The Great Ongoing Guitar Thread

Cafe Society
3324

I’m going to back off on my duct tape suggestion – waay too much adhesive; it’d be a bitch to get all the gunk off the bridge plate if the experiment fails.

Re: skateboard tape - my gut says that a surface the pins can sink into a little would be best for holding them, but maybe not. Skateboard tape is basically sandpaper with an adhesive back. You can try that idea without removing the saddles – loosen or remove the strings, then carefully slide a piece of (gritty, with stiff backing) sandpaper under all the saddles. Secure the ends with something like scotch tape to keep it from moving. Replace strings, tune up, play a while. Any difference? If that helps, do the job for real with skateboard tape. If not, I think friction tape would be next.

ETA: one drawback to any of these schemes is if you go to intonate the guitar with the backing behind the saddles, the pins will drag on that surface and maybe cut a groove in it. You’d have to start from saddles already in the intonated positions. OR loosen a string a lot and pop up the saddle before moving the intonation screw.

3325

Hmm, I had written a longer post, but apparently I closed the window or something.

I’ve found a good faq on the Jaguar/Jazzmaster/BassVI bridges here. It reports that the Mastery bridge has similar problems sometimes, but also suggests other substances to muck up the threads of the set screws with. One item that looks more promising to me than the others is the Whizzo Buzz Stop, which is fairly cheap ($40 or so), and reversible.

So far, I’ve only flipped the bridge around 180 degrees to make intonation easier, and had to re-do the set-up afterward. I’ve only played it for a couple of hours since then, but it hasn’t lowered itself noticeably yet. Perhaps the tailpiece on the other side of the saddles is enough? I should know by the end of next week’s practice.

3326

Wow, nice find! That device looks brilliant, and seems like it would solve your problem nicely.

3327

Well, it P90s pretty okay, but the humbucker… well, it bucks the hum but it doesn’t rawk so well. But then again, the $1000 version has another switch. I can probably fix it with an aftermarket wiring job.

3328

So the bucker is kinda muddy? Maybe try a different value cap? That’d make the P90 brighter; turn down the tone in P90 mode and turn it back up to brighten the humbucker when you switch to that mode/pickup.

3329

Actually, the opposite. It’s still pretty clear and bright. It’s missing the… oomph, I guess, of a humbucker.

3330

So what are your thoughts for an “aftermarket wiring” solution? If its not a cap or a coil split, neither of which I see adding “oomph”, I’m not sure where you’re going with this.

OTOH, an axe you like with decent P-90 tone isn’t a bad thing at all. Maybe be happy with that?

3331

Nope, had it backwards. Comes with single and humbucker, but not P90.

http://www.voxamps.com/us/guitars/series55/

The Series 55 is essentially the same guitar with one more switch, that engages the P90-ness.
I just need to figure out how the 55 is wired and duplicate it.

Not impossible, but not incredibly urgent either.
I figure that if I put a 3 way instead of the 2 way, I could theoretically get the P90. But it’s not worth worrying about, I’m loving it as it is.

3332

I watched the video. Here’s what I got out of it:

  1. Construction:
    . a. You can see there’s a row of magnets down the middle and a rail on either side.
    . II. There’s a coil around the magnets INSIDE the rails.
    . 3rd. There’s another coil (reverse wound) OUTSIDE the rails.

Okay, so in P-90 mode, it’s using the inner coil. In single coil mode, it’s the inner coil tapped. And in humbucker mode, it’s both coils. I’m not sure if they use the outer coil in P-90 or single coil mode. I’m not sure about HB mode, but since there’s no magnet involved with the outer coil, it’s just both coils, so any hum is canceled out. And since there’s 2 coils in series, it’s going to have more resistance so there could be more output. But not what you’d expect from a standard humbucker because with those, you get the signal from the regular wound, regular polarity side AND the reverse wound, reverse polarity side. 2 signals that get added together. You don’t get that with this Vox pickup. So you’re not going to really get the full sound of a HB.

So, if it’s the same pickup as the series 55, then there’s just an unused tap that you could use to get the P-90 sound if that’s the sound you’re not getting now.

3333

That’s what I figure. Swap the two way with a three way on mine, and I don’t need that second switch, I don’t think.

3334

You might start with an exploratory just to see if there are unused taps on the pickup coils. If the outer coil is tapped, back off and rethink stuff, IMHO.

3335

Yeah, that’d be my approach - open up all the cavities and trace the wiring. Rough out a circuit diagram. Look for mysteriously unused or spliced-together wires.

3336

And be sure to report back your findings. I’m still seeing these in GC, and they were kind of pushing it on me when I was there buying my first bass cab (I got a G-K 410 to pair up with my G-K MB Fusion 500, it’s devastatingly loud compared to the Acoustic B200). I’d probably get hit in the head if I brought home another guitar this year, but I’m still lusting after it. If I’d known I was going to get $100 off on the cab for reasons I’m still not clear on, I would have snuck it in.

