Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

cooltouch

All Access
  • Posts

    42
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by cooltouch

  1. I thought I'd resurrect this thread to add to my earlier post. Since first finding out about Guitar Fetish, I've bought a few things from them. I started with a solid brass tremolo block and new tremolo arm, which installed without hitches. Later, I bought a set of pickups for that Squier from them. I went with their 60s-70s grey bottom non-staggered models. Alnico V magnets, wound to medium hot specs. They sound great! The brass tremolo block set me back $33, the set of three pickups cost about $75. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a set of PAF humbuckers and a wiring harness from GF for an LP project I'm working on. If the sound quality of the Strat pickups I bought is any indicator, I feel reasonably confident that I'm gonna like the sound of these PAFs too. The wiring harness is complete with 500k pots, 0.022uF caps soldered to the tone pots, and includes a pickup selector switch and output (input?) jack. The two pickups and wiring harness cost me less than $100.
  2. I have a new Joe Pass Emperor II Pro and today I decided to measure the depth of the frets on this guitar with a depth micrometer. I was getting 0.065" everywhere I measured. This is a very tall fret dimension -- tallest I've ever seen, in fact. Playability wise, it makes using heavier strings easier because it's possible to get more of my finger under the string as I bend strings. I've enjoyed playing this guitar ever since I bought it a couple months ago, and now I think I have a better understanding why I've felt this way. I guess I prefer really tall frets. I have another guitar I'm very fond of, except it is about due to have its frets replaced. Before I bought it, it had had some rather severe fret work done to it, such that most of its frets are down to about 0.030," which is too low for me. So, I checked around at all the sources for fret wire that I know of, and the tallest wire I can find is 0.055." Hey, if I can't find any of this super tall Epiphone wire, I'll go with the 55 wire, but it would be cool if I could find some of the Epi stuff. So I'm just wondering -- anybody know where or how I can buy Epi fretwire?
  3. I have a kramer Focus 1000 that I'm curious about when it was made. It pretty much looks like an Eddie Van Halen special -- vaguely Strat style body, single slanted humbucker with a Floyd Rose system. It hs a New Jersey neck heel plate, but from what I understand, that doesn't mean it was made there. I'm guessing either Japan or Korea, but I dunno. Here's a pic of it. You'll note that I've done a bit of hotrodding to it. I added a P90 to the neck position, a selector switch, and a second volume pot. I also discovered that the stock humbucker had an extra wire, so I installed a microswitch and set it for coil tap and I forget what the other setting is. I don't use either much at all anyway. Kramer Focus 1000 circa 1986 by Michael McBroom, on Flickr
  4. I found out about Guitarfetish just a few days ago from a couple of members over at the Stratocaster forum. I need a new tremolo block for my SE Squier, and Guitarfetish was recommended. They appear to have good stuff at good prices. And their customer service was very prompt and very helpful. I will be ordering a replacement block from them soon. And I look forward to exploring their site further.
  5. Wmachine, that's a very pretty Traditional. I almost bought one at GC that was marked down to $2k when I was shopping around. It looked just like yours, and as I recall, it was a Trad Pro II. That same day, as I was driving home, mulling over whether I should spend the $2k (plus sales tax, of course) on that LP, on impulse, I decided to drop in at a pawn shop on my way home. In the past I've found and bought some cool stuff from that pawn shop, so I thought I'd just stop by and have a look around, since I had some cash burning a hole in my pocket, and all. Well, I walk into the shop and the first thing my eyes light on is a Les Paul hanging on the wall. So, I go over there and check it out, and the guitar looks brand new. The pawn shop owner tells me it comes with a case and the case has all the tags inside. So I'm deeply interested at this point, and I check out the tags, ascertaining that it's a Trad Pro II, same as I was just looking at over at GC just a few minutes before. At that point I'm thinking that something like destiny convinced me to stop in at that moment. So I asked the owner what his best out-the-door price was if I paid for it in Benjamins right then and there. He told me $1,100. I didn't even bargain with him. I just whipped out my envelope of cash and started counting out hundred dollar bills. It was destiny is what it was, and I saved more than $1,000! Yes, I would have rather had a cherry burst model, but for the money I saved, I can live with the burgundy finish (or whatever it's called) just fine.
