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avengers63

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avengers63 last won the day on November 17 2023

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About avengers63

  • Birthday 12/18/1969

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    GOTM April 2011

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    Belleville, Illinois

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  1. I'd not have considered the clamping notch on the inside piece of the mold. Rather obvious in hindsight.
  2. You sound a lot like me. A random, likely bad , certainly bizarre ides wandered into your head. It's so "out there" that you are now you are obligated to make it into reality.
  3. Well, we have the sound clips here, soooooo....... I think they sound 10X better. To my ear, the stock pups were completely unusable. The bridge was bland & dead, and the neck was even tinnier than the bridge.
  4. 2 reasons 1) I'd have to undo all of the wiring going through the hole already. Not that it can't me done, but it'd be a huge PITA. 2) Since I moved here 4 years ago, I haven't been able to find the long drill bits I'd use to do this, and I currently refuse to buy another. 3) If I'm gonna just make another body next year, I don't wanna put any more effort into it. If I don't make another body, I can get a Gretsch White Falcon copy on AliExpress for <$300 and do some upgrades, including these pups. Honestly, this is the most likely option. 4) Frustration leads to rage quitting.
  5. It has to accommodate 2 4-conductor pickup wires, 2 wires going from the individual volume pots to the switch, and another coming back from the master volume. The original HBs were single conductor, so this explains the lack of space.
  6. Before i get going.... I like to put a towel down onto the table before I worn on my guitars. There are several reasons, all of which you can realize for yourself. Tonight I just grabbed the next one out of the cabinet without a second thought. After laying it out on the table.... I don't know what those kids did to it, and I'm better off not knowing. All I know is that it's going straight into the "rags" pile, and that I don't really want to touch it again. So does anyone remember this one? Only the old heads have a chance. It's a copy of the Gretsch Thunderbird. Mahogany body, thin maple cap, chechen neck, cocobolo fretboard, Gretsch humbuckers, There's a 3-way toggle, 2V, 1T, and master V. I was still buying the cheapest hardware available, so it all tarnished from sitting out for prolly 10+ years. A few weeks ago, TV Jones had a sale on their blemished pickups. The TV Classics are normally about @$160. These were @$100. Like any sensible guitar addict, I realized this was finally the time to get the real thing and put them into the Thunderbird. TRUTH: If there was a blemish of any type on either pickup, I couldn't find it. They both came with foam spacers and wood screws for direct mounting, and a pair of tabs and necessary screws for PG/ring mounting. In case y'all were wondering how they worked, here's a couple of pictuires. I also got a pair of rings for them. @$&.00 is highway robbery for pickup rings, but these are the only ones with the opening sized for TV Jones, so I went for it. I made some sound samples of the Gretsch HBs, but they won't be making an appearance today. I haven't picked this guitar up in a while. Like, in several years. Honestly, I'm embarassed by it. It's not that I didn't know what I was doing when I made it, it's that it's REALLY sloppy. I can't believe I had the balls to enter it into GOTM. It was on this first-in-years handling that I decided I was going to have to make another body for it next year. The neck is fine, so it can be kept. Everything else screwed to the body except the jack, switch, neck screws/bushings, and strap pins had to go. So I got the old pups out and put in the new neck. I tested it without strings, and it worked. That's the beauty of a straight pup swap - it's just 2 hot & 2 ground. All the rest already works. When I tried to put in the bridge, it all ground to a halt. The hole going from the bridge pup cavity to the control cavity is just too small. The wire will NOT go through no matter what I tried. Believe me, I tried everything. I've done this dance before and I know all the moves. So f* it. I took the pups and salvageable parts, put them into a box, and closed the door on the whole thing. The body & all the crap screwed to it can go into the burn pile. The rest sits on a shelf, probably until after we move next year.
  7. How thick is the body? It looks like it'll weigh more than a LP.
  8. I actually bought these on Amazon "used". That means they were a return. IIRC, they retailed for over $70, but I got these for around $50. $70 may or may not be right, but we all know Hipshots aren't cheap, so $50ish for a gold set is pretty damn good.
  9. At least now I know not to waste the extra money on staggered tuners.
  10. That's what it's looking like to me too.
  11. A NIGHT TO MYSELF!!!!!! Just me and my guitars. I wanna (emotionally) lay them all out and roll around on them. I don't get out much. Not a lot of human contact. It'll make ya weird. Hipshot locking tuners. No string lock needed. They're also staggered, so hopefully no trees needed either. I'm going to wait and see on whether I need to cut any relied as the strings cross the end of the fretboard. Kahler-like trem from Schaller. I'm only guessing, but it can't be any newer than the 90's. Kahler went out of fashion sometime in there, so the market for similar products would also dry up. I didn't get the original screws so I had to improvise. The rear are brass-like construction screws, The front are gold P90 screws. Use what ya got. Black chrome neck plate and bushing. Glamour shot before I get into the wiring. IDK if I'll be able to finish it up tonight, so this might be all ya get for another week.
  12. I want to hear a "Strat" with 3 Tele bridge pups. BUT..... as it's the copper base plate that makes the magic, a traditional Strat set with baseplates would be just as interesting. Planet Tone said they would make them for an additional $15/ea. A 1/16" copper sheet is <$10 on Amazon. Makes me wanna try it out.
  13. I've come to enjoy Alnico II. V is versatile and a safe go-to, but it's also become generic. And magnetized rubber magnets like you'll find in the cheap Tiescos. They have a really cool vibe you can't get with anything else. Nobody that I'm aware of will use what is equavalent to a refrigerator magnet to make an accurate reproduction. They'll use A-V, but that sounds completely different.
  14. I'VE GONE NUTS!!! More accurately: I've gone string guide. I use a zero fret, so the nut is reduced to a string guide to hold them in proper position. This allows me to make it from wood matching the fretboard. In this case, cherry. Next is to drill the tuner holes and re-oil some bits. Then I can finally go on to final assembly.
  15. For the past couple of months, I've been going further and further down the rabbit hole of pickup theory and construction. The magnet type comparisons have REALLY opened my eyes... or ears as it were. These two dudes have been an invaluable source of information: https://www.youtube.com/@CSGuitars https://www.youtube.com/@DylanTalksTone They both cut through the marketing, voodoo, and various other piles of BS and get to the real, unbiased information.
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