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thedoctor

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Everything posted by thedoctor

  1. thedoctor
    Since the noise is better when you touch the JACK, what are the chances you have your output to jack reversed? I know, I know. It can't be that simple but I've done it more than once.
  2. thedoctor
    I think the relic from "way back when" is a Rickenbacher with "RicoSound". Was a lot lame but did supply two signal paths. Just be careful with those "way back when"s. There are seniors listening.
  3. thedoctor
    Your numbers are correct. That is one old booger if it uses a 6SL6 or 7 as a splitter. Course, you got tubes with external HV, also. Old. Good iron, I'll bet. Full speed ahead. Lovecraft, if you can fit em in, pry the can apart at the bottom and yank the socket out. Drill and scrape that lovely goo out and fit the new ones inside with a good heatshrink on the leads. I haven't had any heat problems with that but my amps seldom get over "6" anymore. At least thats what my wife says. NO lol.
  4. thedoctor
    That's a lot better than what I had. You didn't even have the bitmap to start with. Back to software, I guess. Thanks, much! You don't have to show me but once.
  5. thedoctor
    JohnnyG, you're breakin my heart. Those old cap color codes were all I knew fer years. You read them clockwise from the top/left. The silver dot should be bottom/center. It's been years but here goes: black-0 brown-1 red-2 orange-3 yellow-4 green 5 blue-6 violet-7 gray-8 white-9 Starting from top/left is: TYPE-ignore top/center-1st digit top/right-2nd digit bottom/right-multiplier bottom/center- tolerance class-ignore As for JJ replc. caps, I don't know them by that name. Sounds like repackaged mil. spec stuff to me. Let me know where to see some. Three 6v6s? single-push dual-pull? That's a tube joke.lol
  6. thedoctor
    Mine is the walnut one labeled MVU. I shot it at angle, from the top, never used a flash, moved the lights, AAAGHHH!!! I did find that the truly gloss finished guitars photograph a little better but not consistently.
  7. thedoctor
    In this case, you learn something old everyday. JohnnyG, I use an old Bogen PA amp as a converted guitar amp. It has some strange pentode power tubes in it and every cap was bad when I got it. WE CAN FIX YOURS! Give me as much info as you can find on it and I will get you a schematic and help you test/modify. Nothing as cool as one of those old spaceheaters sitting behind you!
  8. thedoctor
    OOPS! Forgot to address two things. It is in-capacitated. I got two reasons to say that cap is bad. A bad output tube is the major culprit for all the damage he reported and the cap took everything that resistor didn't. Also, look at that disgustingly clear,detailed picture of the bottom of that cap. That is burnt seperator paste coming out the unused tab slot. Age has its benefits only if you remember your mistakes.
  9. thedoctor
    Yeah, twenty years is definately the death knell for paper/foil caps. If you want to test old caps to see if they are worth reforming, use a standard capacitance meter or an ANALOG voltmeter. Digital meters got no place here. Look for leakage at the X10k scale. The real test is to hook them to a power supply capable of hitting their max voltage rating and slowly charge them. If they are still in one piece at full voltage, put em in. By the way, don't forget that a good one will hold power for weels! Ruin your whole damn day. Don't discharge a cap by shorting it. Discharge with a 250 ohm resistor for about 10 seconds. justradios.com has lots of high-voltage caps for sale but limited metal can stuff. You got the scematic so just leave the can in place and buy three modern electrolytics of equal or higher rating and hide them.
  10. thedoctor
    Yeah. A good example is my Studio bass in Warmoth's customer Gecko bass gallery. That is the BEST picture I have EVER got and it has that washed-out fog in the finish(it ain't really there) and total lack of detail. I get weak color and those stupid hash marks on the strings. I thought it was low-def problem but I borrowed my son's Sony professional 4meg camera and they are no better. He can't get decent pictures of guitars, either and he runs a videography studio! I think my stuff is camera-shy. Or I try too hard.
  11. thedoctor
    What were the Sunn Model 3 cabinets built for? Are they PA cabs or what? They are ported with two 12" Eminence and a 2" horn in each. Look too nice to just sit around.
  12. thedoctor
    Okay, I give up. How do you guys get such great pictures of your guitars, amps, projects? My stuff all seems to be camera-shy. I have tried neutral backdrops, photo floods, 4 meg Sony cameras, software, the works. You guys can throw an axe on the floor and get excellant detail. Mine all look like the assembly instructions for a mudpie. Assist an old man.
  13. thedoctor
    Bassman. Two things. That pot with the superlong shafts can be shortened quite a bit. However, if you found a concentric pot and knobs that suits you in standard(3/8"-1/2") bushing length, just give me the bushing thread size and I will send you one of the "barrel nuts" I'm trying to explain to you. It will allow you to mount the pot 3/4" behind the face of the top/bridge as you explained. I just hope the shafts are long enough to mount the knobs on a standard pot. I found CTS concentric 25k pots with 1" long bushings at Digikey but leadtime is 2 mo. and they are $41.00 in quantities of 25. BummR
  14. thedoctor
    That cap is bad as well as at least one output tube. If you want that exact cap as a replacement, go to the oldest, smallest TV repair shop you can find and they will have a dusty cardboard box full of misc. Sprague canned caps like this in variuos voltages, values, etc. Get one with the same or higher(not more than 50%) mfd rating and the same or higher voltage rating. This replacement will also be bad. It wil need "reforming" which is done by applying the operating voltage/current slowly while it reforms the oxide layer that lets it capacitate. New word, capacitate. Cool. Put a lightbulb socket in series with one wire of the AC line cord. Screw in a 15 watt bulb and turn it on for a day. Then screw in a 50 watt bulb and run it for a day. Don't do this if it has a rectifier tube instead of silicon diodes as it could crunch the rectifier tube.