  6. So in other words, a 1960 Slimtaper C profile is unique? It reminds me a lot of the profile on the 55 Epi Custom with P90s, but I dunno if that is indicative of any particular year of Les Paul neck profiles -- 1955 perhaps?
  7. As of a couple weeks ago, I added a Les Paul BFG with P90s to my Gibson arsenal. BFG stands for "barely finished guitar" and I can believe it -- it's pretty rough. But it's a great player and it has that great P90 sound.
  8. I selected the "Slim Tapered" profile, but the one I'm used to reading about -- and the one that I own the most of -- is a profile I've always known as the Slim 60s profile. So is that "Slim Tapered" or "60"? Or both? I own four Gibsons and another make, all 5 of which have what I've always understood as the Slim-60s profile. I own an Epiphone Joe Pass that has a semi-chunky neck profile. Supposedly it is a "1960s Slimtaper C" profile, but it is not at all like the Slim-60s profile I'm used to. It's a comfortable player, though, so no complaints. So which of the above profiles does a "1960s Slimtaper C" fit within, being that it's got a slim taper and it's a 1960s design?
  9. About my 2013 Traditional Pro II in the above post, I have some questions. I bought the guitar used, so I didn't get all the details one might when buying it new. For instance, I was told that the Pro II model was built specifically for Guitar Center. Is this true? My Trad Pro II has active circuitry, requiring a battery. 10 dB of boost is available by pulling out the neck pickup's tone control. Was this a typical feature of the Pro models? I'm assuming all Pro IIs have this feature. I've also read that the Trad Pro II was available with a 50s style neck and the Slim-60s profile. Mine has the Slim-60s profile, and I'm glad it does. I wonder how common the ones with the 50s style neck are? I've played other Pro IIs and all of the ones I've played had the slim profile.
  10. What I had planned to do was buy one of these beauties and do the same pickup swap that you guys did, but I kept balking over the price. And then I found out about the Gibson Limited Edition Les Paul BFG with P90s that was being clearance priced by Guitar Center and Musician's Friend. The BFG is an interesting looking guitar -- "rough" would be a good description. Not nearly as beautiful as the '55 Epi. But it's a Les Paul with P90s and it was priced such that it was very hard to resist. So I bought one. It's a great player -- has the Slim 60's neck profile and the P90s sound awesome. One interesting feature about the guitar is it has no fingerboard inlays. I really didn't care for the rather pale red look of the fingerboard, so I decided to use an old Luthier's trick for treating ebony fingerboards that aren't dark enough. I dyed my BFG's fingerboard black. Being a classical player from way back, I don't mind a fingerboard without inlays and the black fingerboard reminds me of a classical. Besides, it makes the guitar look much better with that black fingerboard. My next mod on my BFG will be to replace the neck PU with a Lollar Staple. That should transform the guitar from being a very good player to an excellent one, or so is my hope. Thanks for the inspiration, guys. Mine may not be the '55 Epi, but it will have been inspired by it, truly enough.
  11. I aim to please. The slight reddish cast is an artifact of the camera. I even tried tweaking the white balance some, but it's still there.
  12. Nice to see your mods. My local Guitar Center has one of these beauties and I've played on it a lot. At first I didn't think I'd like the neck, cuz I like the Slim 60s profile, but actually I didn't mind it at all. It felt quite comfortable, in fact. I've thought long and hard about buying one of these but I haven't pulled the trigger yet. However, what I have planned for it is same as you've done and dump the neck P90 for a Lollar Staple. I found your report of its tonal qualities to be very illuminating. Sounds like just the ticket for that guitar.
  13. Just a quick follow up. Rabs, I took your advice. I used a sharp knife and carefully scraped away the dye from the fret markers. Worked great!
