Whats on your work bench?

[mozz]

Summer project, clean-up stuff you never finished edition.

I think i bought this over 10 years ago. It was all a box of parts never used, pretty sure the guy said he got most of it at Stewmac. I know the floyd copy is Stewmac, which could be a actual floyd variety, never really researched. There was a pickguard and a set of single coil EMG's with it. Still have those but currently have no extra strat bodies laying around. The X2N Dimarzio was out of a Samick red LP i got. Pretty sure i have a preamp in it, that's what the switches and small knob are for, there is a battery compartment on the back. Like i really need a preamp with a X2N. Anyway it will be finished sometime this summer.

[Tiga]

That looks like an awesome project. Good luck and look forward to seeing the progress.

[voodoorat]

Swapped the tone cap on my Vola JZ FRO to a 0.01uf. I’m pleased with the result and for me the result is a more useful tone knob and more versatile guitar. I may do the same thing on some of my other Fender-ish guitars. Don’t even know what the old cap value is, it’s about 10x bigger than the replacement though.


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[glasshand]

Some years ago I swapped out the knobs on my Rat for bright orange mini-chickenheads which were a lot easier to see on stage. On a related note, for a while my preferred wah has been the Plutoneium Chi-Wah-Wah, and it has a similar problem: the stock knobs are awful. They're chrome dome-topped with a tiny dot to indicate position, and they are impossible to read under stage lights. (One really nice thing about the Chi-Wah-Wah - the controls all have a detent at the midpoint, so you can find it blind.) So I dug through my parts box, and found some other nice bright, easy-to-read knobs! You can see the difference:

plutoneium-chiwahwah-modded.jpg

[mozz]

This place is going out of business in a few days, but shipping is 8.95 so you have to order enough stuff to make up for that.
https://www.mpja.com/Pack-of-6-COLORED- ... /36273+KN/

[BatUtilityBelt]

This place is going out of business in a few days, but shipping is 8.95 so you have to order enough stuff to make up for that.
https://www.mpja.com/Pack-of-6-COLORED- ... /36273+KN/

Sad. I've bought from them more than a couple times. Great variety of closeout stuff. Also, an email says they're giving 40% off any order over $100. That's really good for some of their offerings.

[tobijohn]

They're literally a few blocks away from me. I've been driving past there for the last twenty years every time I go to Walmart, never noticed.

[mozz]

I have a soft spot for neglected beat up guitars, when they are cheap. Got this today, appears from my searches it's a Kawai about 1964 era. It has a wound g string and the others appear to be flatwounds. The zigzag bridge intonation points are set for a wound g string. If i put regular 10-46 on this 24.75" scale (20 frets) i do not know if it will intonate. Lots of pitting/rust/finish checking. Charm, relic with out even relicing it. To my surprise i get 2.8k on each pickup and 5.6k when both are on. The switches put them in series. Tuners are rusted shut. Other than that, i will totally disassemble, clean and shim the neck (you will see the string height in the pictures). Neck is rather slim compared to baseball bat neck Teiscos.

Added plus, that 70's strap is cool.

t1.jpg

t2.jpg

t3.jpg

t4.jpg

t5.jpg

[Tiga]

That Kawai is cool......

[Tiga]

I did a full fret level on this SX Gypsy Rose a while ago. At some point one of the higher frets (14 or 15th) lifted a little and caused some fretting out. This ended up in a case untouched for a while and I decided yesterday to see if I could get it straightened out. I tapped the high fret back in but now the surrounding frets were too high. I tapped in a few more and decided to do a focused level on the high frets to get them sorted and create a little fallaway at the same time.

I actually decided to sort this out with thoughts of selling it. Now that I have it in my hands again I'm not sure. Forgot how cool it is....

SX Gypsy Rose Strat Fret Level.jpg

St Gypsy Rose Strat Fret Level 2.jpg

[mozz]

Still working on the Kawai. Wax potted the pickups. Cleaned. Pictures later this weekend.
Meantime, Interfax Harmonic percolator. If you know, you know. I don't feel like writing out the whole story on this pedal. Stock version and a Steve Albini version. Figured put them both in this case since it's kind of big. Stock version is wild, out of control type of fuzz thou you can dial it back. The Steve Albini version is more tame, and i guess he used it in his band (not familiar with it)and his recording studio. He just passed away a while back and produced some VERY well known albums.

Next is the JHS NotaDumble pedal. There is a story behind this also and i happened to grab the kit before it sold out last week. There will be no more until the version 2 comes out. Already doubling in price. Trying different knobs, sticking with the last, gray ones. You can build this pedal in 15 minutes, the board is pre soldered and you just basically bolt it together. No sound clips, one of these days i will be set up to record.

hp1.jpg

hp2.jpg

dum1.jpg

dum2.jpg

dum3.jpg

dum4.jpg

dum5.jpg

[Rollin Hand]

On the weekend, I put a B250K pot in my Kramer Baretta Special to try to tame the over-the-top high end. It worked, but the main reason I am posting about it was the pot.

