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Post by ChrisK on Jul 23, 2009 18:14:57 GMT -5
I emailed GF about some wiring opportunities some months back, especially since their pickguards could be used as-is. I got such a standard perfunctory brush-off reply that I decided that I was dealing with a 1/Mensa. (This is easy to calculate as the answer also begins with an "M".) I have bought all of my necks from Warmoth (7) and other high-end suppliers. Although Warmoth indicates that a fret level is likely necessary, I have never had an issue with them. They have always been of excellent quality. However, they ARE NOT a custom shop, but just an option shop. If you want what they have, they will do it. If you are willing to pay the setup, they will maybe (in a don't actually hope or hold yer breath way) do what you want. I have made several excellent suggestions to them (for free) which were all disregarded out of hand. Other's have subsequently used such suggestions. Pearls before swine, perhaps. Although I have had a few quality issues with Warmoth stuff, usually due to misrepresentation in the showcase, due to their hideous customer service, with the deal-breaker that occurred a year ago, I have endeavored to never buy from nor recommend them again (as in ever). I went so far as to delete EVERY mention of them in any post that I've ever made anywhere. Virtually everyone of these were positive "buy" recommendations. I have yet to (re)succumb to their web candy-case, especially since Tommy at USACG opened his own (very limited) web candy store. I got a candy store 3# 11oz two-piece rear-routed swamp ash HH Tele body with tummy, forearm, and neck contours for $109. I have heard mention that USACG (USA Custom Guitars) have most wonderful necks rarely in need of a fret level. The Carvin bolt-on neck is CNC leveled to 0.001". It's $159, but being a tilt-back headstock. string trees are not needed. They'll do a tung oil finish for $50. Carvin's parts are fairly inexpensive as well. They ARE NOT a custom shop, but just an option shop. If you ask for variations (such as nut width 1 3/4" and a thicker neck profile), they won't state what they actually supply other than that "it's the best for everyone". Then, they argue with you as to why you're wrong. This might explain why they're the leading supplier of electric guitars world-wide. It's called Voice Of the Customer (VOC) dumb-butt. Dang humans. These may seem like a lot of coin for a neck, but I quote from "Kojac". "That's a nice suit." " All my suits are nice." "I'll bet it was expensive." " Nice usually is." $35 isn't much money for a guitar neck, arguably the most important part of a guitar (the rest is just hand rest mass and a parking lot for the electronics). It is, however, a lot of coin for a single stick of firewood.  Anything worth doing is worth doing well.  |
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 23, 2009 17:38:00 GMT -5
Mine is based on the humans that I've met, and fortunately those that I haven't. From the makers of Damitol;  |
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 23, 2009 17:12:25 GMT -5
The neck tone could be a push pull for phase (mind that you use a 4-wire pickup with separate shield for noise/cover touching issues) and consider a series capacitor for parallel half out-of phase (PHooP) in the event that parallel out-of-phase (PooP) sounds thus-like. Then the bridge tone hole becomes the home of a SPST kill switch. Or, you can buy the DiMarzio 4P3T (DPDT ON-ON-ON to the unwashed) for $29.99 plus shipping and do it all in one switch (minding the aforementioned PHoop/PooP issue). Two poles do the phasing, the third does the killing, and the fourth just "loiters aboot" looking to cause trouble (aka Compulsive reWiring Dementia). It even has a big threaded barrel. DiMarzio Three Position On/On/On 4PDT Pickup Selector Switchaccessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/DiMarzio-Three-Position-OnOnOn-4PDT-Pickup-Selector-Switch?sku=424669 |
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 23, 2009 16:45:11 GMT -5
