What's on Your Workbench?

SG John said:
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.

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I'm glad those were useful for you, so much better than setting in a drawer here never getting used. And thank you again for buying everything.
 
Y'all didn't really believe me when I said I wasn't going to mess with this did you? :LOL:

I'm going to rout the neck slot for my Staple P90 and I think I'm going to try the Bill Lawrence L48 Tele bridge pickup again. Might as well hot rod this thing, I've got nothing else going on except waiting on my new amp to be built. I might even redo the finish while I'm at it.
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...just the top.
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OO48Mai.jpg
 
DirtySteve said:
Y'all didn't really believe me when I said I wasn't going to mess with this did you? :LOL:

I'm going to rout the neck slot for my Staple P90 and I think I'm going to try the Bill Lawrence L48 Tele bridge pickup again. Might as well hot rod this thing, I've got nothing else going on except waiting on my new amp to be built. I might even redo the finish while I'm at it.
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...just the top.
ZGSyfTM.gif


OO48Mai.jpg
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There's been a change of plans for the bridge pickup. I remember I didn't like the Bill Lawrence when I had it in there before so I didn't want to try it again, but I do want a beefier bridge pickup than the Pure Vintage 64 I've been using. I need something that can handle gain a little (read a lot) better.

So I've been looking around on line for ideas and I ended up checking out the SD Billy Gibbons Red Devil. I listened to the few demos out there and read all the reviews and it seems like a really cool pickup. So I did a search on Reverb and found one for a bit less than what they go for new and even less than used ones listed, even with the shipping added. This one was advertised as new, I don't know why so cheap, but I didn't ask questions, I just bought it. Fingers crossed :fingersx:

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DirtySteve said:
Y'all didn't really believe me when I said I wasn't going to mess with this did you? :LOL:

I'm going to rout the neck slot for my Staple P90 and I think I'm going to try the Bill Lawrence L48 Tele bridge pickup again. Might as well hot rod this thing, I've got nothing else going on except waiting on my new amp to be built. I might even redo the finish while I'm at it.
pDRoDZd.gif
...just the top.
ZGSyfTM.gif


OO48Mai.jpg
Click to expand...
Sorry bro, I totally missed this.. you aint afraid :cheers:
 
Well I got the pickup today and it's cool. It's the best bridge pickup I've tried yet....But... I think I hate this guitar and I'm tired of trying to make it work for me. I think I'm going to load it up along with my Tribute and head to Guitar Center to see if they'll take it on a trade-in. They didn't want to buy it when I took it in before, but maybe it's worth something for trade I don't know. It's just like all my other Warmoth guitars, it's dark and muddy in the lows and I just don't care anymore. I'm done with Warmoth.

Frustrated yes. :BH:
 
DirtySteve said:
Well I got the pickup today and it's cool. It's the best bridge pickup I've tried yet....But... I think I hate this guitar and I'm tired of trying to make it work for me. I think I'm going to load it up along with my Tribute and head to Guitar Center to see if they'll take it on a trade-in. They didn't want to buy it when I took it in before, but maybe it's worth something for trade I don't know. It's just like all my other Warmoth guitars, it's dark and muddy in the lows and I just don't care anymore. I'm done with Warmoth.

Frustrated yes. :BH:
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Just a thought if your still curious about active pups...
Either one of those guitars would be a candidate for a conversion.
I've seen some decent deals on sets of EMG humbucker sized, and the make Tele sets too.
Just look for ones that come with the wiring kits - about $60 extra if you find a deal on pups only.
And make sure you get long shaft pots with a HB set for the LP.
 
fitz said:
Just a thought if your still curious about active pups...
Either one of those guitars would be a candidate for a conversion.
I've seen some decent deals on sets of EMG humbucker sized, and the make Tele sets too.
Just look for ones that come with the wiring kits - about $60 extra if you find a deal on pups only.
And make sure you get long shaft pots with a HB set for the LP.
Click to expand...

I appreciate you trying to help, but no, I'm done trying to polish turds, it always ends in frustration and life's too short. I'm going to break the trend now, or at least try to.
 
When I got both my Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul standards the neck pickup on both bass heavy stock Burst Bucker
I hate that so called Clapton woman tone I called Jim Rolph told him the issue Jim don't think my pickups will fix a tone turd
no he made me 4 sets of A5 PAF clean and clear happy.
 
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