What's on your workbench right now?

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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hexes
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by hexes » Thu Jun 16, 2022 7:41 pm

ryland wrote:
Thu Jun 16, 2022 6:58 am
hexes wrote:
Mon Jun 13, 2022 3:47 pm
the princeton reverb lives! i have to redo the fuse and power switch wiring. mojo’s chassis designs are not great, and this is based off their cuts and punches. that said, as messy as it looks, it’s very quiet. tremolo is very intense and can move at a glacial pace. reverb needed some work. princetons get too cavernous too fast, so a log pot was used, with an added ‘dwell’ control

i love this amp. the added midrange control does some great things.

Image
Man, that's great! I just spent a couple weeks bringing my '64 Princeton back up to snuff. The bias diode had blown out, so I rebuilt the bias circuit and replaced the cap can (which was bulging). I bought the amp in '98 with a blown speaker...as I was working on it, I realized that the output transformer looked like potting had leaked out and lacquered it on one side and the bottom. It has worked all these years, but never sounded like other examples I've heard. I replaced it with a Mercury Magnetics one. I'm not sure that there's a real difference, I may swap the original back in and give it more of a test...
thanks! this is my first go with mercury iron. My personal amps I am happy to use hammond, heyboer, and edcor; but I have to admit this princeton is impressing me (please understand there is zero ego in that opinion). I also built a tweed deluxe with a soursound output transformer that sounds very good to my ears, despite tweed being my least favorite fender era.

I wonder what would cause the lacquer to spill out. have you attempted to measure that transformer for failures?

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ryland
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by ryland » Fri Jun 17, 2022 7:00 am

[/quote]

I wonder what would cause the lacquer to spill out. have you attempted to measure that transformer for failures?
[/quote]

I'm wondering the same thing and decided that I need to determine if it is compromised. I need to do some research on how to properly measure it or send it out to someone who can. After really cranking the amp with the new transformer, I decided that I'd prefer to have the original back in if it's still good.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by hexes » Thu Jun 23, 2022 12:34 pm

got all the rest of the iron for my brown fender super clone and a modified single channel tremolux!

last night i wired the super chassis. filter bank is in, circuit is already done, just need to build the bias circuit and drill a few holes (2/4/8Ω impedance switch, bandmaster/super/pro modes)

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sorry i’ve flooded this with amps. maybe we should make one in the amp forum?

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by garyptaszek » Thu Jun 23, 2022 1:02 pm

On the fence about this irreversible mod. It already has a cut off tele bridge, but this might be a little too far. Opinions?
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epizootics
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by epizootics » Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:29 pm

garyptaszek wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 1:02 pm
On the fence about this irreversible mod. It already has a cut off tele bridge, but this might be a little too far. Opinions?
Image
For what it's worth, lipsticks sound REALLY COOL in parallel with a Tele bridge pickup, in a 'best-of-both-worlds' kind of way.
The caveat is that you can end up with a massive difference in output between your pickups when played separately.

From a geometrical standpoint, if the string spacing is right...Why the hell not?
From a practical standpoint, you may want to use a top-loading bridge. It is hard to tell what you will find inside the body in that particular spot, and drilling for string-through ferrules might become a challenge if you hit a hollow part of the body. But if your cut-off Tele bridge already is a string-through, no issues there.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by bodhi » Fri Jun 24, 2022 5:15 am

epizootics wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:29 pm
garyptaszek wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 1:02 pm
On the fence about this irreversible mod. It already has a cut off tele bridge, but this might be a little too far. Opinions?
Image
For what it's worth, lipsticks sound REALLY COOL in parallel with a Tele bridge pickup, in a 'best-of-both-worlds' kind of way.
The caveat is that you can end up with a massive difference in output between your pickups when played separately.

From a geometrical standpoint, if the string spacing is right...Why the hell not?
From a practical standpoint, you may want to use a top-loading bridge. It is hard to tell what you will find inside the body in that particular spot, and drilling for string-through ferrules might become a challenge if you hit a hollow part of the body. But if your cut-off Tele bridge already is a string-through, no issues there.
Depending on the economics, if it's in some way collectible probably wouldn't. But if not, one idea would be to just route out the pickup footprint if the bridge is already working, like the GFS Slick guitars do with their teles: https://www.guitarfetish.com/SL50_c_666.html . Might avoid some issues such as the ones mentioned.

