Let's see your guitar and bass gear!

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Because those ones are also terrible. They also have the chrome covers, and I like the exposed look. The cheapo actually sounds better right now too.

Ah, I misunderstood.

Photos of the two Strats at the moment. Man, I need to wipe down the black one. I mean, yes, they're just Stratocasters. There are many like them, but these two are mine.

They're both pretty much where I want them now, although I'm still tweaking the setup on the blue one. Both have full shielding and upgraded pots and wiring. It's interesting how different they both feel. I've also learned a whole bunch about guitars in the process of modifying these.

Blue is an American Strat body and rosewood neck, Pearly Gates humbucker with Custom Shop Texas Special single coils. I liked the looks better with the maple neck, but I like the feel of the rosewood under my fingers especially on bends. I'm probably going to play with the wiring on this a bit more to see how the humbucker interacts with the single coils. This one has a very entertaining personality with a lot of different tones. I tend to keep turning the amp up and up and up...

Black is a Gilmour replica, a Squier body with an American Strat maple neck. SSL-5 bridge, Custom Shop '69 middle and Custom Shop Fat 50's neck pickup. GFS tremolo block and some vintage tuners (forget the brand) finish it off. The toggle switch ties the bridge pup to whatever's selected on the 5-way. I sound nothing like Gilmour, but I can't blame the hardware and it's been fun assembling this It encourages smoother, more precise playing than the blue axe. It's also got a much more consistent sound across the various settings. I dig the sound of the bridge and the neck together, though.

The guitar building is done. Now it's time to wear out the frets with lots of practicing. And yes, that is a cardboard castle for the cats.

In addition to wanting a project bass, I've been half heartedly looking for a HSS Strat-style guitar. Ever since I rehabbed my nephew's a few years back, I've wanted to get my own to play with. So I've kept a search alive, looking for something under $100. Tonight, I found one. And it's not a Fender OR a Squier.

It's a Jackson! I think it's a Made in Korea Performer PS7 from 1994. It's pretty scruffy.

The good:

-It has a Wilkinson tremolo

-The neck is nice. Good, comfortable radius

-It's all there

The Bad:

-It's pretty chewed up, lots of battle damage

-I think the neck has been off before

-MIK ones aren't as nice as the Japanese ones (or the USA ones for that matter)

Price: $60 and an old DOD flanger pedal I haven't used in 20 years. I think I did alright.

Not sure what I'm going to do with this one yet. On the fence with doing a "relic" build or pulling it all apart for a paint and body resto. I will probably toss a set of strings on it, find a bar for the Wilkinson, and play with it a bit. What's cool is now I have two similar vintage Jacksons: a PS4 and now a PS7.

After thinking about it all day, I think I'm going to dive into fixing the Jackson up cosmetically. Once I make sure all of the electronics are working, I'll be pulling the neck off and stripping the body down for ding repair and paint. It will be my first time doing so, and I'm looking forward to it.

After seeing really incredible results from people painting with spray cans, I may go that route. A lot of people are using Testors model paint and a "nitro" clear, whatever that is. I know some of you have refinished guitars, so any helpful hints would be appreciated. I know the body has one bad dent (it's in the pics I posted previously) next to the neck, so that will need to be filled. I wish the fingerboard didn't have the nicks it has, but there's nothing I can really do about that. I'm 99% sure I'm going to go back to black, but we'll see. Gray or silver might be a cool color change with the dark fingerboard and the satin black pickguard.

In reply to SilverFleet:

"Nitro" is in reference to the nitrocellulose lacquer used on vintage guitars. I'm pretty sure the real stuff has been outlawed for decades, so they're probably talking about a modern product with similar characteristics to the original. If you're doing a clear, sunburst, or translucent finish it would probably really add to the final look, but I don't think it would matter for solid colors.

In reply to petegossett:

Not sure how, but the guitar/Gretsh repair guy I go to uses nitro lacquer for his paint work. I've seen some of the guitars he's painted with it and it's incredible. I'm not sure what he used when he refinished the neck of my Les Paul.

