Bad Cyclone GAS.... Help! Edit: NM, NGD!

Discussion of newer designs, copies and reissue offset-waist instruments.
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Sid Nitzerglobin
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Re: Bad Cyclone GAS.... Help! Edit: NM, NGD!

Post by Sid Nitzerglobin » Sat Feb 17, 2018 6:48 pm

Had some parts come in and I changed some stuff up on this one over the last couple days:
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I had to improvise a bit on the pickguard when I discovered all the bakelite I had on hand was a ~ 13" x 4" strip. The DiY vibe works for me until I get some more material in and the time to make the one I planned.

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Sid Nitzerglobin
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Re: Bad Cyclone GAS.... Help! Edit: NM, NGD!

Post by Sid Nitzerglobin » Thu Apr 12, 2018 10:44 am

The Novak 3x3 minihum for this guitar came in today, hopefully I can get it swapped in this evening:
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kamillebidan
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Re: Bad Cyclone GAS.... Help! Edit: NM, NGD!

Post by kamillebidan » Thu Apr 12, 2018 12:30 pm

Sid Nitzerglobin wrote:
Thu Apr 12, 2018 10:44 am
The Novak 3x3 minihum for this guitar came in today, hopefully I can get it swapped in this evening:
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So awesome, I had once planned on having a mini-hb with 3x3 spacing matched with a WRHB on a guitar! Let us know how it sounds, especially the mixed sound!

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Sid Nitzerglobin
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Re: Bad Cyclone GAS.... Help! Edit: NM, NGD!

Post by Sid Nitzerglobin » Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:47 pm

I got the minihum swapped in and fixed my reverse volume pot wiring while I was in there and I'm really liking the sounds so far. It's fairly similar in character to the Firebird that was in there, just a bit more body on the low strings, a bit less glassiness on the high ones but a nice bite, & a smidge more hair and output all around. The switch from bridge to neck seems slightly better matched in output and the minihum by itself seems to have very nice dynamic range.

I think I might have liked the Firebird w/ the WR style HB significantly better in the both position than the minihum, but I'll have to play around w/ it some more. I've only checked it out through the Micro Terror stack so far, but it seemed a bit rounder in the attack and darker than I see my self using much. Not a bad sound, just not one I'm all that into.

It's a great sounding minihum at any rate IMO and I like the look matched up w/ the WR style HB ;D

Here's a pic, reassembled:
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And one of the wiring before I flipped the in and ground lugs on the volume pot:
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peterjh85
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Re: Bad Cyclone GAS.... Help! Edit: NM, NGD!

Post by peterjh85 » Thu Apr 12, 2018 7:39 pm

so good! Love my cyclone...the neck on that one is great!
My Offsets:
Fender Cyclone - 1x Vintage White, 1x Pewter
Fender Mod Shop Jazzmaster - Fiesta Red

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solfege
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Re: Bad Cyclone GAS.... Help! Edit: NM, NGD!

Post by solfege » Thu Apr 12, 2018 9:20 pm

Really like this. I've been thinking about putting one of those Novak WRs in mine. I'm curious, though, what you've done with the wiring. Looks like more than the stock cap in there.

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Sid Nitzerglobin
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Re: Bad Cyclone GAS.... Help! Edit: NM, NGD!

Post by Sid Nitzerglobin » Thu Apr 12, 2018 10:12 pm

Thanks!

It's fairly straight forward wiring wise: pickups > toggle > blower DPDT push pull on the tone pot to bypass the 500K volume w/ treble bleed, .022uF PIO cap and 500K tone pot before going to the jack. The tone stack is pretty useful but I think I'm going to tweak the resistor value on the treble bleed as the taper on the volume is a little gradual before dropping off a cliff in the last ~20% or so of travel.

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solfege
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Re: Bad Cyclone GAS.... Help! Edit: NM, NGD!

Post by solfege » Tue May 01, 2018 5:08 pm

This thing is giving me so many ideas for mine. I'm going to dive into rewiring it, for sure (especially given its Squier-ness). But I'm dying to hear what those pickups sound like.

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Sid Nitzerglobin
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Re: Bad Cyclone GAS.... Help! Edit: NM, NGD!

Post by Sid Nitzerglobin » Sun Jul 29, 2018 8:21 am

Been a bit, but I finished (?) this one up yesterday and figured I'd post an update.

This one has become easily one of my top 5 most played guitars and seems like my go to for taking a guitar out of the house. It seems equally as detailed and full of character clean or dirty and maintains great dynamics despite some pretty healthy output on both pickups. It seems to deliver a really great balance in feel as well, managing to achieve a slinky, silky feel for light touch stuff but standing up to a pretty healthy beating w/o giving up when necessary. The probability seems pretty high that it would be the #1 for the band if we can ever get the drummer back on any kind of regular basis.

Friday the sheet of bakelite finally came in and I spent most of the day at the shop yesterday cutting the "real" guard for it. I'll probably give it another pass of filing/sanding to smooth a few bits out but overall I think I'm pretty happy w/ it:
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I've been giving serious consideration to potentially adding some comp stripes to the guard w/ some silver metallic lacquer I've had sitting around for a bit and sealing it up w/ a couple coats of satin clear, but we'll have to wait and see how motivated I am on that...

It feels pretty finished and like it should continue to be a frequent staple for me for quite a while as is.

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solfege
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Re: Bad Cyclone GAS.... Help! Edit: NM, NGD!

Post by solfege » Sun Jul 29, 2018 10:17 am

That looks super great. I love what you did with the guard actually. Personally I'd leave it just as it is, subtle. But Cyclones are so much fun. Yours is making me want to do something more interesting with the neck pickup in mine.

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Re: Bad Cyclone GAS.... Help! Edit: NM, NGD!

Post by BlueMelody » Mon Jul 30, 2018 2:04 pm

I’m on my second one, great guitars :)

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