Mickguard

Oh no. Not you. I mean, it's nice and all that you came trolling on back to the forum. But you really ought to stay out of this. Obviously you see nothing wrong with anything Wes writes (unless you're in direct conflict with him, that is, since I believe Wes was why you dropped out of the forum the last time), because you enjoy taking the same role.

You don't know when to give up, do you? I mean, I could enter into a discussion about what is and what is not creativity and whether it is in fact even possible to be "more" creative than someone else. But that would be pointless with you, since macho posturing is more your thing. But if you want macho, I can play that too, and much harder than you: To me you're an intellectual dwarf. You're far below who I am, and always will be. And if we were face to face, I would make you cry within five minutes. Whatever you might have to say about me --or anyone else for that matter--is completely and utterly meaningless. But you already know this, and that is why you come to a guitar builders' forum to fluff up your sorry ego. I do believe it's time for you to bow out of the forum again, cool off, sort out whatever problems you're having in your personal life. Then if you're able to come back here with a willingness to contribute in a positive, friendly manner, by all means do so. In the meantime, you have overstepped your role as moderator and should be removed from that status right away.

Spoken like a true unartist.

Well, I'm interested in what the single-coil is going to sound like. I have a humbucker in there right now, but I find the tone less focused than what I want. And I'll be able to mount half the precision without having to dismantle the entire guitar (much less route for the second half).

I've been playing around with a dual circuit on my baritone -- the neck and bridge pickups each have their own circuit, so I have two jacks. The bridge pickup feeds a Vox AC15, the neck pickup feeds my new Fender Rumble. Right now I have a standard guitar humbucker at the neck, but I'd like to experiment with placing half of a Precision pickup set there instead -- this will focus that circuit mostly on the bass strings. I have a Fender MIM Precision set -- there's a blue wire connecting the two halves to each other. The white lead attaches to Half One. The black ground attaches to the Half Two. Am I'm right in thinking that I should connect the black ground to the blue wire's pole on Half One?

I don't see where that's significantly different from a Strat shape. I like the look of some of Zachary's designs too. But when you see someone holding one, they always look too small to be comfortable. Anyone mention Scott French's designs? I think he puts a lot of care into his models.

I was under the impression that most of those amp walls are fake, just props for the show. And even if they're real, I'd say it's just more codpiece stuffing. Which may not be gay, but it IS queer -- since most of the audience for this type of tight-spandex endless solo-noodling music is male. Think about it.

I picked up a set of Filtertron-style humbuckers from the guy behind Eastwood Guitars a while back...been looking for a guitar to put them in. Sounds really great--surprisingly huge bass sound (through a 2x12 cabinet). I plan on picking up a bass amp with a 15" speaker tomorrow, should add some punch. I think this string set is a good compromise -- it's still playable as a guitar, but it also feels like a bass when you're playing the bass strings. I tried tuning down to A, but I found it lost a lot of clarity and presence -- maybe thicker strings would restore the snap? I'll try them out next string change. I'm still toying with the idea of splitting a Precision pickup for the bass side.

I'm lacking patience for a full-scale build these days -- I'm more into making music than making guitars. And I really wanted/needed a baritone NOW, not in the six or eight months it will take for me to build one. So I was eying my guitars...and my gaze fell on my trusty ol' Univox Hi-Flyer bass...hmm, thinks I, bet it wouldn't take much to convert that to a baritone...and since the Hi-flyer is a complete beater, it wouldn't matter what it looks like. Only took a couple afternoons. I had to adjust the neck pocket for the Dano baritone neck, but the bass was already routed for humbuckers -- and since the bass is almost the same scale as the baritone neck, the pickup positions work just fine. Just needed a new bridge, correctly placed. I ended up using a vintage-tremelo type bridge, keeping the sustain block, but mounted as a hardtail. While I was at it, I went ahead with the idea of having separate circuits and output jacks for the two pickups, so I can process each signal differently. Right now it's strung up with .13 - .56, since that was they had at the store. Which means I could use the full set of Grovers on there. It's tuned to B -E- A- D -G -B right now, but I think I can go down to A without problem. Not sure if I'll want to go to thicker strings, since these already seem really beefy and give a nice thump. Maybe if I decide to tune it as a Bass VI...it depends on how I end up using it. I have a feeling I'll end up playing bass with it more than guitar (since a lot of the guitar I play in my band is basically just bass riffs with noisy open strings). Also because I really like my other guitar (a Hofner Verythin) and want to keep using that for a lot of our songs. I'm really surprised by how full the tone is -- and it feels a lot like playing bass, at least on the low strings. The guitar still needs a major setup, but I haven't had time yet, since I'm trying it out at band practice tonight. The separate circuits seems to work great though -- just a volume and jack for each pickup. I'm going to need a bass amp now. And a ring modulator for the guitar side! Meanwhile, I used the Hi-flyer body to make a template, in case I decide to stick with this body style for the full build. My other option would be another longhorn, but I'm not sure how comfortable that will be to play.

Well, at the risk of riling feathers, what's so special about the guy's bridges? I mean, why are they so much better than anything that, say, Gotoh makes? Are there design differences that make the part interesting (like a Trem King, for example, where the guy clearly spent a lot of time redesigning the wheel). Is this another overhyped voodoo product or what? Just curious.

I couldn't find any info on his site, other than that the company's name changed. Unless his site only works with IE? I didn't bother to use google, so I don't know what other people are saying. I guess his web site fits in with his lack of communications skills.

Well, it can take up to two weeks for the package to reach him from Hong Kong, then a few extra days for him to ship the package to you. Seriously, there is no indication whatsoever that this company actually makes these parts. There's nothing at all to indicate that they are in any way different from any other similarly manufactured part coming from any one of a number of Chinese factories. And the fact that he didn't respond promptly (it's not like he'd be receiving hundreds of orders every day...unless he's actually responding from the office in Guangdong) and only after launching a dispute-and then is trying to hold you hostage before he'll finally ship the part-- pretty much tells you what you need to know. Do not end the dispute until you have received the part.

Man, if I had a dollar for every screwup I've made from getting ahead of myself, I'd have enough to buy a guitar... Biggest thing I've learned from building is patience. As long as you're already heavily into repairs on this thing, I'd pull the bridge, fill the hole and redo it.

I think you should leave it the way it is -- don't paint it, don't worry about the glue line, and leave the logo like that -- looks cool, and it's part of the 'history' of the guitar now. Nice job on the fix.

Ouch. That better be one magical setup. For that price, you can take a holiday to France, and get a setup for 40 euros (includes a new set of strings at least). And you can say you took the strat on a world tour. Anyway, try redoing the setup as I suggested -- I think the thing you were doing wrong was holding down the string at the end of the neck -- which doesn't allow you to measure the relief properly. So you ended up flattening the board too much. Which led to buzzing.