He only uses hide glue as well. Very much a traditionalist.

You can buy real nitrocellulose lacquer (Behlen's brand) in spray cans from most "Woodcraft" stores. Or stew Mac, or luthiers mercantile or guitar reranch all have their own brands.

Folks go on and on about how it sounds better than other finishes but I just can't hear it.

The guy who painted my bass chastised me heavily about taking it down to the bare wood saying the original hard as nails poly would have been a great base for him to start with since he could have just scuffed it, applied filler and started blocking it out. When I did the jagmaster I found that he was pretty much right. It took a dozen coats of the base to seal the open pores in the wood before it started to gloss up.

I used duplicolor touch up spray lacquer from Napa. Blocked it out and hit it with duplicolor crystal clear. Note: you WILL have to cut and buff it afterwards to get a finish you will be happy with. I took it to 1500 grit and then used some 3m cutting and polishing compound from the paint shop.

Gimp wrote: If anyone wants to take a SVT and 810 for a spin, my door is open.

They sound great. But I almost killed myself with one.

In college I worked in a music store doing electronic repairs and sales. We got a customer's SVT head in for repair. It was squealing when you turned it up. I pulled the chassis out of the case and started checking each section of the amp. I was very careful about hooking the leads on what I was measuring when it was powered down, powering it up getting my measurements and then powering down again. I got to a point where I need to get a lead on something that was buried deep in chassis by the power supply. So I powered it down and reached way in to the guts of it. My hand slipped, I touched the wrong connection and discharged the (still fully changed) capacitors in the power supply into my right hand and out through my left. I involuntarily jumped two feet up in the air and about a foot back away from the bench.

Everything in my hands went flying. The master tech working on the other side of the shop heard this and said,"Are you all right?" I said, "I think so." After another moment I said "I think I am going sit down and take a break for a few." After about 10 minutes, I went back to it and finished the work. It sounded great, but since then I have had mixed feelings about SVT's.

I had a couple minutes to mess with that Jackson last night. I wanted to play test it to make sure it worked before I took it all apart. It has a loose input and some scratchy electronics, but overall, it played surprisingly well. I might just clean the thing up, fix/shield the electronics, and press it into service.

I don't actually own a solid body guitar. The jagmaster is the missus' and Fenders are not my thing.

So I am craving something I can quietly strum while she is watching TV or whatever and I think I am going to finally scratch that itch I have always had for the most perfect rock and roll machine ever created.

I think I need a double cutaway Les Paul junior. Johnny Thunders style.

Only what you need and nothing you don't. Now I have a very difficult decision. TV yellow or cherry?

I spent today messing with the Jackson strat I picked up last weekend.

I started by de-gunking the body and then covering the electronics cavity with copper shielding tape.

Cleaned up the Wilkinson/Gotoh bridge. I really like this thing. Very solid compared to the usual cheap guitar "strat style" pot metal bridges out there.

Like a real Strat, all the electronics are mounted to the pickguard. I shielded that too and hosed the switch and pots out with electronic cleaner spray.

I hit the body and neck with some wax, cleaned and oiled the fretboard, scuffed and polished the frets, re-assembled it, and called it good. I tossed some D'Addario XL 10's on there and it plays waaaaaay better than I ever thought it would. I've played American Fenders that don't play this well. Also, it sounds killer! I'm glad I didn't have to touch the neck, because you have to remove it to adjust the truss rod. No buzz or weirdness whatsoever!

I haz a happy.

Nice! I'd have to call it Miss Jackson. Couldn't help myself.

WARNING: Another Trent mini build thread post. Sorry

So B has been playing the Jagmaster a lot and has commandeered a cheap Joyo delay pedal that was sitting around. For some reason it didn't play well with any other 9V pedals. Bad hum whenever they were in the same signal chain. So I bought a cheap isolated power supply and as soon as I opened it up this morning I thought it was gonna be a huge pain in the butt without a pedal board to tie it all together so that was today's project.

