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What's On Your Workbench?
- Thread starter HaMMerHeD
- Start date
I made a fairly low offer on this 1976 JetGlo 4001 on Reverb the other day. Much to my surprise, the offer was accepted. A couple of days later this absolute creampuff arrived! 
It isn't in mint condition, but there are very few paint chips and it has minimal play wear. It has been strung with flats for most of its life and the fretboard is nearly pristine with almost no fret wear.
I gave it a good once-over, tightening a few screws here and there and it looks fantastic. No missing screws and all parts appear to be original and intact. Of course I had to restring it with rounds.
There we go! The action is very low and it plays like butter (of course).
Took it for a test drive and snapped a quick family portrait (a few members are missing, but that's most of them).
It isn't in mint condition, but there are very few paint chips and it has minimal play wear. It has been strung with flats for most of its life and the fretboard is nearly pristine with almost no fret wear.
I gave it a good once-over, tightening a few screws here and there and it looks fantastic. No missing screws and all parts appear to be original and intact. Of course I had to restring it with rounds.
There we go! The action is very low and it plays like butter (of course).
Took it for a test drive and snapped a quick family portrait (a few members are missing, but that's most of them).
Yeah, I may have a problem.
Yeah, you start building and never sell anything and that happens… ummm… so I’ve heard.
True! Just saw that other thread about selling on different platforms.... maybe that's a sign for me to start thinning the herd.
True! Just saw that other thread about selling on different platforms.... maybe that's a sign for me to start thinning the herd.
I keep saying I’m going to sell stuff. Managed to avoid it so far.
Not a great time to sell gear anyway. The market’s flooded with pandemic “projects” that never came to fruition.I keep saying I’m going to sell stuff. Managed to avoid it so far.
I just consigned one of those things with the six skinny strings on it. A real nice guitar at a fair price in a shop with a lot of foot traffic and it still took 10 months to sell.
I’ve got a bunch of other gear that’s “for sale” in theory but I haven’t really done much about selling it. Truth is I just like having it around!
I bought a new bass recently, an Ibanez TMB35-MGR 5 string short scale.
It does suffer from a bit of neck dive. So I had a set of Hipshot Ultralites that I thought would fit, so I got to work this morning.
First I removed a tuner to determine if the Ultralites would fit.
Yes indeed. So I swapped the rest.
Strung it back up.
And it lives!
No more neck dive, and I think it looks better too, Maybe I can find a black bridge as well.
Next up, a thumb rest...
It does suffer from a bit of neck dive. So I had a set of Hipshot Ultralites that I thought would fit, so I got to work this morning.
First I removed a tuner to determine if the Ultralites would fit.
Yes indeed. So I swapped the rest.
Strung it back up.
And it lives!
No more neck dive, and I think it looks better too, Maybe I can find a black bridge as well.
Next up, a thumb rest...
The little 1/8” jack on my trusty, old strobe tuner has been getting sketchier and sketchier so I finally replaced it with a 1/4” jack. A very tight fit that required some extra careful spatial relations exercises:
In putting it through its paces after replacing the jack I learned (after comparing it to several other tuners) that my trusty, old strobe tuner isn’t so trusty anymore! It’s reading accurately on everything except D, where it’s reading flat.
Luckily for me, Peterson was clever enough to include trim pots for all 12 pitches:
Unluckily for me, they didn’t think it was important to label them.
So…. now I have to find a service manual (a quick web search turned up nothing) and, with the help of a signal generator and a scope, calibrate the unit.
But first, even more annoyingly, I have to restore my old H-P signal generator because my working BK Precision 5MHz generator doesn’t have fine enough resolution to hit musical notes accurately. The H-P will hit them just fine but it needs a complete re-cap. Why does every project lead to another project?
Anybody have a service manual for a Peterson 400 I could borrow?
In putting it through its paces after replacing the jack I learned (after comparing it to several other tuners) that my trusty, old strobe tuner isn’t so trusty anymore! It’s reading accurately on everything except D, where it’s reading flat.
Luckily for me, Peterson was clever enough to include trim pots for all 12 pitches:
Unluckily for me, they didn’t think it was important to label them.
So…. now I have to find a service manual (a quick web search turned up nothing) and, with the help of a signal generator and a scope, calibrate the unit.
But first, even more annoyingly, I have to restore my old H-P signal generator because my working BK Precision 5MHz generator doesn’t have fine enough resolution to hit musical notes accurately. The H-P will hit them just fine but it needs a complete re-cap. Why does every project lead to another project?
Anybody have a service manual for a Peterson 400 I could borrow?
Worked on the thumb rest this morning. At 7:00 AM, it's already become too warm to continue working in the shop. I'll work some more tomorrow morning. Phoenix is great in the winter. Not so much in the summer.
Just from the workbench, two multicoil pickups on a new bass. Bass is made of thermo treated ( not roasted) Finnish Black Alder and maple with rosewood fretboard, Hipshot brass bridge and Schaller tuners. Has all the goods I’ve learned from Bruce (DASR truss rod with cf back strap, brass blocks for neck machine screws and aluminium block for bridge machine screws. Pickup has two A5 rods per string, 7300 rounds of 42 AWG wire (that’s all I could wind for the bobbins). Has thick and clear sound.
Attachments
Peterson tech support sent this to me first thing this morning:
That’s customer service!
Now I’d better get my signal generator working!
That’s customer service!
Now I’d better get my signal generator working!
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,042
- 45,892
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Looks much better to me, FWIW.
Still working through the blackout process with my old Heritage guitar, most recently replacing the very worn out old Grover mini-Rotamatic (205) machines with new higher ratio 505 lockers, which were recently re-tooled to now be a direct drop in replacement:
Toggle switches next, and then I'll probably stop there. This thing originally had a Schaller roller bridge and fine tuner tailpiece, both nickel finish. I'm much happier with the Tone Pros locking hardware, both aesthetically and functionally.
First 90 degree day of the year incoming tomorrow, so I will be scrambling to wrap up a few shop projects today. I don't handle hot weather gracefully at all, Phoenix would never work for me.
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Nice. That’s Heritage as in took over production after Gibson moved on Heritage? I’ve got a first year production (1984?) double cut. I’m not always into fancy maple tops but the burst on mine has faded perfectly.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,042
- 45,892
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Yep. It's a very rare early model from the Kalamazoo factory and some of the former Gibson luthiers, ca. 1987 or so. 25 1/2 scale, and with that pickup layout the play feel vibe is really more Fender than Gibson in some ways - it does the quack thing especially well. There was an even rarer double cut version too, but I've never seen another one of either type in person. The Gibson 335 based 535 model is by far the most commonly seen one around here, FWIW.
This guitar even came with the obligatory pre-fractured headstock, and it was in pieces when I traded a couple of cheap import guitars for it around 25 years ago. I gigged it a lot for a while, but then I went back to bass-only mode and it sat under the couch for a decade or so, and then I started rehabbing it a couple of years ago. My chops are coming back fairly well and I think I may do an open mic with it tomorrow, but that'll probably depend on who else shows up and what the jam needs.
