Here's a link to a Google maps image of a building just down the road from my old office in London. If you zoom in on the 2nd window on the right of the blue door, you'll see a Dalek. Dalek in Window
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Here's a link to a Google maps image of a building just down the road from my old office in London. If you zoom in on the 2nd window on the right of the blue door, you'll see a Dalek. Dalek in Window
Suddenly I'm reminded of the Spike Milligan "Pakistani Dalek" sketch.......
How much is that Dalek in the window....the one with the "Exterminate!" wail...Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Sea foam green looks bad. Especially on today's modern dalek about town.Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewdosborne
Hell of a bouncer though...
Such a classic!Quote:
Originally Posted by Fretworn
Very good, FrankenWashie!Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fretworn
Same here, I remember that one well, Spike Milligan was a comic genius, I remember staying up all night when I was younger, just so I could listen to the Goon Show on the radio, I've got a set of PDFs of a whole heap of Goon Show scripts, and they are great reading material if you want to cheer yourself up and have a laugh.
I had a book of the Goon Show scripts. Far funnier to read than to listen to. I've got a few Goon Show episodes on CD, but I find them hard to listen to and understand what they are saying.
Update:
I thought I would post some more pics of my completed HotRod Strat build project, so here we are, check it out, does it look cool or what?:
Attachment 15256
Attachment 15257
Attachment 15258
Attachment 15259
Doc, looks freaking awesome! When do the sound checks go up?
Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
I'll do a quick and dirty little demo of it shortly, I was planning on doing a demo that included drums, bass, rhythm guitar and lead guitar, but that'll probably take a bit of time, so I'll do one of the guitar by itself, with the Bias Amp Simulator plugin.
Here we go, here's a link to the quick and dirty demo I just recorded, the first half of it is just to show you what all the pickups sound like played clean, I start off with the neck pickup and progress through all the selector switch settings and end on the bridge pickup, the second half is to show what the bridge pickup sounds like played through a high-gain amp, I also include some whammy bar abuse, I'm actually surprised at how well the guitar comes back in tune after dive-bombs and pull-ups , anyway....enjoy, and let me know what you think:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ter_2_Demo.mp3
Pickup Configuration:
Neck Pickup: Black Kent Armstrong Dual Blade Single-Coil Sized Humbucker.
Middle Pickup: Black Kent Armstrong Dual Blade Single-Coil Sized Humbucker.
Bridge Pickup: Tonerider Rocksong Full-Sized Humbucker.
Update:
So, after listening to the quick and dirty little demo I recorded, I've decided that I'm happy enough with the sounds I'm getting from the three new pickups to call them all keepers, I honestly didn't think the HotRod Strat would end up sounding the way it did, so I'm feeling pleasantly surprised, the guitar works with all three channels of my Marshall amp, I even tried it with a couple of my pedals, my Red Jim Dunlop JD F2 Fuzz Face, and my DIY Gypsy Eyes Fuzz pedal, they worked, I found that the Fuzz Face can be a bit picky with pickups that are driving it, thankfully, it seems to really like the new pickups I installed in the HotRod Strat, it doesn't seem to like standard Single-Coil pickups though, for some strange reason, I'm guessing that the low input-impedance of the Fuzz Face circuit presents too much of a heavy load to them, anyway, I think the results I've gotten have exceeded my expectations, and I'm definitely going to use the HotRod Strat as one of my gigging guitars, now, all I need to do is create a headstock decal to put on the headstock.
Noice. Veery Noice. Great job mate, that sounds tasty!
Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
Cheers mate, to my ears it sounds very fat, but it still retains that Strat character.
For some reason, I'm feeling a very strong need to go and buy a Boss DS-1 and a Boss OD-1 pedal on eBay, maybe it's because Joe Satriani used a Boss DS-1, or OD-1 on his earlier albums, and I subconsciously want to get that Joe Satriani sound.
I've got a Vox Satchurator pedal (now discontinued), which has a modified DS-1 circuit and was developed with JS. The 'more gain' pedal/feature is very useful. A very nice sounding distortion pedal, if prone to be overly trebley if you don't keep the tone control turned down to around 10 o'clock. Certainly worth looking out for one of those on eBay. Not sure if the pad switch does anything on mine as I can't notice any change in level.
http://youtu.be/RUua733bfcU
Nice guitar sounds. Yes, neck and middle pups not as bright/clean as a Strat's, but then they're not meant to be.
