mikhailgtrski

Good advice as always, Setch. The first neck will be mahogany for sure. I'll see how that one goes before touching the BRW. I will likely be doing a lot of the work under the guidance of a friend that has his own bass luthiery business (and some nifty tools in his shop) so perhaps the learning curve will shorten up a bit with some good tutelage.

OK, if you've been following along... The plan for my next two projects is: a solid body singlecut and a semi-hollow singlecut. Both will have a mahogany back and a carved maple cap. The necks were both going to be mahogany, but now I have a brazilian rosewood board on the way that might work out as a neck blank. I've played exactly (1) guitar with a rosewood neck... of course it was at a Guitar Center, so it wasn't exactly the ideal environment for listening for subtle nuances and comparing it to a similar guitar with a mahogany neck. From what I can tell, a rosewood neck will tend to have a little more midrange clarity than mahogany, so my gut tells me it would complement the rounder, woodier tone of a semi-hollow body. But I'm just guessing here. Whatdya think? Thanks for your input. Mike

IIRC Rich said he wiped on some shellac for the pic. Now that it's actually resawn, the raw wood is much whiter.

Maybe they dreamed of having the side dots on the correct side.

I have an old MXR Dynacomp that I used in the early '80s for a lead boost. It's somewhere in the attic now, gathering dust. I don't have much use for a compressor anymore, though they can be fun if you want that Fixx/Jamie West-Oram compressed-semi-clean-chorused-strat sound. Mike

Nice. No, Ridgid isn't a K-Mart el cheapo brand. They've been in business a long time manufacturing industrial pipe threading equipment, etc. I think most of their newer power tools are made in China now, but the ones I've looked at seem to be very solid, good quality. Mike

Yes, I think most HVLPs require more air than most lower-end compressors can provide. I have one of the C-H detail guns ($25 on sale at Lowes, I think) and it does a decent job. Drak is right, it's all about learning to operate the thing, and learning what lacquer/thinner/retarder ratios work. Not all lacquers are created equal, so you really have to know what you're working with. I learned the hard way. Fortunately Drak was there to talk me through it. IMHO I'd suggest: 1) Get the "Guitar Finishing Step-By-Step" book from Stewmac and read it several times. Plus any other good finishing books you can get your hands on. 2) Watch the "Spray Finishing Basics" VHS, also from Stewmac. Over and over. 3) Invest in the best compressor you can afford. I had nothing but trouble with some of the lower-end units, until I got my Craftsman. The more CFM the better, in case you decide to upgrade your gun later. 4) Start out with a standard spray gun and practice practice practice. You'll start to get the hang of it after 20 coats or so. 5) Have fun with it! Once you get a feel for it and you start laying down nice, glassy coats you'll be hooked. Mike

FWIW I've got an LR Baggs T-Bridge and it gives me a nice faux acoustic sound (run it separate from the magnetics into the PA, with just a little eq tweaking), good enough to have a few guitar players in the audience looking around for the hidden acoustic player. I'm guessing their X-Bridge (Strat trem) would sound just as good. It wouldn't require any more routing than a standard trem. A little more wiring, but it's not rocket science. Mike

My Warmoth jazz is 5/8"... pretty sure that's standard Fender spec.

Bummer... sorry to hear that. (You forgot to take the talon out, right? ) Good luck - hopefully you'll find something with better hours, too. Mike

It helps, especially when you start getting into more theory-intensive stuff (like modes ). I pretty much learned scales as shapes, aka "the blues box" method, and I still play primarily "by shape" and "by ear". But I can also figure out what notes are in the shapes too. But not always on the fly.

There are noise reduction mods out there. I think they involve swapping out capacitors and replacing some of the op-amps. Mine is very quiet. The cathode-follower mod reduces the gain somewhat, but it still has more than I'll ever use. I run the MP-1 into a cranked tube power amp, which gives me most of the crunchiness. I get a little hiss if I crank OD1 up past 6 or so, but I think it sounds better with OD1 fairly low and OD2 cranked anyway. I have a Hush Super C in my rack, but it really doesn't have much noise to deal with. I haven't had much time to work with it, but my first impressions are that the higher gain patches on the MP-1 are a little thicker, and a little more open sounding than the JMP-1, but the cleans don't seem to be quite as glassy. It might just need some eq tweaks. Mike

