Damn if the price is right! I could probably make a cool cover for it too. I'll pm ya and thank you!
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Crispy Cherry
- Thread starter SamanthaCay
- Start date
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,587
- 221,945
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Glad to help!
Found some knobs maybe, I feel like these fit this bass, be it I might need to melt them a touch. 
Dig the little arrows scratched on the surface. It's like instead of a forstner bit set this kid just got a lousy swiss army knife for Christmas.
Because I like to make more work for myself whenever possible Ill try to drill this switch cap and convert it from a blade style to a screw on toggle style.
Ok back to the re-capitation process.
I found a piece of plastic tube in my stash that was just the right size for these holes and I'll use that as my index when gluing.
Next I wiped the surface to be glued with 91% isopropyl alcohol and I'm glad I did! After doing so the alcohol didn't seem to flash off right away as it should and when I touched it the surface was tacky from glue that I had missed!
I'm really glad to have caught this because had I not I wouldn't have gotten a good bond which in this situation is super important. So needless to say I gave it round two wiped with acetone this time and things were looking clean.
Finally before glue I wetted the surface with water to raise and open the grain a smidge, checking that it raised evenly and that there was for sure no areas where it wouldn't stick.
Glue time.
I should also mention, all this was dry clamped a few times before gluing, always dry clamp when possible.
Two hours of jeopardy music...
Missing a little end material but this was a pretty good success with no deflection over the majority, and just a hair on the treble side.
At this point I decided to use my Dremel and inlay some material over my joint.
The plan was to go all the way across like this varying the legnt to help hide it. Than I remembered that I'm insane and stopped with just doing the ends. Insane because I'm glueing a ragged headstock veneer over top of this using super glue. Like maybe I should not spend an hour doing inlay here
Headstock veneer got dry fitted so I had an idea of the order in which these pieces needed to go back on. This is important as with most wood breaks the pieces all key into eachother.
All glued up. In total It ended up being 5 pieces all glued with super glue and clamped. This goes quick! Getting the glue evenly distributed and clamped in under a minute. Leaving clamped for ~20 min a piece.
I had some rw dust from scraping/sanding the back of the veneer and filled the center hole that lived over the scarf joint. I also super glued all the open cracks/small voids.
At this point it's down to my artistic ability how far I take it. I think at the least I'll be cleaning up my glue and making it hopefully look a little more natural.
Anyway that was my Monday! I'm usually working so this was a nice relaxing change of pace. Don't worry this thread'll slow down next week when I go back to my normal ~9-5.
Till next time, and thank you all for the love and support!
Dig the little arrows scratched on the surface. It's like instead of a forstner bit set this kid just got a lousy swiss army knife for Christmas.
Because I like to make more work for myself whenever possible Ill try to drill this switch cap and convert it from a blade style to a screw on toggle style.
Ok back to the re-capitation process.
I found a piece of plastic tube in my stash that was just the right size for these holes and I'll use that as my index when gluing.
Next I wiped the surface to be glued with 91% isopropyl alcohol and I'm glad I did! After doing so the alcohol didn't seem to flash off right away as it should and when I touched it the surface was tacky from glue that I had missed!
I'm really glad to have caught this because had I not I wouldn't have gotten a good bond which in this situation is super important. So needless to say I gave it round two wiped with acetone this time and things were looking clean.
Finally before glue I wetted the surface with water to raise and open the grain a smidge, checking that it raised evenly and that there was for sure no areas where it wouldn't stick.
Glue time.
I should also mention, all this was dry clamped a few times before gluing, always dry clamp when possible.
Two hours of jeopardy music...
Missing a little end material but this was a pretty good success with no deflection over the majority, and just a hair on the treble side.
At this point I decided to use my Dremel and inlay some material over my joint.
The plan was to go all the way across like this varying the legnt to help hide it. Than I remembered that I'm insane and stopped with just doing the ends. Insane because I'm glueing a ragged headstock veneer over top of this using super glue. Like maybe I should not spend an hour doing inlay here
Headstock veneer got dry fitted so I had an idea of the order in which these pieces needed to go back on. This is important as with most wood breaks the pieces all key into eachother.
All glued up. In total It ended up being 5 pieces all glued with super glue and clamped. This goes quick! Getting the glue evenly distributed and clamped in under a minute. Leaving clamped for ~20 min a piece.