  15. thedoctor
    The small plane is very nice for the mahogany. Just draw some nice contour boundries in pencil and stay the hell away from them. I have more trouble with birdseye and planing. Doesn't always plane without little "pullouts" that make smoothing a task. I have had good luck with those dumb rotary rasp drums that you put in a drill. I have also seen guys use a plain disc sander with really coarse discs get vey nice concave carving. Sawdust absolutely everywhere! Just stay away from your contour lines and go slow. Appreciate what you have done so far before doing more.
  16. thedoctor
    EKOs are neat. They weren't made right for export and most of the ones I've seen are in complete shambles. Neat word, shambles. I vote for the new spruce top. Complete refinish. I believe this is the perfect guitar to make into whatever you want. It's luckky to be in your hands instead of some dumpster.
  17. thedoctor
    My father and I cut lumber from the late 50's to the early 90's and in his infinite wisdom he squirreled away massive amounts of the best walnut, ash, cherry and elm in full 8/4 sawmill-cut slabs 6 to 10 feet long. He passed away 3 years ago and I recieved my share of it due to the fact my truck was empty. It wasn't the prettiest stuff but I,m working with my dad's legacy here and pride comes to the front. My first bass is in Warmoth's customer gallery complete with the unfilled wormholes. It won't win any prizes but it jumps up on my lap and drives me to play. THAT is what building your own axe is all about. Look at it and you are looking at my father.
  18. thedoctor
    If you are going with through-body strings, I don't have an issue with the lack of wood around the bridge. I think, however, the top should be covered in wood with the leather on top of it. The sound will be inside your cavity for all practical purposes and an accoustic pickup would put it up front for ya jus fine. Don't even think about those little tin-can condensor mikes. I use them to fire the exhaust pipes on the HotRod Spencer bass and when I amplified the signal for grins it was awful! Phiezo would be my choice with blend pots instead of selector switch. All passive.
  19. thedoctor
    Printless. Buying a neck is not cheating. Buying a body is not cheating. The result is all that matters. If you be happy wid it, it be fine. I like to pattern bodies after bugs. Butterflies, wasps, bees, pillbox beetles, rolly-pollies, etc. Just pick sumpin you like and got a lot of and morph it into your axe. Girls? Hamburgers? Mastercard bills? Take a look at the complete line of Warmoth body styles and see if any come close to you. Also, check out their blank headstock option for bass necks. You can get creative with one of dem.
  20. thedoctor
    If you have a vise or good clamping surface, you could use the spokeshave to create your arm flat SLOWLY. Don't know the wood you got but be careful not to get into one of those progressively-deeper grain splinters. If you can see the grain angle from the side, try to start your draw from the low side so your tool does tend to dive deeper into the wood. Did I mention going slow? Files and rasps are better if you don't have a plane. The belly pan just needs rasped. Is that a word? Rasped. Rasped. Rasped. I guess it is now! Too early. Must Have Coffee!
  21. thedoctor
    Depends on pull-down radius at the bridge but doesn't vary much except on very loose strung, short-scales. 2.2 to 2.4 times each string diameter.
  22. thedoctor
    If you have 4-wire humbuckers, use it to switch series/parallel on your neck pickup. It is the easiest thing you can do with it that will actually be useful. If not, put a dashlight beside the bridge. There were nights I could of used one.
  23. thedoctor
    Yeah, I used to use them on monster neck 5-string basses. Low noise, clean powerful signal, clear highs and no character whatsoever. Sterile, you could say. A VMC by EMG is bare minimum. A full 3-band Angulair whould be even better. Go 18volt for sure. No dyn.range/headroom at 9volt. Don't set them as close to the strings as EMG tells you to. Gets in the way when you fall headfirst "in the groove". I hate when that happens.
  24. thedoctor
    The most common on-on-on switch is a double pole(6-pin) That is so you can externally wire the function of the switch. Don't mix them up with on-off-on DPDT switches that look and feel exactly the same but advance switch closure one side at a time to give you the real 'on' state in the middle position. Also, if you want to coil-tap you are going to need two push-pull pots; one for each pickup or they will be forever in parallel. Or series, I guess. If your pickups are already 4-wire,cool. If not I scored a 100' roll of super small, super tough full-shielded cable designed for phonograph player cartridge arms. Xtra good to work with/solder,etc.
  25. thedoctor
    Ian. I just found a C&K switch that doesn't have numbers printed on it. If your switch doesn't have printed numbers, they are as follows, looking at the back: 1- bottom/right 2- middle/right 3- top/right 4- bottom/left 5- middle/left 6- top/left
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