I sheared off a chunk of whatever was leaning up against the stomp shear, which happened to be 16GA. I then sharpied out some lines that kinda seemed like what was in my head. Being 16ga I wouldn't be able to bead roll some details in it which was disappointing, but in retrospect would have been invisible when loaded up and in use.

Note: I have never used a pedal board, I am shooting in the dark here.

Over to the punch press with a 5/8" die set

Then to the portaband for the corners

and two more clips on the stomp shear finished the cutting work

Next was the box and pan brake

And after that we had this!

I was in a rush so I didn't bother swapping out the 0.125" electrode out for the 0.060" tungsten like I should have but it turned out OK

At this point I wanted to powdercoat it wrinkle black but I didn't feel like waiting for the oven to heat up so I grabbed a can of "oiled bronze" rustoleum at Lowes when I stopped for velcro. Sprayed the box in the backyard and took the dogs to the park for an hour. When I came back I pushed the rubber grommets into place

And Velcroed the power supply to the inside

I found a drawer pull in the garage, screwed it to the side, Applied the velcro, mounted some pedals and plugged it in.

What else can I say? It's not sexy but it seems to do the job. The pedals and power supply are very secure on the Velcro. I probably should have left a little more room for expansion but I doubt the spring king will live on it for long. I hope she likes it. She has been out of town all weekend.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

Have you been playing with the Trio much? I'm wondering about it lately. Regret the purchase or are you still stoked?

Anyone else give it a whirl?

In reply to Jumper K. Balls:

Awesome job!

Can't remember if I posted this before but it showed up early last month.

In reply to z31maniac:

It doesn't show up for me...

Crap. It's from Bookface, I'll have to rehost it elsewhere when I get home.

Check the privacy settings on the pic.

So I've been hanging my guitars on the wall on the typical hooks. Looks cool, but I needed...something else. So I built some frames for them. I can do a build thread if anyone's interested.

Here's the current practice space. Those who care enough to peer closerly will see a didgeridoo (brought home from the red center), soprano/alto/tenor saxophones, a flute, keyboard and a whole bunch of oddball ethnomusicological toys in baskets at the top. Plus car models.

I also splurged and picked up a Gibson after selling my dream Seven. It's a barely-played US-made 2016 Studio T. Haven't done much to it other than mess with the shielding a bit and throw some heavier strings on it. I'm quite enjoying it.

Yes! Build thread please!

I'll do one in the build thread forum instead of embedding it here. Might make it easier to find for someone else later.

Build thread!

So, I was driving towards LA to pick up a car and a coworker asked if there was some room in the back of the truck. He'd just scored a used 4x12 Marshall cab from a recording studio. And it turns out they had this for sale as well. I got it for fire sale prices - about 1/3 of the usual used cost - and picked it up at their loading dock, so no shipping charge. Although it did make for a pretty full truck bed with two 4x12 cabs back there.

It's an Egnater Vengeance 412A, being driven off the back of my little Peavey Classic 30. In fine shape other than the usual scuffs that come from being a piece of pro studio gear. Sounds great. Possibly a bit overkill for my little studio, but it's got great presence and a really full sound. I'm quite enjoying it, although my wife doesn't quite understand.

I DID manage to get her to lay hands on one of the electrics the other day, though. So there's hope. And there's a cool looking little Japanese Ibanez with a slim neck for sale in town that has caught her eye...

Here's a LED Drum Hanging Lamp that I made for my friend (drummer) as a wedding present last year.

I have all the supplies to make 2 more, but with snare drums, I just haven't gotten to assembling them yet.

I like how it turned out because it gives some light directly downward (like over a table) and a lot of ambient light upward towards the ceiling which makes for a neat effect. (Pictures don't really do justice.)

Might do a build thread if you all are interested. I have pics of the process.