I had some rw dust from scraping/sanding the back of the veneer and filled the center hole that lived over the scarf joint. I also super glued all the open cracks/small voids.
At this point it's down to my artistic ability how far I take it. I think at the least I'll be cleaning up my glue and making it hopefully look a little more natural.
Anyway that was my Monday! I'm usually working so this was a nice relaxing change of pace. Don't worry this thread'll slow down next week when I go back to my normal ~9-5.
Till next time, and thank you all for the love and support!
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,587
- 221,945
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Found some knobs maybe, I feel like these fit this bass, be it I might need to melt them a touch.
View attachment 4671617
Dig the little arrows scratched on the surface. It's like instead of a forstner bit set this kid just got a lousy swiss army knife for Christmas.
View attachment 4671620
Because I like to make more work for myself whenever possible Ill try to drill this switch cap and convert it from a blade style to a screw on toggle style.
Ok back to the re-capitation process.
View attachment 4671632
I found a piece of plastic tube in my stash that was just the right size for these holes and I'll use that as my index when gluing.
Next I wiped the surface to be glued with 91% isopropyl alcohol and I'm glad I did! After doing so the alcohol didn't seem to flash off right away as it should and when I touched it the surface was tacky from glue that I had missed!
I'm really glad to have caught this because had I not I wouldn't have gotten a good bond which in this situation is super important. So needless to say I gave it round two wiped with acetone this time and things were looking clean.
Finally before glue I wetted the surface with water to raise and open the grain a smidge, checking that it raised evenly and that there was for sure no areas where it wouldn't stick.
View attachment 4671647
Glue time.
View attachment 4671648
I should also mention, all this was dry clamped a few times before gluing, always dry clamp when possible.
Two hours of jeopardy music...
View attachment 4671654
Missing a little end material but this was a pretty good success with no deflection over the majority, and just a hair on the treble side.
At this point I decided to use my Dremel and inlay some material over my joint.
View attachment 4671658
The plan was to go all the way across like this varying the legnt to help hide it. Than I remembered that I'm insane and stopped with just doing the ends. Insane because I'm glueing a ragged headstock veneer over top of this using super glue. Like maybe I should not spend an hour doing inlay here
Headstock veneer got dry fitted so I had an idea of the order in which these pieces needed to go back on. This is important as with most wood breaks the pieces all key into eachother.
View attachment 4671667
All glued up. In total It ended up being 5 pieces all glued with super glue and clamped. This goes quick! Getting the glue evenly distributed and clamped in under a minute. Leaving clamped for ~20 min a piece.
I had some rw dust from scraping/sanding the back of the veneer and filled the center hole that lived over the scarf joint. I also super glued all the open cracks/small voids.
View attachment 4671670
At this point it's down to my artistic ability how far I take it. I think at the least I'll be cleaning up my glue and making it hopefully look a little more natural.
Anyway that was my Monday! I'm usually working so this was a nice relaxing change of pace. Don't worry this thread'll slow down next week when I go back to my normal ~9-5.
Till next time, and thank you all for the love and support!
So far that hs brings the term "Frankenstein" into clearer focus!
So far that hs brings the term "Frankenstein" into clearer focus!
Yeah! What about some bolts in the sides of the headstock and some really big, obvious stitches across the front?
Been away from TB for a minute, glad I got back just in time for a SamanthaCay thread. Great work so far.
Great work so far.
Update time.
I'll start with parts, I got both the epi sidewinder compliments of Mr Jio, and as well a very new set of gotoh gb10's.
These epi sidewinders are an interesting thing 1.2k from two rather large coils and apparently via the research I did this is normal. Weird because the original Gibson versions were more around 30k! My first guess out side of there being something odd with the wiring on these was that maybe they were just wound with really thick gauge wire, but with a little peel of the insulation that appears to not be the case.
So what gives? Id love to hear from anyone who's dissected one (before I go there myself).
Also since our resistance isn't the whole story as to a pickup's output I decided to rig up a means to send an oscillator through it and measure it's output on a scope. Im gonna do this at work on a digi scope when I get a free moment this week and hopefully we'll get a better idea of what's happening here and as well compare it to another "known" pickup or two. Here's my rig,
Just a headphone driver set into a piece of foam (highly complex stuff)
The tuners aren't much to look at but they're good quality and the fitment is pretty close. I'm gonna do something I haven't done in a long time on these and acid treat them, so I'll have more on that process when that happens. That'll be a bit as I'll have to do it at a friend's place so there's no risk of harming a passer by as my garage is open to a busy parking lot.
