Dub's Wacky Project Guitars Thread--we're baaaaaack

[dubkitty]

i have the Kondor on the bench, but need to go through it labeling leads because they’re really confusing, e.g. both leads from the varitone are in yellow jackets. i’m going to try leaving the varitone’s ground lead connected to the output jack’s negative terminal rather than reconnecting it to the volume pot’s ground. i’m hoping this will help isolate it from potential leakage through the volume pot’s ground. i’m about five inches from yanking the varitone and calling it a day or finding a used Gibson/Epiphone varitone.

[dubkitty]

the British Racing Green Strat arrived today. it’s just fucking gorgeous. when the Tonestyler arrives Monday i’ll add it, change the pickups, restring it, and set it up. see “Let’s See Your Guitar” for specifics.

[dubkitty]

the replacement Firebird pickups arrived today. i’m not fucking with that till i’m done with the green Strat, which i’m considering calling “Greenie” just because it might piss off some vintage Les Paul stan somewhere. not that i generally name my guitars. i want to do something simple, though really the M-77T should be simple. famous last words, them.

i need to deal with the Kondor wiring because it’s sitting on the coffee table with the pickguard off and flipped and the wires hanging out. yes, i still hate soldering. but i need to do that before i work on the Strat.

[dubkitty]

the only guitar that has an actual name other than “the <brand name or model HERE>” is the White Falcon which i call “Daisy” after Becky’s bulldog who died around the time i got it.

[dubkitty]

i couldn’t resist working on the new Strat this morning…i played it some last night and it really needed help, so today i did the string height and intonation and it’s much better now. the tremolo setup is all wrong per Fender’s instructions, so that’s the next thing i’ll do. those things should remain the same while the pickups and wiring are done. after that i’ll leave it till the Tonestyler is here.

the current pickups aren’t well adjusted at all, but the middle one which is best positioned sounds good. apparently the Player II pickups are Alnico 5s and if they’re OK i might do another parts Strat to use them. before the Great Fire Sale i had a third Strat, a Daphne Blue body with the original neck from the Strat of Theseus which was meant to be used for tunings. naturally it got sold. i really miss that neck, which was a minimal V shape that was perfect for my hand. but that raises the question of why i need a dedicated tunings guitar when i never play out.

regarding other projects, my immediate priorities are fixing the Kondor wiring and getting more paint on the Jetstar bits. we’ll see what i feel like later.

[dubkitty]

i wound up spending the morning working on the BRG Strat. turned out i can’t precisely follow Fender’s directions for adjusting the tremolo because you can’t screw the posts in far enough for the bridge to sit dead flat on the body. so i ran them in as far as possible and went from there. once i got the trem adjusted more or less to my liking—i like to be able to go up a semitone when i pull up on the bar—i had to redo the intonation and will probably have to redo the string height as well. i want to try adjusting the stock pickups to see what they can do before i pull them. that’s going to be it for this weekend unless some time miraculously appears. i’ll still need to fine-tune the trem over time as it gets worked in, but it’s working for me now.

[dubkitty]

i’ve been out of commission for a bit after having a molar pulled on Tuesday, but i finally figured out the corrections for the Kondor wiring, labelled the leads, and figured out the sequence of rewiring that makes the most sense. i need to recharge the battery for the soldering iron before working though…i don’t trust 1/3-capacity to get me through. so it might push down to tomorrow.

the green Strat has commensurately been delayed, though i have everything i need for the rewiring. i noticed that the design of the Mexican Standard bridge posts makes it impossible to deck the tremolo. there’s an area between the threaded bit and the head without threads that keeps the posts from screwing in far enough. i looked at other posts online and ordered a set of American Standard posts and anchors which are threaded all the way up to the head. i’m hoping they work with the stock anchors, because i really don’t want to have to pull them. i’ll move ahead with the wiring so it’ll be ready to set up on Sunday assuming the posts problem is solved.

next thing after that is putting the new Firebird pickups in the M-77T which could be a bit fiddly depending on whether i use the Epiphone Kat mini humbucker rings i got off Reverb or keep the flat metal rings with Dynasonic shims beneath. the Epi rings would be better functionally but i like the metal rings better aesthetically and they wouldn’t require drilling new screw holes.

it’s coming up on a month since i ordered the Bigsby pickups, so according to his projections they should be ready in approximately 2 weeks. if i have energy after dealing with all that wiring and it’s done before the pickups arrive i’ll work on the Double Jet and/or the Galaxiemaster fingerboard. it’s probably not strictly necessary to polish the body more, but it sure couldn’t hurt. i’m filibustering waiting for the GFS Telecaster body to come in, and if i work on the other stuff that’ll give them more time. trying not to work ahead ordering parts because i want to pay off the Wandré and will be trying to route my surplusage to that purpose, but i really want to get the Telecaster done. really, i want to get all this shit done.