A job very well done!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Cheers for that mate, I always thought that the standard Strat Single-Coil pickups were a bit too trebly, at least all the ones I have tried in the past anyway, one of my goals with the HotRod Strat build was to build a Strat-shaped guitar that had a fatter sound to it, I also wanted a trem that would stand up to being abused and would still come back in tune, traditional Strat trems were never really designed to be abused like a Floyd, they were more meant for subtle use, but I guess that didn't stop Jimi Hendrix, incidentally, from what I have read about the history of the Fender Strat, it was aimed at Country and Western musicians, Bill Carson was responsible for the Strat's curved shape, and Leo Fender included his suggestions in the design of the Fender Strat, which was like a more up-market design compared to the Telecaster, which had a body that was more square-ish in shape, the crescent-shape cut on the back of the Strat body was one of Bill Carson's suggestions.
The other thing I noticed about standard Strat pickups was how harsh they sounded through my Marshall's overdrive channels, there wasn't much bass or midrange in the tone, with the new pickups, it's an entirely different story, I can quite easily live with the neck and middle pickups not sounding as bright as standard Strat pickups, that's fine, they do sound good when distorted, the neck pickup is real bluesy sounding.
I'll keep my eye out on eBay for a Vox Satchurator pedal, or, maybe I could build myself one, there most likely a schematic for a Satchurator on the internet.
One pedal I should build is a BK Butler Tube Driver, I made a 5-Knob Tube Driver before, but found that the fifth knob (bias) wasn't really doing anything useful, so I'm going to make a 4 knob version, hopefully next year.
Which reminds me, I should have a look for my Baja Real Tube Overdrive pedal tomorrow (it is based on the BK Butler Tube Driver) so I can try it with the HotRod Strat to see how it sounds.
Here's my current pedalboard. It will be changing slightly very shortly.
Attachment 15272
I've gone for mainly mini-pedals so I can fit more on. A lot of them are the Tone City pedals from Andertons, which are generally very good for their price. I wanted to fit my old Boss CE-1 on , but it just took too much of the board up, so bought a fairly generic chorus pedal for the time being. But I've got a Boss CE-2w on order (been waiting a couple of months as they don't import in huge quantities and sell out as they hit the shops) which is supposed to do all the CE-1 + CE-2 sounds, so when it turns up in about a week, I'll be fitting that plus a Boss RV-5 that I've got, in place of the existing chorus pedal (move the trem before them) and use those, in conjunction with two Blackstar HT-5s for a small stereo rig. The Sumer Orange phaser is a bit 'meh' and quite noisy, so plan to replace that with the fairly new MXR mini Phase 95 pedal, which does both phase 45 and 90 sounds.
The TS-808 Tube Screamer I've owned from new in 1981. My first ever pedal was a Colorsound Tonebender Fuzz, which would be worth quite a lot now if I still had it, but I really hated the fuzzy sound at the time (through my transistor 2x12" Marshal Lead Combo), so sold it on a long time ago.
The red Wild Fire distortion will also go, as it does nothing that the other three distortion/heavy overdrive pedals the SL Drive , Hot Plexi (both Marshall based) and Black Tea (AC30 based) don't give me. It's not bad sounding, but just a bit boring and less detailed in comparison to the others.
Nice array of pedals. Lots of sound choice
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Which reminds me about the pedal board I built a few months ago, it measures roughly about 80 cm by 45 cm, I actually started a thread about it not long after making it, and I posted some pics of it, here's a pic of the finished pedal board with about 16 of my pedals on it, what you see in the pic is one configuration I came up with for my signal-chain, I'm in the process of designing a better one though, anyway:
Attachment 15273
The top of the pedal board where the pedals go, is covered by carpet tiles, and the pedals attach to the carpet tiles by adhesive velcro, this way you can easily remove the pedals if you want to re-position them.
Here's what my most current layout looked like, I'm going to be adding a couple of FX looper pedals to the board, one is to switch my tuner and Boss Compressor/Sustainer in and out of my signal-chain, and the other is to switch between two different paths, one has all my vintage-style pedals, and the other has the more modern-style pedals:
Attachment 15274
In the above pic are the following pedals:
DIY Rangemaster Vintage Treble Booster.
DIY Octavia.
DIY Axis Fuzz.
Jim Dunlop JD F2 Fuzz Face.
Jim Dunlop Crybaby Wah.
Korg Pitchblack Tuner.
Boss Compressor/Sustainer.
Ibanez TS-808 (Reissue).
Boss Blues Driver.
Radial Tonebone Hot British Distortion.
Rawlin 5-Band E.Q.
Danelectro Cool Cat Tremolo.
Moen Pretty Dolly Delay.
Boss Super Chorus.
D.C. Power Brick.
I also have a few other pedals and things in my collection, some, I built myself, these include:
Jim Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Wah.
Gypsy Eyes Fuzz (DIY Band Of Gypsys Fuzz Face).
DIY Univibe with a three-position voicing switch.
DIY Baja Real Tube Overdrive.
DIY Big Muff Fuzz (The four-transistor Triangle version).
DIY Doctor Overdrive pedal.
