Guitar Nerds Anonymous

Yes, its a slow day at work today...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJEFjcfWilE

^ Better than an Andertons review

Ha! Love it.

Finally got round tidying up and tuning up the old Joanna. Annoyingly it’s too late to tinkle any ivories (bakerlites).

1 Attachment

What a lineup

Very nice!

I've just done my first ever setup (or tweaking at least) on an acoustic. Some nut slots were a touch high and the action was a bit high in the treble side so I sanded a bit off the back of the saddle. I appear to have avoided buggering anything up and I think it's actually improved the sound because the underside of the saddle was definitely not flat before. It did make me notice that the string slots on the saddle were all over the place though and I can't get them evenly spaced now. I'll have to see if that annoys me enough to buy a new saddle.

A great image, thanks for sharing

I need to get hold of a portable bass amp, small enough to go in the boot of a car alongside a suitcase so 1x10 or 12 I guess, and loud enough for the baseline of God Only Knows to be heard at a wedding. Looking at new Ampeg Rocket and Eden things… any ideas? Budget up to £300.

Hard to beat the Fender Rumble 100 for that dosh IMO, have heard quite a few of late doing quite nicely unsupported in pubs, silly lightweight as well

Started the likely long process of replacing the fake Fender logo on my Japanese Squier Strat with an 'original' decal. I'm guessing most people do this the other way round, but it was jarring seeing the wrong custom contour body decal on the end and frankly I reckon the Squiers being made by Fujigen in the early 80s were probably better than their US counterparts.

First, the removal, sanding and application of the first coat of lacquer.

5 Attachments

Thanks man. Might just nab one.

bit of a niche question but has anyone got any idea if it's possible to bypass the pickup selector (not the rhythm circuit) on a jazzmaster (MIJ)?

I want to use mine for a gig on friday but the pickup selector is broken. I don't really have the cash to get it fixed at the moment so would ideally find a way to bodge it to be stuck on the neck pickup (or both pickups).

The decal is on. Only tore one of them before getting this one in about the right place according to the picture I've got. Now it's drying overnight before I start the spray/sanding malarkey.

1 Attachment

Looking really good! I don't know what you're using to lacquer it over the top, but don't use any acetone (if you're using that, other stuff might be fine) to thin the first couple of coats. Or at least try it on one of your ripped / spares first.

Acetone eats decals. Ask me how I know this...

Acetone eats decals. Ask me how I know this...

Heh. I reckon here speaks the voice of experience.

I'm using polyurethane clear spray over the top of it, then sanding down with wet and dry 1500 grit paper until the bump no longer shows. It'll take a few days.

Doing God’s work there!

Can grounding paint cause a short?
My switchraft toggle is huge!

Can grounding paint cause a short?

Yes. It’ll short any bare connections it touches to ground.

My switchraft toggle is huge!

Fnarr

Speaking of grounding paint, does it work? Thought I might shield the Squier Strat while I sort the headstock out. Presume you have to paint the inside of the scratchplate too? Anyone done this before?

The paint does work, but probably wouldn’t adhere well to the back of a plastic pickguard, and is probably better for smaller cavities. For a Strat I’d be more inclined to use copper foil. Whatever you use, make sure that all areas of shielding are connected to each other, and to the ground.

I'm probably going to get an aluminium shield plate to go under the pickguard. Looks like considerably less faffing than tape (same goes for the paint, tbh).

Well, you can barely see the decal now after a few coats of polyurethane, but I'm still going to do the sanding thing to make it look like it's 'floating'.

1 Attachment

God damn!
I clear coated the paint after too.

Tbh ive attemptes this rewire 4 times, it worked first time too, but its a shit guitar and doesnt justify going to a "pro"
I put an epi neck pup an sh-5 bridge and wired it g&l style, master vol bass and treb cut. Theres grounding issues, the SH wires are super short, I put covers and wax potted em too.
Im just club fisted but I want it to work so much!

At a pinch you can wire a pickup straight to the Jack.

Worth going back over your soldering, check all the connections for loose wires and cold joints, check that the wiring is correct. If any of the joints are in danger of touching ground, then you can isolate them with a some electrical tape. Good luck, it’s a pain in the arse trouble-shooting guitar electrics. One of my scratch-builds has a series-parallel switch that has never worked, and I can’t figure out why.

Well I've just pulled the trigger on this one.
Been lusting over a thinline tele for the better part of the last 4 years, secretly hoping Thomann would deliver something for cheap. Hell yeah they did.
Will try to give a detailed review. I suck at guitar though so won't be very professional.