  14. 01GT Eibach, good question. Because fret markers are non-porous, I could probably apply the dye and wipe it off without problems. But I think that what I'd do, just to be sure, would be to test it out on a portion of a fret marker or block, and see what happens. If it looks like it might be a problem removing the dye, then for sure, I'd mask off the fret markers or blocks with masking tape. Fancy shaped markers would be a real PITA though -- like those found on a PRS, for example -- so I hope I never have to do one of those fingerboards. Rabs, that's a good idea. Scraping with my fingernails didn't work all that well, but something like a knife edge might work better. I'll give that a try with the dots on my BFG before I resort to fingernail polish.
  15. Well, I thought I'd add a little update to my dye project. Yesterday, I dyed the edges of the fingerboard. I did much as I described above. I masked off the fingerboard, then lightly sanded it with 320 grit sandpaper (couldn't find any 400, but 320 is plenty fine enough). I tried cutting out some tiny circles from sticker material, but failed miserably at it. They're just too tiny for scissors, and I didn't feel like messing with a X-acto blade for this. So I just went ahead and applied the dye, hoping for the best. So I used the applicator, from which I squeezed out excess, and it was really nothing more than a couple of swipes with the applicator and that was it. I let the fingerboard dry for about five minutes, then scrubbed down the edges with a paper towel, then peeled off the masking tape. Looked great, except that I couldn't see the side fretboard markers anymore. So I tried scratching away the dye from the little circles with my thumbnail. That actually worked pretty well. But they're no longer bright white like they used to be. And as a result, hard to pick up in dim lighting. I find this kinda annoying, so rather than try anything too aggressive with them, which might remove dye or fingerboard material, I think I'm gonna try an old classical guitarist's trick. Since almost no classicals have fingerboard side dots, but since many classical players like to have these dots, what we do is use a silver colored fingernail polish. Just one light dot of the stuff at each of the frets where a dot is desired. I don't have any at present. I bought some stuff some years back that I thought was silver but it has a magenta cast to it, and goes on looking pink. I've been putting up with the color, but I've decided I'll wait with this Les Paul until I can get some proper silver, or else figure out another way to brighten up the dots.
  16. Bound? I wish. This is the first Gibson I've ever owned without a bound fingerboard. I've even fantasized about how I could go about installing binding on it. Whereabouts are you located? If in the US and not in California, you should be able to find the stuff. Mail order, if nothing else. If not, I'd recommend you go to a a shoe repair facility, or a leather crafts store, and ask what they use for leather dye.
  17. Joe, Fiebing's is actually very easy to use. I bought my bottle (4 oz) at a Tandy's Leather Crafts store for about $7. It comes with a fluffy swab on a metal handle and I recommend using this swab to apply it with. One thing I didn't do that I recommend is sanding down the sides of the fingerboard. The sides are finished with whatever Gibson used to finish the neck. Because the sides are finished, the Fiebing's doesn't adhere. I haven't done it yet, but what I'm gonna do is mask off the sides of the fingerboard, lightly sand it down with probably 400 or 600 grit sandpaper, then cut out pieces of adhesive backed paper -- like stickers -- the size of the fret markers, place them on the markers to mask them, then swab down the sides. OK, what I did to color the fingerboard was dead simple. I just dipped the swab in the Fiebing's bottle, then pressed it against the inside edge of the bottle to remove excess liquid. Then I just swabbed down the fingerboard. I noticed as I was doing so that there were areas where the dye sort of welled up, so I went back over these areas to remove the excess. Fiebing's dries very quickly, so after only a few minutes, I was able to take a paper towel and scrub down the fingerboard. There was very little residue that came off onto the paper towel. Scrubbing down the fingerboard with a paper towel also removed all dye from the frets, and the small amount of dye I got onto the nut. The result was impressive. It looks like an ebony fingerboard -- except for the sides, which I will be taking care of as soon as I can find my stash of sandpaper. And it doesn't rub off. Ever. But even if it were to, all I'll have to do is touch it up again with more Fiebing's. And with all that leftover Fiebing's you have -- an almost full bottle -- you can redye any of your black shoes, your wife's black purses, and anything else that's leather that you want to be jet black (again). And of course, you can dye any other of your guitars' non-ebony fingerboards with this stuff.
