New Knobs.... And faber locking tailpiece

mr-mac

We'll thanks Amberguitar... Getting Faber tail piece and locking studs so thought I'd add amber knobs and switch top.  Really think it suits the colour of burst miles better than gold would or the black that was on it.  And suits my Maison dot copy so much better than black speed knobs. 

Can recommend AmberGuitar (Streethawk on here) as well, very speedy delivery and great guy to deal with

mr-mac

mr-mac

Next decision... Now i can lock tailpiece at whatever height is correct.  Do i still keep it low and overwrap (on Faber tail piece) or do i raise tailpiece and go back to more standard stringing?

mr-mac

All fitted.... For some reason neck pickup seemed too bassy, fat and woody on lower strings.  Anyway i did a few things;

locked tailpiece using higher collars and went back to no overwrapped.
I adjust neck for just the smallest relief possible (almost straight).
Dropped bridge a chunk
Flipped neck pickup round to way round peter green has (just in case having that way round helped the woody bassy sound . 
Ran outta time so quickly adjusted pole pieces so they were arpox opposite how i had them and set height.

We'll sounds a lot better on neck pu, much cleaner and more distinct and not all bass and no detail.  Sustain on top string seems improved (that's why action was raised etc - had that issue on higher frests especially on top string for ages - nut was done, bridge was changed, frets were levelled, action was adjusted and problem never really fully went away (was weird as although raising action helped a little it didn't sort and acoustically it seemed to sound ok).  Go figure but only consistent thing across all other changes I've made was old heavy tailpiece.  On Alu one that seems to have gone.

Happy so far, may drop neck pickup a little to brighten slightly more but reasonably happy with my days work....

Craig who's been coming to jam recently with fender tele or gibson SG was using it last night as he just popped in and said action was incredible 

Winny_Pooh

If you feel up to it and comfy with a soldering iron you can unwind the coils on the neck bucker to brighten it up a bit.

mr-mac

No thanks (though a very good and useful idea on some pickups)... It's a low wind paf copy.  beginning to suspect loom issue/pot values so gonna build my own 500k+ loom. Then with 4 pots i order for my loom measure kohm and put lower value two on bridge and higher two on neck.   Stuff won't go to waste as I'll use loom out of this and rebuild to fit my LP copy.  Ordered a Borne pot to see if they got through f holes better as CTS was really tight if not may need to go mini. 

If with my own loom it still sounds overly warm and jazzy I'll send it to get checked by person who wound it.

strings i fitted this time helped balance output a bit as they were diadarrio xl pure nickel so 10-45 instead of usual 10-46.  Think pickup flip and tailpiece also helped as seen a few people or various different forums with quite woody bassy lower/wound strings on neck pickups say they noticed a good improvement in balance from light tailpiece so guess does help somehow with guitars seeing this issue.

if all else fails and pickup checks out ok and my loom is in.  then my last ace up my sleave will be swap the alnico 3 in bridge for a rough alnico 5 and drop pickup a little further away from strings.

ESBlonde

If you are having a fiddle anyway why not do the 'mapleflame' mod. Search the lespaulforum on that subject. It's increadebly cheap, reversable, easy and might just give you some extra zing or sustain (variable it seems from one guitar example to the next). For the price of a KitKat you might like it.
Don't forget our own @shugs as a source of quality loom components.

mr-mac

Thanks @ESBlonde sustain was only an issue on high e and higher up fret board, everything else was fine... it's suddenly fine on that string after changing to Alu Faber tailpeice... Go figure but must have ever so slightly changed some reaction to some kind of resonance somewhere.  Will have a look at the mod as well for interest and see if something i fancy at some point..

Will give @shugs a shout once see if borne pot goes through f hole without being a buthead unlike cts ones which are needing to be angled just right and tapped through

mr-mac

Ah, I have a shaller STM roller bridge fitted so bridge post swapping isn't really an option but like I say funny sustain issue just higher up on high string sorted now

mr-mac

Wee update the top strings had low output and couldn't sort it without unbalancing the tone across strings.  Sorted by swapping alnico 3 to rough Alnico 2.

mr-mac

String issue improved by accident.  Bought some fender strings cos they were cheap and packet after packet they are lasting me 4-6gigs when everything else was lasting 1-2.. Weird