[dubkitty]

the extracted molar has continued to be distractingly troublesome right up till this morning when it finally seemed to have closed. it was pretty nasty, and i haven’t been up to working on anything until today, when the American Standard bridge posts for the green Strat arrived. unfortunately they’re only marginally better than the stock posts so i decided to just get on with it. i spent a good bit of time today tweaking the tremolo so it works for me. i wound up using 3 springs on the trem which is my usual practice; i usually do one in the center and one on either end, all connected to the center tooth of the claw but this claw won’t accommodate that so i wound up with one spring on the treble end and two parallel springs on the bass end. it’s still not exactly right, but it’s working and lets me wobble in ways i like. at some point i’ll adjust the tension by doing 1/8 of a turn adjustments to the claw screws to fine-tune it.

i wanted to get the bridge sorted before doing the pickups and wiring, but need to do the Kondor wiring first. i’ll try to get it done quickly because i’m really hot to get the Strat ready.

in the meantime i worked on the maple-neck Strat which is a bear to set up because the truss rod adjusts at the heel. i think it’s pretty good now, but need to play it and the Duo Sonic a bit more before i put them away. i reckon that after the Strat is done i’ll put the pickups in the M-77T. by then the Bigsby pickups may be ready, in which case it’ll be hard not to do the Supro before the Double Jet. it’s hard keeping track of all this stuff even with Google Docs with everything broken out into bulleted lists. i would very much like for the intensive guitar work phase to be over soon. life would have been much simpler if i hadn’t seen those Waterslide Guitars demos of guitars with the Mojo Bigsby and Goldo Davoli pickups.

[dubkitty]

while plonking around on the interwebs last night it occurred to me to search for a straight Stratocaster tremolo arm because i hate the modern upbend at the tip which is supposed to let it tuck into your palm but doesn't work with how i play. i was delighted to discover that Fender sells a "Pure Vintage" straight arm that should work with my US spec trem and comes with two tips, a white one and a yellowish one, as well as a tension spring that goes inside the hole in the block. that should be here in a few days, probably early next week. $20 seems like a lot of money for a trem arm, but that's life in end-stage capitalism. when i feel more awake i'm going to work on wiring problems. i would love to get the Kondor and green Strat wiring done so they're off my plate.

<edit>i also got some short hex screws for the Strat’s bridge saddles; all of them are much too tall because a floating trem requires lowering the saddles so far that the bottom of the high E saddle is sitting on the plate. this makes palm muting rather unpleasant. i wouldn’t mind at all if i ran out of things to nitpick sooner rather than later, but i may as well get everything i can find sorted now. which reminds me that i have to file the nut slots so the fretted note on the first fret isn’t horribly sharp compared to the open string. i absolutely fail to understand why manufacturers don’t do this before stuff ships.

[dubkitty]

i finally managed to deal with the Kondor wiring and i’m pleased to say that repositioning the varitone really made it better. i now get useable level with only a slight drop in 3 of the 4 positions where before only the first two were remotely useable and only the first was loud enough without a clean boost. i need to find the source of an annoying rattle somewhere in the tuners, but that’s a minor problem. i also need to find my stash of plastic tubing because the screw that holds the tremolo’s chromed cover requires a gasket for the cover to stay quiet. but i’m really pleased that the varitone is much more useable at last. after i’ve enjoyed my victory and had dinner i could work on the green Strat, but i think i’ll wait until tomorrow when i’ll have more time…i don’t want to get into it and stay up too late because i’m going to a show in DC tomorrow night.

i got an email from Mojo Pickups saying that the Bigsby pickups are done with a tracking number. Royal Mail used to be really good before it was privatized, but now i don’t have a clue as to when they’ll be here. it’s OK, though…i have two guitars with pickup and wiring issues to work on in the meantime.

[dubkitty]

i realized that i've been neglecting to supply visual content, so here's a picture of the Kondor is what may well be its final form. while i was nitpicking i changed the beauty washer on one of the metal hole plugs in the control area of the pickguard so the two washers match. i sincerely can't think of anything else that needs to be done. i believe i started on this guitar 12 years ago. it was totally an experiment then, but it turned out to sound lovely. i'm watching a pair of the metal-shelled pickups like the bridge pickup here that are unusually hot for the type, which is to say ~4 and ~5kΩ respectively LOL. they normally run around 3kΩ, so those two and the 3kΩ one i have in the parts box would make a nice setup for a Strat-style guitar. i love most things about this guitar, but i'm particularly fond of the Kay-style tremolo which it strikes me could be an alternative for the Galaxiemaster though i'd probably need a metal plate to cover the hole so i could install it since it's smaller than the JM rout. but that's another can of worms.