  18. I couldn't resist tweaking the looks of my new BFG. I just really didn't like the looks of the very pale, very dry rosewood fingerboard. And since it doesn't have any fret markers, which makes the fingerboard look like a classical's I decided to push it a bit further. All good classicals have ebony fingerboards. So I decided to use an old luthier's trick and dye mine black. Yep. I used Fiebing's Leather Dye, which is the dye to use if you ever want to dye wood black, btw. Except for you folks in California, who can't buy it because of who knows what weird law you people have to put up with. Good thing about Fiebing's is, because it is a dye, it soaks into the wood, so it won't rub off after extended playing. So here's a pic of my BFG with ebony-look fingerboard.
  19. Heh, I know what you mean. I also own an old Kramer Focus 1000 that originally had a single HB in the bridge position. I modified it by putting a P90 in the neck position. Turned that guitar into an awesome, flexible screamer. And yeah, the middle position does indeed produce an interesting sound. Kramer Focus 1000 circa 1986 by Michael McBroom, on Flickr I've been kicking around the idea of stripping the BFG and taking a sander to the top -- smoothing it down, then refinishing it. But I'd probably kill its resale value if I did that. I just need to get used to the coarse nature of the guitar, I tell myself.
  20. Yep, $649 was too tempting for me. I bought one yesterday. I was after one with P90s, which seem to be harder to find than the HB models. Fortunately, I found one at a local Guitar Center, so quick like a bunny rabbit, I scooted over there and grabbed it. A very interesing guitar. It is rough. Relic'd in a way -- or just intentionally crudely finished. Except the neck and fingerboard, which are very nicely done. I was expecting a fatter neck profile, but it is very close to the Slim-60s profile. I actually like that it doesn't have any fingerboard inlays. I've played classical for many years and I like that clean look. As long as it has the side markers, that's all I need anyway. My BFG plays great -- as nicely as my regular Les Paul. And that P90 sound, well, I just love it. So I am very happy with what I have. Really, rough or not, I consider this to be a spectacular deal on a Gibson. Especially a LP with P90s.
  21. I posted a pic of my double-cut LP Special over in the Specials club, but since it has P90s I thought I'd go ahead and post a pic of it here also. Gibson Les Paul Special circa 2000 with P90 single coils by Michael McBroom, on Flickr I have another guitar with a single P90. While not a Gibson, it is now days one of the Gibson brands. It's a Kramer Focus 1000, which originally had a single humbucker and a Floyd Rose. I almost never use wang bars, so I took a couple of pieces of hardwood and tapped them into the tremolo's channel to isolate it, preventing its movement. I also had the neck position routed for a P90, installed the P90 and a pickup selector switch. When I had the guitar apart I noticed the humbucker had an additional wire that wasn't being used, so I wired it up to produce single coil, parallel and series, hooked up to a micro switch. I don't use the other settings though. I just mostly leave it set to the straight humbucker mode. As for the P90, in the neck position, it delivers just a huge wall of sound. I love it. Kramer Focus 1000 circa 1986 by Michael McBroom, on Flickr
  22. I just found out about this club. I own a 2013 Traditional Pro II and I love it much. Les Paul Traditional, 2013 Model with Pick Guard Removed by Michael McBroom, on Flickr
  23. Here's a quick pic of my Joe Pass Pro. Purty, huh? Oh, just in case you're wondering, that guitar in the background with that gorgeous quilted maple top is my Greg Bennett RL-3 model, built by Samick. Wow, crust, that's a very nice Epiphone collection you have there. Hey, I like Ibanez too. In fact, I've traditionally preferred the Ibanez hollow and semi-hollow bodies over Epiphones. I used to own an Ibanez 2455NT, made in 1977, supposedly an L4 knockoff but not really, and I loved it but in a moment of weakness I sold it some 10 years ago. After about 5 years with no archtop, I found an Ibanez AG85 and fell in love with it. It has the second-tier ACH pickups with the ceramic magnets, so I found a first-tier Super 58 neck pickup that came out of a AKJV95 and installed it into the neck position of my AG85. The sound was transformational. It went from being a very nice sounding instrument to one of very special, unique qualities. So, anyway, yeah, I like Ibanez. But that Joe Pass just got under my skin and I felt I had to have one. It arrived last Thursday. The strings that came with it, according to my dial calipers, measured 10 14 23w 32 40 