DrNomis_44's Gold Standard STA-1M Build.

Almost a different nation, but being so remote, I presume there's no serious Tasmanian independence movement?

We never changed to the Euro (probably a wise move for us) and stuck with the pound which may have been an experiment too far for some of the countries involved, though it was beneficial for the major players in mainland Europe when travelling and trading between adjoining nations. Also meant that if I was travelling abroad for work, I only had to get a new stock of Euros from time to time, rather than keep changing money Francs, Deutchmarks, Guilders, Krone etc. and back again (always at a loss thanks to the Bureau de Change exchange and commission rates).

No, we'd be screwed if we went independent. A dwindling population of about 500k, if it wasn't for tourism, mining and forestry, we'd be nothing!

The way the UK is going, looks like our more and more right-wing politicians would be happy to start sending you convicts again for some extra cash! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zandit75

I think you mean, you haven't left the mainland!! Tassie is still part of Australia you know!!!
As much as we keep saying, we're not related to you guys, we need the money!!

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Well, seeing as Tassie is still part of Australia (actually it literally was when Australia was part of a big continent called Gondwanaland thousands of years ago), I'd still regard you guys as Australians.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Almost a different nation, but being so remote, I presume there's no serious Tasmanian independence movement?

We never changed to the Euro (probably a wise move for us) and stuck with the pound which may have been an experiment too far for some of the countries involved, though it was beneficial for the major players in mainland Europe when travelling and trading between adjoining nations. Also meant that if I was travelling abroad for work, I only had to get a new stock of Euros from time to time, rather than keep changing money Francs, Deutchmarks, Guilders, Krone etc. and back again (always at a loss thanks to the Bureau de Change exchange and commission rates).

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Australia switched to Decimal currency in about the mid 60's or so, as I'm led to believe, prior to that, we used imperial currency (pounds and etc).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

The way the UK is going, looks like our more and more right-wing politicians would be happy to start sending you convicts again for some extra cash! :)

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Unlike the last time around, depending on how Ms. May goes with Brexit and the impending Election you might find a sizeable number of volunteers lining up to be transported.

Hey Everybody.....


A parcel with some stuff in it just arrived, and I think I know what's inside, will post a pic of the contents shortly.....stay tuned.

Doc you are almost thread jacking your own thread mate and keeping us in suspense. You really are going for a 200 page diary hahah

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

Doc you are almost thread jacking your own thread mate and keeping us in suspense. You really are going for a 200 page diary hahah

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Yep....hahahahaha...I'll have to have some strong words with myself, and tell myself off for hijacking my own threads, but I don't think myself will take any notice of me, which is just typical....hahahaha....okay, I won't keep you guys in suspense any longer, just give us a few minutes and all will be revealed....lol.


Rightio, without further ado, here's what was in the parcel:


X3 New White Kent Armstrong Dual Blade Pickups.

X1 Set of White Strat Knobs and etc.

X1 New Gold Strat Jackplate, with Gold Screws.

Attachment 18998


These are some new parts I bought for the gold strat, we are definitely getting very close to the finishing line, all I need to do now is order the new Gold Super Vee Bladerunner Strat bridge from Super Vee.com and we'll be in business.



So, do you guys want to see what the new pickups are going to look like when installed on the scratchplate, and with the scratchplate installed on the body of the guitar?....let me know how keen you guys are to see a pic.


Might see if I can get the mounting screw holes drilled in the back of the neck so I can attach the neck to the body today, and then I'll take a pic of the guitar for you all to check out, the new pickups look really good on the scratchplate, even better than I thought they would.

Here we go, this is to give you some idea what the guitar is going to look like once the build process has been finished, the original Gold bridge was looking a bit grungy so I fitted a spare silver bridge, it's getting replaced with the new Gold Super Vee Bladerunner bridge anyway once it arrives in the post after I've ordered it online:

Attachment 18999



Okay, so after a bit of thinking, I'm going to call the body finishing work "officially finished", the body has had three coats of clear coat applied to it and the surface feels like it has dried hard, so we are ready for the next stage in the build-process and that is to get any needed parts ordered online prior to wiring it up and getting it set up with new strings so it's playable.

