otgordin

SUCCESS!!!! The tubing worked like a charm. All put back together Compensated ebony bridge Chrome top-hats Wilkinson locking tuners and graphite nut. Added a jackplate b/c the original directly mounted jack was causing cracking. I wish I still had recording gear... the guitar now sounds fantastic. Thanks for the help guys. -V

thanks for the feedback. jigsaw puzzle indeed. tubing seems like it would be less prone to catching than fishing line. I'll have to drop by the aquarium store over the next few days. realistically, I won't have a chance to play with this again 'til the weekend.... so still plenty of time for head-scratching and strategizing. -V

Hi All, I have had a beat up 1960s Harmony Rocket III for a while that I finally decided to fix up. Two pots were dead, and the rest were scratchy even after tuner cleaner, so I replaced the entire wiring harness with new pots and caps (along with locking tuners, a compensated ebony bridge, graphite nut, strap locks, and a new output jack). The guitar now sounds and feels great. However, I'm having trouble getting the wiring harness back into place. When I took everything apart, I tied fishing line to the old pots thinking that I would just pull them back out through their holes. Now, however, when I try to pull everything back into place the 6 pots keep catching and tangling on the strands of line making it impossible to get them to the holes in the top. I don't have a picture of it, but I re-used the coiled shield / wire guide from the old harness in order to make sure things lined up right. Any advice you guys could give on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. I tried searching the archives and didn't find any help. Here she is before I got started. Here's a shot of the pot holes. -Vadim

no, there is NO guitar signal making its way through. When I get the chance I'll disassemble the chassis and take some pics. Any particular precautions I should take when checking the connections?

with matched values of course.

CE account? Would any ole capacitors from Digikey work?

hmmm.... I'll have to find myself a decent multimeter and check it out then. What's a ballpark figure for the cost to replace the caps in one of these? [a guess is all i'm looking for] Thanks. -Vadim

Hi, I have a 1960s silvertone 1482 that I got at a garage sale 6 years ago. I've been abroad the past 4 years and it spent that time in my parents' basement. Now, when I turn it on, the jewel light comes on. However, the amp pops and cracks and does not respond to any change in what i do to the inputs (guitar1 guitar2, mic) or knobs on the front. To the best of my knowledge, the amp worked fine when I put it down there. I have a degree in engineering with some circuits/microcontroller experience and am decent with a soldering iron, but have never worked on tubes. Any help troubleshooting this old gem of an amp would be very much appreciated. -Vadim

Last night, I brought out my Classic 50 4x10 to practice after getting fed up with the sound of my drummer's Crate I had been using. I haven't used the Peavey in 4 or 5 months, but back then turning it up past 3 meant shattering ear-drums in the basement we practice in. Last night, after letting it warm up, I flicked the standby switch and found that volume on the clean channel was significantly reduced and the lead channel was more or less inaudible. After another maybe 20 minutes of fiddling around with knobs and frustration I got both channels at workable levels but the volume knob was at 10 (peaveys go to 12). I ended up playing through the crate for fear of damaging something. This is my first real tube amp and my first time running into this after two years of use. Is it gonna go back to normal, do i need new tubes, any suggestions? Thanks -Vadim

my friend is selling this through our local Sell Center. its an UNPLAYED 1992 Ibanez RT-450NT. Came from a dusty hole-in-the-wall guitar shop where its been sitting for the better part of a decade. peace -vadim http://cgi.ebay.com/IBANEZ-ELECTRIC-GUITAR...1QQcmdZViewItem

what's the deal with the two different bridges?

eric, while i do agree with you about the technical purity of studio vs. live albums... i think the fact that artists don't get a 5th try at that solo, intro, or chorus when they are on stage only adds to the energy. musicians... even legendary ones like page, plant, and co... are still human and do make mistakes. aint nothin wrong with approaching perfection without actually attaining it. maybe i'm wierd in this sense, but i prefer the rougher sound of live albums to studio albums 9 times out of ten. southpa... amen. i've only seen pieces of the concert, but even at that it was incredible. didn't robert plant tour with The Who a few years ago? wonder how that went :-/ probably amazing. -Vadim

lol, can one of the admin change the title of this poll... seeing as I can't spell.

i'm assuming a few "purists" are gonna get pissy that I would ask this question, but the fact remains that they are both amazing live albums of Led Zeppelin material. FWIW, the first time I heard Celebration Day off of Live at the Greek, I got chills. Just wanted to see what you guys thought. -Vadim

http://www.hunterinstruments.com/tt3135.mpg

when i was first getting started playing I used to take the headphone jack output of my marshall practice amp and put it into the input of an old tube amp i got at a garage sale for dirt cheap. Although the sound was (still sometimes when i get bored is) incredible... that setup shocked me so bad i couldn't get my left hand off the neck of my strat. So in a panic i reached around the back of the tube amp and pulled out all the wires. Ditto on what everyone else has said. Get that checked out before you get hurt. -Vadim

while we're on the topic.... whatever happened to snork?

