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Anyone got any recommendations for someone in London to finish my guitar?
I'm getting closeish to completion on the Firebird I've been building. I'm not going to be able to set up a dust free environment to finish it so I'm on the lookout for someone to do it for me.
I would have asked Godefroy (mjs guitars), but he's only gone and moved to France...
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So my parents made me clear out loads of stuff over christmas, and I found two guitar bits in a box that I no longer use, namely:
A bnib passive EMG select SEHG humbucker that I bought for a project and never fitted.
And a used but boxed Samson Airline Wireless System (Gibson input) that I used to gig with, but is just collecting dust.
Would anyone on here be interested in either/both, I was thinking £10 for the pup and £75 for the Samson, or reasonable offers? I'm based in Norwich, so there'd be a few quid for postage too unless you're in these parts. I had put them on Gumtree locally, but I think they're just too niche to sell on a place like that, so took them down and thought I'd try in here first before posting a regular classified ad.
If anyone's interested please let me know with a PM, and I'm sure we can work something out. Thanks, Al.
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Don't know who finishes guitars in Londontown. Rickster will know I'm betting. Rick?
[WANTED]Anyone got a shortscape bass they might want to part with?[/WANTED]
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Had a rush of blood to the head last month (bored over Christmas) and removed the scratchplate and sanded back the thick poly laquer off my little Guild acoustic. I'm not sure it will make much of a difference but it looks pretty cool. My fuzzy mulled wine drenched logic was that freed from the shackles of the thick glossy laquer the wood will dry out, breathe and ages and improve the resonance. Scratch plate went for the same reason. Some after the fact googling tells me it will a: make no difference and b: kill the guitar. I'm not convinced it's quite that drastic tbh. Meh. I put 0.11 DRs on it in an attempt to make it a little easier on my weakling fingers but I quickly realised that they're too thin and weedy sounding. Back to 12s then.
Been having nightmare in production and specifically bass guitar recording world: I've been struggling with this particular mix for weeks now. Alright dammit, months. I've replaced the bass and the guitars at least twice, re-done the banjo and vocals many times. I've gone back to scratch on the mix and tried all manner of drums and pluggins. Whatever I did the whole thing just sounded awful with a big booming bass resonance smearing and intefering with everything else. I even moved my desk around the room (and then back again) to try and alleviate the booming and splurged on expensive monitor headphones to try and mix without the the room modes causing an issue. I keep leaving it and coming back but nothing I did seemed to work. Then last night after yet another frustrating session during which I was starting to doubt my ability to create listenable music full-stop, I decided to try replacing the bass yet again and this time maybe play a different pattern to avoid the offending note (not easy as it's the root that's the problem). I was dinking about on the bass getting warmed up and noticed that fretted notes on the low e-string were a little buzzy. This wasn't a big surprise as I'd been tweaking the truss rod to try and make the action a little more slinky, so I decided to back it off a touch (1/4 turn) and try again. The moment I tuned back up I noticed the A and E strings ringing out like they hadn't in a while. I muted the old bass and plugged in a played a few bars on a new track and it was like having cotton wool removed from your ears. Suddenly the whole mix just jumped into focus. It actually sounded good. I could hear the guitars that I'd slaved over and replaced three times (and still wasn't happy with) and they sounded GOOD! So did the vocal and the banjo and everything else!
It was only then that I reased that although I'd spent countless hours, repacing, eqing, re-amping, compressing and manipulating the offending bass, I'd never really tried listening to the mix without it. I'd solo'd it (and other instruments) thousands of time but never played the whole mix without the bass (which comes in at bar 1 and plays throughout). In a second, the scales fell from my eyes and I realised that when I'd tweaked the truss rod a few months ago then played the bassline with a low E string tuned down to D, that slight fret buzz I hadn't previously worried about had been causing some weird resonant, dissonant booming overtones that had been the couse of all of my issues. It wasn't the note or the room or my monitors or my ears or my mind... it was the fucking guitar the whole time!
I could have fucking cried for the time I'd wasted on this thing, lying awake at night and beating myself up for being unable to finish anything. I was seriously starting to doubt my ability to record my own music thinking I didn't have the necessary critical faculties and or psychological traits required to ever finish anything. I'd even booked the band into a proper studio to see if I had the same problem outside of my house. To be fair, I'd sent rough mixes to a few people, all of whom had winced and comiserated with me and offered (most EQ-based) solutions but none of them had picked up on it either.
I was so deliriously relieved I nailed a new bassline in a couple of takes, banged out a rough mis then stood in the living room cranking it out on the stereo with a very large scotch in hand. Slept properly for the first time in ages. All for a 1/4 turn of fucking truss rod.
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lotta typos there. also tl;dr
TS, Although I feel that 2006 me would hate 2015 me for it, i'm all about the clippy headstock tuners now I'm afraid. Or TU-2 for very rare forays into electricland. They are nice though. You can sell me your wilshire if you like?
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I know, only messin. I can't be buying any more guitars. One in/one out policy at the mo and I'm not parting with my tele.
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A Firebird build, woah wait, i missed this... seriously... got pics?
Are you doing clear/sunburst? Sims Custom or Philippe Dubreuille would do a top job but they'd be the thick end of £400. Maybe even more in the case of Sims. Or does the dust thing really stop things? I did a few bodies and they came out pretty okay... takes weeks and weeks, but if you're doing sonic blue or surf green or something it'll be easy. Reranch forum for tips, nitro from Manchester Guitar Tech, wait for spring, then go for it... if sunburst though, I hear you...
@Apone sympathy lelz...
@>>>>>> Slivertoan... fiddy dollah...
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Rick haz you ever put a bigsby on a tele? Got any hot tips if so?
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Nope, never have. If your (ace) guitar was mine I'd be loath to do it 'cos the arm gets in the way on a Tele, Jag bridges suck, neck angle and set up are a pain…
Considered a Stetsbar? Looks uncool but it works and leaves no extra holes, take it off and flip it when you grow weary. Just a thought.
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Thanks for the recomendations. I'll take a look, though I suspect that the guitar won't merit a really good finish when it's done.
I've got a bunch of pics, they're all a bit iphone quality. Here's one of the current state of play, also not very good quality... I put the hardware on to see how it looks so it's not screwed down.
I was planing to have it sunburst. It's a neck through build and I bought the neck block and the wings from different suppliers - the wood doesn't match that well, though the difference is much less now I've started to sand it. I'll see how it looks - if they match then sunburst, if not then it'll be Olympic white. I think the white looks pretty classy on the new Firebirds, so I'm toying with that anyway.
The dust might just be a slight excuse, I could probably work around it. It's the first one I've made in my home 'workshop' ('shed'). I'm keen to get it done so I'm happy to pay someone to speed up that part of the process. I've done one a few years ago, and god the amount of sanding they need.
The next one (likely a strat) I'll take a lot more time over and probably finish myself.
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^^supercool. One day I will own a shed and... probably never do anything like that in it...
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some guitar/banjo/guitalele funzies:
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Thanks - hope it plays ok once it's finished. There were some moments of impatience early on which hopefully won't impact it.
Sheds are awesome, although my bikes are now completely caked in sawdust... -
Hehe, that is way cool.
christianSpaceman
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Dooks-Fatberg
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rickster
Olly398
Haino
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