Looks awesome Doc, this will be a ripper, Kent Armstrong makes some very nice pickups

Oh and 1966 was the first issue of decimal currency...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stan

Looks awesome Doc, this will be a ripper, Kent Armstrong makes some very nice pickups

Oh and 1966 was the first issue of decimal currency...

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Cheers mate, so I wasn't too far off with Australia's switch to decimal currency then, was I?, yeah I'm really liking these Kent Armstrong pickups, I've got two installed on the Hotrod Strat and they sound great to my ears, they have just the right amount of highs in their tone so that I don't get that shrill ice-pickiness that you usually get with Single-Coils, but you also get that Humbucker fatness too, these Dual Blade pickups are actually Humbuckers in a Single-Coil sized package, so that means you also don't get that annoying hum coming through the amp speakers like you do with standard Single-Coils, I'm predicting that this guitar should sound like a fat sounding Strat.

Cool!! Love Kent Armstrong gear, and those blades look to be the ducks nuts!!!

Can you still get the whole Hank Marvin sound out of those pickups, Doc?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by corsair

Cool!! Love Kent Armstrong gear, and those blades look to be the ducks nuts!!!

Can you still get the whole Hank Marvin sound out of those pickups, Doc?

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From my experience with the two black Kent Armstrong Dual-Blade pickups installed in my HotRod Strat, I'll have to say that yes you can still get that Hank Marvin sound out of them, best way I could describe them as sounding is like a hotter Single-Coil pickup without the treble ice-pickiness, but they do still retain a lot of that Single-Coil character, these Dual-Blade pickups are actually Humbuckers, each of the two blades has a coil wound around them same as in a Humbucker, it's the single blade Polepiece that's actually what's responsible for retaining the Single-Coil character, so you get the best of both worlds, I've tried Noiseless Strat pickups before but they usually sounded a bit weak and ice-picky through my Marshall, on the other hand the Dual-Blades sound fatter to my ears, hence the reason why I like them a lot.


They make a whole lot of sense to me anyway.


I'll definitely make sure I record a demo clip of the Gold Strat once she is up and running in a playable state, that way you'll be able to hear what the pickups sound like.

Update:


Just been doing some checks with a couple of steel rulers to check if the neck is aligned correctly, and as far as I can determine, the neck alignment appears to be spot-on, so I'm feeling pretty relieved about that.


Note that I won't need to install any string-trees on the headstock because the Gold Sperzel tuners I'm using are set up with staggered-heights, this means that the high B and E strings will be pulled closer to the headstock so that the break-angle over the nut is a little steeper than usual, and therefore the strings will ring-out properly without buzzing like a sitar, I've tried it before and it does seem to work well, the bonus is that there won't be any friction issues caused by the string binding in the string tree cause there aren't any string trees.

These Gold Sperzel tuners are also lockers, that means I don't need to have very many string winds around the tuner capstan to anchor the string, I just need to thread the string through the hole in the tuner capstan, pull it taut, then tighten the thumbscrew on the back of the tuner and I'm done, and then just tune the string up to pitch.

Update:


I've decided to go ahead and wire up the new pickups on the scratchplate and get it all working so that when I buy some new strings for the guitar next week, I can get it all set up with new strings on it and tuned up ready for playing, I will also record a demo so you can hear what the guitar sounds like too for you.....stay tuned.


By the way, I'm feeling very excited about being able to play this guitar again after such a long time.

I share your excitement so I'll be stay tuned ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kick

I share your excitement so I'll be stay tuned ;)

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Haha...I bet, I'm wiring-up each of the pickups so that they work as straight Humbuckers, just measured each one of them with my multimeter to check that they are all good, each one is measuring about 9k, so they should be pretty hot sounding, the pickups I had in the scratchplate before all measured about 6.5k or thereabouts, they were a bit weak sounding to my ears.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrNomis_44

Update:


Just been doing some checks with a couple of steel rulers to check if the neck is aligned correctly, and as far as I can determine, the neck alignment appears to be spot-on, so I'm feeling pretty relieved about that.


Note that I won't need to install any string-trees on the headstock because the Gold Sperzel tuners I'm using are set up with staggered-heights, this means that the high B and E strings will be pulled closer to the headstock so that the break-angle over the nut is a little steeper than usual, and therefore the strings will ring-out properly without buzzing like a sitar, I've tried it before and it does seem to work well, the bonus is that there won't be any friction issues caused by the string binding in the string tree cause there aren't any string trees.

