unclej

thanks joe..even though that didn't turn out to be the problem that's the information that i was looking for. i checked all of the components and the power supply and and couldn't find anything wrong. he had added one of those little "hot-rod" kits, some capacitors that were supposed to beef it up or make it louder, so i re-heated all of his solder joints and then re-tensioned the tube sockets and one of those fixed it. probably a cold solder but it doesn't matter now..it's fixed.. thanks again john

i took in an original champ today that sounded like it had a blown speaker..breaking up at around 3 on the volume knob. i tested it with two other known good speakers with the same result. all three of those great huge electrolytics are good leading me to look at the resistors next which i'll do in the morning. my question isn't about troubleshooting but about the physical function of a resistor. if my problem is indeed caused by a weak or open resistor what is actually happening to the circuit that causes this sound? too much current or too little and what is it effecting? consider this part of old uncle johnny's continuing education and thanks.

personally if you can't get any movement out of the crack i'd just leave it alone and check it every month or so to see if it has weakened.

when wet sanding between coats of tung oil just use tung oil as your lubricating agent. and you really only need to do it once or twice. wet sanding with tung oil creates a slurry (tung oil and fine sanding dust) and fills the pores so that the tung oil builds up a bit quicker. what you're doing with any oil finish is building up very thin layers of the finish until you get the patina that you like. if you sand with water between coats you are defeating your purpose and removing coats. hope that helps and good luck

that appears to be a dean flying v..could be their re-issure. that silver looking v is just a piece of metal with holes through it for a string through the body system. i don't remember what the bridge is exactly but i have one at the shop and if you like i'll check in the morning when i go to work.

the main purpose of bending your frets is to get the two ends to seat first. if the fret was flat you can picture how the center of the fret would be seated first and the ends wouldn't follow the radius of the fretboard. with that in mind you don't have to get overly technical with how much you bend them. just make sure that when you're finished the ends touch the fretboard well before the center does and you'll be fine.

thanks for the offer of the schematic joe but it's fixed, screwed back together and waiting for the customer to pick up in the morning so hopefully i won't be needing one. paul, you're exactly right..and i should know better. my dad was an auto mechanic and one of the first lessons he taught me was to look for the obvious and the easiest fix. 90% of the time that's it. anyway, another amp lesson learned and hopefully stored in the old brain pan. thanks again guys john

joe..you are my hero for today. that's exactly what it was. i had pulled the chasis and had jumpers running to the speaker but the reverb was unplugged. dropped the chasis back in, plugged the reverb in and squeal gone. i did the happy dance. i really do appreciate it..this one was driving me crazy. i wonder why it's the obvious that always escapes me. by the way, it's an x-100-d. i finally found it printed on the circuit board. i still think it's a wierd way to run a company but whadayagonnado? thanks again to both of you for your help. john

thanks paul..i'll give that a try first thing in the morning.

ok, i hate to be a thread hog and i'm getting to where i hate to ask for help but this carvin has got me stumped. i don't know what model it is but it's a tube amp on a pc board. it has a rhythm volume with a push/pull 1meg pot controling volume and bright. then it has the same type of pot that says master/boost. next is lead drive/on and lastly master/high lead. two of the pots were bad and after replacing them i get sound out of both channels but i'm getting a very high pitched squeal not. the volume control will raise and lower the volume of the squeal. it doesn't over power the sound of a guitar..it's more like it's in the background. one lead from each of the pots terminates into a small value resistor..is one of those the likely reason for this squeal? thanks john

Have you tried calling Carvin? 800 854 2235 mk no i haven't and thanks for the number..i actually just felt like ranting a bit but i was smiling the whole time. it just seems like an odd way to do things.

i'm working on the first carvin amp that i actually need a schematic for and am about to kick my cat. the first thing i noticed was that there's no model designation so i try to track the serial number..yeah, right. i can narrow it down to a decade because of the speaker..lotta good that does. come to think of it i may kick your cat too. i may actually get by without a schematic but how do you guys with a lot more experience in amp repair find the info you need on these things? and who's in charge of that company anyway. i think i'll go kick his cat.

i've never worked with limba so i don't know what kind of worms burrow into it. however, i have worked a lot with mesquite which can also have larvae in it and i've found live larvae after the wood has been in my shop for over a year. i guess you're going to have to make your decision based on the reputation of the company supplying the wood. if they've been around a while they're probably telling you the truth. good luck

i tease him and his wife all the time about being vegetarians and tree huggers..even though i actually do respect them for their dedication to their views.. and they've got a good sense of humor about it. when they recently returned from a trip to san francisco they brought me a refrigerator magnet that has one of my all time favorite vegetarian jokes printed on it.. "vegetarian is an indian word for bad hunter."

