gripper

Whoa!! I just finished a long search about shielding and saw a link luvcraft posted about shielding a Tele. It said that some people take the metal cover off the neck pickup for more something. This may be what I have been looking for. What kind of change might I see on a Fender noiseless with the cover removed? I saw one changed for a gold cover and it looks like you just have to respect the windings while you desolder the little tabs. I can expect some more humm but more ANYTHING whould be welcome. I would also think that the potting parafin would have to be removed to avoid a mess.

I am sure it is a real personal thing but I have noticed that the guitars that attract my attention lately have very low string-to-nut and string-to-bridge/saddle angles. Low-angled headstocks, no string trees and trapeze tailpieces. Maybe I am finding my "grail", holy or otherwise. There is a whole world of thoughts about how the bending of the string at the bridge/nut and the downforce of the string at the same places affect tone/sustain/harmonics. It is not for me to say anything but what I am leaning towards.

chukie, I am SOOOO close! The white stuff cleaned up with wet-sanding and the seam is all but gone. I used the thinner CA like you said and the binding is now all tight to the thin top and looks OK. Now I think I have to either leave it as is with the little seams showing or try to spot repair the finish. I am thinking leave it. How long will a gluejob using CA last? I sort of thought of this stuff as a temporary fix or a half-way measure. After reading all the stuff using search about adhesives, I guess this is used fairly often. Will I have any special problems if I try to fix or hide the seams because they have CA in them or can I just treat it as the FOURTH time I had to fix the finish on my first semisuccessful build? In case anyone ever tries to tell you otherwise, coffe and chewing tobacco do not make a good wood stain.

ccbryan, welcome to the confusion! I am going to use some of my graduation money to buy one of these but the custom shop wants ANOTHER $230.00 to put P-90s on it and I think you might be right in that they may be very similar with the standard pickups. What do you think the chances are they will send me one to try for a month or two with the P-90s installed before I buy? Might be better off just offing the guy I have the 135 borrowed from and leave the country. I'll miss him, though.

If you are using a string tree or your headstock is angled enough to keep the strings in the fretboard grooves, I can't see a problem. I have also seen an upside-down nut made out of metal that screwed down like a string tree but had slots in it. I kinda thought it was a little ugly but it was on a fretless 4-string that was not that pretty to begin with.

Well, that 135 you refered to says it has P-100s on it. The new 137s say they have 490 and 498 humbuckers. I was probly misled to believe they were similar to the P-90s. I get seriously confused on these issues particularly when they made them so many different ways.

I love the Epi Casino but it sure isn't for everybody. That trapeze taipiece is something you have to be sure you can live with before you buy. 3 out of 4 Beatles can't be wrong! Ringo would have bought one but Bach had all his money.

pegasus, that was his exact complaint. The ones he has tried do not play in tune. I don't know if you are connected with the Pegasus supply people but I was thinking of getting on of those kits and building him one. I just hope the humidity stuff you are talking about aren't the main problem. He lives in Minneapolis and it is HARD on instruments during the winter. He has to keep two differant nuts for his J-200 just to keep it playable during the winter.

I am SOOOO happy to see the responses to this question!! The only problem I have EVER had with a Warmoth neck was the nut and the fret-level. The nuts are always high (I think on purpose) and you find the occasional fret that could have been touched up a bit. I suck on filing nuts because I go too far on the first file (always) so if you want to be safe, buy one extra nut, for like $4.00, and plan on using it as recieved! Their bodies are a differant story but that was not your question.

You didn't put in a spot to vote for the refrigerator. Gotta #1 with the drill press right behind it!

Another newbie here but I think you need to get all the old poly of because laquers react badly with poly. Really should be done well because the smallest bit of bubble or wrinkle will kill the buzz, if you know what I mean. 3-4 days to get a non-newbie reply is fairly common so I think I would wait for a finish-veteran to chime in. That epxoy filler is like really hard to use, isn't it? I have never seen it used or anything but the tutorials on it sound like a long process. Just my thoughts., FWIW.

I have been using(borrowed) a Gibson ES135 with P100 pickups for about 4 months and I love it, altho that trapeze on the tail gets a zero for snagging my shirt sleeve. Bad boy! They quit making the 135 and only make the 137 with "vintage" p90s and a TOM without the trapeze. Is it even going to be the same guitar? I prefer the Casino over the 335, if that makes sense (trapeze, pickups) but the difference seems to be a lot greater with the new 137. The literature says they put a block in the center of the body to reduce feedback. OK. So how hard is it going to be to get the sound/sustain I get out of the 135? It would be really nice if the dealers had a room where you could wail on a guitar without someone coming back to see if you could turn it down or stop abusing their stuff. Or like loan me one for a couple hours. They about doubled the price too!

Sorry, I am a real newbie but I say NO!! do not touch the trussrod adjustment to fix one string, the high E in particular. I am a total failure at cutting nuts right the first time, setting up FRs and all things fret but I DO know how to screw up. This is how I would have screwed up: mess with the trussrod. Wait for a better person to respond or (my favorite) put a piece of matchbook cover under the E string at the nut and wait for a better solution.

This song is listed as a Brownsville Station song but I am having trouble finding lyrics or TAB for ir. You might think it is a dumb song but when your singer can't sing too well, this is what you go for. Hot Rod Lincoln is one of our best tunes so you know where I am going here. These songs give the guitars a lot of time to fool around.