Fender have finally announced the availability of the advanced "Grease Bucket" technology for the unHighway1'd masses thru the replacement parts channel. " Installing this metal/carbon film 4.7K resistor will allow you more control over rolling back the highs on your tone knob, part of the popular "Grease Bucket" tone circuit upgrade." * " When making modifications to upgrade your Fender guitar, be sure to use genuine Fender parts." ** accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Fender-Guitar-Upgrade-Resistor-MetalCarbon-Film-4.7K-14W-NTE?sku=360740This Intellectual Property (IP) consists of a laser-trimmed metal thin film resistivator comprised of 4,700 individual Ohms that are vacuum deposited on an insulating barrel with each end attached to a metal wire lead (aka a resistor). I have christened this the HIPSTER (the Hyperbolec Intellectual Property Super-pointless Tone Ohmulating Resistor). * This part goes in series with the connection to the tone pot. For only $2.99 plus shipping, and about 1/2 hour of detune, pickguard removal, part soldering, pickguard demoval, and retuning, one can experience an effect exactly the same as turning the tone control down to "1" instead of "0". A clever sort will realize that ONE HIPSTER shrewdly attached in series with the shared tone capacitor (that confounding thing that has confounded the confound-able for decades), will have the same effect as two HIPSTERs each in series with the tone pots (shh, they'll hear you). ** Be sure to use genuine Fender parts. While one can go to Radio Shack or any other electronics part suppliers and buy an identical part for about $0.10 in a few, be cautioned that these are not genuine Fender parts and are not marked as such. These can easily be differentiated from genuine Fender parts which are also not marked as such. Note: Working on Fender guitars by individuals even using genuine Fender parts violates the warranty. To preserve your (limited - aren't they all) warranty, you must pay the Fender price and have a Fender Authorized Repair Center do the work. Which, since you changed the guitar, still might violate the (limited - aren't they all) warranty. Or, you could just turn the tone control(s) down to "1" instead of "0". Shhhhh. Now, to be fair, clever folk will incorporate said IP into their own designs and modifications anyway since this site's true name is "Warranty Violators" |
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 18, 2009 21:37:32 GMT -5
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 18, 2009 10:51:33 GMT -5
Here's the manual from Fender support if you need it. www.fender.com/support/manuals/pdfs/manuals_elec/guitarpdf/Frontman_25R.pdfAha, he chortles; here's a schematic from the web site that shows the RCA input jacks. www.fender.com/support/amp_schematics/pdfs/Frontman_25B_Schematic_5CE.pdfNote that J5 has each channel going thru a 68K resistor to a common 0.1 uF capacitor to the virtual ground (- input) on U2B pin 6. This node is forced to act like a virtual ground point (signal reference, not the gameroom carpet) as the OP AMP will do everything in its power to keep the (-) input at the same voltage level as the (+) input (pin 5), which is connected to signal ground. This is a minimum of 68K Ohms of input impedance. This schematic tells you a lot about the effects loop (J3/J4). Keep both of your shoes on and don't soak the gameroom carpet in beer until you've got it working to your satisfaction. And remember, beer is only "rented". ;D |
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 18, 2009 0:31:04 GMT -5
Rio has had the BabyBuckers for a while. They put a mini side-by-side humbucker into a P-90 cavity. BabyBuckersIn VG mag, they have an ad for ones (perhaps BabyBuckers) that fit the Jazzmaster pickup route. Of course, their web site (current news is circa 2007) shows nothing. |
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 18, 2009 0:19:37 GMT -5
So this music store runs an add in Vintage Guitar (what, we should proofread our articles before we print fiction).
World Music Nashville - yada yada wonderful/sliced bread.
"The exception and not the rule."
Great!
Now, the reviewer (God, I hope it wasn't the ad writer) states;
"If you guys sold toilet paper, I'd never go to Wal-Mart again."
I have no response to this.
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 18, 2009 0:10:33 GMT -5
What amp is it? We could look for schematics.
There should be some specifications on CD players for the RCA phono jack outputs such as maximum level, output impedance, etc. This could give a clue.
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 17, 2009 23:21:49 GMT -5
Well, I got the system recovery disk today. The last customer service guy (Kory - he actually cares a lot about what he does)) came thru. I got notification that the return box to HP for the motherboard replacement has shipped.
I'll run the system recovery disk down to BestBuy and have them restore things.