DIY Ray Gun Chaos Fuzz.
Zoom G2 Digital Modelling Pedal.
Digitech RP50 Digital Modeling Pedal.
Zoom 9002 (works but the output sockets are a bit faulty).
Korg PX5D Pandora.
Update:
Just found out that I'm going to have to replace the Locking Nut on my HotRod Strat yet again, the reason?...turns out that some of the strings are buzzing like a Sitar because the notches on the back and front of the Locking Nut, where the strings go through, have been cut a bit too wide when the Locking Nut was manufactured, so that's two Schaller Locking Nuts (a Chrome R3 and a Chrome R2) and the Chrome Gotoh Locking Nut, all with the same Sitar-buzz issue, I know that the Locking Nuts are the cause, because when I fret the strings just behind the first fret, the Sitar Buzzing completely vanishes, maybe I should try getting a genuine Floyd Rose Locking Nut to replace the Gotoh one?, I'm starting to feel really frustrated about this because it is almost impossible to accurately intonate all the strings on the HotRod Strat, sometimes I feel like I have an invisible Demon hanging around, cursing all my efforts to get things to work right, and then things start failing one after the other.
That's a bummer Doc, can you go up a gauge in strings to correct for the issue or is it too big a difference?
Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankenWashie
I guess I could try a set of 46-10 gauge strings, I have a set of 42-09s on the guitar at the moment, I'm doing some googling about the issue I'm experiencing, and as it turns out, I'm not the only one, it seems to be a fairly common issue that owners of Floyd Rose equipped guitars seem to be having with their guitars, apparently some Locking Nuts have casting-defects and one remedy is to use some sandpaper to smooth out the defects, I'm going to give that a try and see if that fixes things, I had a look at the string-notches on the front of the Gotoh Locking Nut, and they do seem to have been cut a bit too wide for the strings.
I'll have to wait till next Tuesday to try a set of 46-10 gauge strings, cause I'm virtually flat broke at the moment, in the meantime, I'm going to try a few other things to fix the Sitar-buzzing.
Update:
Just tried re-installing the Schaller R2 Locking Nut, with the same result, it's definitely these Locking Nuts that's the cause of the Sitar-buzzing, at first I though that the first-fret action was a bit too low so I tried putting a brass shim underneath the R2 Locking Nut, made no difference, so it's definitely not fret-buzz, it's the Locking Nut, I guess quality control/assurance is a bit lax at Schaller, and Gotoh.
Wouldn't locking down the string clamps eliminate this problem?
Normally it should, but it actually made no difference at all, it's definitely a problem caused by the way the Locking Nut was designed in the first place,I'm going to have to try ordering an original Floyd Rose Locking Nut online, might cost me a bit in both time and money.Quote:
Originally Posted by pablopepper
You could try a dab of CA on each string in its slot once it's all in tune. If it still buzzes then it shouldn't be the nut that's the cause.
My Ibanez RG's locking nut hasn't got any shims under it and it's still too high for me. It's a gold finish so any filing to deepen the slots would be very obvious, plus it may cause buzzing issues. Don't want to deepen the nut slot in the wood as it's quite thin there already. Filing the bottom of the locking nut would seem to be about the only means of lowering it, but I'm still rather scared of weakening the whole thing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Once I got all the strings tuned up to pitch, I did some checking to find the cause of the buzzing, I did this by fretting the buzzing strings behind the first fret, when the strings were played open (not fretted) the buzzing was there and audible, soon as I fretted the strings the buzzing stopped, indicating that the Locking Nut was the cause, so I'm going to have to replace it with something better.
As a bit of troubleshooting, I removed the black Gotoh Locking Nut I had installed on the neck of my white Ibanez RG 350DXZ guitar, and I have installed it on the neck of the HotRod Strat, the string notches of the Black Gotoh Locking Nut were cut narrower than the ones on the other three Chrome Locking Nuts I have, so the strings should sound a lot cleaner, I tuned the HotRod Strat back up to pitch and now, all the strings are sounding a lot cleaner, those Chrome Locking Nuts were the cause of the problem after all, looks like I'm going to have to order a new Locking Nut from Realtone Music soon.
Sound's like you could send the old one back as not fit for purpose.
Update:
I'm going to be doing a bit more work on the HotRod Strat today, nothing really major, just shortening the output wires from the pickups and tidying things up so that the scratchplate isn't such a pain to install, I thought that the 500k Log mini CTS pot (labeled 500kB) was actually a Linear-type, but I checked it with a multimeter and it is indeed a Log-type, strange since I always thought Log-types were denoted by a letter "A", and Linear-types with a letter "B", you can easily check this by rotating the pot-shaft so that the wiper is roughly in the middle of it's range, then you measure the resistance between the middle solder-lug and the two outer ones, a Linear-Type pot should measure the same amount of resistance from the middle lug to each of the outer lugs, on the other hand, a Log-pot will show two different resistance readings, which is what I found in the case of the 500kB mini CTS pot.