Absolutely no idea what it might sound like, but since it has three pickups already, you could perhaps avoid some of the overt volume differences with wiring alternatives that would put the neck and middle pickups in series before you'd select the lipsticks individually?
Jazzmaster project (got a body, placeholder neck, some pickups and ideas)
Tokai Telecaster Thinline with Creamery Pickups Filtertron and Tapped Tele
Blake Mills-inspired Strat project w/ Gold Foil and slide pickup

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by fever606 » Sat Jun 25, 2022 4:09 am

This has been sitting for over a year, time to get going…

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One day I’ll buy a router…

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Norrin Radd
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Norrin Radd » Sat Jun 25, 2022 5:36 am

Still waiting for the vibrato to show up but its time to get the rest of this Jag together! (the Tele is just waiting on a bridge pickup to arrive):


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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by hexes » Sat Jun 25, 2022 3:02 pm

received my custom knobs today, goes well with the simulated amber jewel light. there are two even darker tortoise knobs that go on the rear panel. the knob crafter (@knobheadpdx on IG, knobheadpdx on reverb) absolutely nailed this.

need a faceplate and the princeton reverb is ready for the cabinet!

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Gordon
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Gordon » Sat Jun 25, 2022 5:19 pm

Picture this (or remember this, if you have very good memory :ph34r: )... Almost 9 years ago, I posted this:

Image

I had the body for maybe 2 years at that point in time. I started gathering parts, the plan was perfectly clear in my head, I knew what I wanted. Then I moved from France to New York, got a couple of other parts, I had sold all my electric guitars before leaving but kept that body in my luggage. Then I moved to Malaysia, and then Singapore... Nothing was put together, just a bunch of parts waiting. And then came to me the sudden realization that it's been too long, it will never be complete, so I sold the body to give it a good home. But I still have the parts...

... I still have the parts. :whistle:

Cue yesterday.

Image

Sure, it's bit different that the initial idea, and will require some handywork: the bridge pickup has to go, and the bridge will leave holes I'll have to hide. Hopefully the pickguard I ordered will fit. But I miss my sonic blue jaguar, so I'll keep the finish. Summer project, here we go.
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by hulakatt » Sat Jun 25, 2022 6:24 pm

Funny, I have the neck and most of the parts for a tele that I had built and then parted out and sold the body and pickup. And some of the other parts. But I still have most of it. I still haven't decided if I should just sell the neck and the rest of the parts or build another tele.
She/Her

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Gordon » Sat Jun 25, 2022 7:02 pm

Gordon wrote:
Sat Jun 25, 2022 5:19 pm
Picture this (or remember this, if you have very good memory :ph34r: )... Almost 9 years ago, I posted this:
[...]
I posted this 5 years ago. :fp:
Gordon wrote:
Wed Feb 08, 2017 4:35 pm
Image

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQREzskDjlu/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But don't get too eager to see it finished, I had the body for years, when I was still in France, from a Canadian luthier, then I took it to New York, then Malaysia, and now in Singapore. Quite the traveler, this piece of pine. ;D It's the only guitar I have left, and it's still missing a lot of things, that I get every now and then (even though I know what I want, it's more a question of funds). :ph34r:
The picture in the post:

Image
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by Gordon » Sat Jun 25, 2022 7:05 pm

And these, in other threads:
Gordon wrote:
Wed Jan 19, 2011 8:55 am
Image Image

One piece pine body (actually, there's a small strip of wood added near the jack cup), meant to become a Necksquire (like an Esquire, but with a neck pickup, hence the name), the rout is for a P90 (dogear). The body was made by Spaltking, to whom I asked for "something with knots, cracks, and wormholes". :D (and no,I won't fill any of those) The goal is to add an all-rosewood neck, and play the blues with this thing like I'm a hobo living in a barn. I've asked Glendale about making a regular Tele bridge *without pickup*, they said it was on their list; but still no news, so I might ask another maker (if you have names, I'll take them). The rest will be pretty standard.