These Gold Sperzel tuners are also lockers, that means I don't need to have very many string winds around the tuner capstan to anchor the string, I just need to thread the string through the hole in the tuner capstan, pull it taut, then tighten the thumbscrew on the back of the tuner and I'm done, and then just tune the string up to pitch.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrNomis_44

Update:


I've decided to go ahead and wire up the new pickups on the scratchplate and get it all working so that when I buy some new strings for the guitar next week, I can get it all set up with new strings on it and tuned up ready for playing, I will also record a demo so you can hear what the guitar sounds like too for you.....stay tuned.


By the way, I'm feeling very excited about being able to play this guitar again after such a long time.

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You were doing so well on the last page!! Where's the damn photos??!! :rolleyes:
Two extra days added to your visit!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zandit75

You were doing so well on the last page!! Where's the damn photos??!! :rolleyes:
Two extra days added to your visit!

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Hahahahahahahaha.......good one mate.....hehehehe.

Update:


Wiring-up is almost finished, just need to solder the output wiring to the output jack and then we can do the tap-test on the pickups.


Update 2:


Just completed the tap-test and everything appears to be working as it should, now if only I had a couple complete sets of 42-09 gauge strings I'd be able to get the guitar all set up and tuned up, oh well, I'll have to wait till next week for that.

It's really coming together - now if the next post doesnt have pics, I'll be disappointed. Nice stuff Doc

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stan

It's really coming together - now if the next post doesnt have pics, I'll be disappointed. Nice stuff Doc

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I'll see if I can post some pics of the wiring a bit later on.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DrNomis_44

Update:


Wiring-up is almost finished, just need to solder the output wiring to the output jack and then we can do the tap-test on the pickups.


Update 2:


Just completed the tap-test and everything appears to be working as it should, now if only I had a couple complete sets of 42-09 gauge strings I'd be able to get the guitar all set up and tuned up, oh well, I'll have to wait till next week for that.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by stan

It's really coming together - now if the next post doesnt have pics, I'll be disappointed. Nice stuff Doc

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Yep, he's doing this on purpose now!! :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zandit75

Yep, he's doing this on purpose now!! :p

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Hahahaha....I'm not doing it on purpose...honest.

Alright,alright, here's a pic of the guitar as it is now, waiting for a new set of strings and a good setup before it's played:

Attachment 19084


So, does that mean I need to spend a whole month in Tassie?

Looking good Doc.

Sad to say this may be all over before you crack 150 pages?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wazkelly

Looking good Doc.

Sad to say this may be all over before you crack 150 pages?

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I guess I could pad it out a bit to get it to the 150th page.

Go for it, we know you have got it in you.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wazkelly

Go for it, we know you have got it in you.

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Alright, I'll give it a go then mate.

If we keep playing thread tennis like this it won't take too long haha.

Hahaha, you have at least a week to play with in Tassie Doc, but I have no doubt you can add to it, just like the page count for this whole thread keeps climbing!

This morning I read your posting (for me the first unread posting since my last login) and that was on page 137. Now we are at page 140...

You'll definately make it to page 150! ;)

I'm currently experiencing some speed issues with my internet, apparently there's an outage in Darwin, technically I should be getting 100Mb/s for my download speed, but in actual fact from doing a speed test, I'm actually getting just over 1Mb/s, this is on Australia's NBN mind you, and apparently my ISP has scheduled a maintenance outage for Darwin on the 2nd May, which is tomorrow, but it should only be for an hour or so.

Took me ages to even log onto my ISP's website so I could do the online speed test.


So if you guys don't hear from me all of tomorrow, you'll know why.



Here's the results for my latest internet speed test:

Last Result:
Download Speed: 2005 kbps (250.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 29778 kbps (3722.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 61 ms
01/05/2017, 11:52:49 pm

Hopefully it will be fixed soon. Still got 10 pages to go ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kick

Hopefully it will be fixed soon. Still got 10 pages to go ;)

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Hope so too, I had to plug my laptop into my WiFi router via a LAN cable just to be able to log onto this forum, it took forever when I was trying to connect via WiFi, those speed test results were done with the laptop connected via LAN, I couldn't even log onto my ISP's website to do the speed test while connecting via WiFi, but I don't think the issue is with the WiFi connection, I think it's a general internet outage in Darwin.

