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Post by genmce on Sept 26, 2011 18:32:08 GMT -5
Hello all, I picked up an Austin Bazaar strat clone package on Craigslist for $30, including a sabine metrotune mt9000 and a usb guitar link cable. www.amazon.com/Barcelona-Black-Electric-Guitar-Package/dp/B000FOJLG0A great deal - I figure the guitar was about $10, gave the amp to my son. The guitar is actually pretty ok, for the price. Pretty good tuners, solid piece tremolo, solid bridge pieces. I rewired the pickups with the bridge on, on a push pull and the neck phase on another push pull. The tone is pretty ... ok, it does not compare to the MIM fat strat sound (which I am gearing up to mod it's wiring with the HSS MR + coil spin thing, once my 3 other push pulls arrive). After setting it up, and I was not afraid to experiment on this guitar, used it as a learning vehicle, it stays in tune and the tremolo works fine. I have a couple of questions - First - when I wear a strap the neck wants to sink to the floor. I have to hold it up. Has anyone tried to add mass to a guitar to change the balance point? I am looking for suggestions. I have the same trouble with an epi sg special. Second question, the back of the neck was not quite finished, very poor sanding job from the factory. I sanded all the very coarse, annoying marks off it, but now have bare wood in spots, how should I finish the neck? Thanks a bunch for any reply.
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Post by cynical1 on Sept 26, 2011 20:35:46 GMT -5
I picked up an Austin Bazaar strat clone package on Craigslist for $30...I figure the guitar was about $10 Well, you certainly got your money's worth. I looked at the link for this guitar. According to the details the body is basswood...and the neck is basswood, too. The fingerboard is rosewood, but it was the basswood neck that threw me. To explain, basswood is a very light relatively soft wood. A lot of metal players and shredders use it for its tonal characteristics, but it really isn't neck caliber wood. Couple the rosewood with the tuners and you're neck heavy. While this is a common malady on basses, it's not as common on a guitar. And if you were to replace the neck with a maple or mahogany neck the problem would be worse. The cheap and dirty fix is to buy a strap with more grip, like a 3" wide suede or suede imitation backing. You can try moving the strap buttons to gain a better balance, but that generally just leaves a neck heavy guitar with several non-functional holes in it... Replacing the zinc\potmetal trem-leo tone block with a solid brass tone block might help a bit, but that's an investment about 7-10 times what you paid for it. One trick we used years ago on neck heavy basses were pool cue weights. The washer type can be buried under the strap button, but it's not always an invisible fix. Burying them under the cavity is, if you've got the room. The other type of pool cue weight is threaded. You can drill into the body through the cavity, missing the trem-leo, and just thread them in. This one is clean. The down side is you're only going to pick up a few ounces from either one of these fixes. My personal advise is to either live with it or sell it. Depending on how neck heavy it is you may never be able to balance it out. That's an easy one. Grab some semi-gloss or satin polyurethane, some mineral spirits, a few staining cloths. Reduce the poly 50\50 with the mineral spirits and you have a wiping varnish. (poly is a varnish) About 5-7 coats ought to do you, as the reduced poly requires more coats to give you a thick enough coating to protect. Take a 3M 400 grit sanding pad between coats to scuff the previous finish before applying the next coat. After the last coat is on let it sit for about 2-3 weeks. When you can't smell the solvent you're ready to wet or dry sand with 400 grit, then 800 grit, polish with some rubbing compound and you'll have one of the slickest playing necks out there. Happy Trails Cynical One
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Post by newey on Sept 26, 2011 21:54:01 GMT -5
A while back we had a discussion on neck-heavy guitars, and the suggestion was made to just add weight to the foot end of the strap by wrapping one of those velcro wrist weights (the kind people use for jogging) around the end of the strap right above the button. Might even have been me who suggested it, I don't recall, nor do I recall whether anyone tried some such thing. But it avoids altering the guitar at least. If you do try it, let us know if it works . . .
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Post by gumbo on Sept 27, 2011 7:06:31 GMT -5
Hmmm... Other little trick for finding the balance point of something big and/or weirdly-shaped, is to lay a piece of angle (Flanges down - apex UP) on a flat surface...lay the said object (the guitar) across this fulcrum-point, and adjust the position until it balances evenly... That has then indicated to you where the (inherent) balance-point is...(you may find this a difficult exercise as from what you are saying, the balance point may be halfway up the neck) from there you can do the next step of positioning the fulcrum point (the piece of angle, remember that?) midway within the overall length of the guitar (neck AND body) and then carefully add weights to the surface of the body (behind the bridge, as close to the edge of the body as possible) until it just balances evenly....you have then fairly accurately determined how much weight you will have to add to the butt-end of the guitar in order to make it playable without undertaking physiotherapy to your left arm. ;D This should give you some idea of whether this exercise is going to work / be possible / do injury to your back while playing a 23-pound guitar with AMAZING sustain.. Without answers to C1's previously-asked questions, it's a little difficult to suggest much more...other than possibly (??) adding the heaviest Bigsby Vibrato unit you can find.. ...good luck.
