Whats on your work bench?

[Rollin Hand]

Decided to put brass saddles on the Kramer.

Beefy lads compared to the original zinc saddles, eh?

I haven't got things all set up yet (had to grab my son from school as he was sick), but getting some buzzing that wasn't there before on the B and E strings. I'll see if I have the chance to futz around on Friday.

[voodoorat]

I watched a stewmac video before I tried it. It's the super-thin super glue they have for this kind of stuff. I prepped it by smearing some candle wax on the fingerboard around the side of the inlay I was going to push down and on the inlay itself, to try to keep the glue from sticking much. Dribbled a little bit of glue around the whole side that sticking up and then put some wax paper on top and clamped it down tight for about 15 minutes. There actually was very little glue to clean up, but what there was I first scraped off with a razor blade and then smoothed out with some 0000 grit steel wool. Oiled the board afterwards and it would be very hard tell anything was done.

Believe me, I was more than a little worried I was going to permanently scar my new SG that I finally got after like 6 months looking.

[deeaa]

I started a new amp project. It will be a custom rig designed to run modelers, Amplitube 5 and Tonex to start with, but it will run Neural or whatever fine at fraction of cost of a bought system.

All parts bought used, and I already own Amplitube etc so those cost nothing.

It's an i3 4-core/8GB/SSD laptop running software (I forced win 11 on it) and a MOTU M2 soundcard (not yet arrived), an old Boss SE-50 in case it needs some analog style warmth added, into both PA system Via XLR and into a 2x50w@16ohm stereo guitar rack amp into Celestion Creamback 12" 65w. All in a handy combo package with wheels.

With that I can get exact same sounds as I would with Quad Cortex, Tonex etc. on the cheap and in a very customisable, never going obsolete/upgradeable package.

Costs:

Laptop:80€
Soundcard: 120€
Amp: 120€
Speaker: 100€
Chassis: 20€
Bolts, cables, sliding rack tray, 3M Velcro, etc ~100€

540€ total.

Still will need a MIDI controller, which will add another 100 I suppose, but for now I can use my Boss GX as a controller (which can also be a backup rig at the same time).

A surprising amount of MacGyvering has been needed, for instance the sliding tray is too big to fit in as is, so some metalwork is required to shorten it without ruining the slide action, and it also needs a retaining spring of some sort to force it stay open when needed as it's on a downward angle...the laptop needs to be able to slide in out of sight when not in use and slide out and open the screen and controls when needed...some of it is still in the works but I'll get that sorted tonight I suppose for a large part, at least should be able to get sounds out.

Will see what speaker will fit it best, besides the Creamback I have a Line6/Celestion 80w speaker as well, and if the Creamback adds too much colour (of course I'll run without speaker sim to that output) I could use that.

My friend also has a "fullrange" 12" guitar speaker on sale so could try also that and use a cab model also before the speaker output.

The good thing about this is it's cheap to start with, and infinitely customisable as well as fully MIDI controlled. Also has Bluetooth and WLAN so the whole thing can also be adjusted via a laptop on my mic stand, which I also use to adjust our band's mixer.

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[mozz]

I watched a stewmac video before I tried it. It's the super-thin super glue they have for this kind of stuff. I prepped it by smearing some candle wax on the fingerboard

How do you remove the wax? How do you remove wax from anything?

[tobijohn]

How do you remove the wax? How do you remove wax from anything?

I always thought you put a baggy with ice cubes or one of those sealed freezer packs on it for a bit, then you just flake it away...

[andrewsrea]

I watched a stewmac video before I tried it. It's the super-thin super glue they have for this kind of stuff. I prepped it by smearing some candle wax on the fingerboard

How do you remove the wax? How do you remove wax from anything?

Lot of Naptha and paper towels. It is about the safest degreaser around. I use it to clean the surface of anything I am gluing or painting.

[mozz]

So lighter fluid? I think the lighter fluid they sell today is not the same as it was years ago. Then there is Coleman fuel, which was white gas? I think the crackheads use it to make crack from cocaine. I've seen some shady characters buying it at Walmart and i doubt they were using it in the lanterns to go night fishing.

I was just asking because if you got wax on a rosewood fretboard, once it got in the pores i think it would be there for ever. We bought a used car a few years back and there was wax on part of the cloth door panels, still there today. What someone was doing burning candles in a car is beyond me. Back to the turkey in the oven.

[voodoorat]

So lighter fluid? I think the lighter fluid they sell today is not the same as it was years ago. Then there is Coleman fuel, which was white gas? I think the crackheads use it to make crack from cocaine. I was just asking because if you got wax on a rosewood fretboard, once it got in the pores i think it would be there for ever.