In a fit of I don't take shite from humans, I'd emailed HP's board of directors about my first experience (no, it's a secret how and I keep these things such). They called (well, some congenial person called) and wanted to know how things work out when they work out.
Dang!
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 15, 2009 23:08:53 GMT -5
That's probably down to 15 watts from 60 or so.
About -6dB or about half'ish or so as loud to the human ear, eh?
EL84's are chimey in a British sort of way.
Bias points are.
The EL84's are now way over power supplied (not in a bad way, just in a capacitive/current way).
Sag, I don't think so.
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 15, 2009 23:01:42 GMT -5
?During a festival?
LOL.
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 15, 2009 22:57:00 GMT -5
I called HP back today to order the system recovery disk. It costs $28 for something that they should have included, and not alluded to as being part of the second hard disk already in the machine.
Anyway, while I do have to pay for this, BestBuy will fix/replace the failed hard disk for free due to the extended warranty on the machine.
However, the HP customer support guy that I got today was great (Kory, in the great midwest U.S. somewhere). He confirmed that there was a known motherboard fault issue with the machine, that it would be replaced for free, and would send me a shipping box (it's all a ploy to keep quarry gainfully employed).
So, when I get my system recovery disk, I go to BestBuy, they fix the disk, I send it to HP, and we see what happens.
Or, I'm still asleep.
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 14, 2009 23:28:56 GMT -5
I presume that you mean using lower impedance (a.k.a. active) pickups and signal modules.
In this case, yes, they have an active electronics output buffer that has an output impedance around 2K - 10K Ohms.
There's also that thing called RF. Only lightning jumps that gap.
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 14, 2009 23:23:11 GMT -5
Stacked concentric (as in two pot elements) with a push pull switch. That's three functions.
No existo in el universeo.
Yes.
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 14, 2009 19:26:03 GMT -5
Specs. Specs. $94 and stupidity. toutifications.That's nice, what does it mean specifically? Unspecified - marketing BS. What about the slower transients? Can these be used with a bass too? How maximum is the clarity, is it measured in furlongs per fortnight? What is the definition of definition? How present is the presence? How about for the slower transients? Unspecified - marketing BS. Oxygen-free copper and extremely low series impedance are not necessary since the passive pickups are, uh, high impedance generators. I doubt one would notice 10 Ohms of series resistance. Oxygen-free copper is directly related to the rapid removal of high thread-count paper bills from wallets. Noise rejection is good. Shielding is good! Oh shiny, BS unless the mating connector and terminated wiring (unless soldered) are also gold-plated, otherwise THEY will still corrode. Did I mention shiny? One has to play reallllllly fast and hard to get the current even moderately high. Yeah, we all hate that there insertion hassle. Although, to be fair, when I have trouble finding the jack, I often have similar trouble finding the strings as well. A subtle form of shiny. Someone is paid by their word count. And oh, what is the cable's capacitance specification (the REAL spec that matters)?The amp output is a very low impedance; unless your arc-welding nearby, most EMI has the chance of a bee's fart to effect things. Guitar. High impedance, low voltage, low current, shielded. A passive guitar signal is a high impedance generator (it's AC) driving a (hopefully) high impedance cable and amplifier input. Loading in any form is undesirable. As few picofarads of cable capacitance as possible is desirable. Bill Lawrence (Willi Stich) sells guitar cable kits that have about 20 pF per foot, with a 10 foot assembly having around 200 pF. This is the key to avoiding the "tone suck" of that other high-cut tone control that's ALWAYS ON FULL, a.k.a. the cable crapacitance. Adequately shielding high impedance signals is a good thing too. Amp. Low impedance, high voltage (well, compared to a guitar), high current. An amplifier driving a speaker of a few Ohms is a very high current driver where very small series resistances can have significant effect (and moderate capacitance generally does not), primarily with damping and the accurate driving of the speaker coil (an open-loop linear motor armature). |
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 14, 2009 18:52:16 GMT -5
Title edited as HP rises above the primordial level of customer service slime. Fair is fair.
