Gasalcoholics anonymous? whoever said this was a help group?

[Blackened Soul]

I installed a power jack in the side of my script phase 45 almost 20 years ago.. I have no regrets.

[Blackened Soul]

Comming (to hopefully finish out the pedalboard)
TC Electronic Thunderstorm Flanger
Truetone CS11 1 Spot Pro
Dreadbox Treminator

[dubkitty]

“Treminator.” that’s funny.

[le lambin]

Found one of these little guys for very cheapy because the power switch was broken- easy fix and it’s a cool little amp. Just volume and tone and a 10” Creamback speaker.

[Zork]

I found an EHX V256 Vocoder in the local classifieds for cheap. Can't wait to try it out and I hope I can convince my bandmates to use it with the band occasionally. And I couldn't wait and ordered the Fender Villager 12 before I sold my Flying V. I'm still waiting for delivery, though. Fingers crossed the V will sell soon.

[dubkitty]

i’m in project/concept trouble again, and it’s those fuckers at Waterslide Guitars again with different arcane single-coils. apparently Mojo Pickups in the UK has a shockingly affordable set of the massive aluminum pickups Paul Bigsby made for his solidbody designs. they sound fantastic in the one demo on YouTube, though weirdly they aren’t as great in a couple of their other guitars which makes me wonder about what amps they used. (edit: everything is recorded in GarageBand and what amp model if any is used is not specified.) but the good-sounding demo sounds even better than their Davoli-reissue guitars. listen to how fat and steel-like the bridge pickup is:

https://youtu.be/_D3Q6_nfX8s?si=924e8oco1_UrypYW

but what the heck would i put them in? my first thought was the Eastwood re-rub of the Magnatone Mark V, but at over $1200 new (i’m still not used to $1000 being the new $700) it’s way too expensive to buy just to chop up and it’s one of the Eastwoods that either doesn’t sell much or buyers like too much to sell off so i’m no more likely to find one used than i was finding a used version of my Eastwood Wandré. Waterslide is all about the Fender designs which i reckon are more friendly to single-coils due to the longer scale length, but i’m not that wild about yet another Jazzmaster-based build or using a Strat base because the ergonomics aren’t that great for little me. if i did a Fender take it’d be a Telecaster; i like the ergonomics of a Tele, i just don’t like the way i sound on them, thus my storyboarded Tele with the mahogany neck and Gemini Kay/Supro pickups. i couldn’t find much that seemed like it would work in extensively searching for various old/cheap guitars (though i might find something i like in an old Japanese body). other potential options are also a bit too nice to chop up, though the current Gretsch Streamliner Rally appeals. i guess the fallback option is to get as close to Bigsby’s guitars as possible, which would mean a maple-topped Tele body with a large-headstock curly/birdseye maple neck and obviously a Bigsby kit.

i can let this idea percolate for a bit because the Wandré is fairly close to that sound and would be closer run through the EHX Black Finger tube compressor. i went through my list of Guitars I’m Interested in and eliminated several things…turns out the old Guild Bluesbirds from the late 60s/early 70s aren’t that much different from a Les Paul with medium-output humbuckers so the idea of a lethal Aristocrat with the reissue oversized 'buckers from the Kim Thayil signature Polara is off, their Surfliner is great but rather duplicative of the Jazzmaster/Galaxiemaster, and i really don’t need a 17” jazz archtop because i don’t play no jazz. so a Bigsby build could work into the long-term plan once the Jetstar, Double Jet, and Galaxiemaster are done. i’m kind of OK with winding down the guitar acquisitions process…with the 3 guitars in the pipeline i’ll have a total of 19, and 20 already seems like a lot without the other Tele and Strat builds i have planned. i’m literally running out of corners that don’t already have a stack of cases, cased pedalboards, or amplifiers, and i’m still getting to know the guitars i bought last year.

[dubkitty]

it would be kind of funny if i wound up with three Telecasters--Gemini, Bigsby, and CuNiFe WRHBs--with none of them "sounding like a Telecaster."

[Gone Fission]

apparently Mojo Pickups in the UK has a shockingly affordable set of the massive aluminum pickups Paul Bigsby made for his solidbody designs.

They say their HB-sized ones are the exact same internals and are a good chunk cheaper. Perhaps the big wings and height adjustment mechanism add something, perhaps not. Just for ease of getting a guitar together with that sound, that’d be the easy button, though I acknowledge the relative lack of style.