I have an old thing of zippo lighter fluid from smoking days (~20 years ago) which I keep at the bench and use to clean various stuff, it dries super fast and leaves no residue behind. In this case though I didn't melt the wax, just smeared a candle on the inlay and a little on the wood around it hoping it would prevent the glue from sticking to those things. I think the cleaning was really mostly the scraping and wooling though and not using much in the first place so there wasn't much of a mess to begin with.

[mozz]

I think the newer lighter fluid is not as flammable as the old stuff. I do have some here, was mixing up lighter fluid and auto trans fluid, supposed to be better than wd40 or PB blaster for removing old rusty bolts. I can't remember the project, maybe something on the riding mower was seized. Acetone would probably remove wax but it has a habit of dissolving things.

[tonebender]

Currently it is changing the battery in my wife's Triumph motorcycle. She has been riding her Harley a lot and let the battery go dead in the Triumph.

[Rollin Hand]

Decided to put brass saddles on the Kramer.

20231122_114825.jpg

Beefy lads compared to the original zinc saddles, eh?

I haven't got things all set up yet (had to grab my son from school as he was sick), but getting some buzzing that wasn't there before on the B and E strings. I'll see if I have the chance to futz around on Friday.

Looks like I might be going back to the zinc saddles. Everything is so middy and bright now that the frequencies seem at war with each other, and what little low end this thing had is gone. Perhaps when the strings go dead it'll be better, but right now it sounds like I added a distorion pedal with the gain and mids all the way up.

I know stainless saddles are insanely bright, so not sure what to do here aside from going from "fixed" back to "ain't broke."

[andrewsrea]

Looks like I might be going back to the zinc saddles. Everything is so middy and bright now that the frequencies seem at war with each other, and what little low end this thing had is gone. Perhaps when the strings go dead it'll be better, but right now it sounds like I added a distorion pedal with the gain and mids all the way up.

I know stainless saddles are insanely bright, so not sure what to do here aside from going from "fixed" back to "ain't broke."

Zinc gets a bad rap. Yet a holy grail '59 Les Paul Burst had a zinc bridge with nickel over brass. As long as it isn't pot metal disguized as zinc, it has good tonal qualities.

Good that you recognized you tweaked yourself out of a great tone. I've done that many times and now keep copies of mod notes and prior revisions of schematics.

[Rollin Hand]

Looks like I might be going back to the zinc saddles. Everything is so middy and bright now that the frequencies seem at war with each other, and what little low end this thing had is gone. Perhaps when the strings go dead it'll be better, but right now it sounds like I added a distorion pedal with the gain and mids all the way up.

I know stainless saddles are insanely bright, so not sure what to do here aside from going from "fixed" back to "ain't broke."

Zinc gets a bad rap. Yet a holy grail '59 Les Paul Burst had a zinc bridge with nickel over brass. As long as it isn't pot metal disguized as zinc, it has good tonal qualities.

Good that you recognized you tweaked yourself out of a great tone. I've done that many times and now keep copies of mod notes and prior revisions of schematics.

Little known fact: most modern Gotoh TOMs have zinc saddles. Though I am not sure the saddles on this bridge are zinc -- they could be pot metal. It is, oddly enough, a Sung Il bridge.

The guitar was bright before, but now it is BRIIIIIGHT. It sounds OK through an amp, but next string change, the old saddles are going back on...potentially with some improved fasteners as well.

[andrewsrea]

Made the pickups, painted the body and assembled for my friend. Waiting on strap buttons and a decal. Sounds & plays sweet! Brighter than expected, like a Tele on steriods. Proof that wood and design affect the sound, as I have these pickups in a LP and they do not sound the same.

[Partscaster]

Took my last unused old body and neck, put in some old Agile pickups, restrung the thing to Nashville Tuning with smaller string gauges on 4 - 6. Its awesome. Same tuning, just using all thinner strings. It sounds like the thin strings of a 12 string. Good to add to a mix needing chime, it can fill in a sparse songs background, etc, and is pretty fun to play.

Its a little different ,as thinning the deeper strings means there will be a pitch incongruity between 2 strings at some point, in order to fit the 2 octave aspect of normal tuning. EADGBE. Anyhow, its a cool glitch to work with. I imagine I will soon try this set up in open G, some slide, etc.
If you have a geater being unused, its a great way to put it to work filling a useful and cool sounding niche.