Finally I got the rout done today!
A couple things going on here. First there's tape on the body to mark the perimeter, offer protection for the top, and last offer a gluing surface. I used some ~1/4" stock market and cut approximately to length than coated the bottom of that with tape so I could super glue it all down yet still undo it later. I think I picked this trick up from crimson guitars on youtube a few years ago and I like it! I feel like this often works better than conventional double stick too as it's super thin and forms a strong bound.
Notice the three frets on the end were pulled. Thats so I have clearance for the router. I could have used a thicker template but than I'd be extending the bit even more than it was at right around an inch and I opted to do this as it was safer.
The area below the fingerboard ended up imperfect as I didn't account for my template being slightly forward of the fingerboard end. That won't be a problem though as that will be part of the final post plug rout and be hidden under the pickup. The holes from the forstner's tip will just get covered over via the plug.
I'll start with parts, I got both the epi sidewinder compliments of Mr Jio, and as well a very new set of gotoh gb10's.
These epi sidewinders are an interesting thing 1.2k from two rather large coils and apparently via the research I did this is normal. Weird because the original Gibson versions were more around 30k! My first guess out side of there being something odd with the wiring on these was that maybe they were just wound with really thick gauge wire, but with a little peel of the insulation that appears to not be the case.
So what gives? Id love to hear from anyone who's dissected one (before I go there myself).
Also since our resistance isn't the whole story as to a pickup's output I decided to rig up a means to send an oscillator through it and measure it's output on a scope. Im gonna do this at work on a digi scope when I get a free moment this week and hopefully we'll get a better idea of what's happening here and as well compare it to another "known" pickup or two. Here's my rig,
Just a headphone driver set into a piece of foam (highly complex stuff)
The tuners aren't much to look at but they're good quality and the fitment is pretty close. I'm gonna do something I haven't done in a long time on these and acid treat them, so I'll have more on that process when that happens. That'll be a bit as I'll have to do it at a friend's place so there's no risk of harming a passer by as my garage is open to a busy parking lot.
Finally I got the rout done today!
A couple things going on here. First there's tape on the body to mark the perimeter, offer protection for the top, and last offer a gluing surface. I used some ~1/4" stock market and cut approximately to length than coated the bottom of that with tape so I could super glue it all down yet still undo it later. I think I picked this trick up from crimson guitars on youtube a few years ago and I like it! I feel like this often works better than conventional double stick too as it's super thin and forms a strong bound.
Notice the three frets on the end were pulled. Thats so I have clearance for the router. I could have used a thicker template but than I'd be extending the bit even more than it was at right around an inch and I opted to do this as it was safer.
The area below the fingerboard ended up imperfect as I didn't account for my template being slightly forward of the fingerboard end. That won't be a problem though as that will be part of the final post plug rout and be hidden under the pickup. The holes from the forstner's tip will just get covered over via the plug.
Many years ago I bought an Artec sidewinder and when I installed it the sound was weak and thin. I hooked a meter up and it was like yours, well under 2k. I too was baffled how two big coils could produce so little resistance and just assumed there was an internal defect of some sort.
The Artec sidewinders are supposed to be recreations of the original, coming in around 30k, and they can be had for about $30. The newer sidewinders with the low resistance are a completely different animal. Artec is also notorious for poor quality control, so it's very likely that there was something wrong with your particular pickup. Often the magnets are oriented wrong from what I hear.
Ok curiosity has gotten the better of me..
Still no answer with both coils reading ~.6k!
Than I dissected further and it hit me.
With a length of it's coil run over this generic pickup can you see it? How about a little closer?
This wire is 2-3 times thicker than normal which makes a big difference in resistance on the coil. Maybe epiphone had some surplus transformer wire? Anyway this won't do but ya know what will? A rewind! I've got a friend in town that does this and I'm going to inquire about what it will cost. Otherwise who knows we might have some fun setting up a diy winder. Also I know buy an artec but where's the fun in that??? Also @JIO thanks for the pickup rabbit hole! This may be a better gift than expected.