I bought a Fleor pot off Amazon -- not one of their cheapest, but a higher end pot that looks more like a CTS. I have to say, it's one of the best pots I have dealt with; easy soldering, brass shaft, and a very smooth and gradual sweep. The only issue.was I needed to enlarge the hole a smidge for it to fit. My initial reaction is it is as good or better than any other pot I have used. Time will tell if it lasts, but so far, very good.

https://a.co/d/9tJHnpH

[glasshand]

I never liked the way a Strat's tremolo arm flops around. I tried using the spring from a ballpoint pen, but I didn't find that it worked for me. Then I found these springs on Amazon, and also these ball bearings which a lot of people say improve the way the spring works. And they help a lot, the arm now stays in place nicely! Works great on my MIM Blacktop Strat. For $10 bucks you get enough springs and ball bearings to share with your friends too.

Springs: https://a.co/d/6mSenqJ

Ball bearings: https://a.co/d/3HpbdGe

[tobijohn]

I never liked the way a Strat's tremolo arm flops around. I tried using the spring from a ballpoint pen, but I didn't find that it worked for me. Then I found these springs on Amazon, and also these ball bearings which a lot of people say improve the way the spring works. And they help a lot, the arm now stays in place nicely! Works great on my MIM Blacktop Strat. For $10 bucks you get enough springs and ball bearings to share with your friends too.

Springs: https://a.co/d/6mSenqJ

Ball bearings: https://a.co/d/3HpbdGe

Thanks for the links! Just to confirm, the ball bearing link takes you to the 4mm size ball bearing. Is that the correct diameter?

[andrewsrea]

Still working on the Kawai. Wax potted the pickups. Cleaned. Pictures later this weekend.
Meantime, Interfax Harmonic percolator. If you know, you know. I don't feel like writing out the whole story on this pedal. Stock version and a Steve Albini version. Figured put them both in this case since it's kind of big. Stock version is wild, out of control type of fuzz thou you can dial it back. The Steve Albini version is more tame, and i guess he used it in his band (not familiar with it)and his recording studio. He just passed away a while back and produced some VERY well known albums.

Next is the JHS NotaDumble pedal. There is a story behind this also and i happened to grab the kit before it sold out last week. There will be no more until the version 2 comes out. Already doubling in price. Trying different knobs, sticking with the last, gray ones. You can build this pedal in 15 minutes, the board is pre soldered and you just basically bolt it together. No sound clips, one of these days i will be set up to record.

hp1.jpghp2.jpgdum1.jpgdum2.jpgdum3.jpgdum4.jpgdum5.jpg

How does it sound?

[glasshand]

Springs: https://a.co/d/6mSenqJ

Ball bearings: https://a.co/d/3HpbdGe

Thanks for the links! Just to confirm, the ball bearing link takes you to the 4mm size ball bearing. Is that the correct diameter?

Yes, 4mm was the size that I saw recommended and which worked for me. I think you could go a hair bigger, like 5mm, but anything big enough to not fall into the spring should be fine. I don't honestly know if the ball bearing should go on top of the spring or under the spring or both, but I put one on top and it seems fine. I'm guessing the bearing mostly serves to prevent the spring from getting twisted between the arm and the bottom of the hole when you screw the arm in.

[glasshand]

I fixed my Dunlop 95Q wah pedal! Not long after I got it (but after the warranty period), it stopped working; I grumbled and tossed it in my drawer of junky pedals, and every six months I'd pull it out, make a face at it, and put it back. I think the fact that it was still basically new was the only thing that stopped me from tossing it.

Today I finally resolved to either do something with it, or toss it...and I fixed it! It would pass signal with the pedal up or down, and you could tell that something was engaging when the pedal was down, but there was no wah effect. Taking a very close look, I noticed that the rack wasn't making contact with the gear, and was therefore not turning it. /facepalm If you manually turned the gear, voila, wah effect. It turned out that the little plastic doohickey that holds the rack against the gear had slipped out of place. Now to hope that it doesn't slip again...

[Tiga]

Great tip - my 4mm ball bearings showed up the other day. Going to give this a try.

Springs: https://a.co/d/6mSenqJ

Ball bearings: https://a.co/d/3HpbdGe

Thanks for the links! Just to confirm, the ball bearing link takes you to the 4mm size ball bearing. Is that the correct diameter?

Yes, 4mm was the size that I saw recommended and which worked for me. I think you could go a hair bigger, like 5mm, but anything big enough to not fall into the spring should be fine. I don't honestly know if the ball bearing should go on top of the spring or under the spring or both, but I put one on top and it seems fine. I'm guessing the bearing mostly serves to prevent the spring from getting twisted between the arm and the bottom of the hole when you screw the arm in.

[Tiga]

This Squier 51 I bought new in '05 (for $90 I think). It had been sitting for a while so I decided to pick it up and give it a go. Played like a$$. Did a quick setup on it and it's awesome. Kind of forgot how good this guitar is - I should play it more.

Squier 51.jpg