Samba Pa Ti

it looks great, do you know how old the guitar is ?

it has a slight relic look to it which i think suits it, also is that a gretsch filtertron in the bridge ? looks like one.

strings and pickups are most important to me, i find that plywood can sound ok if the guitar has decent pickups and a good setup (i dont like plywood tho).

i think plugging the body holes and redrilling them would be the best way to get it straight if the neck pocket holes are the problem,

id drill them out, plug them with dowels and then redrill. this could ruin the finish on the back of the body, and if the drill slips could wreck the neck pocket.

what sortof bridge is it ?

its a bolt on ? how are the holes in the body, are they tight or wide ?

is there any play between the neck pocket and the neck ? it might be possible to shim it.

razoring the paint off seems a crappy way to remove the finish, its just like picking at a scab.

My understanding of some of the anomalies in gibsons fret placement (i dont deny they can exist) is that they were factory errors - iirc this was reported on some 70's models, but thats memory rather than proven fact. but its just like them making guitars with incorrect neck angles (early 50's), super low frets (60's-70's), **** fretwork (until plek), bone dry fretboards (most of the 90's) and various other mistakes they have made over the years (i only mentioned some of the ones that define era's)

ive got a guitar with all these features, hybrid lol

I use a dremel

which bit on a dremel ?

cut off wheel, router attachment, sanding wheel ?

ive had bad experiences making pickguards with dremel : (

hmm only 2 springs in there ?

i find it hard to balance my trem versus the string pull with only a couple, it could be any of those things mentioned but i find adding more springs and loosening the screws gets the same feel, but more stability.

if its plastic binding id use wet and dry paper, depends on the plastic though what it will turn out like.

And the obligatory 'feet shot'.

But we didn't get the mandatory "every clamp in the shop on the fretboard" shot. Just a little teaser on the end.

that picture was in post 34 lol

hank marvin - apache

its the basis and inspiration for so many cool guitar sounds and its just an echo+strat, cant beat it imo.

depends what look you're after, i prefer the modern bridge with modern saddles, i have always fancied a vintage ashtray bridge with the cover but ive never got round to getting one.

Sorry about the spelling! Rhodes!.....and the Union Jack really was a bit of a mess sprayed on using pearlescent paint and not too well masked either! I promise you that my renovation will be an improvement!

WizardFire

rhoads : )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Rhoads

Not really a new idea, is it? Jimmi Hendrix kept all the broken bits of the few guitars he smashed. These bits were then fastened together to be used in future gigs.

He would go off stage just before the end of his act and put his good guitar down, and pick up one that had been roughly put together out of bits. Then back on the stage to finish the last number before destroying the bits'n'pieces guitar. The bits would be kept again ready for "recycling".

So, you could say Hendrix created the first guitars made for smashing. I don't know how many good guitars he smashed, but I believe it was very few.

what did he do with the ones he set on fire ? : )

+1 on a straight edge, a 2foot/24 inch ruler is handy as long as its straight ,

a slight bow in the neck is ok as long as theres only a 1mm gap at about the 7th or 8th fret.

i stopped using feeler gauges ages ago and i now use a string action gauge from stewmac, a ruler with millimeters's could be used at about the 17th fret and make each string 1.5mm high (thats for guitar, bass strings are probably higher, fenders website has proper setup measurments).

getting the action right isnt too hard, i find intonation to be a pain in the ass though.

yeah i had that in mind, whats troubling me is basically making the cutout for the p90 as i dont have a template for it and lining it up so that the pole pieces are as lined up as i can get them with the strings, even if p90 templates are available whats the best way to make a reusable template from a strange pickup size ?

i have tried measuring and plotting it out but i always end up too loose or too tight and i was trying to get a nice finish.

btw im not using p90's thats just an example, im having trouble with other pickups.

hi, im wondering how i would go about making a custom pickguard, for example say i have a strat pickguard and it has humbucker pickup routes already, how would i go about making a copy that had p90 routes ?

ive thought about a few ways of doing this but none of them seem practical.

what strat style trem are you thinking of using ?

all the ones ive got have 37mm high blocks which would leave you with 3 mm for the springs and a cover unless it was cut down, i know its possible to get smaller ones but just thought i would throw that out there.

ilike to make cool effects. like a manual reverb. and others.

since when does a killswitch sound like a reverb ?

all a killswitch does is emulate the tremelo effect in an on/off sense as it has no control.

example >

a reverb is a totally different effect that sounds nothing like it...

also i am using the f/r as a "preamp" if thats what you want to call it. it uses the 386

As has been discussed as of late, IMHO that IC is not a great choice, but hey, you gots to use, what you gots to use I guess.

Would it be possible to just use another IC without changing the design of the circuit board or any other parts? this would be great because it would not only be less work, but I wouldnt have to design a new pcb as well.

not easily, it depends on the pinout of the ic's you wish to substitute if they are the same (same function from each pin) it would be possible but i doubt they are.

it would be possible to make another board that sat ontop and altered the pinout though, kinda like an adapter, thats a lot of work for not much gain though.

looks like a squier 2 point trem to me, could be a mim one but the ones ive seen have vintage spacing at the saddles.

Not to start a debate here , but anyone who fixes this guitar will do so with abrasives. If it was buzzing on 2 consecutive frets , I'd call TR , but the 17th and 19th ? doubt theres a correctable bow that would cause that.

I still vote for a fine nail file - taken in 3 or 4 stroke incriments. He said the nearest tech was 4 hours away and its 2 frets , not his whole board...........

spot fix it. Its worked for me more than once.

BTW - when I say use the "fine" side I mean that. They go up to 12,000 grit and they're just the right size for working small areas.

not to argue how to fix it but it all depends whats up with the guitar, we havent seen pictures of it so it could be a bad setup or the neck angle could be slightly off, i dont know.

if the truss rod was bowed all you need is a straight edge to check, and a small ruler or string action gauge to set the string height and fret out any buzz, what im saying is a basic setup could probably fix this, but without seeing it, its hard to say but if the frets were that bad wouldnt it be buzzing all over the place ?

i just replace them as well, if its a squire its probably easy to find matching fender/schaller/gotoh/kluson ones that fit perfectly and are better quality anyway.

might be worth stopping new members from posting pictures and parsing urls too (basically stops porn spammers posting a flurry of pictures and stops spammers backlinking to other websites to raise their profile with google)

doubt the top will alter the sound at all.