And now I find myself in a position similar to what **Le Ministre de l’au-delà ** was in earlier. I don’t have the editing problems, the drummer of my surf band insisted on analog tape. After sitting through a day long mix down and hearing 10 of the 12 songs we recorded, I think he may be on to something. Even being rough, unmastered mixes, they sounded better than I thought we did. I do have to choose what we’re going to release, though. We have a very small local label that’s associated with the studio that wants to do the release. Unfortunately, they’re broke right now, so we’d have to bankroll the release ( I will probably split the cost with another member). A rough estimate of the cost is $1200 for 250 pressings with inexpensive sleeves, probably about $1300-$1350 for cardboard sleeves. It’s about the same price for any size vinyl pressing, 7 inch to 12 inch. The label would get 50 copies for local sale and promotion ( I am absolutely sure they would promote it to the extent they can), and we would get the remaining 200 for sale at shows. The label would handle the digital sales and downloads associated with vinyl sales. We have enough originals for an EP, and we could pad it with a couple of the better covers we recorded on the vinyl copies, and possibly include everything we recorded in these sessions with the downloads.

I’m not certain about how many of the covers to release, the mechanical license is simple and cheap to get and maintain, but labor intensive. Some services offer to manage them for a fee (around $15/song, plus the actual 9.1 cent/song/copy royalty fees). I haven’t done the math to figure the sweet spot on the covers yet, to be honest. I do intend to put at least two on the vinyl, though. I can manage the loss on two cover songs even if I pay one of the services.

So, my current plan is either a 10 inch or 12 inch ep. 6 songs. 4 originals, 2 covers. I’m leaning toward a 10 inch, because it’s easier to carry home from a bar. If we sell them at 10$ each, and only sell 75% of them, I’ll turn a profit. If I don’t, or I have to discount, it’s still going to be a fairly minor risk. We’ll pay for the cover art outright;, and are basically going to take submissions from a few artists we know, and will select and pay one a flat rate. I’m reasonably sure I can get my wife to do the paste up in exchange for more lifetime slavery.

I think it was Steve Albini that said contracts with small bands and small labels are useless. There’s not enough money involved to make it worth getting any lawyers in the mix. If you can’t trust the person at their word, then a contract isn’t any more likely to make them hold to the agreement. I had an employer who never intended to honor any contract he signed. After watching 5 years of this behavior I only saw it come to truly bite him in the ass once (and later as a witness facing his goddamn mother acting as his lawyer in court ), I’m inclined to agree with him. We’re doing this on a handshake.

Anyone see a problem with my cunning plan? Should I spring a little extra for colored vinyl? <wiggles eyebrows>

3337

I’d have to pull it apart to do that, but other online postings suggest it’s very possible. There are unknown soldered-together wires left in it.

3338

THAT I would avoid. I didn’t type clearly. I meant examine the bottom of the pickup to see if there are unused tabs or lugs where a wire could be soldered. Or sure, if there are wires soldered together. You’ll want to try to identify which are connected to the inner coil and which to the outer one. But you probably knew that already.

3339

So, I’ve talked a lot about guitars on the boards, but shied away from many pics and never really tried to upload any clips.

But I have been taking a new approach to guitar and have tried to find out more about it. I basically have started to play my guitar putting my flatpick down - I’m not fingerpicking, per se - no patterns and lots of plucking and fingernail downstrokes. I think of it as Pickless Flatpicking - here is the thread I started on the Acoustic Guitar Forum about it: Fingerstyle with a Heavy Attack - thoughts, tips? - The Acoustic Guitar Forum

And here is the 1-minute, one take demo I attempted. It’s got a few clams and mis-hit strings - I was trying to showcase this new approach I am taking so forgive the lack of polish:

Never posted a clip online like this. Be nice :wink:

3340

Hmm, let’s see here.

(gets out dagger for the listen ;))

(listens, then puts the dagger away :mad:)

Well, actually that’s pretty damn impressive. Quite Knopflerish, a little like what I imagine Michael Hedges’ right hand technique was like when he rocked out. I don’t do anything quite that complex with my fingers, but I do play with a thumb pick and I fingerpick some. I like playing the wide double stops available on non-adjacent strings. The only thing I’ve found that the thumb pick gives me that I can’t do with my thumb is a surf style glissando, and a longer life for the nail on my index finger and thumb. It looks like you’re doing a bit of what I think of as “ghost pick” playing, which in my experience, has worn down my nail really quick. It’s painful when you get to the quick.

So, that’s my only thing to warn you about and ask: Why no thumb pick? Just not comfy enough? It took some time for me to be able to wear one for 45 minutes without it bugging me, but I don’t really notice it anymore. I’ve forgotten it was there until it gets in the way of using the keyboard :).

3341

I prefer Knopflerian. Thanks :wink:

Ghost picking - meaning using a bit of my thumbnail along with the edge of my thumb when hitting the notes? Nope; no nail, no nail wear. Just building up callus. I figure if pop-slap bassists can do it over a few-hour gig, I should be able to build up endurance.

No thumb pick - I find them awkward-feeling, and I really am enjoying the dynamic control I have with my bare finger tips.

Thanks for listening!

3342

Very cool. What are clams?

3343

A mis-fretted note. Could be wrong note; could just be hitting the right note off time or imprecisely.