Geez, some companies (HP) really don't give a damn.
HP wasted my time today, big time.
They wanted me to further waste my time to troubleshoot my laptop, for their known issue, even though it's already into BestBuy for service.
I called to get a recovery disk. I found mention of a BIOS issue for my machine (dv9428nr). The machine has the issues, apparently related to a known fan under cooling issue (a design Fault). The machine often failed to boot Windows unless Task Manager was first invoked. It's always been flaky.
The primary hard drive failed, likely from overheating as the machine runs hot. I found out about this BIOS issue while looking at how to order a system recovery disk at my expense.
Apparently, having a second hard drive already installed in the machine at the manufacturer didn't trigger the fundamental thought within HP engineering of having redundant system backup capability even though the system documentation alluded to it, although HP has NO TROUBLE taking time to install vast amounts of crap-ware on its machines.
So here I am; I can drive back to BestBuy, retrieve my laptop, personally run BIOS tests to determine and install a BIOS (hopefully down-loadable at no cost). Then, after I buy a system recovery disk, drive back to BestBuy, have them replace the hard drive under extended warranty (I had learned to buy them for the HP machines that I'd bought until my family migrated to Dell for everything since this machine). After over 40 minutes on a phone call, with the customer disservice technician arguing with me and telling me that I didn't understand things and telling me to essentially figure out/fix things myself (Robert, he had no operator/technician number that he was willing to disclose), I hung up.
At a minimum, I get to buy a system recovery disk, wait for its arrival, drive to BestBuy, and have them replace the failed primary hard drive. With the substantial MTBF of modern hard drives, it is statistically slim that this failed other than through a design Fault (the known BIOS issue under-running the cooling fan). (I tend to capitalize legal terms.)
There is a good probability that things will fail again from overheating.
This type of Fault is a quality issue.
This type of service is a quality issue.
You may rest assured that I will always and honestly share my experiences with HP with any and all that will listen. After all, there are substantial reasons why my employer uses Dell.
FWIW,
ChrisK
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 13, 2009 22:58:00 GMT -5
Are you inferring that there actually IS intellectual property afoot in the U.S. guitar industry?
Intellectual jokery perhaps.
Sorry, it's not commercial fraud, it's marketing.
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 13, 2009 22:53:05 GMT -5
Ooooook  Which JA design (he's done more than one)? Which capacitor, what "regular" wire? Was the stock wiring ground/signal ground isocapblock continuum violated by the "regular" wire? Both of both? Continuuming along, was this violated therefore alsotosay? May we have a clue in aisle 0, 1, 2, and 3? |
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 13, 2009 22:42:53 GMT -5
They are, unless one wants the sound of a side-by-side humbucker.
What, you want egg in yer beer too?
Physics is.
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 13, 2009 22:40:56 GMT -5
Which Lace?
The father (Don) or the son?
Originally they did sensors for military/business applications. They are not pickups in the traditional sense, and some (the sensors) do not easily play/intermingle with traditional single coils.
Fender and Lace had marketing agreements in the past, and Fender used Lace "pickups". The original Fender Jeff Beck model guitar was one that had the dual single sensor, single selectable bridge hum canceling arrangement.
There are those among us (myself included) that find Lace sensors to be a tad too Hi-Fi and hence, pure/pristine.
I have a set of the Alumitones that lasted one hour in the PadoukCaster before being yanked. While they are wide range pickups (they are NOT true humbuckers), they have a broad wide response and didn't work well in series/parallel combinations. They are 2 counter turned single turn primaries coupled to an integral step-up transformer.
I've often thought that they'd make excellent series (the possible intermingling thing) boosters adjacent to a traditional single coil, but there would be no hum cancellation.
I have the MellowCaster that I did last year with the DG-20 set that I haven't been able to bring myself to care enough to put strings on. I'm looking for other pickups to use just because......
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 13, 2009 15:30:11 GMT -5
Yes, but only to those that don't get it.