good morning all..motus, i thought about felt and aj, i even thought about getting good old mom to make me some sleeves on her sewing maching but i've actually decided on a leatherette fabric wrapped around the dowell like a golf club handle. i had an old amp cabinet with a light tan colored covering and cut a piece off and it looks great. i have a buddy who upholsters and he's bringing me some scraps to work with. when i get one finished up i'll post a pic or two and see what everyone thinks. thanks for the input

good morning jupiter..there are several things that could be causing the problem you describe. when a guitar comes into my shop with those symptoms the first thing i do is check the neck relief..the straightness of the neck. if, once the relief is set, there's still buzzing on some of the strings but not all of them the next thing i check is the saddle height..and i suspect that might be your problem. if the g string saddle is slightly lower than the a it will buzz when the a won't. the strings should follow the radius of the fretboard and the easiest way to find out what that height should be is to go to the fender guitar website and check out their setup specs. get yourself a little metal ruler that has inches on one edge and a metric rule on the other. if memory serves me the e, a and d strings should be two mm above the 17th fret and g, b and high e should be 1.6 mm. if you still have a buzzing after getting the proper neck relief and and proper saddle adjustment then you may, indeed, have a high fret. try that and let us know if it fixes the problem or not. good luck.

thanks for the suggestions all..the latex won't work..i mean it would work but not on these particular hangers. they're going to be pretty expensive and need to look a little classier than that..ditto the heater hose..though that one appeals to the redneck in me. the cork has possibilities..i hadn't thought of that. i may also try wrapping a thin strip of tolex around them like a golf club handle.

i started to put this in the off topic chat section but i thought i might get more exposure and answers here. i'm making some custom guitar wall hangers for my business partner to offer on his bass guitar website. i'm using 5/8" dowells for the actual hanging mechanism and haven't been able to find a suitable material to pad them with. leather is out..he hugs trees and eats vegetables and all that. here's my question..his guitars and necks are finished with an oil finish. if i shot poly on the dowells and let it cure completely what problems might i run into leaving them that way and not wraping or coating them at all?

i can't thing of a reason in the world, sonic or otherwise, that orienting the grain at an off angle would have any negative effects. someone with a negative experience with it may tell you different and i don't think i'd put the grain perpendicular to the neck but a slight angle shouldn't be a problem.

well that was cooler'n fourteen little sonamaguns. worked like a charm. of course it was the last one that i checked instead of the first one but it was extremely easy and i didn't blow anything up and i didn't fry myself and i didn't even have to pull the pc board..just clipped the bad one off and soldered the new one onto the old leads. problem solved. by the way..i knew in theory that electrolytics would re-charge themselves but i'd never measured it until today. the first one i tested was 47uf, 500v and i discharged the whole system before i removed it from the test leads. out of curiosity i put the meter on it right after taking it out and sat and watched it build up a charge. in the book of electronics for dummies is there a simple explanation for why that happens?

thanks gentlemen.. lk..you may remember that i posted some time ago that i had connected an electrolytic backwards and sent flaming shrapnel all over my work bench and my favorite grateful dead t-shirt. i did shock myself pretty good being a little careless with them once..now i'm cautious to a fault. i'll try the jumper test this morning when i go in and let everyone know how it works.

i've got a fairly new fender deluxe in the shop for repair..basic case of motorboating in the overdrive channel. (if you play with the drive control knob you can make it rev up and then take off real fast) anyway, i remembered a thread i started some time ago and looked it up to find this quote: "In case you didn't think of this, one way to test for open filter caps is to hold a new capacitor of equal (or even a bit greater) value on underside of the pc board on the pins of the suspect capacitor (connected in parallel with it IOW) and see if it makes the oscillations stop." any reason i can't take two small jumpers with alligator clips and connect a new cap to the old one..pos to pos, neg to neg and see if it stops? makes perfect sense to me but then i've been known to blow stuff up while making perfect sense before. by the way..in the quote above he uses the initials IOW..whazatmean?

i did a couple of things when i started researching my first acoustic build. first i joined this forum: http://www.acousticguitar.com/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi there are some extremely knowledeable builders there and they are very helpful. next, while researching various aspects of the building process i came across this website. http://www.hoffmanguitars.com/ charles is an accomplished builder and a moderator at the acoustic guitar forum. his site has a step by step description of the building process that was very helpful. it's not a building guide per se but a description of how he does it. you'll need a couple of books i would imagine and a lot of research. you'll need to build or buy some new tools. it's a whole different ball of wax but fun and satisfying. good luck. john

well, the first thing you should do is read this guy's tutorial on working with electronics on hollow bodies.. http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=21345 he reallyl knows his stuff. then carefully plan what it is that you're trying to accomplish..what sound are you looking for and will new pickups give you that sound..if so measure everything out and make sure that the new pups will fit into the space available..you're not only likely to have to cut holes in the top of the guitar but enlarge the notches in the pickguard as well..then you have to decide if you have the skill to do those two things without messing up a beautiful instrument... does the guitar have any collector value at present and will modifying it ruin that value. even though there's a lot you should think about there's nothing terribly difficult about accomplishing it if you have the proper skills and tools. good luck.

let me suggest that before you worry too much about the neck you install a tailpiece and bridge then string it up and see if you actually have a problem or not. good luck with it.