Luminous Red Nova: #music

Showing posts with label #music. Show all posts

Sunday, August 13, 2023

Wired!

Figuring out everything can go through the solderless volume pot.

Tone pot and switch installed in the body.

What the switch and tone look like underneath.

Now everybody's here and the party is starting!

It works!!!

Saturday, August 5, 2023

Time To Rebuild

Headstock fitted with tuning machines, bone nut, and truss-rod cover.

Aligning neck in pocket of the body.

Set neck with a thin wedge-shaped maple shim in edge of pocket.

All strung up and waiting for electronics.

Friday, April 14, 2023

Whippersnapper +1 Luck Guitar Custom Rebuild

(Hey! I see my face...)

I am laid up with a bad cold, but it so happens that all the parts (except strings) have arrived to rebuild the Whippersnapper +1 Luck Guitar gifted me from my friend Sick Rick.

The guitar has always at very best intonated a hair sharp on the low E because the bridge saddle adjustment screw bottoms out. I thought it was perhaps because Sick mis-drilled the bridge-pin holes, but it turns out the original neck could be the culprit.

That neck, a super thick and heavy piece of maple, had the 22nd fret sitting right above the bottom edge of the neck pocket. The replacement neck I found (same 24.75" scale length on a thinner piece of maple) has the 22nd fret sitting about between a 1/4-1/2" down the neck from there. Installing the neck will have the effect to shift the entire scale length away from the bridge providing I estimate a better range for the intonation adjustments on the new saddle without having to drill new post holes.

The rebuild upgrades are:

Schaller Signum Bridge
Schaller locking tuners
Schaller Strap Locks
Custom mid-scoop switch, 3-way Tone Pot (normal tone, push-pull pulled has bass cut and fixed wah), and volume pot all by KellingSound
Maple 22-fret Guitar Neck
Custom Waterslide Headstock Decal from PopsDecals
Custom Truss Rod Cover by GuitarUpgrade

I am keeping whatever humbucker pickup Sick installed, it is a screamer. Also Sick had put a bone nut in that looks like it will pit perfectly on the new neck.

Only thing is even if I get it all together this weekend strings won't arrive until Tuesday. :~P

P.S. Ohhhh, tired of force-feeding guitar through a 15" speaker bass rig I picked up a used early 1990s Fender Ultimate Chorus...

Sunday, July 3, 2022

All-Together Now (All-together Now!) All-Together Now ...

So here is where things started out Sunday afternoon installing new guts for my 1995 Fender MB-4 bass...

Basically, everything was soldered excepting the grounds. I needed to widen the holes just a bit for the new pots and also fashion a new hole in the cavity for a momentary kill switch (ala Buckethead).

First thing I did though is shield the cavity with some Faraday Tape.

Next widened the pot holes using a hand wood reamer and added hole/momentary kill switch.

And finally got everything connected and seated... (Ha, my friend J.A.S. would say, "You can tell I've been in there.")

Looks pretty good from the outside!

Below is the finished guitar: New pot assembly from KellingSound88 on eBay and new P/J pickups from Fralin Pickups out of Richmond, Virginia.

All was not without friction however, when I had everything put together the pickups wouldn't engage except when the instrument cable was only about halfway inserted. And even then the momentary kill switch, which did work, had kind of "pop" when activated (this indicated the switch was just cutting the hot wire instead of grounding it as the design was supposed to).

So I figured some kind of short was created when I flattened out the wires into the cavity to put the cover plate back on. Opening everything up I didn't see anything unexpected, so I just took extra care that no bare wire was crossed anywhere then sealed the guitar back up.

Then the bass played extra fine and the instrument cable jack was as normal. There also was just the most minimal of noise at high volume (hiss noise from the original pickups are what started me down this project). The Fralin pickups a superb. Coupled with the new pot assembly I can get everything from an acoustic-sounding low-end to a very crunchy overtone-laden mids/highs.

Unfortunately the momentary kill switch no longer works. Not sure whether there is an internal bad connection that broke. I checked the wires and everything was connected as it should be before re-installing the cavity plate. Right now I am just enjoying the bass as it is. I might look for a different kill switch that will fit the 12mm hole I drilled. Ha, the button looks cool by itself even if it does not actually do anything.

Thursday, April 21, 2022

New Pot Assembly

So... the tone on the new (to me) vintage Fender MB-4 is awesome. Except that I have an annoying A/C signal hum. Not really noticeable when jamming along, but it's certainly there when I want to be silent.

