OP
Dialed down to 1/2 gain gets a pretty good Pete Willis tone...
1984 Ibanez DT 555 Destroyer Replica Build:
- Thread starter Inspector #20
- Start date
OP
It wants to run away... LOL
Little noisy in the opening of the first vid. Good hot pickup sound though. Does the nut lock after modification? That is the one you took gunnery files to, right?
OP
Oh, thanks, Man...
Yes, it's a quiet guitar, but with full gain right in front of the amp, it's a bit noisy....and I started that first vid off with some feedback, which I just thought sounded cool. Yes, the nut still locks nicely. I think the groves may even help it!!!
Hmmmmm...quiet....dunno if I'd agree...first seven seconds, and a couple of spots around the palm muting, a whee bit in, are a little 60cycle farty... nothing a little noise gate wouldn't clean up though. Perhaps I expect too much....had a beer or two after all.
OP
Usually, I run a noise gate. On these videos I didn't. I just plugged in, sat in front of the amp and hammered it. I was just so darn jazzed to play it I just threw it out there. It's certainly not polished...Interestingly, it's not shielded, which I will do in the near future...spoiled to EMG's I guess....no noise at all....passives are different....Still have the 16k humbuckers to swap in!!!
OP
My whammy bar skills are really rusty!
OP
OP
Ok. So far, this guitar, which I thought would be a cool wall hanging, has really surprised me.
Likes:
No Wolftones anywhere.
Very controlled at high volumes
Great "Still Got The Blues" tones
Floyd stays in tune
Comfortable to play seated
Middle pickup sounds amazing clean!
Classic 1980's flash
Dislikes:
Neck is too thin to suit me but I will manage - not as thin as Gibson slim taper, but wider all the way up which is good.
Pots roll off too quick to suit me - easy fix!
Tell you something...this really has a good tone for such minimal pickups. The Wilkinson's are only 12.6k but they sound good clean as well as dirty.
The single master tone has a .015uf K40Y PIO tone capacitor and it never gets muddy, even rolled off all the way.
Playing the open chords - like G and D, the chorus of strings are really there. Here's how I test a guitar for this.
Play the intro to "Round and Round" by Ratt. On some guitars, the E/A/D totally dominates the G/B/e tones and it sounds more like just a root-5th power chord. But on some guitars, you can really hear the higher strings singing in symphony with the lower ones.
Last night, I plugged in my CS3, GE7, DD3 & NS2 and put 4 hours on it. This combination really gives the guitar a more "cultured" tone...not as harsh sounding as my two demo videos.
So, right now I am copper shielding the back of the cavity plates. The guitar is painted inside with shielding paint, and its fairly quiet, but I want to improve the EMI resistance.
I also plan to order up a trio of Alpha Audio Taper 500k mini pots to eliminate that abrupt roll-off I am getting on the controls. I chose these so I wouldn't have to drill the body.
My SG has a much fatter and much more comfortable neck, but i just cant bond with the SG, so I am learning to live with less than ideal neck feel...as long as I have the 24.75" scale I think I can manage.
It's a very fun guitar...
Likes:
No Wolftones anywhere.
Very controlled at high volumes
Great "Still Got The Blues" tones
Floyd stays in tune
Comfortable to play seated
Middle pickup sounds amazing clean!
Classic 1980's flash
Dislikes:
Neck is too thin to suit me but I will manage - not as thin as Gibson slim taper, but wider all the way up which is good.
Pots roll off too quick to suit me - easy fix!
Tell you something...this really has a good tone for such minimal pickups. The Wilkinson's are only 12.6k but they sound good clean as well as dirty.
The single master tone has a .015uf K40Y PIO tone capacitor and it never gets muddy, even rolled off all the way.
Playing the open chords - like G and D, the chorus of strings are really there. Here's how I test a guitar for this.
Play the intro to "Round and Round" by Ratt. On some guitars, the E/A/D totally dominates the G/B/e tones and it sounds more like just a root-5th power chord. But on some guitars, you can really hear the higher strings singing in symphony with the lower ones.