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Post by gumbo on Sept 27, 2011 7:15:59 GMT -5
Oh... One more trick..... Screw a strap button on the back of the headstock, and attach a (longer) guitar strap to THAT instead of the top bout... ...you might end up looking like a 70s Folkie, but it WILL balance a LOT easier...
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Post by cynical1 on Sept 27, 2011 7:34:44 GMT -5
One more trick..... Screw a strap button on the back of the headstock, and attach a (longer) guitar strap to THAT instead of the top bout... ...or just apply Velcro to the back of the trem cover and your shirt... Do we need to send you another mirror? HTC1
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Post by Yew on Sept 27, 2011 11:07:36 GMT -5
I managed to get better balance on my firebird by moving the strap button (but that guitar had a funny shape, that may have played into it.) I used tape to decide the best position (by taping the strap to the guitar) this coupled with a leather strap means its not half bad, The thing used to slide down until the neck hit something.
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Post by genmce on Sept 27, 2011 11:13:59 GMT -5
Thanks for the replies. I like the idea of weight in the body or on the bottom strap post. Velcro on my shirt is novel. I have some velcro I was imagining melting down some lead. New tremolo - ur right it is not worth it. The neck varnish sounds doable, although smelly and labor intensive. Changing the neck. $$ I have an old harmony strat clone ($8 yard sale) I could pull the neck from - but the darn truss rod is at the base of the neck instead of headstock. Pita for setup and I have fret buzz on D at 7th fret (I tried filing a little on the incriminating fret - but still have buzz) I removed the electronics and am trying Oh... Just a minute. The headstock on this (austin bazaar) has an awful pointy bit. Perhaps I can cut a bit of weight off the end of the headstock. Although that probably won't be enough... Sell it is probably the best bet or give it to my son (6) in a couple of years. The benefit from owning it has been as a vehicle for learning setup and a few wiring tricks. Truss rod, nut height, action, intonation, tremolo setup. I am not afraid of setup anymore. Thanks all.
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Post by cynical1 on Sept 27, 2011 18:38:30 GMT -5
I like the idea of weight in the body or on the bottom strap post. If you have enough room in the cavity route this can work pretty well. Fastenal has big brass or copper washers that can get heavy when ganged up I would suggest against that, personally. There are many other cleaner and safer alternatives. Actually, poly thinned 50\50 with mineral spirits isn't that bad. And because it's thinner it levels better and since the coats are thinner you wind up with less sanding overall. Agreed. And taking the neck you have off of this guitar and replacing it with anything will exacerbate the issue. A basswood neck is probably as light as it gets. You could do that, but again, basswood is not a hard wood and I would be hesitant to take any more off of it for fear it might fail. And giving it to you son is not a bad idea. If it does nose dive it won't fall as far... Happy Trails Cynical One
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Post by gumbo on Sept 29, 2011 7:05:29 GMT -5
FINAL SUGGESTION:
BUY A CHAIR.... ;D
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Post by genmce on Sept 29, 2011 8:42:14 GMT -5
FINAL SUGGESTION: BUY A CHAIR.... ;D I don't know - those are getting pretty rare... thanks
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Post by 4real on Oct 5, 2011 16:13:25 GMT -5
This is a bargain guitar, but I would be very surprised if the neck were bass wood, especially if neck heavy...might be a typo somewhere...the body certainly, but then a lot of Ibanez guitars are built of the stuff for the lightness so, go figure...but a neck seems unlikely...hmmm
The adding of weight works, sometimes it does not require that much.
Be aware not to throw too much money at it though, some guitars are just not worth the expense and I've been giving away such instruments I bought as a job lot (opposite problem, MDF bodies!). There is a bit you can do though with such things to learn about set ups and such.
For the neck finish, sand it till it is smooth and fairly even, I like a bit of a worn in or matt finish on the back of the neck anyway. Get some spray varnish and spray it on some 'no-fluff' rag or paper towel...and rub that over it, perhaps a couple of times to make sure the wood is sealed, lightly sand with wet and dry, very light, paper till you get an all over 'matt' feel to it.
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This site is more about wiring, but there are a lot of things that one can learn about setting up and making a guitar play and feel the way you want it too that many neglect to learn or have guitars to precious to mess around with too much. Here is an opportunity to work out how a truss rod works, how to set up a tremolo and especially simple things like adjusting the intonation so a guitar will play in tune that so many seem to neglect...they will not have done this kind of thing at the factory for sure.
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Generally I've found the necks on these cheap guitars to feel a bit clunky and not have the strength to reshape them too much. The worse thing tends to be the fretting and with some guitars the neck itself is a bit of a right off to tell the truth.
These days, I've specialized in cheaper end guitars, but if it is going to soak up money or be really good, some times you need a pretty decent gutiar to start with...both of my squiers are fairly high end, my strat only cost about $300 new, but that was half price...up grading it cost at least that, probably a lot more.
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Another option, if you ahvbe a mind to and the neck not too bad is to experiment with making your own body...it is after all, just a plank of wood...you can always screw the neck back onto the old one if it doesn't work out. When I was a kid I used to do this all the time...for some reason I thought a red sparkle semi acoustic flying V was the thing...I suspect it was the straight edges that attracted me to the project LOL
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