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10 hours ago, babadono said:

? You sure about this. Balanced (differential) all the way through?

The SSL 9000 series we had in college featured a fully balanced signal path and no electrolytic capacitors in the signal path.


it looks like even some of their mixers that aren’t several hundred thousand dollars have a fully balanced signal path.

the SSL BiG SiX is only about $3000 at Sweetwater.

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49 minutes ago, Invidiosulus said:

it looks like even some of their mixers that aren’t several hundred thousand dollars have a fully balanced signal path.

Well I'm no expert but I don't see it in the docs for the Big Six. I get SSL uses DC servo circuits to remove any electrolytic caps.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Spent a few minutes out in the shop this afternoon converting a Squier strat headstock to a 1950’s Tele shape.

 

The frets on the neck are pretty out of level so I might level them or replace with some stainless fret wire.

0C185243-A15F-4D85-8D65-452926FFF882.thumb.jpeg.4703756209db8d55ad9eae2bc0d504f3.jpeg


 

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Roughed out on the bandsaw.

 

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Starting to work in the transition with a rasp.

 

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Almost done, I might go a little softer and deeper in the transition the way Tadeo Gomez did in the early 50’s.

 

 

 

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 months later...

I can’t leave well enough alone…

 

I decided to re-radius one of my strat necks and install some stainless fret wire.

I had done a level and crown on this one last year and it had already worn enough to be annoying.

 

A little water and some heat from the soldering iron and the old frets came out without any drama, just like Dan (Erlewine) said they would.

0932A9C1-581E-4A70-BE28-64539917E6C0.thumb.jpeg.6c3b8e8dce251d879ac10f3af027b37a.jpeg

 

Taking the 7.25” radius down to 16” with some 60 grit.

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I got lucky and was able to get the radius I wanted without sanding through the position markers.

Tomorrow I’ll work my way back up through the grits and re-cut the slots to the correct depth for the new stainless fret wire.6E05DD98-73C5-441F-B8EB-E14BE139974E.thumb.jpeg.ece4a4fcef87350a726146574f8a412f.jpeg

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Even though I did play bass for a while, i can't honestly say I'd consider myself a musician let alone a guitar player. However, I do enjoy collecting gear. With my intention to learn guitar, my first instrument i purchased was a hot pink B.C. Rich Platinum Warlock. I still own that guitar but I can say that I don't think it's been played in 20 years.

I'll come back to that story in a minute. So recently I have been sitting on a Ludwig Standard from the late 60s early 70s. It was in pretty rough shape a d considering I was storing it more than playing it, it was time to let her go. Recently I decided to put it up for sale, since it was in rough shape I didn't expect much for it.

The gentleman that showed interest was a vintage drum collector and the son of the owner to a local music shop. When he offered a guitar of my choice for a trade, I couldn't pass the deal up. Sunday morning we headed to his father's shop where he opened it up for me to browse. First thing that caught my eye was a Dean ML BBOLT, even had Dimes on the head stock. If you know anything about me, Dimebag Darrell is one of my favorite guitar players who played for my favorite band Pantera. So this was right up my alley, walked out the door that day with a piece I've always wanted.

433765d77bef7aa6c810c66079d67d33.jpg

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk
 

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Ive been thinking about getting another triple ought slot head... it's been years, but I want one after selling all my Martins years ago.

 

If a Froggy Bottom H12 comes up for sale I might pull the trigger... the think is, I love Pyramid bridges and the H12 doesn't have one unless you custom order it.

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My best friend Roger got these from the Martin Custom Shop a few years ago. He went through the now closed, Mandolin Brothers on Staten Island. He could get them about 30% off, which brought the custom ones down to about the list price for normal ones. These aren't the best pics, but the 000-28 with the square cut peghead plays and sounds really, really good.

