps they sell with a pair of 6V6's, not going to happen. But 50W for the old model or 70w for the new model, marketing exaggeration sells more amps. Anyway, 520v on the plates is kind of steep.

So 1 output tube shorts and it blows the 2.5A fuse. Owner/bandmate/operator puts a 30A fuse in there. Now there is smoke. Power switch has a hole blown in it, screen resistor cracks in 2, socket arcs over to ground, bias pot burned and a few other things. 30A fuse doesn't blow yet. He is lucky the power transformer didn't blow, it's a voltage doubler circuit (cheaper transformer) and you would be hard pressed to find a used one. There's a 30k 20W resistor just hanging by 1 lead. Why would anyone design a circuit using that huge of a resistor is beyond me.

Only new 6L6GC tubes i see that are rated over 500v are the TAD, at 550v. Almost $90 a pair, plus filter caps, a socket, knobs, few small things. $200 in parts, guy says go ahead and fix it.

Me, i would have modded it into a super reverb style or something and opened the back up somehow. Supposedly these are very clean for guitar and will make a nice pedal platform.

As to CBS being cheap, power transformer and output transformer are held to the chassis with.........sheet metal screws.
It's got lots of mojo and stories to tell.

20230612_194640.jpg

if you are looking to revive this as a 50w, I know a guy who custom winds transformers in Tennessee: Matt@musicalpowersupplies.com . I'd say on par with Mercury Magnetics, at a fraction of the price. Hand made by Matt. He used to live around the corner from me.

As far as the ultra-linear output trans, I've experimented with bypassing the screen-grid tap and supplying the screens from the B+2 and it didn't make much difference. Those are actually the best component of that series of amp, as they have a ton of iron and a high transconductance. If you mess with the EQ stack (add a 250K mid control), that amp would make a good Steel String Singer clone.

[mozz]

Definitely a labor of love...

Well, where is the point to stop spending on repairs verses amp value? It should be good for another 20-40 years now. All it takes is 1 great guitar player to say they used this model and all of a sudden it's collectible. Twin reverbs sell for less than smaller deluxe reverbs or princetons. If I had a large recording studio it would be well modded and be along the wall of amps for someone to choose from. I don't think I'm gonna charge the guy hardly anything for labor, friend of a friend and all that.

[redman]

I must have not looked at this thread for a while you guy's got some killer gear going on.
@glasshand how do you like the Xaviere guitars I've never even saw one in the wild let alone play one but every time I go on GF's website I am tempted.
@jtcnj You build as many guitars as I modify What do you do with them. Most of what I mod are SX guitars and I've not done well selling them on Reverb so I usually give them away I know that's a little stupid but they don't get played much otherwise.

[Partscaster]

I just put a set of used/reverb Klein Epic 55's in a resonant 3pc alder strat body I did the finish on a while ago, with a good sounding Allparts 70's style RW fb neck I've liked before. All Tru-oil and linseed based oil colors.

The 55's are Klein's lowest wound strat pickups that I've seen. Listed as 5.5/5.6/5.6, mine all measured 5.3 in about 70-75 degrees.
I really like them. Set up about mid height, treble ends tilted higher. They are not too bright. Might qualify as brilliant sounding. There is still a good low end. Notes and chords stand out big and round, but growly too. It really gets growly. I'm surprised, as i thought such a low wind would stay pretty clean and that I'd have to use some OD to get any hair around he edges. Its growly, strong, and chimey plugged straight in. I havent tried the pedal board yet.

These pups oughta be able to cut through a lot of mix pretty well. And even the bridge sounds big. Its on its own tone, same for neck. and middle is without tone. I like it, thats how the earlier owner wired the set. Came on an aluminum gold PG, and with an extra single ply cream PG. I went for the single ply to compliment the low wind vintage motif. Very nice guitar.

[mozz]

if you are looking to revive this as a 50w, I know a guy who custom winds transformers in Tennessee: Matt@musicalpowersupplies.com . I'd say on par with Mercury Magnetics, at a fraction of the price. Hand made by Matt. He used to live around the corner from me.