Still no answer with both coils reading ~.6k!
Than I dissected further and it hit me.
With a length of it's coil run over this generic pickup can you see it? How about a little closer?
This wire is 2-3 times thicker than normal which makes a big difference in resistance on the coil. Maybe epiphone had some surplus transformer wire? Anyway this won't do but ya know what will? A rewind! I've got a friend in town that does this and I'm going to inquire about what it will cost. Otherwise who knows we might have some fun setting up a diy winder.
Also I know buy an artec but where's the fun in that??? Also @JIO thanks for the pickup rabbit hole! This may be a better gift than expected.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,587
- 221,945
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Who knew? That side-winder was in the Epi EB-O I bought to do the Watt tribute bass and never plugged it in. I stripped all the parts off the body when I got it (assumed it was working) and made it 'look' like his bass with dummy (wooden mock-ups) pu's and only knobs & a jack (no pots/electronics) - so are you saying it wasn't functional? If I would have known I'd have left it in the bass!
I just saw/heard Watt last Tuesday with MSSV at Winters Tavern in Pacifica. MSSV is the guitarist's (jazz based) trio and Watt is the bass player. I just finished some cool restoration on the taverns exterior wall. The lettering was under a thick elastimeric paint we were able to remove. Blk & white pic is from 1950.
I just saw/heard Watt last Tuesday with MSSV at Winters Tavern in Pacifica. MSSV is the guitarist's (jazz based) trio and Watt is the bass player. I just finished some cool restoration on the taverns exterior wall. The lettering was under a thick elastimeric paint we were able to remove. Blk & white pic is from 1950.
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I'm also glad this happened because reading up on these it seems it's a common issue but no one really knew what caused it. So now if they search epiphone sidewinder people can have their answer.who knew?
It worked, be it with very low output. I was going to measure it but I decided to just take it apart anyway lol. This thing will probably be rad rewound though.Who knew? That side-winder was in the Epi EB-O I bought to do the Watt tribute bass and never plugged it in. I stripped all the parts off the body when I got it (assumed it was working) and made it 'look' like his bass with dummy (wooden mock-ups) pu's and only knobs & a jack (no pots/electronics) - so are you saying it wasn't functional? If I would have known I'd have left it in the bass!
I just saw/heard Watt last Tuesday with MSSV at Winters Tavern in Pacifica. MSSV is the guitarist's (jazz based) trio and Watt is the bass player. I just finished some cool restoration on the taverns exterior wall. The lettering was under a thick elastimeric paint we were able to remove. Blk & white pic is from 1950.
View attachment 4677731 View attachment 4677736 View attachment 4677740View attachment 4677760
You've got that tavern man, I've been working on my junky old Mercedes a lot lately. My garage looks more mechanic oriented than luthier atm.
I have no good pictures of this thing so here's a bad one with the bumper off.
it's name is Richard and it is a 98 e430 with 160k on the clock. I've had Richard since February and thus far Richard likes to take up a lot of my time.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,587
- 221,945
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
It worked, be it with very low output. I was going to measure it but I decided to just take it apart anyway lol. This thing will probably be rad rewound though.
You've got that tavern man, I've been working on my junky old Mercedes a lot lately. My garage looks more mechanic oriented than luthier atm.
View attachment 4677766
I have no good pictures of this thing so here's a bad one with the bumper off.
Mercedes are good cars right? (worth fixing etc) Winters is a special place - over 100yrs old and moved to its present location right off HW1 sometime in the late '40s. (from just south in Pacifica closer to the beach) I've played there with a few different bands over the years, and continue to do so. Here's a pic from our recent show there on Easter Sunday.
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It worked, be it with very low output. I was going to measure it but I decided to just take it apart anyway lol. This thing will probably be rad rewound though.
You've got that tavern man, I've been working on my junky old Mercedes a lot lately. My garage looks more mechanic oriented than luthier atm.
View attachment 4677766
I have no good pictures of this thing so here's a bad one with the bumper off.
Those Epi sidewinders don't have the raging hot output as the vintage Gibsons, but they certainly aren't "very low output," despite the very low resistance. There are lots of folks around who play the Epiphones stock.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,587
- 221,945
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
The '70s RI of reverse T-birds (Bicentennial) had side-winders. They were loud, but sound different than the '60s buckers.
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