Update:


Firstly, my NBN internet seems to be working a bit better now, secondly, I've been able to buy a couple of sets of 42-09 gauge strings so that I can go ahead with getting the Gold Strat up and running in a playable condition, I'll be recording a demo of it later on this afternoon, thirdly, while I was buying the two sets of strings, I asked the shop assistant about a new Boss RE20 Space Echo pedal I'd gotten them to order in for me, they said that the pedal had come in and I asked them to hold onto it for me till I pick it up next Tuesday, they said they would, so all in all it's been a pretty good day for me.

Now, onto getting the Gold Strat into a playable condition....stay tuned.

CAnt wait to hear it doc. I dont have the NBN yet and am tossing up whether its worth it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy40

CAnt wait to hear it doc. I dont have the NBN yet and am tossing up whether its worth it

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I've actually found the NBN to be a cheaper alternative to what I was using before, I was using a little Telstra Turbo 4G Broadband Wireless usb modem adapter to get myself online, it was costing me $100.00/Fortnight for 6Gb of data, I ended up ditching it for the NBN service I have now, my ISP is an Australian company called Aussie Broadband, I signed up to their 250Gb family bundle which is only costing me $75.00/Month, but, because I signed up early they gave me double my data allowance, so effectively I'm getting almost 500Gb/Month for my $75.00, I actually paid for the speed increase that they were offering at the time, they have been really good to me so far.


I've just done a quick tune up and play-test of the Gold Strat through my Peavey Backstage amp and these new Dual-Blade pickups do sound really good, quite beefy sounding, what's more, I still get that Single-Coil vibe even though the pickups are actually humbuckers, so I'm very happy with them, also, I don't get any of that annoying hum that you usually get with Single-Coils, the guitar sounds very Strat-like and bluesy played clean, and it also sounds fat when overdriven too.


I'll give the guitar a proper setup and then I'll record a demo for you guys.


Update:


Setup work on the guitar is almost done, I just need to adjust the pickup heights and then it'll be good to go for the demo recording, I've set the bridge up so that it's flat against the body this time round.


I'll post a pic of the guitar once she's ready for the demo recording.


Here's a pic of the guitar all set up, tuned up, and ready for recording the demo:

Attachment 19103


And here's a couple of pics of one of my feline guitar-building advisors, sleeping on the job....on my little makeshift workbench in my kitchen, didn't have the heart to disturb her:

Attachment 19104

Attachment 19105


Don't you just love it when felines make themselves right at home.....hehehehe.

Rightio, I'm going to see if I can record a little demo of the Gold Strat for you so you can hear what it sounds like with the new pickups installed in it, I'm going to be using my main DAW PC to record the demo so that it hopefully turns out good, I'm just waiting for Microsoft to finish updating Windows 10 on the main DAW PC, it might take me a while but I'm determined to get it done.


I'm going to be recording the Gold Strat plugged straight into my Focusrite Saffire Pro40 Firewire Audio Interface, I will be using FL Studio 12 Producer Edition to record the audio, I'll see if I can get a good sound happening with the Bias Amp plugin that's installed on my main DAW PC, hopefully the results should be good, after I'm happy with the demo recording, I'll export a mixdown of it as an mp3 file and then upload it to my dropbox folder, and then I'll post a public link to it in this thread so that you only have to click on it to check it out....stay tuned.


Oh yes, I will be using my red Pitbull Guitars pick in this demo recording, just to get into the spirit of things.


Here we go, here's a link to the demo recording for you, I'm not trying to win any awards for my guitar playing, this is really just so you can get a bit of an idea what the guitar sounds like with the new White Kent Armstrong Dual Blade pickups, it starts out with me playing some chords while going through all the 5 pickup selections (Neck pickup through to the Bridge pickup), I also demonstrate how the tone controls affect the tone of the guitar, the second half of the demo is to show you what the guitar sounds like overdriven.....enjoy!!!


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...dStratDemo.mp3