48. So, about regular to medium light gauge, except for the wound G. I replaced those strings with a set of D'Addarios measuring 10 14 18 28 38 49. Actually, the set came with an 11 E, so I just substituted a single 10 to get me where I wanted to be. They ended up sounding about the same, so I don't feel I gave up anything, soundwise. As for the guitar itself, fit and finish are top notch. Not a blemish to be found anywhere. Those new "Pro" pickups provide a very full, deep sound on the neck setting, and a nice growl with good punch on the bridge setting. The push-pull pots provide for some interesting tonal variations, but I'll probably never use this feature. Further, this guitar will live its life with the pickup selector set primarily to the neck pickup. The description of the guitar says it has a slim profile "C" shaped neck. I was expecting a 60s Slim profile but that's not what it has. It's more like one found on 50s Les Pauls -- or that 1955 Epiphone LP Custom with the P90s. Almost identical neck shape. At first, I felt a bit put off by this, but then I just decided to play the guitar and I quickly realized that this neck profile is very comfortable, so I have no reason to miss the 60s Slim taper. I bought the guitar from Sweetwater. One of the things they do that other online retailers don't, is they put every guitar they sell through a 55-point inspection process, which includes setting the action and intonation (not much intonation to be done with the JP's rosewood bridge, though). So the guitar arrived, ready to play. I spent a few days with the guitar and its stock strings and enjoyed it. I slid my fingers around on that wound G instead of trying to bend it, and that worked ok. But I missed not being able to bend it, so on the D'Addarios went. It plays just as nicely with the D'Addarios. I really like the very full sound of this guitar. It rivals my AG85 with its Super 58 pickup -- which is saying a LOT! So I'm happy. I may not have an extensive collection of hollow bodies -- to me, two very nice sounding ones is plenty! But I'm content with what I have. It's all I need, and then some. So if any of you are on the fence about buying a JP Pro, I can just say that I highly recommend it. It is a quintessential jazz instrument, yet it can get down and punch out the rock and blues if that's what you need. Great sound, great looks, and -- most importantly -- a great player.
  24. Well, hopefully this won't be where the story ends, but where it begins. The guitar's supposed to be here on Tuesday. I think that's a best case scenario, though. I won't be surprised if it doesn't get here until Wednesday. No matter, because it's gonna be with me for the rest of my days. I'm finished selling guitars that have gone into my personal collection. Anyway, once I've had a chance to give it a good workout, I'll post my impressions. I dunno how long I'm gonna be able to put up with the strings that come with the Joe Pass, though. The one I played on had a wound G -- and I'm guessing the high E is a 12 or 13. At least they aren't flat wounds. If I were to keep strings this heavy, I'd have to completely modify my technique. So I'll probably end up sacrificing a bit of tone in favor of some lighter strings. I hear the D'Angelicos are really good. A friend of mine is at the NAMM show and he's already picked up a couple sets of D'Angelicos for me. Looking forward to them.
  25. I finally found a local music shop that has an Epiphone Joe Pass Pro. It's one of the vintage natural finsh ones. The one I've selected is just the "regular" natural finish, so it was nice getting to see what the vintage one looks like. They did a good job with it, although just the top has the aged look about it. So I got to play it through a dinky little practice bass amp in a noisy store, sitting on an uncomfortable stool, with the wrong kind of pick. But all these annoyances disappeared as soon as the guitar spoke. This is an amazing guitar. I've gotta own one. I love my Ibanez AG85, but honestly it pales in comparison to the big Epiphone's sound, when that sound needs to sound like jazz. One thing I found interesting about it was that, unamplified, it didn't sound all that special. I'm one of those people who believe that an electric's unamplified sound is a good indicator of what it's gonna sound like amplified -- even solid bodies. So I was a bit surprised at how plain it sounded unplugged. Then again, the noise level in the store might have masked some of the guitar's nuances. I hope that's the case, else my theory of inherent guitar tones has just taken a substantial hit. I'm ordering the guitar today. I'll let y'all know what I think of it once it's here and I've had a chance to spend some time getting to know it.
×
×
  • Create New...