Tainted Love - LP Junior Double Cut

Andyjr1515

Slightly tongue in cheek title, but just an observation about quickly and easily the excitement for a new purchase or build can evaporate.

Do you remember this double cut I was using to experiment with staining then slurrying (and in my case then varnishing)?:


Well - it's finished

...and it's beautiful

...and I have no enthusiasm for it anymore:




I WILL learn to love it, but at the moment I just see the things that are NOT right, rather than the things that are.

And the reason?

Suppliers - good, creditable ones - who don't put stock availability on their ads or flag before you buy that you should phone or mail before placing an order to check whether they do actually have stock of the items they are promoting.

So, having got myself in a flurry of excitement - and a slot in a fairly full diary - to get this finished, I pushed the boat out to go for a Lollar P90.

Went to a very respectable and well-respected supplier and placed the order.  After Paypal had taken the money from my account came the news that it wasn't in stock and would be 1-2 weeks.  Irritation but, well these things happen.

9 WEEKS LATER - after me having to do all the chasing, with a part complete guitar in the way and my time slot gone - I've finally got it.  To make matters worse, there was, in that delay, time lost because the pickup was shipped from USA to a UK distributor (yes - I thought this well-respected supplier WAS the UK distributor!) to my supplier before sending to me.

Call me picky but, had I known even of the 1-2 weeks, I'd just have ordered direct from the US and got it in a week.

Flaming irritating.

Rant over. 
 

Roland

Andyjr1515 said:

Went to a very respectable and well-respected supplier and placed the order.  After Paypal had taken the money from my account came the news that it wasn't in stock and would be 1-2 weeks. 
 

No longer "well respected" then. Are you going to and and shame?

Andyjr1515

Roland said:

Andyjr1515 said:

Went to a very respectable and well-respected supplier and placed the order.  After Paypal had taken the money from my account came the news that it wasn't in stock and would be 1-2 weeks. 
 

No longer "well respected" then. Are you going to and and shame?

No.  

Hopefully they will have understood that leaving a customer waiting for 4 weeks without any contact, then when the customer chases them respond that they will chase up but then do nothing and then after another couple of weeks when the customer emails to say that he will have to cancel the order if there is not SOME definite news and then finally start updating the customer even though it will still be a couple of weeks before the pickup gets to their UK supplier for them to send to themselves and then send to the customer is not great customer service.  

They added a couple of freebies in the package and the owner did try to ring in the latter stages, but to misquote another song title, 'The Thrill Hasd (already) Gone'

Also hopefully every supplier who peruses this forum and doesn't have any indication of stock availability on their websites but nevertheless allow online immediate-payment transactions thinks it's them

JookyChap

That's really annoying - hate it when that happens.

I couldn't stand to look at the Jr tbh if I was you.

If it helps I'll give you a nifty and take it away..

Despite the issues - as per you've done a wicked job

TTony

Who is the "Lollar" guy?

Ash is always your pickup friend

Andyjr1515

JookyChap said:

That's really annoying - hate it when that happens.

I couldn't stand to look at the Jr tbh if I was you.

If it helps I'll give you a nifty and take it away..

Despite the issues - as per you've done a wicked job

Ah...but you see, she's been fluttering her eyelashes at me all afternoon...I think I might be falling again....

Also, I'd love to claim credit, but the build is one of Grahame's at GSPBasses

I bought it off Grahame mid last year as a 'quality reject' (I know....puts my very, very best to shame).  The radius on the edges is apparently oversize but I tell you...build quality is AAAAA

I'm pleased with the colour, though.  And I've been playing it all afternoon after making an electronics tweak...I'll post some more about that this eve

 

Andyjr1515

TTony said:

Who is the "Lollar" guy?

Ash is always your pickup friend

Yes - I know.  I put some of Ash's mini-humbuckers in the Firebird last year....brilliant.  In hindsight, should have gone there again! 

JookyChap

Andyjr1515 said:

JookyChap said:

That's really annoying - hate it when that happens.

I couldn't stand to look at the Jr tbh if I was you.

If it helps I'll give you a nifty and take it away..

Despite the issues - as per you've done a wicked job

Ah...but you see, she's been fluttering her eyelashes at me all afternoon...I think I might be falling again....

Also, I'd love to claim credit, but the build is one of Grahame's at GSPBasses

I bought it off Grahame mid last year as a 'quality reject' (I know....puts my very, very best to shame).  The radius on the edges is apparently oversize but I tell you...build quality is AAAAA

I'm pleased with the colour, though.  And I've been playing it all afternoon after making an electronics tweak...I'll post some more about that this eve

 

Yes, I'm no stranger to Mr GSP's qualities either..we are well blessed in this parish..

