RossD said:Nice work! What are you planning for labels on the dials/knobs?
Thank you all! 
That is a very good question! Honestly I haven't figured that out yet.
From left to right is mains, standby (add on later), volume, volume, tone, then two more holes I'll plug for now so I can use them for mods down the road.
So however I label them now, they need to be able to be changed down the road.
Maybe cut some vinyl? I don't know!
In true GRM community fashion, the awesome Paranoid Android shipped a box of tubes to me containing a few 6SJ7s. I popped one in and it fired right up!
First thoughts are that this is the most inefficient speaker I have ever used. I have it biased at 11 watts and I can stand 2 feet from it on my workbench playing at 11. It also gets a bit farty on the lower notes. If I plugged in a bass I bet it would tear the cone.
I can try and dope the surround on the cone to help with lower notes and darken it up a bit (she's a bit bright and brash). It is a living room amp and volume isn't needed.
Or I can toss in the alnico 12" that was in the speaker cab and see what that does. Of course that means wiring in a choke in place of the field coil.
In reply to Jumper K. Balls :
I'm glad one of the tubes worked!
Jumper K. Balls said:5Y3 Rectifier, 6V6 Power and a 6SL7 preamp.
Pretty much the 5C1 champ circuit
Maybe it's because I've never had a Grid Leak Bias circuit, but after reading up on it, I'd probably switch to a more typical cathode resistor setup. Especially since you had a 'bad' 6SJ7 tube already, and apparently they can be a bit difficult to bias correctly from tube to tube. Just a thought.
I did the low tech "uncle Doug speaker doping" method using weldwood contact cement this morning. It really tightened up the 75 year old paper speaker. Anything under the 5th fret of the low E string still flubs and farts a bit.
I hooked up an external cabinet (which involves a soldering iron thanks to my frame mounted output transformer. Bottom end was huge thanks to a 2X12 closed back but the high end was lost. It was a bit louder but not much. I think with some more doping the field coil unit will come into its own.
I had considered going cathode bias in the 6sj7. All the sudden I am thinking going pentode with a 6sl7. Perhaps another socket wired in parallel? Yank one and plug in the other? Could be cool
In reply to RossD :
<3
Edit: Holy Crap - with a Schaller bridge & hard case for $225...BUY THAT NOW!!!
I am not a Bassist. Just a guitar player that doesnt play enough of his current guitar lineup.
Finally getting back to refinishing my little Squier. Added some fresh coats of wipe on poly tonight and it's starting to look fairly decent.
That looks rather nice!
So I finally picked up the Sterling JP70 I had on layaway for close to a month thanks to a local ordinance that says shops have to keep used instruments for 30 days before reselling them. Pictures forthcoming, but there is no point in photographing a matte black guitar in the dark...
Anyway, why do "guitar techs" in shops insist on setting the action so low that you think they are trying to lower the strings below the frets? Would that make it a stance guitar? Obviously this one also thought that relief is something that the Romans had on the wall...
I'm pretty much learning about guitar setup right now so I don't claim to be an expert, but half an hour slinging tools introduced a little relief to the neck. That and lifting the bass strings a tiny bit seems to have mostly exorcised Mr Fret Buzz. Funnily enough there is hardly any difference in the action as the jumbo frets pretty much mean that you glide over the fretboard instead of pressing the strings down hard.
In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock :
That is really sharp!
RossD said:I am not a Bassist. Just a guitar player that doesnt play enough of his current guitar lineup.
Want to buy it and ship it to me?
That Univox bass is incredible!!! Someone buy it!!!
I recently got to play a different Dan Armstrong replica in a music store, and it was cool. It was very heavy, but it was unique and sounded really nice. A 3/4 scale would suit one of these well!
Wow, way temping on that Univox.
Tony Sestito said:I know everyone on here is probably building tube amps after reading Keith's build thread
but I found what seems to be a good deal on a nice little STEREO modeling amp.
Reviews for this thing are pretty good, and I'm pretty sure you can hook it up to a PC and tweak it even more. I think I might replace my little 10 watt Marshall practice amp with one.
EDIT: The deal is dead. Blah...
