Guitar Nerds Anonymous

Anyone want these - https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/388231/#comment17055944
Haven't played guitar for years, I will just end up chucking them out otherwise

What's a forum recommended guitar polish? I've got some ancient stuff that's turned into a brown goo in the bottle and it's left a guitar streaky as anything, so that might need to be removed somehow

What finish? I’m using the standard Dunlop stuff at the moment which seems fine on everything. I used to use some stuff from Meguiars on my satin les Paul which always worked really nicely

Mix of finishes really, but a gloss acoustic, a flatter finish old Rickenbacker (lots of crazing and cellulose cracking) that's really 'sticky' to the touch. Not sure that can be transformed really, could probably be doing with a re-finish

IMO the Ricky deserves some Virtuoso (the cleaner not the polish). It's spooky how it works on cracked, sticky old nitro. I actually envy you having the pleasure ahead.

You may have to order some from the US, but it'll be worth it. I've got a little bit left here in SE5 if you fancy doing a trial patch.

Nice will check that out thanks

Cute!

Question! I re-strung my old '63 Gibson SG yesterday and cleaned up the metalware.

The top E string is barely sounding as you go up the neck. At the 12th fret and beyond it's totally dead. I improved it a little by raising the bridge height a little at the treble end and I also noticed that the three saddles for the unwound treble strings were the wrong way round so I replaced them correctly.

It's still not very good though. I thought the top E string cut at the nut was maybe too deep, so I stuffed a piece of folded up paper in there but that was no good. I'm assuming it's probably the action of the neck that's the problem, although it's weird it's just the top E.

I have no idea how to set the neck action. Any thoughts
?

Was it okay before you changed the strings? I'd take it to a professional for a setup if I were you, especially as it's such a lovely instrument. They're going up in value all the time!

Is that plugged in sound, or acoustic? If it’s loud enough plugged in, it’s probably not worth worrying about.

Either way, if it’s buzzing against the frets a little and killing the string movement could be there’s too little/too much relief depending on where the buzz is. Or I suppose very high pickups could be dragging on the string magnetically, though I’ve never seen this on my own. And when looking for guides online, action = string height set at bridge/nut, relief = curvature of fretboard set by truss rod.

But I think tune-o-matic bridges like that are supposed to have reversible saddles to get intonation right. My old SG had three forward and three back.

Thanks. Yeah that's correct, three forward and three back, however they were all forward. I had it set up by someone about 15 years ago, they must have done that, or perhaps it was always like it and I just never noticed.

It's dead sounding both unplugged and plugged. Better plugged to be fair but still not right. Hammer on and pull off just kills the note dead, and actually that happens even at the second/third fret

It was in the case, I think the last time I had it out was about three years ago.

Yeah maybe time to get it looked at professionally again! Cheers.

Please take it to someone who knows what they're doing, don't cheap out! 🤑 I had a nightmare experience with a bodged refin on a 50s Gibson, I can barely look at it anymore, bit of a heartbreaker. 😐

I’m sure you can get plenty more bells and whistles with others (Torpedo for example, where I believe you can load IR onboard directly) but it does do the job well as far as I’m concerned. Resistance for each input is within tolerance and the resistors themselves will work at 100w, so it’ll do the job, might be some will end up having a better signal out perhaps?

I remember watching a demo of this alongside a couple more expensive options and while there were differences they weren’t a world away, so for the sale of £30 I took the plunge on a second hand one. Might well end up looking for a higher end second hand option and see which one to keep eventually since I’ve been using it nigh on daily since buying it.

The option that @rodan mentions of having an IR loader makes a lot of sense if recording in pretty big projects as you can definitely lose the latency, though for just playing I find having Logic on an empty project and buffer size at minimum or Low Latency Mode on does the trick for me.

On a kind of separate note, my AC30 has been overdue a revalve and general once over since nobody’s put a hand on it for over 10 years.

Any recommendations for good amp techs within driving distance from North London? Bonus points if they don’t charge a fortune! 🤞

There was a guy my mate used to use - somewhere like Muswell Hill. I’ll see if I can find out. Maybe here

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My Sire U5 arrived today and really like it. Only had a very quick play around so far but sounds and feels great.

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That looks very cool

I’m catching up on posts here, but I have the pre-cursor to that - squier double fat telecaster delux, make in Korea by Cort. Coil tap on the tone knob, set neck, the pick ups aren’t great but it feels lovely and is quite light.

It’s in black with a sparkle, all black hardware and uncovered pickups. I’d like to switch to nickel bridge and tuners and some covered pickups maybe next year.

I can’t believe someone wants to take that finish off but yeah I think they are around £700 so make it like you want I guess. IIRC they have a special reverse-wound, hotter SD pearly gates in the bridge

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Question for the room!

I've wanted to upgrade the speaker in my 80s Fender Super Champ for ages and I've just found a used Celestion Gold Alnico G10 on MarketPlace that I'm hoping will be perfect.

But I'm crap at electronics, the seller has told me it's 16 ohms and to check it'll be okay in my amp. I have no idea what ohmage the stock speaker is, I think this is a pretty standard mod for this amp.

Any ideas? Will I die? OG and upgrade pictured for reference.

EDIT: So it appears the Super Champ shipped with an 8 ohm speaker. I've also gleaned that going with a lower ohmage is generally a no-no but going up is okay. I'm sure one of you will put me out of my misery one way or another. Thanks in advance!

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There should be a label on the amp itself with an output resistance in Ohms. The existing speaker might also have a label on it elsewhere.

You won't die, the transformer and capacitors in the amp itself are dangerous, but the worst you can do is blow the speaker up.

Any forum interest in a Marshall Lead & Bass 50 Paul Weller? I bought it from a mate of a mate that worked at Marshall. It's an ex-demo example, marked XX of 50 on the ltd edition plate. Has all the candy/documents with it. Never been gigged, immaculate (dust cover is marked/discolored though).

It's just too f-ing loud, even on 2 it'll rattle the windows. I'm not in a band and unlikely to be again really and could do with a smaller amp.

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I can barely play, but I have a Les Paul Custom-alike, that was handbuilt by a lovely chap on Twitter who then gave it to me for free when I said my rather lovely Thinline Telecaster was stolen (by my Estate Agent, who then left the country). I have Laney 15w valve amp for practicing and that's about it!

This looks great! There's something about not having a pickguard or control plate that makes them look really premium - makes me think of Sadowsky.

Yeah I'd been looking at the Fender Aerodyne Precision for a bit as I just love the look of it but realised it was pointless spending £1,100 when I've already got a precision so was very happy when I found this as an option.