[dubkitty]

it seems like most of the possibilities i've seen that feel right aren't routed for humbuckers, so i'll probably have to adapt something anyway. those are either a Telecaster body with a maple top or a National-style body made of ash which is hella stylish but might be too bright-sounding for those pickups. either way i'd like a large-headstock neck to get more of a Bigsby feel. i guess PAF-sized examples would be an easier go. i kind of think those big-ass housings must have some kind of effect on tone beyond the actual electrics, though. i dunno. i guess sticking PAF-sized ones in a DeArmond M-series body would work. i'd like it if this guitar wound up being a greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts end product like the Kondor which i'm just delighted with now that everything seems sorted. TEN YEARS LATER. i need to check whether the pickups require a flat top, which i'd expect to be the case.

https://reverb.com/item/87443197-custom ... lear-nitro

[BitchPudding]

BOG Fuzz Face Clone made it to the states. Tariffs be dammed!



Top two knobs are Volume and Fuzz. Big knob in the center is the Voltage Starve. I ran my super overdrive into it, which got really nasty. But it also gets really clean if you slam it and dial in the voltage starve. Kinda c l a n g y. Then I remembered I liked to run the BOG INTO an overdrive.

Then it fucking died on me. It seems like something is up with the connection for power on the thing.I opened it up and found nothing wrong. I put some rolled up duct tape wads in between the board and some knobs. Maybe if there's a short causing the power loss that will help. I hope so, this thing came all the way from Poland! I'm trying to shred, bitchhhhhh.

[dubkitty]

yesterday’s brainwave re: a guitar with Bigsby pickups was that there are modern single-pickup Supro guitars with a chambered body and a ResoGlass top which are available used for under $500. they’re cool enough to be interesting but common enough that i wouldn’t be committing a crime by using it as a starting point. i’d need to figure out whether you can put a Bigsby on one; probably have to use a B3 or B6 because i doubt the top would support a B5 or hold down a B7 while the mahogany back would more likely work with the endpin mount of the B3/B6. to keep the vibe i’d get a Chet Atkins wire handle, and replace the rosewood bridge with a Bigsby “bow tie”/“Sorkin” bridge which uses a flat baseplate suitable for flat bodies; i love the effect the Bigsby bridge on the Kondor, whose aluminum archtop base i filed and sanded down until it was relatively Sorkin-shaped. it will need the saddle replaced with one that’s roughly compensated for a plain G string rather than a wound G, which i also had to do on the Kondor. it’s not a perfect solution, but it’d be somewhat simpler in that most of the Valco would remain intact unless i decided to change the tuners. anyway, i’m not dropping $500 on a project any time soon. it’s just that the sound of those pickups got to me.

[dubkitty]

here’s a couple of examples of modern Supro models that go for around $500 in the used market. modern Airline guitars are more dear for the models i find attractive…i’m never going to pay $1200 for a all-wood 2000s used map guitar. if i was rolling in it i’d pay that much for an original National with the weird pickup built into the plastic bridge support; there was one going for $200 i played in the 70s that haunts me. this was before Dylan spiked the price of them by playing one on the Rolling Thunder Revue/Hard Rain tour.

sparkle white finish, or metallic blue? now, there’s a no-lose choice.

[dubkitty]

of course, given my luck i’d probably get the Supro in and like its original setup too much to change it like happened with the sparkly blue DeArmond which was supposed to get the pickups from the Jetstar.

it strikes me that it would be possible to top-mount a Bigsby by drilling through the top and inserting dowels that went from the back through the chambering and ended flush with the top. i prefer the floating B3/B6 style, though. the old B6 i have that used to be on the 335 would probably be a better length for the Supro than for the Double Jet it’s currently waiting for. sometimes i think i should just go back to the B50 that was on the DJ, but surface mounts are seldom quite as wiggly.

i’m not usually a fan of oddly-shaped oversized headstocks, but i kind of like the Bob’s Big Boy pompadour effect.

it also strikes me that cutting into the fiberglass top would be kind of fraught…i’ve dealt with fiberglass insulation before, and fiberglass bits are very unpleasant to deal with both from a skin-contact and a breathing standpoint. i guess i could use the vacuum cleaner hose as a debris sucker while cutting. still worries me a bit.

[Gone Fission]

Gives me a thought, wondering whether an updated version of the construction could be done with carbon fiber or some other sort of composite. Compare the existence of the Enya Novo, an all carbon fiber instrument with built-in practice amp that goes for $500-ish. Seems like a CF body shouldn’t be prohibitive to do at some reasonable scale. I guess it’s the initial engineering and passing the vintage snob ears test that’s the barrier.

[dubkitty]

i think CF would be good in the ResoGlass application IF (big IF) it can be made with a smooth surface that can be painted a la the original which i know is done e.g. in Formula 1 body panels and boats. CF is also a bit problematic from the friability and wee splinters standpoint as far as cutting into it, but i think it’d still be better than fiberglass which is nasty shit to work with. but unless some deep-pocketed benefactor shows up i’m just blowing smoke.