I just read that K. Richards and Taylor combined a 12 string with another guitar in Nashville tuning on Wild Horses, and Richards earlier added it into Jumpin' Jack Flash, "overdriven through a cassette recorder."

[Partscaster]

this nashville tuning is amazing. I came up with several new good sounding song ideas in first day just due to the unique inspiration of the tuning. Its Jethro Tull-ish, it gets smooth folk/jazz-ish, country. Its not just the higher pitch tuning, its got a "step" in pitch that exists between 2nd and 3rd strings.

from 6th to 1st stings my gauges are roughly:
26-16-11-9-11-9
Tuned to straight E tuning /EADGBA. The G string is actually the highest pitch as its a thin "e" string tightened up to make the G.
So when I do a straight up-strum 1st and 2nd strings sound normal, then the 3rd is a high G , higher pitched than the 1st and 2nd strings.
And then the 4-6 string pitches descend from 3rd down through 6th, like normal, except they're all higher pitched.

That "step" between 2 and 3 makes for a cool difference that is making easy picked chords sound more complex, and in a consistent way across the neck. Plus, the whole setup is extra chimey.
I would have to practice specific picking to get the same consistent "step" effect. Which i could do,...but with this, its doing it by itself and its leading to inspiring results I wouldnt have come up with.
Anyhow...I thought I'd report on whats happening with this. Its that cool.

[deeaa]

Modifying my Origin 50 into something like a hot JCM800 50w.

I did this mod on the Origin 20 and it was great, now I'm trying it on the 50 and making it a little hotter by using a 2.7K cathode follower resistor instead of 10K I used the last time.


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[voodoorat]

this nashville tuning is amazing. I came up with several new good sounding song ideas in first day just due to the unique inspiration of the tuning. Its Jethro Tull-ish, it gets smooth folk/jazz-ish, country. Its not just the higher pitch tuning, its got a "step" in pitch that exists between 2nd and 3rd strings.

from 6th to 1st stings my gauges are roughly:
26-16-11-9-11-9
Tuned to straight E tuning /EADGBA. The G string is actually the highest pitch as its a thin "e" string tightened up to make the G.
So when I do a straight up-strum 1st and 2nd strings sound normal, then the 3rd is a high G , higher pitched than the 1st and 2nd strings.
And then the 4-6 string pitches descend from 3rd down through 6th, like normal, except they're all higher pitched.

That "step" between 2 and 3 makes for a cool difference that is making easy picked chords sound more complex, and in a consistent way across the neck. Plus, the whole setup is extra chimey.
I would have to practice specific picking to get the same consistent "step" effect. Which i could do,...but with this, its doing it by itself and its leading to inspiring results I wouldnt have come up with.
Anyhow...I thought I'd report on whats happening with this. Its that cool.

I always keep one acoustic and one electric in Nashville tuning, mostly for a second guitarist.


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[glasshand]

I tried putting graphite lubricant on the nuts of a couple of my tremolo-equipped guitars (the Frankenpeavey with a Wilkinson/Gotoh VS100N, and the Firebird with a Les Trem II). It makes a big difference - no more pinging sounds and way better at returning to pitch.

[tobijohn]

I tried putting graphite lubricant on the nuts of a couple of my tremolo-equipped guitars (the Frankenpeavey with a Wilkinson/Gotoh VS100N, and the Firebird with a Les Trem II). It makes a big difference - no more pinging sounds and way better at returning to pitch.

FWIW, to keep the graphite powder from getting all over everything, I mix it in with a little Teflon lubricant and apply it to the slots and saddles with a toothpick

www.amazon.com/Aladdin-Magic-Teflon-Lub ... 307&sr=8-9

I suppose Vaseline would work too.

[glasshand]

I tried putting graphite lubricant on the nuts of a couple of my tremolo-equipped guitars (the Frankenpeavey with a Wilkinson/Gotoh VS100N, and the Firebird with a Les Trem II). It makes a big difference - no more pinging sounds and way better at returning to pitch.

FWIW, to keep the graphite powder from getting all over everything, I mix it in with a little Teflon lubricant and apply it to the slots and saddles with a toothpick

www.amazon.com/Aladdin-Magic-Teflon-Lub ... 307&sr=8-9

I suppose Vaseline would work too.

I found that it didn't cause too much of a problem as long as I was careful - I just vacuumed up any loose graphite - but I see your point. BTW, that "Magic Lube" looks like it is intended for something other than guitars...

[tobijohn]

I found that it didn't cause too much of a problem as long as I was careful - I just vacuumed up any loose graphite - but I see your point. BTW, that "Magic Lube" looks like it is intended for something other than guitars...