Or "dissident" according to that web page. IIRC, Locrian sounds more like "jazz" than "dark metal". Phrygian perhaps. Unless you're going for something really "out", the chords you're playing over will dictate which mode or scale fits. It doesn't really work to grab any mode at random and expect it to sound right, unless it's played over a chord progression that works with that mode. If you sit down and spell out each chord in a progression, you can begin to see which notes are common, then you can find the scale(s) or mode(s) that works over that progression. Take a simple I - IV - vi - V progression in G: G = G B D C = C E G Em = E G B D = D F# A The common notes are found in the G major scale: G A B C D E F# If you play a G major major scale over that I - IV - vi - V progression, you're actually playing different modes over each chord: G (I) = G ionian C (IV) = C lydian Em (vi) = E aeolian D (V) = D mixolydian It might be difficult to pick this modal thing up if you've only learned modes as shapes. You really need to know what notes you're playing in order to choose a mode that works. Sorry if that's a bit basic, and maybe you've already figured it out, but it's a starting point. Mike

[quote name='mikhailgtrski' post='283950' date='Aug 15 2006, 08:20 AM'] I think I just posted this recently, but I just reworked the amp rack, so here goes... Warmoth VIP (custom) Warmoth Soloist ADA MP-1 (w/ 4th stage cathode-follower mod) Lexicon Signature 284 Hush Super C Alesis Q20 Marshall 8008 Marshall 1936 2x12 w/ Celestion G12H-30 Anniversaries ART X-15 Ultrafoot [/quote] and a pic... [img]http://home.comcast.net/~going2spain/mikhailgtrski/gearpic.jpg[/img]

I recently rediscovered my old ADA MP-1 preamp. I performed the last tube cathode-follower mod (from www.adadepot.com) last night and I'm really liking it a lot. Much more plexi-like. It has replaced my Marshall JMP-1 (which had power supply transformer noise issues). Just curious what other players are using... Mike

Dredging up old threads, are we? I think I just posted this recently, but I just reworked the amp rack, so here goes... Warmoth VIP (custom) ADA MP-1 (w/ 4th stage cathode follower mod) Lexicon Signature 284 Hush Super C Alesis Q20 Marshall 8008 Marshall 1936 2x12 w/ Celestion G12H-30 Anniversaries ART X-15 Ultrafoot

Actually, for the most part Geddy tends to play over the neck p/u quite a bit, sometimes between the pickups. For pickups, the SD/Basslines vintage jazz are nice - I have a set in my 5-stringer and I'm pretty happy with the tone. Lindy Fralins are supposed to be "it" if you want a dead-on accurate early 60's jazz tone. Nordstrands are good too. Check out the talkbass.com forum if you really want a lot of bass-centric info.

From the Graphtech site FAQ: "First, it is not graphite. The technical name is boron polytrinate." "Ghost piezo saddles are made of a non-conductive composite material, meaning that the strings are no longer connected to ground." I'm assuming their Stringsaver and Ghost saddles are made of the same boron polytrinate material. FWIW

Not a problem... unless you're using Graphtech saddles.

My bad - I had Solar Lux confused with something else. BTW - Behlen has a retarder for this stuff, if you need more working time to avoid lap marks.

Good ol' H20, although I did use alcohol on a rag to scrub out the red (part of the technique). You can mix the Colortone with alcohol, but it dries faster and gives you a little less time to work with it.

I haven't tried any of the powdered dyes. I know Drak uses the Solar Lux stuff with excellent results. I use the Colortone dyes, which mix with water or alcohol. I've dyed both maple and mahogany (bare wood) with really good results - no blotchiness whatsoever. I think part of the trick is knowing how much to apply and working quickly. Dan Erlewine used Colortone blue for the maple/alder thinline in the Trade Secrets tutorial. Mike

No problem. You've got a double-pole switch (aka DPDT center-on). It's basically two of the switches I described in one common housing. Just use one side of it.

( X = pole, +++ indicates continuity. --- indicates no continuity ) "UP" position = X +++ X --- X Center position = X +++ X +++ X "DOWN" position = X +++ X --- X The center pole is your common, which should be connected to the hot terminal on your volume pot. One outside pole is connected to the neck pickup hot lead, the other pole to the bridge pickup hot lead. If the switching turns out "backwards" just swap the outside poles. Hope that helps.

True. But the right gear -when used correctly- will make the most of the tone coming off those fingers. How do you like your ax84?