Gasalcoholics anonymous? whoever said this was a help group?

[alexsga]

incoming was 3.5 metalZones $

[dubkitty]

update: the M-75 has shipped and is purportedly due here Wednesday.

[dubkitty]

today's a big day on the Stuff Front...among today's scheduled deliveries are the DeArmond M-75, CA glue supplies from StewMac to let me finish the Jetstar, vintage GE and Amperex preamp tubes for the AC15, and a fairly plush gig bag that was supposed to ship with the Eastwood Wandré but was out of stock. i don't really care about it, but it's better than the other bags i have and will allow me to retire the rather nice one that my previous cat decimated. it was also simpler than having a credit on their website towards a future purchase i'm unlikely to make. so after deliveries today will be about evaluating, cleaning, restringing, and setting up the M-75 and testing the AC15 with the new tubes. not looking forward to the tube swap because the AC15's back panels are configures so you either take off a small panel and stick your arm in there like you're trying to deliver a cow fetus or removing the big panel which gives you easy access but requires removing almost the entire back of the amp which uses about five hundred screws. neither is particularly enjoyable. hopefully the CA supplies will allow me to roll up the Jetstar in a few more days and the M-75 won't need much, so i can get out of guitar-builder mode and start having fun with the pedalboards again. being successful with my projects brings me happiness, but it's not something i can really get lost in like looping.

the only other thing out is two Soviet-era EL84 of a particular subtype that are supposed to take more punishment and live longer than most any other EL84. if they're good, i'll get a pair for the Hammond reverb head. i think i'm going to have to quit trying to "improve" it and just accept that it's never going to be a totally clean amp, even in the sense of "Vox clean." it wants to holler and growl, and does it well. i should probably put the tube rectifier back in. i needed a cleaner amp before i got the Princeton; now i can let it be what it is. those three amps actually give me a fairly good cross-section of Toob Tone, with the Princeton doing Fender clean to shouty, the AC15 starting at a bit gritty and going to solid chunk, and the Hammond starting at juke-joint and going to Tiny Noise Fest. as i revive my dead/dormant amps they'll be augmented with a Laney VC30 with Greenbacks which is my go-to Loud Rock Amplifier, a Kalamazoo Bass 30 with 7591 power tubes, and my Epiphone Electar Tube 10 which is a vicious little practice amp that can push a 2x12" cabinet. i love that thing...1 12AX7 preamp tube, 1 6V6 power tube, one volume knob, one tone knob, no waiting. the only other amps i feel like i need are something in a small Marshall, Hiwatt (as if!), and an SS amp like a JC120/Yamaha/Lab Series for cleans, which would be really good for looping with the biamped setup which would be totally solid-state. it would be really nice to get the amps going this year.

[dubkitty]

the M-75 arrived. it plays really well, and the action/neck relief is actually straighter and lower than i'm accustomed to. i'll definitely raise the bridge a tad at least. it's in generally good shape save a couple of dings/scrapes that are quite fixable with the poly clearcoat. lots of life in the frets. Grover tuners are smooth as could be.

i really like the pickups. they're dense like PAFs but have more air in them and a typical DeArmond POP to the attack. the resonance is also different. they're surprisingly well-matched...with both pickups at about the same height as it arrived the bass pickup isn't THAT much louder than the treble pickup. i will need to dial it back a bit, though. i'm not even going to mess with that until new strings are on. tonight i'll destring it, clean it up, treat the fingerboard, get new strings on, and balance the pickups. the strings are a bit stiffer than a Les Paul due to the harp tailpiece extending the overall string length, which is fine with me. the combo of string tension, large frets, and the fairly flat fingerboard makes bending not just easy but fun. and i say this as someone who's come to dislike wholesale note-bending as a bit exhibitionist.

the only real issues to deal with are a visible large scratch on the left lower bout, an area about 1x1" on the bass side of the neck around the 10th fret that has several parallel scratches, and the pickguard which is rather thrashed. the scrapes are totally fixable with brush-on poly clearcoat and polishing compound. i'll experiment with my finishing supplies and see if i can nice this guard up; probable start by sanding with 1500->2000->wet sanding w/2000->polishing. if it's too much buttpain to do i can order a new one from Pickguardian. at the moment i feel like i want to stay with the stock black color, but i still might go with a clear one like on the sparkly blue M-75T. it wouldn't make much real difference, though; the Moon Blue finish is quite dark. in the indoor living-room light it looks almost black. i would love to have a guitar this deep of a green. the silver foil on a couple of the knobs is iffy; replacement knobs exist on eBay. weight is a tidge over 9 pounds, which really isn't bad for a guitar with a solid agathis body and (i think) a mahogany neck. that's at least a pound lighter than my Tokai Les Paul.

the best thing is that it's very comfortable to play. the Les Paul/Duo Jet/Aristocrat-sized guitars are ergonomically perfect for me, and the neck and fingerboard essentially disappear in my mind because i'm not having to navigate around issues. i probably could have done without it, but what the fuck. once it's set up i'll send for a case, noting again for the record that these fit comfortably in a Les Paul case which is not the case with Gretsch Jets.

the StewMac stuff and the Eastwood gig bag also are here, but i couldn't bring all that upstairs carrying it 5 floors along with the guitar. the next time i go out i'll unpack the bag, cut up its box, put it in the recycling, and be set before bringing it up. the other stuff is small boxes.

pictures when i have it cleaned up.