Ha, no not that, it's for lubricating rubber o-rings on pool equipment...

[Rollin Hand]

No pics, but I assure you these things happened.

Went on a bit of a "dammit, I am going to fix stuff" kick recently. Job 1 was to deal with the garbage stock bridge pickup on my Jackson JS22-7. Just snarl, no tone. I had an old Crunch Lab 7 lying around that wouldn't hold pickup screws because it was drilled out to be flush mounted. Epoxy didn't work previously, but I discovered that JB Weld Plastic epoxy worked fine. I managed to get it mounted, but completely bunged up the wiring, as I usually do.

I put in a new switch (Kaish Heavy Duty from Amazon -- highly recommended as it is pre jumpered and solid), and wired it. No sound from the neck pickup. Turns out the ground was bad, so I re-did the ground. Bridge sounds weak. Had to redo that ground too. Now we are in business.

I used D'Addario pure nickels to re string it to rry to tame some highs as well. It is improved, but still not one hundred percent sure on the pickup.

Job two was to pull the JB and 59 out if my Peavey Predator project. Bthat guitar is absurdly bright, even acoustically, and that makes the JB crazy. Also, I am pondering selling the guitar, and would rather sell the pickups separately.

I had a set of Warman Zebras from a failed repair attempt to my Watson Wolfgang, and decided to use those. I got them bridge both installed, but when I tested the guitar, the neck himbucker did not work. It was then I discovered that the ground had pulled off the backing plate. Grrr!

Not wanting to rewire the pickup, I bought an Artec VH Rocks neck pickup off Amazon and installed that. And you guessed it, more soldering screwups -- I managed to hurt the switch, so another Kaish is going in this guitar when I have a chance.

FWIW, the Warman is much nicer than the JB in this guitar. Less hot, less bright, more creamy mids.

Now I have to decide whether to keep the JB in my Kramer project. I have a Tone Zone lying around, but could also see myself buying a different pickup entirely for the Kramer. Something warmer and less spiky. The Tone Zone should do that in spades, but I kind of wanted to save that for another guitar. We shall see, said the blind man with the soldering iron.

[Partscaster]

I was sick this week with a good chest mung infection. Getting better still.
So, I've been playing a lot of guitar, same is true in weeks prior. Decided to get some strats ready to sell at local consignment music store.
Gonna get rid of my last 2 Squire CV alder bodies and necks. Reassembling them close to stock, but with full sized trems, full sized pots, etc.
One will have stock CV 50's pickups, other will have CS69 set...I think. [b]Edit: just found the old STA5 (aka tonerider) set it came with. Yea!!![/b]
Tried to put a set of less expensive stratosphere alnicos in it, but it sounds shitty. Might be the gibson "brite" strings, though.

That was all secondary to attending, and playing my 4 best SSS partscasters. I made further neck swaps, all towards improvements.
I didnt want too much straty highs, but did want to avoid nasally mids/lows, etc. A lot might depend on specific pickups and body/neck combo's.

I think I'm riding my pickups fairly high, below wolftone mag pull effect, but pretty strident. They are mostly open sounding, lower wind sets.
One set was from Tim/Buddha which I got months ago on a sale day, here on forum. A5/flat stagger/ 42.5 gauge poly coat wire.
They are nice and clear, full sounding..and the flat stagger aspect I've only experienced once before, liked, but forgot about. The flat stagger on 7.25 neck, no less, really put my ear in a new place after almost always playing vintage stagger.
It sounds good, more volume on1st and 2nd strings, full but not too boomy on 5th and 6th. Its a nice change. Those pickups generally have my old 85MIJ basswood Squier sounding more interesting than ever.

I also flirted with putting no tone control on a mid and neck pickups a few times. It sounds good, but on neck I didnt want to be committed to that extra raw clarity all the time. I almost get the same high with tone connected on 10. I wonder if the tone pot "load" lends a hint of compression. Or am I just getting word nuances mashed up? I think there is a bit of musicality added vs the raw no-tone pot signal. Thats were I ended up with that.

[Rollin Hand]

I finally (I turned 52 last December) put together the Flying V kit my kids got me for my 50th birthday!

Yes, my kids painted the design.

Miraculously, my soldering job took. It still needs a setup and a few finishing touches, but it works.

One part of the setup will be new tuners. The ones that came in the kit are inaccurate and alternately tight and loose, with a hint of grinding. In short, they suck like a sextet of Shop Vacs.