0-28 and 000-28.jpg

0-28 Peghead.jpg

000-28 Peghead.jpg

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No one should ever sell a Martin... they should be with you for the rest of your life, but unfortunately life comes first sometimes. I've had at least 10 over the years... none are with me any longer, I have jubilees 😛

 

HD28LF

00028VS

OM42 (2 OF THESE)

OM28

HD28

D28

D18GE

OM18GE

 

My preference is for a triple ought size and a slothead... orchestra comes in a close second. the dreadnoughts are great, but I just don't need that much firepower

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Interesting thread and some nice photos. I used to hack around when I was young and have recently been giving serious consideration to picking up a used Telecaster - have always had a thing for them. My new position is nowhere as stressful and time consuming as the work I had been doing. More time and being older may be the right combination for me to buckle down and relearn properly.

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7 hours ago, Schu said:

My preference is for a triple ought size and a slothead... orchestra comes in a close second. the dreadnoughts are great, but I just don't need that much firepower

I've got a Taylor Grand Concert - 812C. It's a tad over 30yrs old. The new ones are crazy expensive. I would like a little larger bodied guitar, and the triple 0 would really fit the bill. I just don't need to be spending that kind of money any more.

 

So, my friend has 2, of 100 made that are a 7/8 size D28. Impeccable craftsmanship , as you would expect. Not meant as a travel or parlor guitar.

 

32 minutes ago, YK Thom said:

...been giving serious consideration to picking up a used Telecaster - have always had a thing for them.

A great choice. Wish I had one of those too.

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The stainless frets went in without much trouble.

 

I got it all back together and confirmed that the tall magnets on the 3rd and 4th string(G and D) were too close to the strings when the outer E and e strings were set to the recommended distance from the strings.

it wasn’t a problem with the old 7.25” radius to the fretboard but the new 16”r was just too flat for the vintage style stagger to these magnets.9AD499DE-1F92-4FAD-B86B-BFA925A8E5C8.jpeg.7aaa9a07b3dc38aed0d56cf3e1488592.jpeg

 

I proceeded to get into an argument with a guy who is a former R&D manager for Fender or something and he tried to tell me I was wrong because Fender had tested and there was no difference between the guitars with the even length magnets and the staggered ones. However he couldn’t point to a single factory Fender guitar with a 16”r fretboard and the vintage stagger to the pickup’s magnet height.

 

Luckily for me the pickups I have are potted in a simple paraffin wax solution so with a little bit of warmth it was super easy to tap the high pole pieces back down a little bit.D6DCD7A4-98E0-4A61-88FC-2EF63410CF4B.thumb.jpeg.51f6424da7a82cb07fdb3df780057d57.jpeg

 

the fretboard soaked up a bunch of oil and it’s been getting used to the new radius as well as darkening up bit.

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6 hours ago, Racer X said:

Very interesting, always wondered why those pickups had the magnets at different heights, but since I just listen to guitars....

 

Liked the technical drawing too.

For a number of years the string sets all featured a a wound 3rd string which had less output than the 1st and 2nd strings.

The magnet height was an attempt to get a more balanced output across all the strings. Most contemporary strat players use string sets with an unwound 3rd and a lot of modern strat pickups have even length pole pieces.

 

Im probably going to draw the whole thing up in a CAD program to get some precise numbers about how much closer the 3rd string got with the radius change.

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This is nuts!

 

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This is probably cow bone although the advertisement didn’t actually specify 🤔

The gold box is a set of nut files recommended to me by my good friend Brad who is an amazing luthier and guitar tech(Brian Setzer, Prince, Sturgill Simpson, etc.) but is currently volunteering in the Ukraine helping to evacuate the elderly and infirm from areas under attack.

 

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the radius was matched to the bottom of the nut slot.

 

Lots of sanding.

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Before and after showing how much bone was removed.

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And all fitted in place.

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Very nice, I trust all this work will be worth it ?

 

Back when I thought I could play guitar ( never really progressed beyond crunching chords ) I tried to replace and modify the bridge saddle on my Hohner Acoustic to lower the action.  Kind of missed the mark on the E string, added a small piece of felt to bring it back up from buzzing.

 

Thanks for showing what's really involved in proper tuning.

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