[dubkitty]

i seem to spend most of my musical time in spaces that have to some extent or another been "Fenderized"...first i was into Gretsches which only really came back when FMIC got involved, but then i was surprised to find myself so interested the Guilds and the ill-fated DeArmond line that spanned some of Guild's FMIC period and their current ownership by Yamaha. there's such an interesting array of single- and double-coil pickups in there: Dynasonics, their little brothers including the DeArmond 2000 and 2k pickups and the current "Dynas" which do not have the classic large magnets-and-springs structure, Filtertrons and their offspring, HiLoTrons which don't do much for me but which the JAMC got a lot of mileage out of, the Guild "Franz" P-90s which really aren't P-90s strictly speaking but a related thing of its own, the HB-1/LB-1 mini-humbuckers which are just wonderful, and these strange DeArmond Gold Tone (or Goldtone) 'buckers with the second row of poles appearing to come through or to the top of the covers. i'll ask again: did DeArmond ever make a shitty-sounding pickup?

[dubkitty]

before cleanup.

[dubkitty]

i took the strings off, did two iterations of oiling the fingerboard, took off the pickguard and knobs, and gave everything a good cleaning. the screws that looked rusty in the seller’s photos look more weathered in real life, especially after i cleaned the heads off.

there’s a fair amount of pick scrapeage above the strings between the pickups where overzealous strumming took its toll. it’s not so awful that i feel the need to polish out the whole top like i did with the M-75T. the pickguard is pretty beat up. i tried a go with the polishing compound which had an effect but left scratches deep enough that it’ll have to be fine sanded before polishing. i’m going to consider whether it’s worth the cost of a new guard to get out of that rather trying work or if i should plug on for the satisfaction i’ll get from fixing it. it’s only $25 for a new guard, which is less than i make an hour, so i did the easy thing for once.

one potential problem area is the knobs. 3 out of the 4 knobs show some degree of chipping along the top edge. they’re hella rare in the aftermarket, possibly because they’re so fragile; when i removed the M-75 knobs one separated at the point the shaft joins the top, and i wasn’t pranging on it with a crowbar. i’ll CA glue that back together tomorrow. as to the chipped edges, i may be able to fill those chips with the black CA and some careful shots of CA booster. if i have to replace the lot, i’ll get Guild knobs which are more available and try to transfer the silver “D” stickers from the DeArmond knobs to the new ones. i have to say that plastics are a weakness on this guitar and apparently on DeArmonds generally…a lot of used examples have non-standard aftermarket knobs and now i think it wasn’t just aesthetic. i mean, the switch knob broke off while i was cleaning the guitar. fortunately the parts box saved me again.

further updates will be in the Wacky Project Guitars thread and Let’s See Your Guitar.

i’ll put the new preamp tubes in the AC15 tomorrow. i tell you, the difference between it and the Princeton is huge. i prefer the Fender, but sometimes that Vox crackle and crunch is quite delightful.

now that the StewMac stuff is in i should be getting into the heavy Jetstar shit soon. i’m going to do a practice run on scrap to learn how to use the accelerator, which also may come in handy for patching the chipped knobs.

[dubkitty]

every time i see the script “D” on those knobs i expect a cease-and-desist from Disney.

[Blackened Soul]

Coming: The Really Good Pedal Co. The Silver Paw (chunk systems Brown Dog clone)

[coldbrightsunlight]

Just got an Aguilar Octamiser in. Been on a bass octave quest. First impressions are this is really fat and tracks well, having the tone controls for both the dry tone and octave is very helpful for dialling in a good balance and it sounds pretty huge! True test at band practice tomorrow

[gila_crisis]

I got some new fuzz pedals, cheapos this time: Fender Hammertone Fuzz and the infamous Behringer Superfuzz (aka FZ2 clone), and they totally deliver!

Tomorrow I shall receive an EAE Prismatic Wall: Totally looking forward to it, I was studying the manual and it's deeeeeeeeeep!
Also awaiting the latest Mirror House to be available here in Europe.

[dubkitty]

i thought i was kind of over the Fuzz Quest part of my life, but someone mentioned Frederic Effects in a fuzz thread and i hadn’t thought of him for ages and went through the site. now i’m mulling his Unpleasant Companion and Harmonic Percolator. back awhile ago i decided that Shin-Ei stuff didn’t really work for how i play, but the demo i listened to has me thinking different. i’m surprised i like the Perc as much or more as the Land Devices one that had a brief gold-rush spike in value before returning to reason. thing is, i’m really not sure how either of these would fit into my existing sound structure. as you might have guessed, i prefer the simple early versions in the smaller boxes. once i get the boards out again i’ll have a think.

[Blackened Soul]

The Really Nice Pedal co silver paw arrived.
It’s a clone of a chunk systems brown dog fuzz.
The brown bog was always one of those I regarded not getting when they were available, but back then the demos were…
So for those that are like so what… it’s a gated fuzz with separate controls for fuzz and clean, it has a big fat sound even with the clean off. It doesn’t really do a low gain sound the drive control is more of a texture than a gain.. it doesn’t really do get less gainy but.. the hard/soft switch is cool, soft is a little more muffy and hard is sharp and synthy, the mid switch does do a whole lot.. at least with an active bass… overall.. it one of the best bass fuzzes I’ve ever used.. it’s sooo thick!

[dubkitty]

what is the texture like? could you offer comparisons?

[dubkitty]

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