I'll finish it with teck oil (which is actually a mix tung/linseed oil), but I can't decide if I take the amber-tinted one, or the regular one... Do you think the regular one would darken the wood a bit? Because that's what I'd like. I had the idea for this guitar watching Maggie's amberish Tele, but now I've got the body in front of me, I'm afraid it'd be orange-y.
Gordon wrote:
Sat Jun 23, 2018 5:25 pm
I try not to accumulate too much, but something like 7 years ago, I bought a one-piece knotty pine Tele Esquire body made by a small luthier in Canada (I lived in France) to my specs. Didn't do anything with it, waiting for the right parts.

Fast forward a bit, 3 years later (!), I was to move to New York, and couldn't bring my guitars; so I sold everything, but that body. Once in the US, as my sole project, I got what I thought was the perfect pickup, a Duesenberg (which couldn't be sent to a US address for some reason, so I had a friend in Italy to buy it and ship it). Still nothing was put together.

Then I moved to Malaysia, bringing everything with me. Kept gathering parts from all over the world. Everything starts to fit together, just need to actually be assembled. Bought parts for a partcaster bass in the meantime, instead. Another move, to Singapore. Where I put together another partcaster (the silver Mustang I posted here and there).

Three or four months ago, the Esquire body was sold (at the price I actually bought it). Which, save for the few coats of oil I did at some point, was new, and still covered in the bubble wrap it originally came in.

Aaaaand, amusingly enough, for the past couple of weeks (so, before your thread), I've been thinking that I still have that pickup and those parts laying around in a box, and that I should put them to good use. Life's a big, perfect circle. :ph34r:
Well, I guess the lesson is: follow your dreams, boils and ghouls. :w00t:
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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by garyptaszek » Sun Jun 26, 2022 5:19 am

bodhi wrote:
Fri Jun 24, 2022 5:15 am
epizootics wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:29 pm
garyptaszek wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 1:02 pm
On the fence about this irreversible mod. It already has a cut off tele bridge, but this might be a little too far. Opinions?
Image
For what it's worth, lipsticks sound REALLY COOL in parallel with a Tele bridge pickup, in a 'best-of-both-worlds' kind of way.
The caveat is that you can end up with a massive difference in output between your pickups when played separately.

From a geometrical standpoint, if the string spacing is right...Why the hell not?
From a practical standpoint, you may want to use a top-loading bridge. It is hard to tell what you will find inside the body in that particular spot, and drilling for string-through ferrules might become a challenge if you hit a hollow part of the body. But if your cut-off Tele bridge already is a string-through, no issues there.
Depending on the economics, if it's in some way collectible probably wouldn't. But if not, one idea would be to just route out the pickup footprint if the bridge is already working, like the GFS Slick guitars do with their teles: https://www.guitarfetish.com/SL50_c_666.html . Might avoid some issues such as the ones mentioned.

Absolutely no idea what it might sound like, but since it has three pickups already, you could perhaps avoid some of the overt volume differences with wiring alternatives that would put the neck and middle pickups in series before you'd select the lipsticks individually?
It's currently got a top loader cut off tele bridge. The bridge pickup is a Kent Armstrong hot lipstick (7.8k). Potentially I'd get a 11k tele bridge pickup which should pair nicely if I moved the KA lipstick to the neck position.
I've had string thru bridges on other Danelectros from the 90s/00s without any issues, so hopefully this would be no different.
I'm gonna try a compressor to attempt to balance the lower output pickups of this guitar, with the higher output pickups of my other guitars. Although this body has already been modified (with the top loader tele bridge, and the neck pocket enlarged to fit a baritone Dano neck) I didn't want to go overboard, routing this for a tele pickup would obviously be irreversible. I'm GASing for a Nashville tele at the moment which is swaying me a bit, especially the marriage of Nashville Tele and Nashville "Baritione" guitar.

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Re: What's on your workbench right now?

Post by 2groggy » Sun Jun 26, 2022 6:03 am

One of a batch of laminated archtop panels... I can get one a day though the vacuum bag.
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