Guitar Nerds Anonymous

Yeah, you want to have a decent foundation if you're going to put your hands to it. Ultimately once you are aware of the main precautions you're golden and the risk becomes pretty minimal but I'd say it's perhaps one step more, ie not just knowing what the safety measures are, but understanding why they are what they are if that makes sense.

Considering I nearly pulled the trigger on a kit exactly a year ago I'm glad I took the time to look into it and understand more. It's made the process more fun, I feel more confident getting stuck in and I was able to come up with a couple of designs that actually suit (or at least should!) my needs for what I want from an amp.

It'll be a slow process but should be fun nonetheless.

Speaking of old valve stuff, tomorrow I'm going to put the old Mullard that came in the radio into my AC4 and a JJ I have lying about in the pre to replace the cheap valves it came with - curious to see how much difference it'll make and if the cork sniffers are onto something...!

I haven’t used the triple shots, but have rewired a couple of different guitars for series, parallel split etc. Happy to help with wires!

I have been tinkering with these two a bit lately.

The Mustang is a ‘95 MIJ MG-69, an online purchase that looked great in the pics but turned out to have a very shoddy (nitro) refinish which nearly looked cool but not quite. Otherwise I loved with how it played and sounded, really like the slim neck/nut. Finally gut round to giving it some love - tidying up the wiring and also shooting some clear nitro over the body and flatting it down. I think I’ve done the last coat now so put is back together loosely for a while before I do a final sand/cut/polish when it’s properly gone off. It’ll still be pretty rustic but it’s already much better, it may get some very minor distressing, we’ll see how brave I am. I’ll also shield the cavity.

Seeking some inspiration on the JM. I bought the loaded body a while back but only just got round to putting a neck on it. The body is originally from a 2012 Classic Player Special which the previous owner had stripped and fitted with some Bloodstone JM pickups. It came with a gold pickguard and these have a tunomatic bridge. I wasn’t feeling the gold with this colour body so replaced it with the tort and for the neck I got an an allparts unfinished JM neck/Gotoh tuners. The neck had drop of stain and a couple of light coats of tru oil a few months ago, and while I had the nitro rattle can out I gave the headstock a few coats. I found that you can thread some grub screws into the existing thimbles and a Mustang bridge can then just drop in, which has worked great so now I have a bridge with the correct radius. Finally got to play it and it’s ace, but I’m not happy with the aesthetics. The ends of the body are a bit like a crappy chopping board so although I like the natural alder/tru oil finish on the front/back I think I’m going to go for something different. My ideas so far is to go for a darker/walnut gelcoat which will cover up the end of the grain better (Costello JM vibe) or something surf or darker green, could also do the headstock too. Also have the option of the gold guard. Curious about milk paint which I’ve read about. Any ideas/inspiration? Sorry bad nighttime/indoors pic.

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Ugh, I've got the Mustang lust again!

for a little while, my mustang wasn't seeing much action at all, it just wasnt vibing with me for some reason (I think partly some setup issues due to moving house, temperatures etc). The little vintage-collectors-nightmare has been my main squeeze again for a few weeks though

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Is that a Staytrem on the JM? I have one for my Squier JM that I haven't gotten around to fitting (the stock one it came with is made of cheese). It did at least come with a Mustang style bridge but one of the saddles needs a polish as it's a bit rough. They're such weird guitars to keep in balance compared to a Tele where nothing moves…

Sherwood green or similar would look nice I think.

@jackbepablo nice! late 70's? curious about the bridge pup as i have a SD hotrails that i was wondering about trying in the bridge but it's not quite a drop in i'd have to nip a little off the body, and actually i've been pleasantly surprised by the sounds as is, not sure wht the pups are as it's obviously been tinkered with assume they're probably original, a bit warmer and less bright/think that i imagined.

@Regal no just a Gotoh Mustang bridge, for some reason i seem to get on with them ok with them although i'm strictly a home noodler...

Ah, I meant the trem arm (they do a replacement collet and trem arm that doesn't fall out all the time). It looks to have the Staytrem smooth curve on the trem arm where Fender ones usually have an "elbow" bend. But maybe that's how it was on that model.

Gotoh stuff is solid, I have Gotoh tuners and saddles on my Tele.

yeah, '78. But only the body and neck are original now, even the frets are gibson spec.

Bridge PU is a dimarzio tone zone, neck is a vintage blues. Both went straight in, though I didnt do the wiring for the neck PU, I had someone more competent handle that while giving it a general overhaul.

My original pick ups are pretty weedy, I feel like the traditional fender brightness is curtailed a bit by the scale length. OG neck PU with the tone zone, in phase, was a pretty nice combo – especially when i was in a kind of gloomy post hardcore band, it just stayed there. I make a lot more use of the switches these days

ah gotcha! yes i noticed that when i got it, just assumed maybe he had shaped it to his liking

ah nice, same vintage as me! yeah the body fouls just slightly on the hotrails unfortunately, maybe i'll give it a go one day to satisfy my curiosity.

Since we are on Mustangs…

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Also recently put some BKP cobras into my Pacifica from 1999. It absolutely rippppsss

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Is that one of the Bullet Mustangs? What pickups have you put in it? P90s of some sort?

yep Bullet Mustang, think they can be had for £120 new.

i put some Warman P90's alnico V's - think they were something like 35 squid per pair and a nice scratchplate from ebay, which fit really well.

loads of layers of lemon oil on the fretboard which was horribly dry (Indian Laurel)...

Its a super fun player, very resonant and light as fuck

Yeah, I bought one for my son to learn on. Did the same with the fretboard, lemon oil and then Monty’s Instrument Food and it totally transformed it. It was drier than the Sahara originally.

The P90s and pickguard really change the look, might look into something like that as I don’t care for the stock HBs (not that they’re bad for a guitar of that price). I haven’t lifted the pickguard yet to see what the wiring’s like…

Temptation for one of those Mustangs is real...! Wouldn't mind a nice short scale guitar to load with some spanky pickups...

In other news, I swapped the cheap Sovtek EL84 + Ruby ECC83 valves from the AC4 and replaced respectively with a Mullard and a JJ. The verdict is: it sounds... a bit different. More body, less top end. I think most people would prefer it but I wouldn't advise anyone to spend however much they go for on a vintage valve.

Will try a Russian EL84 equivalent + Sovtek ECC83 later while the chassis is out...

Bit of a mongrel this Marshall but these two + a RAT was as fun as you’d imagine, round 2 tonight, unlucky neighbours!

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Pre-Super Grade Burny, nice! What year is the Bluesbreaker, is it a real one? I've always fancied one.

Good spot on the Burny, yes quite an early one think it’s ‘73. The Marshall is actually an ‘Artiste’ 2040 around ‘76 which has previously been modded with a MV, only one channel now and reverb tube/tank removed. Home recover job, guess they ran out of tolex for the front panel!

Nice. I've been Jonesing for a lawsuit-era Burny/Greco/Tokai Les Paul for a while. All shot up in price recently.

Before I bought my Custom I was trawling around for a decent lawsuit-era Les Paul but couldn't find anything I liked the sound of, so I bought a real one! It is crazy how much they cost now, even bolt-on Grecos have got crazy prices on them.

I've been thinking about getting rid of my JCM900 stack and replacing it with a Marshall 1962. They're so rad and sound so good.

And take up so little space!

How do you dial in your rat?

Also nice Burny is it MIJ?

Wiring is as you’d expect. I’ll post pic.

I’m planning a trip up to the Matamp factory in Huddersfield to sort an issue with a couple of my amp heads.

Walking away with one of these could be a problem.

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