I am kinda sorry we did this but we cut both ends off that FirstAct cable and put screw together with solder terminal ends on it and the noise went away. Doesnt look at all cool like the molded ends did but it dead quiet. I was kind of hoping to do the jump rope thing with it in from of a flourescent light fixture to see what it would make for sound but it is dead quiet now. I guess that means it isn't the cable. Bummer,dude.

Your family and the people that know you can be a big help in finding axe-salvage. When I lived at home, everyone called my mom to say they were getting rid of a car or truck and did I want it. Got some real beauts that way. Now that I have graduated and live away from home, people call me with cars, guitars and reptiles (long story) that they think need a new home, other than a dumpster. They give me a lot of trash but 1 out of ten is a jem. Got a 12-string with only six strings and tuners on it for nothing and spent about $20.00 for 6 tuners and a decent set of strings and it is good to go. Let people know what you are doing and interested in and the supply of crap will follow. At least in my case. Almost forgot, helped my aunt clean out her mom,s house and found a Carlson radio/phonograph that ways about 200 pounds and took it south with me. Plugged the Jackson into the "mag" RCA plug in the back and it is way cool! Shocks me when I reach for my beer but I think that can be fixed with the right line cord.

Listen to idtch. It always seems the 2X to 12th fret leaves you about .300 short. Go figure.

I brought my Jackson in with a set of those SITs on it Tuesday and the guys were being real sarcastic about it. I figured out that they were making fun of the guy that sold me the strings. Long story short, I get 4 sets of anything THEY have for free. SWEET!! Problem is they onlyt have DR and Boomers. When I said I owed a set to my uncle that were DiAddarios, they said they don't carry them and they don't have anything like them. Nice folk. Trying the Boomers tonight at the Legion hall steak-night. Don't really care care how they work because the steaks are free and good! They could use one of those chicken-wire fences from the Blues Brothers, however. I hate getting beer on my Genz head if it isn't mine! Hey, wats yur favorite steak sauce? So many I haven't even heard of. Oh, I am sorry, they had Deans but not in the right guage. Those might be my next choice. GC needs a reality-check when it comes to what people want. They are having a show next week with some guy playing BC Rich factory custom guitars and I want to see what strings HE uses, even though it will probably be all-metal. Nothing wrong with metal: they need strings too!

OK, that worked to a point. After popping the clamp shims off (they got some glue on them) I am looking at a white haze that goes everywhere the clamps didn't touch. WHAT THE??? I haven't done the edge stuff yet. Just the middle laminate seperation. It looks like it is back down flat but this white stuff is everywhere. Normal? Sand or polish it off? It almost looks toxic! Some of it just wiped off with a rag but not close to the place where I put the CA in. If it matters, I used the not runny stuff and quite a bit of it. Took probably half the little tube to get the whole seam wet. I am SO not going to go there with sexual connotations on that last sentence.

Ah hahahaha! I just tried that rolling on the floor with my FirstAct cable and it does the SAME thing! SOOOO wierd! I bet the customer is using it in front of a reall higain pedal. I went to direct and it went away! Kinda like a flanger/phaser shift sound on a concrete floor. Hilarious!!

my uncle uses a meter called a "meger?" and throws the cables into two piles; pass/nopass. He says the seperator material used to keep the wrap away from the core can go bad, be bad or not be cured right. The cables I have seen him pitch go berzerk when you flex them on the meter. Could be the same stuff. Maybe.

I think the key here is the AAJN. Southpa probly has the correct solution to get the shiny stuff off were the neck meets the body so it doesn't slide so easy. The non-AAJN necks have a full pocket to keep things tight but yours doesn't. You could do what GM does (I am a recent auto-tech grad) and drill for two rollpins under the neck-mount plate so you won't see them when you are done. Two small dabs of contact cement might work also. Remember, this advice is coming from a guy with 2, count em', 2 builds under his belt.

I have a quarter-pounder on my Jackson bridge and am not very impressed. It has output but no real sound of its own. I think I just need a higher-output neck pickup with some "twang" left in it for this guitar. The UniversalJems SNP, HNP, MNP and DP172 are the ones I think I need to use to match output. Maybe not. That is why I am asking the folks who know. I kinda hoped the guy from Jems would look at my question and let me know. I have been at this guitar for a year or better so I am not in any hurry. This forum is like a 2-week break at school! So cool and so needed! You guys rock!

Boy, I am SOOOO thinking a nother pickup! Maybe a little chrome-top Tele or something. This could be FATE telling you you need more pickups! Sorry, just pumped on Red Bull and could not help but see the change to add more stuff!

My great(grand) uncle wants a real professional ukelele with an adjustable bridge and such. I told him that I would ask you guys if a kit, parts or a complete uke was available. He is a very prominate (spelling?) mandolin player and I want to help him find something. I know, I know. A ukelele. There is no accounting for taste but he says it is becoming quite the rage among mando players to have a really good instrument. If any of you know of a good source, please let me know. He is rather wealthy so I doubt money is much of an issue. He already owns three mandolins that probably cost $4000.00 ea. He is the best player I have ever heard. Thank you for any input you can give me.