Oh, the HotRod Strat is getting a set of new Elixir 42-09 gauge strings as well.
I wrote something about different pot types here, with a section on CTS pots: http://www.buildyourownguitar.com.au...l=1#post122594, but it certainly can be confusing. Maybe on the mini types with a reduced printing area (as I was just looking at the full-sized types), they refer directly to their curve type without a numerical code? I don't know what CTS series mini-pot type you've got, but it's worth looking it up on their website.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
I think I remember reading that thread, wouldn't it be so much easier if the pot manufacturers could standardize?
Here's a tip for those who are wiring up Humbucking Pickups that have four-wire shielded output-leads, so that the pickup works as a standard Humbucker, first of all determine which two of the four wires need to be soldered together, then use some 4mm heatshrink-tubing to insulate the solder-joint so that it doesn't short-out, you do this by folding the two joined wires back onto the plastic insulation of the output lead, then thread the lead through the heatshrink-tubing, making sure that it totally covers the solder-joint, it looks much neater than plastic electrical tape, I'll post a pic to show you what it should look like.
It would. But pots aren't just for guitars, and major manufacturers like CTS need to make many different types to suit their customers' requirements. And there are many different types of log curve (to different bases) and although 'linear' should be linear, they've also found a need to have lines with slight discrepancies from a straight line (possibly to cope with situations when you're near a major gravity well like a black hole).
That figures, I guess that's something that we all will have to accept as a given, so maybe if in doubt, just test the pot with a multimeter to be sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
I've just finished sorting-out the pickup wiring and it is looking much neater than it did before, what's more is that the scratchplate is no longer such a pain to install now, no more wires getting caught under it, here's another tip, if you can buy some, use some cable-ties to keep all the wires neatly bundled together.
All that needs to be done is to wire-up the output-jack and do a tap-test to confirm that everything is working as it should (fix if there are problems), then install new strings on the guitar and tune it up.
Update:
The guitar has passed the tap-test and everything is working as it should, so, we can now proceed onto the re-stringing and tuning-up.
Update 2:
Well that's all the work on the HotRod Strat completed, she's all strung-up and tuned up, I don't think I'll be able to get her working any better than she is, so I'm going to stop being so OCD about trying to get the best performance out of her and just have some time-out from her for a change.
One of my problems is that I can get a bit obsessive about getting things to work at their best, I still need to learn how to let go and take some time out, but at least I do realize that I have a problem, and I'm in a position of empowerment to do something about it.
It is. And sometimes you've just got to realise that you aren't going to be able to make it any better than it is at the moment. Just as Plank's constant defines the limits of just how much we can know about the position and momentum of a quantum level particle, there's a Plank-Spankers constant that defines just how close you can get a guitar to perfection, but never quite achieve it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
That's true, and when you're trying to chase perfection you tend to run into the law of diminishing-returns, and sometimes it can be counter-productive too, because in the realm of Quantum Physics, one plus one rarely ever equals two in the real world since the very instant we try to verify that, we get a totally different result than we had expected due to entropy, some things have a finite entropy value and others have an infinite entropy value, and I think perfection is one of those things with an infinite entropy value, my theory anyway.
Entropy is an interesting concept, and I found this Wikipedia article about it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy
I just tried googling Entropy as applied to perfection as a way to check if my theory is valid, and it turns out that I was pretty much "on the money" so to speak.
https://www.google.com.au/?gfe_rd=cr...+To+Perfection
Apart from the fact that by creating something that works, you are reducing entropy. But you will never reduce it to zero, so there's no point trying. Ye canna change the laws of physics and guitars, Captain.
Finally caught up with this build Doc. The strat looks great mate. good work. I love the metallic blue with the pearloid guard. it sounds killer too...especially those dive bombs with the FR! I think you've convinced me to get one for the community build.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy40
Awesome mate, I can't wait to see how yours turns out, maybe I could have a yarn with Adam and see if he would be interested in creating a HotRod Strat kit based off my HotRod Strat build?, he could offer two basic models, one with a Rosewood Neck and one with an all Maple neck, I'll email him and see what he reckons.
Also, let me know when you come to do the setting up of the trem, cause I know of a couple of things that make the process a lot easier.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Very true, according to what I have read online about Entropy, you cannot decrease it, but on the flipside, you can increase it, we as human beings are, and will be, forever bound by the laws of physics, although, that doesn't seem to apply to things I have dropped on the floor and lost, I think Entropy comes into play there too.
No, you can reduce entropy. Life itself is a reduction in entropy. In the great state of things universe-wide, it's only a small reduction, but it is a reduction.