TTony

Andyjr1515 said:

Also, I'd love to claim credit, but the build is one of Grahame's at GSPBasses

I bought it off Grahame mid last year as a 'quality reject'

He does make some exceedingly good quality rejects.  I have a couple myself

Andyjr1515

Yup - splendid guitars  

Anyway, the reason I went for the Junior in the first place was self-educational.  Although I'm sure you are all past masters at it, I've always been intrigued with the '50's wiring approach and the 'all you need for any tone you might want is a volume pot and a tone pot' expertise.  I confess, I've generally been one of those 'Volume always on 10 and tone at 8 if I must but 10 is better' heathens.

I'd watched the splendid video @ChrisV did in his days at Guitarist magazine on the s/cut Junior and the tone possibilities and realised that there was a reason that those volume and tone knobs actually turn round !

So I opted for conventional-wisdom standard everything - 'standard' 50's wiring; a 'standard' P90; an oil and paper cap (black beauty rather than bumble bee as the latter seem to be only sold in pairs); a Les Paul Jnr, albeit the pretty double-cut one.

Here was attempt 1 with the wiring.  Probably my neatest to date:


...and this was one of my niggles when me and the double-cut had our lover's tiff.  The tone pot was a 'vintage taper' 250k and the volume a 'modern taper' 500k.  

Tone worked well, volume was FAR too off or on to get the subtleties I was after.

So this afternoon, I desoldered the volume pot and put in an old PRS pot in instead.  I don't even know what resistance it is because there was solder on the back, but it is a MUCH flatter taper.

That tickled the spot

usedtobe

That's lovely!

Deadman

Excellent work Andy. No surprise like !

WezV

I think it's ace, if you are not feeling it currently put it aside a few weeks

i am just finishing my DC junior. The red stain was nice but competing wood grains made it look odd.... So I have done a black overspray with the intention of relicing through it all

Andyjr1515

WezV said:

I think it's ace, if you are not feeling it currently put it aside a few weeks

i am just finishing my DC junior. The red stain was nice but competing wood grains made it look odd.... So I have done a black overspray with the intention of relicing through it all

Thanks, @WezV ;   I've been watching your build with great interest.  Pity about the red stain but you are right that the grain can make it look distinctly iffy. If you look at the first picture above from the earlier thread, you see how different the stain looks on the neck tenon.  Luckily it's under the pickguard but with a thru neck it wouldn't have looked right on mine either.

i look forward to seeing the finish you're putting on yours

WezV

Yeah, the neck section has some great quarter sawn ribboning, but it just didn't look right.  I kinda expected it though, was just trying the stain to be sure.  

Adam_MD

@Andyjr1515 that looks fantastic I love the colour.  

Andyjr1515

Adam_MD said:

@Andyjr1515 that looks fantastic I love the colour.  

Thanks @Adam_MD ;    Reds are difficult to photograph - in reality there's just a touch more 'black cherry' purplish/bluish haze to it.  It looks brilliant in the flesh.

Been playing it this morning.  Gradually becoming very pleased with it  

Adam_MD

I'm going to try Oxblood ink on a prs se soapbar I bought a few weeks ago then fit black plastics for a similar vibe to your junior.  

Still trying to decide whether to oil finish over the top or ronseal like last time

Andyjr1515

Adam_MD said:

I'm going to try Oxblood ink on a prs se soapbar I bought a few weeks ago then fit black plastics for a similar vibe to your junior.  

Still trying to decide whether to oil finish over the top or ronseal like last time

Well, you could try it one way and then, if you're not sure, carry on the other way.  Albeit pre-planned, that's what I actually did with this one.  Did you see the thread on my finishing trials with this one?  

Basically the top photo in this thread is the stained and oiled finish (slurry and buff) that I did to see if it worked OK (and it did) but then I was always going to eventually gloss this, so it was then Ronseal on top.  

Worked a treat  

Adam_MD

No missed that thread I'll have a look now.  I read something on here recently about something called ezeoil I think.  Someone had said it didn't lift the stain?  Have you tried that?

I really like the feel of an oil finished neck but the ronseal worked a treat on my tele and I loved the finished result.  

Andyjr1515

I'm pretty sure that @WezV has used ezeoil, @Adam_MD   

The neck on this one has been left as just the oil finish: