What's on Your Workbench?

[DirtySteve]

IMO - black rings don't go with the body binding.
I'd keep the cream rings - even with double black bobbins.
I like the amber knobs, perhaps reflectors?

Oh I don't know, I think if I keep the zebras and put a black poker chip and black knobs on it (with white lettering on both) it could be enough to tie it in. No?

...and for the record, I like reflector knobs about as much as I like pick guards. The first thing I did the day I got my Standard was remove the pickguard and replace the reflector knobs before I ever plugged it in.

Honestly, the more I look at the side by side photos, the more (I think) I like the black rings.

 

[ibmorjamn]

I like the black rings. Like you said All black might be even better.

 

[67plexi]

I'm playing my quilt tops it's not the looks it's the way they play and sound just got lucky

played a gig last night with my old band they want me back I was going to change the pickups in both guitars how they sounded
in my studio little on the dark side way different on stage but I did use a different amp EF86 with Radio Spars transformers seven position treble switch
like a Dumble Steel String Singer and a volume control that's it channel two is a Marshall plexi with a master volume never use that channel

 

[GrooVey]

what do y'all think

Cream rings.

 

[GrooVey]

Finished assembly on this guy.


12 string Strat.
Warmoth Soloist body in ash. Musikraft neck, ebony board, mop dots, v profile, 12” radius, roasted flame maple. Schaller tuners and knobs, Gotoh bridge. Rose vintage style pickups with blender mod.


I’ll be playing and tweeking this for next few days.

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Wow very nice..

 

[SG John]

Today, it was my '89 JTM45 reissue. A while back, it started getting a bit wonky and cutting out. I thought I would change the screen resistors and filter caps as they were 36 years old. Since I had a set of new TAD EL34s, I also put those in. When I went to bias it, I couldn't get over 27mA out of the adjustment. I saw that when I first had someone convert it from 5881 to EL34 tubes, a resistor was added between a resistor and cap in in the bias circuit. It didn't look right to me, so I found the correct schematic online and went to Amp Club today to find out. Sure enough, Scott told me to yank it out, and we'll measure from scratch. With that resistor out, it was 22mA.

I just happened to bring with me the resistance decade box along with capacitance decade box and signal generator that I bought from T-Rex when he was selling everything. I wanted to learn what they were used for. We hooked it up and set the bias adjustment at halfway, then started playing with the controls of the decade box. 150K gave us 394 plate volts and 38mA. So, I soldered in the new 150K resistor, and we checked the results which were the same.

I should have taken more photos but things were busy, and I didn't want to prevent Scott from doing his own stuff. This is a great piece of kit, and saved us a ton of time. I'm very happy I bought it.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Here's what's gonna be on my work bench, which will be a pretty large bench.
It was a former MAC Tools truck in it's day. Then a building contractor used it for the past 30+ years. It is a 1980 Grumman, Kurbside.

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Whats ya gonna do Chilli a Food Truck ? Contractor Van ? Like you. Camper maybe

 

[Don O]

Here's what's gonna be on my work bench, which will be a pretty large bench.
It was a former MAC Tools truck in it's day. Then a building contractor used it for the past 30+ years. It is a 1980 Grumman, Kurbside.

That looks like a cool project.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Whats ya gonna do Chilli a Food Truck ? Contractor Van ? Like you. Camper maybe

Mobile shed as I do my best to empty 3 houses to renovate without clutter in the way. Basically a shed on wheels and occasional contractors truck. With 2 of our houses from 1850 and 1900, and third 1950, I have probably a 3-5 year time span to work on them every day to ready them for sale and hopefully get the most out of my inlaws late 80's and into 90s days till their last.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Mobile shed as I do my best to empty 3 houses to renovate without clutter in the way. Basically a shed on wheels and occasional contractors truck. With 2 of our houses from 1850 and 1900, and third 1950, I have probably a 3-5 year time span to work on them every day to ready them for sale and hopefully get the most out of my inlaws late 80's and into 90s days till their last.

To clarify the inlaws...

That is a totally other story. Her mom n dad are 85 and 90 respectively, They live in a really nice house in suburbs of Cleveland. Our houses are in Baltimore and Carroll Counties, MD

 

[C-Grin]

I never finished the Burn project 100% from last year. Bridge came drilled in the wrong spot, the neck was temporary. Both things done and done, playing like buttah now.

 

[bea]

New mini project: shorten the scale of my bass.

This is my 1st bass, a Vester Witch. Whenever i played it over long time i got pain in my left arm. The reason why i switched to short scale basses. Furthermore, the pickup positions are comparatively close to the bridge. Which made the bridge PU sound unusably thin ... the positions would be ideal for a 30" shortscale ... but that's 34".

The basic idea is pretty old, but recently i had an idea of how to do it nicely (hopefully).

Still todo:
- fill the gaps at the sides of the new saddle with Rosewood
- make a "fake" saddle in the position of the old saddle.
- apply some finish.

 

[bea]

Finalized. Filled gaps on the sides of the saddle,and added a fake saddle. After taking these snapshots i gave it a finish with some shellac. And readjusted one string nut where the string contact was too weak.

 

[TVvoodoo]

Is the pain a rotator cuff thing? @bea ? Or like bursitis? I'm not a doctor but I play one on the internet

 

[bea]

it has been somewaht like tendinitis.

 

[Sargeant Preston]

Finalized. Filled gaps on the sides of the saddle,and added a fake saddle. After taking these snapshots i gave it a finish with some shellac. And readjusted one string nut where the string contact was too weak.

View attachment 108553

That looks great! How does it feel now and how is the intonation?

 

[bea]

That looks great! How does it feel now and how is the intonation?

It feels really good, and the intonation is as good as my fingers and my ears permit ;-)

Well, it is actually fine that all my thre fretless basses have the same scale.

As soon as the acoustic trauma i have experienced two weeks ago will have healed sufficiently (at present i cannot make music at all:---( ) I wwill give it different strings: Pyramid black Nylon Tapewounds (648/1) to give it a more "wooden" sound.

 

[DirtySteve]

My Tribute is back on the operating table. I've realized that if I don't have a project to work on I end up working on things that don't need working on and screw something up. That's why I just had to rewire my Traditional because I was bored and swapped pickups too many times.

I never liked the natural finish on this guitar, but I didn't have much luck using stain and screwed it up bad. I had to sand it all back down again, it took a lot of work and took a lot of material off to sand out my screw up and that's why it ended up natural. The finish is Tru-oil. Well I learned a way to add dye to Tru-oil. Normally it won't accept color, but I learned if you add some acetone it acts as a binder and allows color to mix with the Tru-oil.

So I have a fresh bottle of Tru-oil, a brown liquid Keda dye and a bottle of acetone. I've started knocking the top off the finish (hoping I don't sand through it, but no big deal if I do) to take the shine off and smooth out some scratches. I think I'm going to try to get a subtle burst with just one color and see if I can't get a smooth transition from light to dark around the edges. Wish me luck.