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G&L Club Part 5

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#61
rust_preacher said:
I would think that you'd never use the actual heartwood for woodworking... When I think of all my guitars and basses, that one neck is the only one where the grain is curved that way. All the rest are "bark side" toward the fret board.

The issue may not have anything to do with the harder/softer factor, maybe it is just with how the annual ring structure in the neck strengthens or weakens the tendency to bow one way or the other.
Click to expand...

I'm not a luthier (and that forum would probably make hay of this) but have been a pro woodworker at many times over the years (look, Ma, still have 10 fingers :)). A board (or a neck) has a tendency to "cup" towards the sapwood (or bark) across it's width... some think of it as cupping the opposite way the rings point when you look at the end-grain. However, in a neck that's only a couple inches wide, this tendency should be almost nil. I agree it's probably wisest to place the sapwood up so that any cup would appear at the center of the joint with the finger board and create a hollow rather than wanting to pull away at the edges, but I can't see it would be that big a deal, especially with properly dried wood, and I can't agree with your tech that it would affect bowing along the length of the neck.

I've always found the theory that the location and condition of the bolt holes causing differential moisture conditions and possible movement at the bolt-on end of the neck leading to "ski jump" to be an interesting theory, but I don't know enough to know if it's accepted as fact.

...just my thoughts on this.
 
#62
P1030033.jpg
Have not posted these in a while
P1030034.jpg


hope you like them!
after I play RENT in May, I'm taking them both in to have the active removed in favor of a switch for each PU for coil tapping as I rarely use active, but I will keep the parts just in case!
Love & Peace:cool:
 
#63
bassbenj said:
Yes, these mods really make a G&L killer. I'm presently in the midst of putting in a push-pull OMG switch. Before that, I added the Kmod and some other hum killing tweaks. One of those is shielding the pickup cavities with copper foil and I replaced the pickup springs with foam. The springs it seems make this "boing-boing" sound when you tap on the pickups even with no strings on. With foam and shields dead quiet.

But there is a secret here. The problem you are having is that the G&L pickups don't have the pole pieces grounded. Hence if you touch them they inject hum! For a while I simply had some wires from the bridge to ground them but that was pretty hokey!

So the "real" fix is you take out the pickups and turn them over. You will notice a copper plate on the bottom. That plate is ground usually grounded by the springs but I grounded mine on foam with a strip of copper foil over the top of the foam to press against it. OK. If you look along the edges of the plate, you can just see the edges of each row of pole pieces. So what i did was sand the copper plate edge for good contact, and went to Radio Shack and got this conductive pen. Then you simply paint the bottoms of the poles and run the paint up onto the ground copper plate. Bingo. All poles now grounded and don't let the hum in. You could probably do the same thing if you have some of that copper foil with the conductive glue. Just stick a couple of strips on there.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

That's totally what it was. The G&L pickup techs had gorunded the pickup poles by soldering the green wire to that copper plate in two spots so that it acted like part of the green wire. Good idea - unless you're going to do any kind of switching mods. I unsoldered both green wire spots, spliced in a bit of wire to connect those green wire ends, and then soldered a wire from one of the remaining solder spots to the pickup cavity foil. Problem solved. Thanks!
 
#69
recently i've been debating on trading in my '81 L1K as it just didnt seem to fit me like i thought it would. i had it strung up with dr hibeams but the natural tone of the bass seems to be on the darker side of things, having the mahogony body andy all. i had restrung one of my p-basses with a set of chrome flats to see what the hubub was about and really liked the tone, so i went back to GC the next day for another set to put on my '81. well, this bass is not going anywhere now. the flats are a very good match for this bass and the tone is so full and thumpy, i just love it.
 
#71
I had chromes on my '81 hog/ebony L1K for a long time.
I'm back to DA XL170 at the moment.

Yes, it's a darker bass compared to some.
But it's thick and rich and chewy and fills out a mix very nicely.
 
#72
I don't know of anyone else with an M-Series.

I've been thinking of selling my 1981 CAR/maple L1000 to fund one.
I'm not settled on that yet.
 
#75
Yours is the blackburst 2500 from Rocket Music?

I thought I told you to decide to hate that, and sell it to me.
Apparently, my remote thought control processes aren't working yet.

Back to the lab......
 
#79
Do you love your G&L JB2 Tribute but are tired of your fingers cramping up trying to play that skinny neck? Do you need something meatier that'll fit your hand better? Then, are you in luck!

I have a G&L L2000 Tritbute with a rosewood fretboard, and I'd like to trade that neck with someone's JB2 Tribute neck. I'd prefer rosewood for rosewood, but beggars can't be choosers, huh?

Enebude?
 
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