Guitar Players: Show us yours!

[Ulu]

I’m still working on the Silvertone bobcat and there’s a lot of damage to the body.

The top veneer had separated from the core over 40% of its area and I had to glue that all back down. I tried to pull it all up and re-glue the whole thing but it wasn’t possible.

Maybe if I heated it up with a heat gun, but it had previously had about a 25% separation, and somebody had re-glued it with epoxy, which did not level down correctly.

Anyhow, there is no way that I’m going to refinish the entire body. This is an antique asking to stay an antique. What I did in fact is antique it a little further, because I wanted to disguise the repair work where I could.

All these areas on the body had delamination but the blue area was an old repair and I could not do anything to make this flatter.

Unless I could get the whole top veneer off and repair or replace it, the only other thing I could do is block sand the entire top and refinish the Sunburst pattern.

But the back is very nice still and I don’t wanna end up having the thing mismatched because of refinishing. I will just live with the relic look.

 

[dimples]

I’m afraid that what you see in that photograph is how I received the car five years ago.

It ran OK too once I cleaned out the carburetor and rewired it.

But the problem was this thing had a bent, patched, weak, rusted out chassis, and mostly my thread is about rebuilding that chassis.

I started reading through your thread last night, you have a lot of work on your hands. Worth every minute when you get to take it out for a spin with the knowledge the chassis isn't going to fall apart beneath you. I'm following your thread, it's inspiring to see your dedication to the project

I finished my pickguard, but it took me a couple tries to make a good one.
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There, I’m singing a song I wrote to celebrate my wife’s 69th birthday.


I was using guitar picks to spread the crack between the veneer and the core on that Bobcat. Somehow, one slipped into the crack unnoticed. It wasn’t seen until I unclamped the body days later.

So I had to spread it open again and dig that pick out. Then I re-glued the body. I will unclamp it today for a look.

Meanwhile, I bought some pieces of bone, to replace the nuts on the Speed Demon, the Bobcat, and the Stratocaster clone. The clone had a chipped nut, but the other two have the original molded plastic nuts.

I only got the first one done so far.
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That’s the Speed Demon.
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I made this custom truss rod cover for the Bobcat to replace the boring (broken) stock cover. It mimics the shape of the headstock in miniature.

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That's a great touch, really nice idea

 

[Ulu]

So the bobcat Guitar was finished in lacquer, and then shellac. I bought my first can of shellac ever…

I was shooting shellac in the garage when my wife came home early and put up the door. My insulated 70°F garage went to 50°F in about 10 seconds.

I got a lot of orange peel in the finish and I’m probably going to live with a lot of it, although it can be rubbed out.

Also there was stuff in the grain of the veneer that came out into the varnish, so it’s going to have lots of flaws.

The top had flaws in some spots that allowed stuff to seep into the grain over the years, and what goes in often comes out.

Of course there was all the delamination around the edges that I had sealed up, and mostly what I was going for here is to seal everything back up solid, so it would not delaminate again. It’s gonna have a road worn finish covered in shellac.

Anyhow I cannot begin to address this guitar further until it has dried and cured and so I put it up for at least a week.

Shellac dries in minutes, but not when you put on this much. There’s going to be sanding and rubbing involved and then I’m going to shoot the back and let it dry for another week.

 

[Ulu]

I drilled a hole in a 60 year old Guitar today in order to put a ground wire on the tail piece. This is made from a piece of music wire bent into shape and pressed into a hole, that also serves to route the ground wire back to the control panel.

It’s completely hidden and the ground wire is soldered into place on both ends. The pressure of the tailpiece will keep the spring wire in place and keep everything neatly grounded regardless of the adjustment angle.

 

[Ulu]

The custom strat needed a ground wire on the claw too. I ran some TV wire, right to the jack.

My sis in law punctured her oled TV, so now I have lots of nice TV wire and random capacitors. 8D

The pick guard was too tight from the neck to the trem. I filed it for extra clearance.

I also took off the neck, to remove the awful plastic gasket.

 

[Ulu]

I got that guitar all back together again and the volume control would not turn down so I must have a couple of wires crossed at the volume control.

I decided I wanted to be able to get all the electronics in an out without cutting or soldering any wires so I had to enlarge the passage between the jack cavity and the main control cavity.

I sharpened up my wood carving tools & enlarged the hole until access was easy.

