Saturday 31 March 2012

Lestelepaulcaster Design

Well, I'm still no closer to actually being able to build the guitar, but thanks to this software and some subsequent fiddling in MS Paint I have at least come up with a picture of what I intend the guitar to look like.


Tele-Paul Design

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Phone camera

I have finally spent some time learning how to use my smartphone's camera properly, including finding the macro function. Ultimately, this means better pictures on the blog!

Friday 16 March 2012

Boss PH-2 Super Phaser - Gain Mod

Just did a simpified version of the gain mod from this site. The plan there is to remove the 27k resistor at R79 the PH-2 comes with and then do a switching thing between that and a 15k resistor (basically, lower resistance value means more volume), but really I cannot think of a reason why I'd need to switch between usable volume and really noticable drop in volume, so I went for the 'usable volume' option only, by doing a straight swap of the two resistors.

The picture isn't great as I still cannot find my camera, and my smartphone doesn't have a macro function that I can find, but helpfully the new resistor is bright blue and about twice the size of all the existing ones so it does stick out a bit.



Just did a quick test and it works a treat, now there is no volume drop at all when the phaser is switched on. I'd call that a win really.

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Fender Jag-Stang & Boss PH-2 Super Phaser

Righto, I have a Fender Jag-Stang in bits that I want to really do something special with.

It's gonna be a quite a big project, as it'll have a complete refin on the body (including addition of tummy and forearm contours whilst it's naked), new scratchplate, new electronics (including different controls), new pickups and I'll be immobilising the bridge.

One thing that strikes me is that I rather like the look of matching headstocks on Fender-style instruments, so I'm considering it with this project. But I'm also wary of obliterating the 'Fender Jag-Stang' decal because even with keeping the serial number it may adversely affect the value should I decide to sell it on... I mean, yes by that point very little of what's on the guitar will be original anyway but people do get quite worked up over having the 'right' name.

Something to think on, and any comments on the matter are gratefully recieved.


In other news I'll be replacing the gain resistor in my Boss PH-2 Super Phaser at some point during the next couple of days as it needs a bit more oomph when I'm actually using it; when you;re into playing loud psychedelic doom stuff a pedal that actually drops the volume when switched on isn't that useful.

Monday 5 March 2012

Harley Benton GA5 - Master Volume Mod

Today I fitted the master volume mod to the GA5 head. Does what it says on the tin really; providing more fine control over the amp's volume. Not much gain at the moment, which is a little disappointing as being a grumpy doomster I like lots of gain, but apparently that's easy to sort out and will be the aim of a future bit of modding. Need to get some better drill bits for doing metal as there'll be other mods going on this amp in future... and I was good and used clamps and saftey glasses when drilling.