As far as the ultra-linear output trans, I've experimented with bypassing the screen-grid tap and supplying the screens from the B+2 and it didn't make much difference. Those are actually the best component of that series of amp, as they have a ton of iron and a high transconductance. If you mess with the EQ stack (add a 250K mid control), that amp would make a good Steel String Singer clone.

I've bought various transformers from him on Ebay over the years. I think he goes by musical matt. Some of the output trans have 6.6k and 8k primary and 4/8/16 secondary, very versatile for dual 6v6 amps. I don't know about hand wound but they were made in the USA and now he has a slightly lower priced version made in Mexico.

[andrewsrea]

if you are looking to revive this as a 50w, I know a guy who custom winds transformers in Tennessee: Matt@musicalpowersupplies.com . I'd say on par with Mercury Magnetics, at a fraction of the price. Hand made by Matt. He used to live around the corner from me.

As far as the ultra-linear output trans, I've experimented with bypassing the screen-grid tap and supplying the screens from the B+2 and it didn't make much difference. Those are actually the best component of that series of amp, as they have a ton of iron and a high transconductance. If you mess with the EQ stack (add a 250K mid control), that amp would make a good Steel String Singer clone.

I've bought various transformers from him on Ebay over the years. I think he goes by musical matt. Some of the output trans have 6.6k and 8k primary and 4/8/16 secondary, very versatile for dual 6v6 amps. I don't know about hand wound but they were made in the USA and now he has a slightly lower priced version made in Mexico.

Correct and my bad. Hand built, not hand wound. However. not C&C wound. He custom built for me and a friend who owns Landry Amps. I've had multiple conversations with Matt and he custom built the replacement for Chad's Silvertone 1394 that you were helping me on.

Check out my next post, which will include his transformers.

[jtcnj]

@jtcnj You build as many guitars as I modify What do you do with them. Most of what I mod are SX guitars and I've not done well selling them on Reverb so I usually give them away I know that's a little stupid but they don't get played much otherwise.

I haven't done a lot of them.

I'm not a flipper, most of what I post is fixing up guitars I plan to keep, until something changes. Some are beater rescues I got cheap, and often have the parts on hand for the repair or somewhat of an upgrade. I have used good budget parts left over from when I went overboard with the "upgrade everything" mindset I had early on.

I had sold off several, with no real intention of buying anything else, but then, well things happen......

I sell locally on CL or FB Marketplace. I did sell one or two on Reverb, but mainly the shipping cost increases have kept me away. And The Man is watching now so....

I don't go crazy on upgrades, and sell them for what I can get. I just hope to minimize the loss dollar wise. But, that loss is the cost of owning and playing them for months or years, and then they move on.

The 3 AXL LP types I did were mostly because the bare husks and some of the parts were dirt cheap. The P90 Jr husk I got from @honyock , along with a wrap around bridge - hoping it would end my search for the right P90 guitar. It did, thanks Nate!

The journey is what led me to make the "what is your end game in buying guitars" thread. I have learned what I like or don't, which has a lot of value in itself.

Right now I'm liking strats more than I ever did before, with the specs I prefer. The 2 Squier SE strat rescues I'm working on now I hope to be keepers, one SSS, the other HSS.

[glasshand]

@glasshand how do you like the Xaviere guitars I've never even saw one in the wild let alone play one but every time I go on GF's website I am tempted.

I really like my Xaviere but I have to say this is the only one I've ever seen in person. This one is really nice - very traditional construction, very well made, also very heavyweight. With the Bigsby I have on it, it's so heavy that I really have to use a very wide, heavily padded strap.

I honestly don't know if the current ones are made the same way. I have heard that back when this one was made, they had a licensing deal with Zemaitis that later expired (you can see the narrow waist and sharp horn here) but I don't have any definite information on that.

[Sinster]

Started another pedal.. I'm actually done, but haven't taken a picture of the finish product.
It's a clone of the Lizzard Queen. I really like it and has moved into second place of my favorite pedal. My favorite pedal is the Klon clone.

PCB from PedalPCB.
Had Taydaelectronics UV the enclosure https://www.taydaelectronics.com/hardwa ... rvice.html




Here's a clip
OMG! Listening back to my other tracks.. damn I'm horrible.