Because I didn’t want to have to cut any ground wires I added a little ground screw into the body where the ground wire from the claw and the ground wire from the volume pot meet.

Anyhow it sounds good and it plays well but I have got to take it apart again to fix those volume control wires. At least the jack will go in and out easily now.

 

[Ulu]

Well this was one of those annoying things where it tested fine flat on the bench, and then when I put it together and picked the guitar up into playing position, it all went to the devil.

Look at that swimming pool! You’ve got enough room for a humbucker a mudbucker and a thudpucker!

After taking it apart again and fiddling around with it I determined that the volume control was unreliable and it would jump all over the place just by moving it around.

I’m just gonna put a regular volume pot in it, since that’s what I’ve got in my drawer. I don’t need the complications of the extra switch right now. I can barely play a Stratocaster at all.


If you’ve played guitars for a long time you will be able to pick up any guitar and do something with it. I on the other hand I’m used to banging out stuff on a wonky Gibson or Silvertone with extremely poor action.

I only recently graduated from that problem and it means developing a sense of touch that I haven’t needed up to this point.

When I bought the Schechter guitar it was practically unplayable for me because it was so delicate a touch on such a heavy duty instrument.

I had to practice on a cheap Indonesian Telecaster for a while before I started to get in the groove, as they say.

Then I improved the action of the telecaster and started practicing that, and suddenly the Schectter was approachable. I’m afraid it might be my favorite guitar someday.

 

[Ulu]

The shellac work hasn’t gone quite as well as I had expected.

I have spent several hours rubbing out the shellac on the Silvertone bobcat body and it’s starting to look better. Not good though.

Unfortunately, Even after alcohol rubbing, the new shellac did not dissolve & bond with the old shellac, as I had expected, on places where I never touch-sanded the finish.

This means I need to take off some of the new stuff completely & hit it with some very fine sandpaper in those places, before the shellac will bond.

 

[dimples]

The shellac work hasn’t gone quite as well as I had expected.

I have spent several hours rubbing out the shellac on the Silvertone bobcat body and it’s starting to look better. Not good though.

Unfortunately, Even after alcohol rubbing, the new shellac did not dissolve & bond with the old shellac, as I had expected, on places where I never touch-sanded the finish.

This means I need to take off some of the new stuff completely & hit it with some very fine sandpaper in those places, before the shellac will bond.

I feel for you, shellac can be a bit of a bitch

 

[dimples]

My band practice set up

Scratch build SG style beasty into my scratch build ultra high gain pre amp into a stereo splitter and then running to the orange power amp through 4x12 and my scratch build 60w ultra linear power house through another 4x12.

The amps are my own design schematics based on years of experimentation and reading. Pre amp is ultra high gain shaped to my own needs built from antique radio parts and housed in an ammo crate.
Poweramp is 2 x el34s running in ultra linear and based around 70s designs from sunn and others.

If anyone is interested I am happy to share endless boring details and schematics and calculations and all that jazz but for the sake of everyone else I'll hold off on that for now.

It sounds monstrous which is how I like it

 

[Ulu]

I remember back in the 70s, loading and unloading those 4 x 12 cabinets on the road. Plus our drummer had way too much gear to be taking on the road all the time like that.

As much fun as it might be to play with a real Frankenstein set up like that, I feel like owning it would be a bit much at my age.

That being said, I plan to take the solid-state guts out of my 30 W fender amplifier and build a tube amplifier into the chassis.

Looking at the cost of modern tube amplifier kits, however, I am totally shocked because I remember how cheap they were when I was a kid.

Who could imagine buying a used Gibson for $20 nowadays?

 

[Ulu]

….. Pre amp is ultra high gain shaped to my own needs built from antique radio parts and housed in an ammo crate….

I have three wooden .50 cal ammo crates left over from the Vietnam war. I’d be happy to sell you one cheap.

What you have there is an ammunition can, but that’s an excellent idea for protecting the amplifier.

As a matter of fact, with a small bit of metal work, an ammo can itself would make an excellent chassis to scratch build one.

 

[Ulu]

I feel for you, shellac can be a bit of a bitch

Part of the problem is I’m trying to use isopropyl alcohol because it’s illegal** to sell methanol in California now. I think I’ll get myself a bottle of Everclear and try that.

** Well not exactly illegal. 15% of our gasoline is methanol, but you can’t just buy a can of it at the hardware store.

They still sell acetone, toluene, methyl ethyl ketone, and acid base paint strippers.