Last night, I plugged in my CS3, GE7, DD3 & NS2 and put 4 hours on it. This combination really gives the guitar a more "cultured" tone...not as harsh sounding as my two demo videos.
So, right now I am copper shielding the back of the cavity plates. The guitar is painted inside with shielding paint, and its fairly quiet, but I want to improve the EMI resistance.
I also plan to order up a trio of Alpha Audio Taper 500k mini pots to eliminate that abrupt roll-off I am getting on the controls. I chose these so I wouldn't have to drill the body.
My SG has a much fatter and much more comfortable neck, but i just cant bond with the SG, so I am learning to live with less than ideal neck feel...as long as I have the 24.75" scale I think I can manage.
It's a very fun guitar...
OP
Ok, so as I played this Destroyer more and more, I noticed a few frets that were high enough that I got a slight muted effect when playing graduated scales up and down the neck, most noticeable in the 13-17 fret range. Clearly, a fret job was needed, although the basic profile looked pretty good to start with.
Here's a shot before the fretwork was done:
I was nervous about doing this work on a set neck guitar, but after some pointers and encouragement from RVA, I started in on the project this evening.
First, I checked the board and found that it was dead-level once I slackened the strings. Next, I taped it up, marked the frets and ran over them with a 12" radius block and 400# stick-it paper.
On the first pass, I got fairly even coverage on the 1st through 10th frets, but then I noticed from the 11th fret on up, the block wasn't even contacting the center of the frets:
Sure enough, I had some uneven frets!!! By the time I got them level, they were quite flat on top:
I then proceeded to flatten, crown and flatten again. I repeated this several times:
And then crowned yet again:
After I got the width of the flat area even on all the frets - around .060" or so - I made my final few passes with the crowning file:
Lastly, I hand polished the frets with a 1000# foam block - the ones used in nail salons. I dressed the edges of all the frets with this foam block because it's difficult to remove too much material with it.
Here's the finished product:
My hands are tired!!!
I will restring it and road test tomorrow....
Here's a shot before the fretwork was done:
I was nervous about doing this work on a set neck guitar, but after some pointers and encouragement from RVA, I started in on the project this evening.
First, I checked the board and found that it was dead-level once I slackened the strings. Next, I taped it up, marked the frets and ran over them with a 12" radius block and 400# stick-it paper.
On the first pass, I got fairly even coverage on the 1st through 10th frets, but then I noticed from the 11th fret on up, the block wasn't even contacting the center of the frets:
Sure enough, I had some uneven frets!!! By the time I got them level, they were quite flat on top:
I then proceeded to flatten, crown and flatten again. I repeated this several times:
And then crowned yet again:
After I got the width of the flat area even on all the frets - around .060" or so - I made my final few passes with the crowning file:
Lastly, I hand polished the frets with a 1000# foam block - the ones used in nail salons. I dressed the edges of all the frets with this foam block because it's difficult to remove too much material with it.
Here's the finished product:
My hands are tired!!!
I will restring it and road test tomorrow....
Last edited:
You're a wild man Robert!!!
I thought I was crazy, but I could take lessons in insanity from you.
I mean this in a good way.
Your attention to every last detail is astounding.
I thought I was crazy, but I could take lessons in insanity from you.
I mean this in a good way.
Your attention to every last detail is astounding.
OP
OP
You're a wild man Robert!!!
I thought I was crazy, but I could take lessons in insanity from you.
I mean this in a good way.
Your attention to every last detail is astounding.
Thanks, Hack...
Growing up working in Dad's Restoration Shop helped. We produced just about everything by hand back then. One of my first jobs was repainting the numerals on instruments...
OP
Thanks, Goo...it was nerve wracking at first!!!
OP
I guess I really did change the height more than I realized....
BEFORE:
AFTER:
But, I tend to like lower frets as a rule...
BEFORE:
AFTER:
But, I tend to like lower frets as a rule...
OP