[dubkitty]

the Strat tremolo arm arrived yesterday, and the saddle height adjustment screws will be here today which is nice because they weren’t supposed to arrive till Wednesday. so i can work on the Strat when i get home tomorrow. i already changed the arm, which is a perfect fit. there’s a slight bend 2/3 of the way up, but it’s gentle and more of a sideways bend in a flat arm rather than the steep up-curve of the stock arm. they included two of those wee black tensioner springs that drop into the block, and one works a treat. appears to have taken all of the slop out of the arm which it needed badly. it’s also nice that they supply 2 tips, a dead white one and an off-white one that matches the new knobs better. it’d be nice to finish it off which would be 2 guitars done in 3 days, but i’m not going to rush…if i hurry i’m bound to fuck something up.

prices are starting to drop on the Sherwood Green Squier Esquire Custom; i have a refurb in my eBay Watched Items for $359 and if my patience runs out i’ll just order it and get a random body which i’ll put together with the Squier neck and other parts and sell it. i suppose i could make the Esquire into a screaming slide guitar with a hot Tele bridge pickup, but that’s not really something i do any more. it’ll be more real once the green body and mahogany neck are together.

[dubkitty]

my patience with GFS ran out so i ordered the Sherwood Green Squier Esquire Custom from eBay. i decided that after i put the Tele together i’ll get a black double-bound Squier Baritone Tele body which is super cheap and make a proper Esquire out of it. not sure if i’ll sell the black Esquire or get Lindy Fralin, who’s local and who my friend Charlie has worked with a lot, to make a screaming hot Esquire pickup. i’m not huge on single-pickup guitars even though i use the bridge pickup 90% of the time, but the Esquire switching options might make it more versatile. i had better get through some of this stuff because the projects are backing up like the traffic trying to get into the Holland Tunnel at ten minutes before it closes at midnight Saturday night. i should be able to put the green Strat to bed tonight other than the inevitable rounds of fine-tuning. the Mojo Bigsby pickups are with Customs in New York, so they’ll be here sometime this week. i ought to do the next pass at the Double Jet, which will be extending the neck pickup rout and installing the adapter supports for the pickups. i guess the Galaxiemaster will have to rest for a bit simply because it’ll require a lot more work than the Fenders and the Supro.

it was a nice surprise that the Kondor wiring was easier than i expected…i didn’t even really scorch any insulation. which makes me feel better about the wiring the other guitars will absolutely require. by the time i feel OK about soldering i’ll be out of projects.

[dubkitty]

a weird thing about doing project guitars is that i somehow wind up with 2 to 4 guitars at once that are unfamiliar and it takes time to really learn how they work and what they’re good at. i’m still getting used to the White Falcon and Wandré, and haven’t played the Hopf or the M-75 with the Gold Tone ‘buckers much at all. that’ll only get busier as new stuff rolls off the presses.

my original project guitar, the Pro Jet with Dynasonics, is going back on the list because i want to put Seymour Duncan Dynas, which were better than the TV Jones in a comparison clip i saw, in replacing the Gretch (Tokiwa) Dynas i originally installed. i was reluctant to spend $200 per Dyna, but after paying more than that for the Mojo Bigsby pickups i’m like “fuck it, why not?” even though they’ll cost more than the guitar did.

one thing i love about my Tokai Les Paul Special is that it hasn’t needed a bit of work since i got it c.2009, and probably never will because it’s such a simple beast.

apparently there’s going to be nasty tariff-based disruptions to mail traffic between the US and UK starting Tuesday, which may stick a wrench in the works for the Tele which is getting British pickups. i can deal with uncertainty, but that doesn’t mean i like it. at least the Bigsby pickups are with Customs in New York.

[dubkitty]

i tried to get going on the Strat today, but it took forever to take everything apart. when you take all the strings off a 2-point tremolo at once it falls out of the crease in the posts and the springs fall off. noted for future reference. in order to get the pickguard off i had to clip the leads to the jack and the ground wire to the tremolo claw. there’s plenty of slack to reattach them. but by the time i got everything apart it was too late to get into the complexities of rewiring it so i punted it down to tomorrow. i keep telling myself “it’s OK, doing the Kondor went well.” i’m going to be thrilled when i’m done with wiring FIVE FUCKING GUITARS (green Strat, Double Jet, M-77T, Supro, and Telecaster) in the next few weeks. by the time i’m done sanding the Galaxiemaster fingerboard will be like a vacation.

i had an odd bolt of inspiration and looked it up and yes, D’Andrea makes Strat pickguards in the same “Tokyo Tortoise” pattern as the guard i got for the Telecaster. i’m definitely going to consider it when i inevitably get to doing Strat #3. because when you see the face of Leo you will die…and there will be nothing left of you but the god-man, the god-woman, the heavenly man, the heavenly man, the heavenly child.