 

[dimples]

I remember back in the 70s, loading and unloading those 4 x 12 cabinets on the road. Plus our drummer had way too much gear to be taking on the road all the time like that.

As much fun as it might be to play with a real Frankenstein set up like that, I feel like owning it would be a bit much at my age.

That being said, I plan to take the solid-state guts out of my 30 W fender amplifier and build a tube amplifier into the chassis.

Looking at the cost of modern tube amplifier kits, however, I am totally shocked because I remember how cheap they were when I was a kid.

Who could imagine buying a used Gibson for $20 nowadays?

I know, kits are incredibly expensive, its unreal how much they charge. part of the reason I decided to learn what it was all about and create my own.

I discovered the books by Merlin Blencowe and his site the valve wizard and taught myself to read schematics and got to experimenting. He is a bit of a legend in the DIY amplifier world, I would highly recommend a read if you haven't heard of him.

Despite my heavy tendencies, I am history nerd through and through and too many of the amps I would love to own are impossible to find or afford in this country so this was the only way I could get the sound I want. Vintage radios, PA's etc are dirt cheap and a goldmine for transformers, power tubes and other bits and bobs. I have quite the collection of vintage amps now built with period correct parts and a much better understanding of how they work.

I found that once I knew the parts I needed, I could purchase them from electrical suppliers for significantly less than any guitar specific supplier and cut the cost of a build down immensely.


I have to agree, I love my setup but it's a lot to carry with the drum kit. Not so bad for the set up, but pack down is exhausting. haha.

To be honest, it's not about volume but girth. I have a marshall - esque set up on one side and Mesa boogie style on the other side, gives me a wider sound which I like in a 3 piece band setup.

 

[dimples]

I have three wooden .50 cal ammo crates left over from the Vietnam war. I’d be happy to sell you one cheap.

What you have there is an ammunition can, but that’s an excellent idea for protecting the amplifier.

As a matter of fact, with a small bit of metal work, an ammo can itself would make an excellent chassis to scratch build one.

Apologies, thanks for the correction. The cans are great for the case, I leave my knobs set, put the front on and nothing gets knocked or tweaked by kids fingers til next time.

I have used one as a chassis on a larger build, it did the job nicely. Just about as shielded as a chassis can get.

 

[dimples]

Part of the problem is I’m trying to use isopropyl alcohol because it’s illegal** to sell methanol in California now. I think I’ll get myself a bottle of Everclear and try that.

** Well not exactly illegal. 15% of our gasoline is methanol, but you can’t just buy a can of it at the hardware store.

They still sell acetone, toluene, methyl ethyl ketone, and acid base paint strippers.

I didn't know that. Frustrating and confusing what they choose to ban. It can be a big like that over here too

 

[Ulu]

Years ago I did a bunch of engineering out of Gallo which is one of the worlds biggest wineries. It’s only 25 miles from me.

I live on the Blossom Trail, nestled between the world’s biggest vineyards & the world’s biggest orchards. There’s a huge distillery about 5 miles from me.

We make an enormous amount of alcohol here for human consumption. Perhaps this law was about really evil bootleggers using methanol to make cheap booze.

It’s possible that if I order from the right place or sign an affidavit that I could get the stuff here. But I can buy straight grain ethanol at the liquor store just a quarter of a mile from my house.

 

[Ulu]

So this is the spring reverb tank from my Fender amplifier. I separated it from the steel chassis and hung it up with rubber bands so it would float. I checked all the connections and gave it another try.

No action at all. So I split the cardboard box open so that I could check the contacts, and this is what you see.

Two springs connected to two little transformers with laminated iron cores.

This shows the part number and also carries a date of 2001 while the main amp says 1999.

A close-up of the transmitting transformer which is red. I’m getting a nice signal here when I twang the guitar. It goes up to almost half a volt. I’m getting no response at the other end.

The black transformer on the other end measures over 27 ohms. The red one measures infinity because it has a broken wire inside somewhere.

There is a likely possibility that it is broken exactly at the terminal, which means I might be able to peel off the yellow tape and splice it back together, with a needle and some tweezers and my smallest soldering iron.

If there’s anything else wrong with it it’s probably screwed, because it appears to be a riveted assembly, and I would destroy the thing trying to take it apart.

I doubt that after 25 years that this tank is still available from fender but I might consider buying a new one if it was less than the cost of a new 30 watt amplifier.