Yeah, i was worried about the smearing so i figured something in the way of rattlecans would be suggested. There are alot of finishing tutorials floating around both this forum and projectguitar.com. Problem is that I have never done any finishing outside of woodshop in 7th grade and don't know which of the methods to use. Also, all the tutorials start out with a surface that ya don't have to worry about smudging. I assumed there would be some sequence of apply/sand back steps to build up a clear coat. Any help would be greatly appreciated as he is graduating soon. Thanks again for your help. -Vadim

dooods, so as a present for one of my brothers, everyone in my faternity signed a black cheapo strat in silver sharpie. What would you guys recomend to clear and seal it so none of the sigs rub off? Thanks. -Vadim

hey, do you mean the way the old kramers and later vacarro metal necks were? never seen a whole guitar built like that, but I have played a few vacarro's and couldn't tell the difference between a metal neck and wood. Hope this helps. -Vadim

Hi, I just ordered replacement pickups for my guitar. Right now i have pickups with nickel covers. Howver, my new ones aren't available with covers. Will getting aftermarket covers change the tone? And if so are there any metal-lookin covers available that won't change the sound? Thanks -Vadim

attached is an interview with bill lawrence with a part that touches on the nature of the strat/les paul debate. Taken from Here. I don't know if i agree that there will eventually all guitars will have one scale length, wood type, and shape... i see strats and lp's as two different instruments with two very different voices but it is interesting to look at the matter from a historical perspective. -Vadim And what is the reaction of the musicians, and the entire music market, to innovations? To give an example, we once placed instruments in dealer showcases that were very different from the usual Gibson flair - in the electronics and in the shape. The reaction was just what I expected: People still preferred our standard instruments. And for good reason, since they combine good fit with the body, balance, and the best possible electronic equipment. In my opinion, guitars today are at the same stage that violins were between the 15th and 16th centuries. At that time, the violin, just like the guitar today, did not have a final form. At some point, a form will crystallize, and specifically, that will be a mixture of the forms of the two original guitar makers. Fender and Gibson? Yes, just like with the Amati and Stradivari of their time. Amati was building violins that had very low sidewalls with a large body arch. Stradivaris have higher sidewalls and a lower arch, while the center of the violins have the same height. Gibson is now offering several models that are patterned after Fender or are formulated a little differently, are they intended to satisfy musicians who basically like Fender? I know what you're getting at. We are now manufacturing under license for Wayne Charvel, and they do go under the Gibson label, but are basically not a part of the Gibson mainstream product lines. We're also making the US1 and the US2, which are in principle designed completely differently than Fender guitars, however. They play like a Gibson, they feel like a Gibson, but the body is slightly adapted to the Fender body shape. And sooner or later, all guitars will look like that.

LP all the way. I started out on a strat and have played a few pretty nice American, Japanese, and Mexicans. I have never really felt connected to one like I do to my LP. Must be love. -Vadim btw, I never noticed 60hz hum till i switched to humbuckers and now it makes playing strats in anything other than the second and fourth position painfully annoying.

Doods, Got my agile last week. Its an AL3000. I wanted to wait a bit and get a feel for it before i posted my thoughts. I ended up getting the new color (heritage cherry). With the exception of a few spots in the binding, it is perfect. If people want, I'm gonna post a review of it compared to my buddy's gibson special, a gibson nighthawk, and my dillion 500x when i get back to college on the 20th. So let me know if anyone wants and I will. Peace. Happy Holidays. -Vadim

Hey guys, I looked up "agile" to find reviews before I go there this tuesday. One of the guy's in my fraternity is getting a seagull (rondo is the only place around here that sells 'em). And I am probably picking up an AL3000 in honeyburst for myself. Wes, I am assuming you played the swamp ash LP. I played it a while ago at the store and saw the same finish problems as you did (I think i may have even posted a comment to that effect here). And that was the one they had hanging on the wall. I completely agree with you that the finish was ridiculous. However, the rest of the LPs in the store were smooth as glass. I am really curious to see how your's turned out after the refinish and I will post pictures and a review of mine when I get it. Thanks -Vadim