If you do, you don't.
But if you don't.......you won't.
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 13, 2009 15:27:55 GMT -5
Yeah, no, I don't know, it was late, I woke up and started typing. The spell checker didn't care.
Crape per Diem, perhaps.
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 13, 2009 15:23:39 GMT -5
Perchance (hopefully) a gopher? ;D ;D  Ya, "calling" both shots. |
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 13, 2009 15:18:12 GMT -5
Yes, they often are.
No. Most side-by-side coil humbuckers are two relatively weak single coils in series sharing a common magnetic framework. This common magnetic framework, with its focused, wide dual pole-row window is why these never do sound like a true single coil when split/shunted/shorted/tapped. They stay all fluxed up.
Most individual single coils, even if placed adjacent to each other are individual single coils with separate magnetic structures. Now, due to proximity, there will be intermingling of lines of flux, especially if they are of opposite magnetic polarity (as required for hum cancellation of noise, but common mode reinforcement of output signal).
Yes, but they are two strong single coils widely spaced in parallel.
I have a build in the oven that uses a Rio Grande Twangbucker in the bridge. This is two true single coil pickups adjacent to each other, of opposite magnetic polarity. They have individual coil pole slugs (6 each).
The neck pickup in this build is a Seymour Duncan P-90 Stack, an over/under coiled (2) P-90 structure. The top coil produces the majority of the output and the lower coil (the one under the magnetic structure) is much quieter as it is the subtracting coil for hum. This is a hum canceling pickup, but it has the fairly unique characteristic of having virtually the same magnetic framework as a P-90, allowing the selection of either single coil (top) or both coils with the same magnetic signature.
When in combination with another pickup coil (such as the opposite magnetic polarity bridge single coil), true hum canceling combinations occur.
If one wants to "know" the SCN pickup, start with the P-90. (And read Willi's patent.)
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 13, 2009 14:59:18 GMT -5
My daughter is now 27. "God gives us daughters to punish us for being men." I made sure that mine knew how to really put a hurt on someone "in need". (I taught both my daughter and son to shoot straight and well, as well. Neither have any interest in it now, but they know how.) I tried to buy my daughter a guitar once, she said that she'd rather have a car. I said no. She eventually got a car from me anyway. |
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 13, 2009 0:21:47 GMT -5
Vhat, others know about us?
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 13, 2009 0:17:07 GMT -5
I must confess to being confused. If we make guitars out of trees, don't we have to grow the trees? Don't they convert carbon dioxide to oxygen (a relatively good things for humans). Doesn't it take a long time for the trees to grow? That's a lot of oxygen. We destroyed over a million acres of rain forest in 2004 just to make room to grow the additional soybeans demanded by those "waxing green". (This really p  d off my daughter when I told her - she likes soy products.) Alternative materials infer synthetics, which are usually made from hydrocarbon compounds, often called oil. The Emerald Boring Beetle (a gift from the Chinese) is destroying the ash trees in North America. Thousands in Ohio have already been precipitously destroyed to slow the spread and to reduce liability. Buy it now. I think that the world should plant a million exotic trees in the fond hope of being around in 40 years to harvest them (and of course, to continuously replant). It can't hurt; unless we figure out how to process soybeans into bodies (I tried, the significant addition of wasabe didn't help, well, it did help the taste). It's mighty good on dried peas, though. |
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 12, 2009 23:59:18 GMT -5
Of course, the entire point being the tuning of pickups to the exact sound that WE want, prior to their modification by tone controls.
After all, the minor differences between pickups are in many ways attributable to the changes in inductance as well as drive/output levels. One can moderately tune one's guitar pickups thru the varying application of $70 pickups (which makes us feel good about the tone in direct response to our investment - it works for audiophiles) or thru the use of $0.10 caps (it can't be that simple, can it?).
The same thing that always happens - pearls before swine.
Caveat Diem - seize the day.
Caveat per Diem - seize the check.
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 11, 2009 23:11:27 GMT -5
Yes!
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