advertisement


Guitar talk: acoustic, bass, classical, twelve string? You name it! Pt III


Following on from the Lisa Bella Donna video YouTube stuck this tour of BT’s studio, and what an amazing place it is! He has everything, including a lot of things guitarists would kill for e.g. “these are my spring reverbs, here are my tape echos, this one is a vintage Echoplex” etc. Also ATC monitors, and even an ancient IBM 5150 running an old DOS sequencer!
 
Got the little axe (hatchet?) Painted. Paint is awful, but the colour I like, so one it has been bashed about a bit I will re-do it better (Honda fire pepper red if anyone is curious). Against my old Squire tele for scale.

Daughter loves it, so anyone looking for a small guitar for a 5-6year old, I heartily recommend.

 
Pickup options for the above tele, mainly I think because I'm bored. Currently it has a bridge pickup I wound myself, Alnico 5 pole, 42g wire and it measures about 7.4kOhm, I did wind it tapped to 11k(ish) but the winding is sloppy and the outer tap was damaged and went open circuit (inner coil has been fine). The neck pickup is a cheap P90, very fine wire, doesn't fill the bobbin well, measures about 7kOhm and sounds rubbish (reminds me of a cheap strat knockoff). The rest of the guitar is good, its an '89 Korean Squire Telecaster (Samick built silver logo), the body was changed for a solid 2 piece alder and the bridge a 3 brass saddle classic fender. The wiring has been re-done a few times, but I've never been 100% happy with it sound wise. In my parts bin and other guitar (samick 335 knockoff) I have the following pickups:

Bridge:
Montys Retro wind Telecaster bridge pickup, Alnico 3 6.6kOhm, traditional '68 tele bridge style
Oil City Kayman 90, Alnico 5 9.8kOhm, 'P90 style' construction of steel screw poles and magnets underneath

Neck:
OilCity Firewatch P90, Alnico 5 about 9kOhm, beefy P90
Dimarzio PAF humbucker, Alnico 5 7.8kOhm, old early 80s square ear version.

I've run the Dimarzio in the neck before and found it too different to the original bridge pickup to work well, seemed quite dark, the original squire bridge pickup was quite sharp sounding. I did go twin humbuckers for a while with an old 18kOhm Zion in the bridge, but that was too much, and had meant cutting the original body hence the new alder one to get back here.
So I'm currently thinking:
OilCity Kayman as a esquire with 'Eldred' wiring,
OilCity Kayman and the firewatch in the neck, I have a 4way switch somewhere in the parts bin,
Montys and put a big old Jazzmaster neck pickup in there,

I play just for fun, mostly banging out chords through an old line 6 pod, I'm not trying to replicate anyone in particular I like a bity crunchy tone and if starting again would probably but a les paul junior double cut with a single P90. I tend to have one guitar out in the house, the 335 is currently packed away in the loft (I will have to nick the firewatch neck pickup out of it if I'm using it in this, then it will probably get the Dimarzios back in) as my eldest daughter finds it too but and is more likely to play the tele.

Anyone any thoughts, or have any experience with the Montys stuff, I bought it with the Kayman 90 as a pair.
 
Yep, I do like that, something very cool and real about the knotty wood, reminds you its proper timber, you can forget once they have paint on them.
Think I might start with the kayman 90 as an eSquire and add a neck P90 at a later date. I have a scratch plate with no pickup cutouts somewhere.
 
Here's a question for you.

I have a cheap Ovation-style (but no cut-out) bowl-back guitar made by an Italian company, Clarissa.

The length of the back of the neck has been routed out with a long wooden insert, presumably to fit a truss rod, but not one which can be adjusted. The insert has raised slightly (by about 1mm) in the middle of the neck but is OK near the headstock and near the body. I believe it may be because the strings are providing too much tension - would a lighter gauge set fix that?
 
Seeker_UK said:
The length of the back of the neck has been routed out with a long wooden insert, presumably to fit a truss rod, but not one which can be adjusted. The insert has raised slightly (by about 1mm) in the middle of the neck but is OK near the headstock and near the body. I believe it may be because the strings are providing too much tension - would a lighter gauge set fix that?
Click to expand...

If I’m understanding you right you are describing a ‘skunk-stripe’ truss-rod channel similar to that found on a maple fingerboard Tele or Strat? If so it sounds like it has come unstuck at some point due to truss-rod tension. It will almost certainly need a luthier to put right unless you have very good woodworking skills. I would expect it to need glue inserting somehow and then clamping under pressure.

Are you sure there is no truss-rod adjustment? I’d expect to find a allen socket or very similar lurking somewhere inside accessible via the sound-hole.

What is the neck relief like with the current strings? I’d really not expect this behaviour unless some severe neck correction had been attempted, e.g. the truss rod had been severely over/under-tightened or even broken.
 
Tony L said:
If I’m understanding you right you are describing a ‘skunk-stripe’ truss-rod channel similar to that found on a maple fingerboard Tele or Strat?
Click to expand...

Yes, like that.

Tony L said:
If so it sounds like it has come unstuck at some point due to truss-rod tension. It will almost certainly need a luthier to put right unless you have very good woodworking skills. I would expect it to need glue inserting somehow and then clamping under pressure.
Click to expand...