Checked everything out - it's not pedals or cable or amp or any intervening device - the noise is coming from the bass. I went and found Seymour Duncan has a wiring diagram for P/J pickups with a blend knob, and their schematic shows a bunch of grounds going to the master volume pot. However in the MB-4 it appears there has been some wiring work done, and the majority of grounds have ended up on the volume pot (see below).

Now, J.A.S. my friendly tech friend, says that should not be a problem although any loose ground will act just like an antenna for AC or other frequency hum. Ha, advice from Sick Rick was "I don't mess around with other people's work anymore, I just buy a new assembly."

I went on eBay looking around and found this dude KellingSound88 who makes all sorts of pot assemblies, 5,767 reviews since 2002... 100% positive! And I found a P/J with blend assembly.

Per KellingSound88: P/J Bass Harness with Bridge pickup blend pot, this wiring is perfect for the P/J setup this allows you to blend in the bridge pickup a little or all the way with the Neck pickup, but it doesn't give the bridge by itself. The blend pot is A500k and is no load so when its all the way up its out of the circuit giving a fuller sound. The Volume is A250k with a treble bleed circuit. The tone pot is A500k with a .082 Vitamin Q paper in oil capacitor this gives a smooth taper adding a little treble cut but will give dark tone when all the way down than a .047 giving a wider range of tone options.

And the piece arrived with a nice handwritten note of where to wire the pickups and grounds.

I am looking to install sometime before our next Dismalhead jam and I am really looking forward to it. The assembly is total craftsmanship down to cloth-wrapped wires and rubber-covered connections for the jack. Ha, however it is funny for once I want something that IS a buzz kill.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

B-minor Variations

"Pentatonic Bm Variations on 3rd, 4th, 7th, Chromatic and Time" by Luminous Red Nova.

Peavey Fury IV,
Electro Harmonix Muff Pi,
Kustom Deep End 300HD, and
Eminence Deltalite II 2515.

Monday, April 26, 2021

Diddling Around with Carlos

"Corona" by The Minutemen.

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Pedalboard Update

Ok, going around the horn...

SYSTECH PHASE SHIFTER. Our oldest pedal, someone picked this thing up probably around 1983 and I ended up with it. Not really appropriate for the beginning of a signal chain, but I do enjoy plugging in right there at the top and the sounds coming through have not disappointed.

BOSS OCTAVE OC-5. The last pedal I added to the board. Was looking for some occasional deep synth-bass, also can get an organ-like tone.

DO THE WEASEL STOMP. (Newer version) A clone of the Systech Harmonic Energizer popularized by Frank Zappa. A filter/harmonic expander type pedal used as a treble or bass boost, which I basically leave the expression pedal at max bass unless I want to go in and out of the treble for this weird wah effect.

AMT Electronics EX-50. A mini expression pedal. I really wanted all metal pedals and this was the best of the minis I could find. Ordered direct from Russia.

ELECTRO-HARMONIX DELUXE BIG MUFF PI. Saw this pitched by none other than Tony Levin. The Big Muff is the first pedal I bought just for bass. Super versatile from growly fuzz to tight overdrive.

TC ELECTRONIC POLYTUNE 3 MINI. I lost my $10 Snark clip-on tuner and thought it would be cool to get a good tuner on the board. Being toward the end of the chain also works as a kill switch when tuning is activated. Incredibly accurate and visible but cost a butt ton of dough for a tuner.

MORLEY 20/20 VOLUME PLUS. The cool thing about this volume pedal is that a footswitch activates an adjustable minimum volume setting, so you can't accidently step on the pedal too hard and die off.

SINGULAR SOUND BEAT BUDDY AND FOOT SWITCH. Our drummer keeps exploding! (Ha, my fault. Sorry Dean.) This isn't technically in the chain, anyhow drummers are always a pain in the ass to round up and keep. So I went on a search for what would be the best drum machine when you can't get a live drummer and the Beat Buddy showed up.

SL Waber EPC-100 ESD TOUCH PLATE POWER CENTER SWITCH HUB 5-PORT SURGE PROTECTOR. Found it lying around left over from Owl Man's LAN party days. Powers everything either directly or through my AZOR Pedal Power Supply Adapter with 5 Way Daisy Chain Cables fit for 9V DC 1A (1000mA) Negative Tip Guitar Effect Pedal. (Hmmms, Does it really make sense to power $1,000 worth of pedals through a $12 daisy chain?)