Like a lot of guitars...amps...cars...guns...etc, I was CONVINCED I wanted a Blackstar till I "test drove" one. They're a great value for a new amp, but I couldn't get the "teeth" I wanted out of any of them. See also: EVERY_ORANGE I played through. I ended up with a Splawn, and love it. I still desperately want a 5150 III, but the reliability issues have kept me away. The Splawn has been gigged, beaten, and never skipped a beat.
It's funny you mentioned that Blackstar amp again, because the local Music Go Round got one in for $70. Right now, I have two amps: a crappy Peavey Studio Pro 112, and an even worse Marshall MG10CD. The little Marshall serves as my "bedroom amp", but it has little to no options as far as tone. I've been using it with a Line 6 Pocket POD, and it isn't great and a PITA to use. An all-in-one practice solution would be better.
If I were going on stage and actually gigging, I'd be looking for an older 5150 head like my guitar player used to have when I was in my band. That thing RIPPED. His was one of the Peavey ones, and it was pretty reliable.
In reply to Tony Sestito :
Damn! That's tough to beat at $70!
In reply to poopshovel again :
Yes, it was tough to beat. I brought it home today. 
I've been messing with it a lot today. It sounds better than it has any right to. The stereo effects are really cool. It has two 3" speakers, but it sounds way bigger than that. Beats the hell out of the little Marshall I had and sounds better than the Line 6 Pocket POD I have sounds.
I can't wait to hook my laptop up to it and see what kinds of effects I can mess with!
I have a new acquisition as well - and this one's going to need some love. It's a Framus 5/59 "Sorella" archtop built in May 1966. Came out of an estate sale. I'll need to make a pickguard for it and replace the truss rod cover. I'm also trying to get the neck to straighten out, it's taking many small adjustments to the truss rod over time and I'm getting close. Some of the binding is missing along the side of the neck and it probably wouldn't hurt to refret it. You can see in the last picture how some of them are starting to lift at the edges. Maybe I can just press them back in.
So there is much learning ahead as I learn to do these things!
Aesthetically, it's pretty solid. A scuff on the side but very little checking on the finish. It's got a nice big sound. Some of these were made with electric pickups built into the pickguard, so I could electrify it if I wanted. Right now, it's giving my wussy little electric fingers a workout.
^Before trying to press those frets in, humidify the E36 M3 out of that thing for a week first.
crankwalk said:^Before trying to press those frets in, humidify the E36 M3 out of that thing for a week first.
Seems like a good plan. When the swamp coolers are running here, it's in the 80% range. How humid are you thinking?
That is a stunner. If the frets aren't too worn i would clamp them down flush and wick in a drop of thin CA adhesive on each end.
Try a tap with a nylon or brass faced hammer and see if they go in and stay seated first.
Dare I ask how much you gave for it?
CA = cyanoacrylate?
The frets don't look worn but they do measure out at about 0.7mm in the center. I'm starting to think they might be raised along the edge for much of the guitar, as they tend to measure 0.9mm at the edges. I'll try clamping first. It does take a fair bit of finger pressure to ensure the notes speak, but I'm not sure how much of that is acoustic vs my usual electrics.
It wasn't a $40 pawnshop deal. I paid $250. Given that ones with worse finishes seem to start at about $400, I'm good with that.
I'd keep the humidity around 50% in a smaller room and get one of these F-hole humidifiers:
For acoustics, I usually wet a sponge, wring it out, set it inside the guitar in an open ziploc bag then close it up in the case for a few days. I had a Fender acoustic that I thought needed fret work and after a luthier looked at it, that's what he recommended. I thought he was just trying to get out of messing with it but it actually solved the issues.
It may not *solve* anything with a 50 year old guitar but it may help, won't make anything worse, and make repairs easier.
Regardless, it's a cool guitar and it is pretty textbook dehydrated.
I prefer the term "mummified" 
We're in a really dry climate here, humidity is usually in the teens and I don't think it got any special storage in the recent past.
Looking more closely at the neck, it does appear that most of the frets are "sprung" under the first string. I've managed to get the neck in a pretty good place, and now the low E is buzzing because it's closer to the frets than the others.
I'll see if I can find some way to humidify it. I don't have a hard case for it, but one of my soft cases might be about the right size so I'll try the sponge trick.
You'll need to log in to post.
