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al heeley

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Everything posted by al heeley

  1. al heeley
    Really nice work, very original and great sytling. Like it v. much.
  2. al heeley
    People are entitled to their own opinion regardless of their post count! quantity and quality are of no interest or relevance. I was in Shanghai and Guang zhou early last mointh and played some really nice acoustics, I mean really nice £600 - £800-feeling instruments not £2500-£3000 range, and they were under £200. I think its too easy for people to jump on the "everything from China is crap" bandwagon and it simply is an inaccurate over-generalisation. I have no reason to support or condone China as they are rapidly wrecking my industry, I just wanted to point out that China have caught up with the western world, with Japan and Korea very rapidly, and not everything coming out of Gibson USA's factories are very close to being worth the hefty price tag attached. [slips on asbestos suit and runs for the exit]
  3. al heeley
    Blatant ignorance is uncalled for here. Sad to say but some of the quality coming out of China now is very good indeed and the prices are amazing. Once you get over your snobbery, that all chinese stuff is crap, and see the reality, it is embarassing to us in Europe and the West who still demand 5 to 10 times the price for something that is not really that much better. Get over the 'knee-jerk' reaction and post something a little less emotive and a little more objective
  4. al heeley
    not a big fan of pointy things but the 12-string SG jobby looks sweet. I'm intrigued by those two-together P90's at the bridge. Some more work on the headstock profile would be good. With a pretty thin sg-like body the headstock may easily be so bulky with the 12 tuners that the guitar becomes unbalanced. Good luck with it. I hope you plan to stain the Hogny body a deep wine-red colour '
  5. al heeley
    do you fancy going for a reverse-wound centre s/c for a out-of-phase stratty quack?
  6. al heeley
    I think you have a stunning top there and a beautiful build. There is nothing more critical than the eye of the creator If it gets on your nerves then you will always be annoyed if you don't change it. No-one can answer that question except yourself! Looking at yuour pics I'd be really proud if I had created that body.
  7. al heeley
    If you get one of those drill bits for wood with the little sharp spike on the tip then it will bite in to the wood ok while you drill the hole. To fit a new pot you need about 7-7.5mm hole to accomodate the pot shaft, but this can vary with some pots. If you damage the surface very close to your new hole, the washer, nut and new knob will obscure the cips or scratches, just go slow and think twice before doing anything. You will be fine!
  8. al heeley
    guitarelectronics.com seymour duncan schematics website also very useful but I agree, best of all is gutar nutz 2, an amazing pool of knowledge there.
  9. al heeley
    thx for the replies, I've ordered a strat-type hardtail from Axes'r'us. This guitar is ending up a little 'SG'-like, flat profile, no neck angle, I don't want the strings ending up an inch away from the body, and although I like the recessed t-o-m (see the new Organic guitars), in practice its a real pain getting to the thumbwheel to adjust height when its recessed.
  10. al heeley
    You DO know where the shop is don't you? Maybe a grown-up could help
  11. al heeley
    Current build: double-cutaway sycamore/mahogany guitar, zebra HB's and bolt-on 24 3/4 scale maple/rosewood neck. I have 3 choices for the bridge: 1) Strat-type hardtail (don't want a trem) 2) T-o-M with conventional tailpiece 3) T-o-M with thru-body ferrules. What do you think of the tonal implications of these different bridge systems? Any recommendations? I can't make my mind up
  12. al heeley
    Ermm, that was one of the first things i mentioned in this thread.
  13. al heeley
    In my opinion the tuner config would not make one jot of difference. 3 by 3 or 6 a side, its just the design aesthetics that count, what looks best on your guitar. Maple neck vs Mahogany: traditional wisdom says more top end with the maple, but a good hoggny body will still give you plenty of deep warm brown tone. The top end should be further accented by going for a bolt-on rather than set. result: the perfect hybrid between a les paul, a strat and a prs. I made up a single cut guitar recently, HB's with coil tap, mahgany body, thin maple cap, bolt on maple neck, it has loads of bottom end but a really nice clear high end that cuts through, really good balanced tone, for me, tonally, its near-perfect, just a little shabby on the finishing off.
  14. al heeley
    had this problem with routing too, ended up a real mess.
  15. al heeley
    Oh boy, what a choice for the festive season. I am drooling over these exquisite creations, how to choose between Skelf's superb bass and Wezv's beauty and the gorgeous prs-alike? Some simply stunning work there, both humbling and inspiring, wish I had half the talent and the patience of you guys, good luck to you all!
  16. al heeley
    Single coil? What single coil? I thought you said yoou were using it as a straightforward neck humbucker?
  17. al heeley
    Euugh! Thanks guys, those prices are a bit of a shock. There's no way I can justify this price level for a budget home-build guitar, I'd rather save the money, get an oem hardtail strat bridge and put the money I sav toweards a nice piece of wood and a set of GFS puppies for my next project.
  18. al heeley
    I'm after something like this bridge off the new and wacky Burns jetsonic cartoon guitar: Anyone know where I can get one? Do Stewmac/Allparts/etc. carry these sort of bridges cos I can't find one anywhere.
  19. al heeley
    Slow progress. Started routing out the ctrl cavity. More shaping to the cutaways on the rear. HB cavities routed out and some wooden ctrl knobs turned. The knobs are recessed and the holes rounded over for a soft contour - can't really see it in this picture. Still in a dilemna about the bridge for this, I keep changing my mind. I like the look of the Yamaha AES bridges, something a little different to a T-O-M, but can't find any outlet for them.
  20. al heeley
    if it sounds weak and thin then could you have one of the polarities wrong? On the pot taper thing, you can get log taper (A) pots (mostly used for tone ctrl) and linear taper ( pots, more usual for volume. What I was trying to say was that if one goes from 500 ohm resistance at 0 to zero resistance at 10 it may not be a linear transition, even in a lnear taper pot. The log pots normally allow greater turn for a smaller change, eg between 7 and 10 if that makes sense. There's no reason why you can't use a lower value pot if you want a brighter sound. The important question is when the vol is on 10 do they still sound weak and thin? If so then it sounds like a wiring issue. Aer they 2-wire or 4-conductor for coil-tapping?
  21. al heeley
    If you've got different pots in there the taper is bound to be a little different, the ramp in resistance change as you get close to zero. It's not really normal, is it, to play live with vol set only at 2 or 3, well not for me anyway. It also sounds like the new pickups are maybe not as high output as the old ones. However, your amp is there for giving you volume, I certainly would not worry about this, but are you happy with the tone?
  22. al heeley
    On the guitar electronics diagram the bridge HB has coil tap leads (4 conductor type plus the ground). Your HB does not so you can't coil tap it. You are missing the North-finish & south-finish wires so can't connect to the selector switch. You need to rethink things and get a diagram that doesn't involve coil tap.
  23. al heeley
    A good stirring up from their complacency is well over-due. They cannot continue to fool people into feeling a US-assembled model at £1800, for example, is so much better than one coming out of the Unsong Korea factory nowadays. I was over in Seoul last month and the number of really good quality guitars I'd never heard of before wa staggering. No bargains to be had but certainly not the US-inflated national-pride-supporting prices.
  24. al heeley
    LOL! -1 on the smoked salmon finish What are they on, those Gibson boys? Dazed and confused.
  25. al heeley
    Thanks, the bindings will be flush once the sides are finish sanded! Hardware I'm looking at a pair of GFS fat paf zebras, black TOM bridge, through-body ferrules, semi-recessed black knurled knobs, master vol, master tone and I want to try a coil tap blend pot.
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