I'll see if I can find one locally. I suspect it may cost more than the guitar is worth!

Tony L said:
Are you sure there is no truss-rod adjustment? I’d expect to find a allen socket or very similar lurking somewhere inside accessible via the sound-hole.
Click to expand...

I'll check tomorrow.

Tony L said:
What is the neck relief like with the current strings? I’d really not expect this behaviour unless some severe neck correction had been attempted, e.g. the truss rod had been severely over/under-tightened or even broken.
Click to expand...

That's the the weird thing. I think the action's too high at about the 12th fret but that would be a neck bow and understandable with too much string tension, but the truss rod cover suggests a hump neck. I need to check again.
 
My first ever and still have pangs for it. As seen in most of London's gig venues, Half Moon, George Robey, Rock Garden, Mean Fiddler etc etc.

40851849523_2b92fb0c3e_c.jpg


I wanted real power and small size so this saw my class D era start, 1400w of Peavey goodness an Eden Pre and an amazing 210T from Epifani

48239225476_ab1c922998_c.jpg


Went light in my Jazz era and what I play now but I do have an 2x12 extension cab as well.

A prize for anyone who can identify the location, very famous but more for recording than live performances.

40810821970_614ec804cc_c.jpg


My current pedal board

48104339513_3beec3bb71_c.jpg
 
Seeker_UK said:
Here's a question for you.

I have a cheap Ovation-style (but no cut-out) bowl-back guitar made by an Italian company, Clarissa.

The length of the back of the neck has been routed out with a long wooden insert, presumably to fit a truss rod, but not one which can be adjusted. The insert has raised slightly (by about 1mm) in the middle of the neck but is OK near the headstock and near the body. I believe it may be because the strings are providing too much tension - would a lighter gauge set fix that?
Click to expand...

Changing the string gauge will affect the pull on the neck - but not sufficiently to displace the truss rod cover (imo). Sounds to me like a problem with the insert either warping or perhaps it being a poor fit to start with. I'd go ahead and check the relief and action, and see if you can tweak it with the truss rod as-is. Post up some photos maybe ?

Not sure if I posted this before, but fwiw I bought a similar sounding cheap plastic bowl-back 'Encore' brand guitar from a charity shop for the princely sum of €10 not so long ago because the action at the neck joint was about 3/4" :) Thought I'd be able to tweak it a back into shape with the truss rod - but it was too far out of shape, and a bit of googling suggested those Encore bowl back models were prone to bending at the neck joint, only solvable through a complex and expensive neck-reset from a pro.

ZEtczRWl.jpg


QgA45h9l.jpg


8GEmjEvl.jpg


A bit more googling threw up a ghetto neck reset method using a wallpaper steamer to soften the glue at the neck in combination with a rig to realign it:


Took the plunge, bought a s/h wallpaper steamer, jury-rigged a 'guitar neck reset jig' setup in the shed, and had at it:

Zq7NbjQl.jpg


Apply steam, bend, wait a few days...

Vfgj0mql.jpg


Measure, repeat as necessary, remeasure, repeat etc.. until..

BVWsqm6l.jpg


Took a week or two to settle down after I restrung it, but has been perfect ever since.

All a (very) roundabout way of saying - if the guitar is cheap enough and deemed beyond economical conventional repair, then don't be afraid to try something / anything. Google is your friend.
You probably dont really have a whole lot to loose, and might enjoy the journey :)
 
-alan- said:
Changing the string gauge will affect the pull on the neck - but not sufficiently to displace the truss rod cover (imo). Sounds to me like a problem with the insert either warping or perhaps it being a poor fit to start with. I'd go ahead and check the relief and action, and see if you can tweak it with the truss rod as-is. Post up some photos maybe ?

Not sure if I posted this before, but fwiw I bought a similar sounding cheap plastic bowl-back 'Encore' brand guitar from a charity shop for the princely sum of €10 not so long ago because the action at the neck joint was about 3/4" :) Thought I'd be able to tweak it a back into shape with the truss rod - but it was too far out of shape, and a bit of googling suggested those Encore bowl back models were prone to bending at the neck joint, only solvable through an expensive neck-reset from a pro.

ZEtczRWl.jpg


QgA45h9l.jpg


8GEmjEvl.jpg


A bit more googling threw up a ghetto neck reset method using a wallpaper steamer to soften the glue at the neck in combination with a rig to realign it:


Took the plunge, bought a s/h wallpaper steamer and jury rigged a setup in the shed, and had at it:

Zq7NbjQl.jpg


Apply steam, bend, wait a few days

Vfgj0mql.jpg


Measure, repeat as necessary, remeasure, repeat etc.. until..

BVWsqm6l.jpg


Took a week or two to settle down after I restrung it, but has been perfect ever since.

All a (very) roundabout way of saying - if the guitar is cheap enough and deemed beyond economical conventional repair, then don't be afraid to try something.
You probably dont really have a whole lot to loose :)
Click to expand...

That guitar looks very similar to mine and thanks for the links. I'm waiting on a luthier to give me an idea of cost but I suspect that the repair may cost a fair bit. I shall report back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top