Ben Schmaus Bench Zen
Forum Replies Created
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Thanks @gerryhayes appreciate you taking a look and replying.
I saw a few listings on Reverb for Gibson mini-HBs with these high readings, too, and also couldn’t find any official specs. I’m planning to re-wire the guitar for the customer (swapping out the PCB board). I’ll add coil-splits for the mini-HBs and see if that gives him some more flexibility with these beasts.
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looks nice in the browser and works well on mobile (iphone), too.
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i can confirm that the twine method recommended by G&L secures the jack very well. glad that i don’t have to alter the guitar after all.
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I wrote to G&L and here’s what they had to say:
“…the barrel jack is held in place by a piece of twine (see attached photo) this was a Leo Fender design. As you can see the twine goes long ways around the threads of the barrel jack, this is what keeps the jack in place and does not slip out of the instrument.”
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Thanks for all the ideas. I agree that threading the jack directly into the wood isn’t a great design.
I’ll probably end up drilling out the hole and installing a football jack plate or the electosocket jack mount.
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i also thought about plugging it and re-threading the wood. i might give that a go if i can’t secure it with a nut from the cavity side.
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yeah, i’ll give that a try. i’m just worried that it might be difficult to remove if i (or someone else) need to take it out again.
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there’s a bare wire under the bridge that runs to the control cavity where it’s soldered the the back of a pot.
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Oh, and this is a thinline tele (but without an f-hole). So the only parts I could easily shield would be the neck pickup cavity and pickguard.
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Hey Gerry. Yeah, the bridge pickup does the same although maybe not quite as loud. Still very noticeable though. The pickups aren’t RWRP. So the middle position, unfortunately, isn’t hum cancelling.
Not sure if this might be a factor, but I broke the neck pickup coil wire around the eyelet for the hot connection and had to carefully unwrap a turn of coil wire, wrap several loops through the eyelet and resolder (and wax). But I get normal 7.6 kohms resistance reading from the neck pickup and it sounds fine when playing.
Just seems like it’s a bit more buzzy than other single coil guitars and it’s kind of annoying me given that all the ground connections are solid.
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i ended up using a small tile cutting bit to carefully remove enough wood to extract the broken screw.
i picked up some copper tubing though so i can make a new bit if this comes up again.
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Thanks for the link @ianhatesguitars I’ll give this a try. (The bridge screw I need to remove is larger than what the stewmac extractor tool is designed to work with anyway.)
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Definitely cracks. I followed up with MJT. They were super cool about it and are sending out a replacement body.
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here’s a shot of the same area after filling with fill n’ finish. not perfect but it feels a lot better than it did before leveling it out with the filler.
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Hey @ianhatesguitars – wanted to let you know that the glu boost fill and finish worked great. it filled in the low spots and cleaned up nicely. I wasn’t familiar with glu boost and will definitely be using it henceforth.
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Thanks. That does sound like a better option than removing material.
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Thanks for the links @ianhatesguitars and @Doc Rathwell
Those are really helpful.
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I have a little rechargable USB light that I put inside the body and then I use an inspection mirror to look around. Sometimes I use an endoscope.
https://www.amazon.com/DEPSTECH-Waterproof-Inspection-Megapixels-Smartphone/dp/B01MYTHWK4/
For polishing frets I often use micro-mesh pads: https://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/luthier-tools/abrasives/micro-mesh-2-x-2-soft-touch-pad-variety-pack/
If the frets are fairly clean I start with 4000 grit and work up to 12000. If they’re grungier I’ll start at 1500 and work all the way up to 12000.
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Well…after re-checking all the braces, bridge plate, truss rod multiple times for anything that might be loose I finally discovered that the output jack was loose and that’s what was causing the buzzing.
In the future I’ll have to remember that that’s probably a good thing to check early on with an acoustic electric.
PS. There was some sort of glitch with forum posts recently and the original post and a reply were inadvertently removed somehow. Thanks to @ianhatesguitars for restoring the post.
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Thanks @ianhatesguitars. I actually found a video you posted from TLG with Kent Armstrong about wax potting. In that video he mentioned he uses paraffin and that wax is easier to work with vs, say, epoxy, but it didn’t go into much detail about the possible effects of potting on tone.
I came across a post on the Fralin site mentioning they use a wax that provides protection but minimally affects tone, and I also found a couple of other posts (e.g., Lollar) indicating that too much potting can result in flat, dull tone, which was my experience.
https://youtu.be/kgKIRRXL8iA?si=DCYq4O6Uel_DJrBi
https://www.fralinpickups.com/2019/05/06/what-is-wax-potting/
https://www.lollarguitars.com/blog/2014/01/what_is_potting/
https://wgsusa.com/blogs/news/potted-vs-un-potted-guitar-pickups-the-pros-and-cons
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I was able to remove the preamp and use a small amount of super glue to secure the “paddle” to the slider. I got a pretty good connection without the glue so hopefully it’ll be a reasonably durable fix. The hardest part was getting the preamp itself reattached.
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Thanks, Gerry. Appreciate you sharing that.
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Thinking about this overnight, is the approach here to remove the preamp and reinsert the slider from the back of the preamp?
Interestingly, the only useful info I’ve been able to turn up on Ovation preamps is from the prolific @gerryhayes – https://hazeguitars.com/blog/quick-tip-ovation-op-24-preamp-removal
hazeguitars.com
Quick Tip: Ovation OP-24 Preamp Removal — Haze Guitars
If you ever need to remove certain Ovation preamps, you might find yourself scratching your head as you look for the fixings/mountings. The first time I encountered one, it took a little thought so I'll pop this quick tip up … Continue reading
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Thanks @Ryan_Foust.
I found this link from legacy.gibson.com that looks like a similar model: https://legacy.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/2016/Memphis/ES-339-Satin.aspx
The one that I’ve been working on has vintage tuners and the owner wanted Grovers installed. (Not sure if the vintage tuners were original – Grovers are stock on the model linked here.) If the guitar was in better shape (string binding in most of the nut slots, many uneven frets between 12 and 22) I probably wouldn’t have second guessed it, but it’s an outlier compared to the other Gibsons I’ve worked on.
legacy.gibson.com
Popular with players seeking the legendary ES-335 look and tone in more compact dimensions, the ES-339 has already established itself as a modern classic.
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Hey Chris. I posted a short continuity testing video as a reply to gerry above that you can d/l (it doesn’t play through the site) and view. It should demonstrate a good connection between the bridge and cable sleeve.
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for reference, here’s a short clip showing continuity between the various metal parts and the sleeve of a plugged in cable.
the neck pickup is a fender vintage 62 and the bridge is a fender yosemite.
i do have a similar noise with strats and even an LP with duncan 59 HBs, albeit to a lesser extent.
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Thanks for writing that up @sam-stewart
I was looking at hole cutter bits from home depot but they’re all way too big.
I think I’m also going to get a set of microchisels, which you mentioned in your post.
In the few years I’ve been doing part-time setup and (basic) repair work for a local music store this is the first time I’ve come across a broken screw (1 / ~180 guitars). Initially I thought it was just stripped.
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thanks for the pointer. that looks really handy. i just placed a stewmac order. too bad this isn’t available at the moment or i’d be placing another!
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Rather than sanding down the ridges, I used the glu boost fill n’ finish to fill in the low areas (basically use the filler to bring the low areas level to the ridge). I’ll take a photo or two and will post here.
