Tele Ash Tray

[Deleted]

OK, I did a video on the Tele ash tray. I hope I did it justice.

EB

[antares]

To make it easier to do a direct comparison, I compared the *tonez* at 4-00 and 7-00 Eddie, and there was a great deal more "ice pick" (if that's your poison ...) with the ashtray off. Thanks for taking the time out to do this brother.

e&oe ...

[dnic]

I listened thru earbuds. I heard a difference but not a huge one. Much like my own experience. I heard a volume increase without the tray. Like the hippy I didn't hear or expect to hear any diff on the neck.

[Deleted]

I watched the video on my phone and on my computer. I have not tried to hear it through my stereo yet. But, on my computer I could hear slight changes even on the neck pickup With the tray on and off.

 But again not a lot. Yes the volume was the biggest thing I heard as well.

 On this video I tried some things that I have not been doing on the others. The biggest thing I did I shut the door to the room to help get rid of any back ground noise form the air being on. I think that helped a lot in the sound in this video. So, I need to remember to do that from here on out.

 The other thing I did was I sat farther away from the amp this time. That too seemed to help a lot.

Thanks for leaving comment on my YT channel. I went through all the settings mostly as an experiment to see if there would be any change in sound at all with the tray on.

 I am glad that the video came out as well as it did. This was the first take on it. Again no editing. What you seen and heard was the way it came out.

 I hope my videos are being simple. I don't want to make them into something else that has a bunch of other things going on it. Like cussing, beer drinking, and so on.

 I was teasing with the wife the other day about how I can get more views on my videos. I showed her a video of a gal, (half naked) demoing a guitar. She has like a Million subscribers. So I told the wife I could put on a "G" string and see if that would help. I almost wound up at the ER> LOL!

EB

[antares]

Perhaps my interpretation of "ice pick" is related to Fletcher-Munsen curves and it is just a volume difference? I wouldn't argue the point. If indeed it was a volume boost rather than a "tone" change, then that might be the case. I'd have to revisit the video to be certain, but such a phenomenon is the reason why lumped constant RC compensation on volume potentiometers is deployed by some folks to address that perceived loss of high frequencies as a volume cut is introduced.

Trouble is that it all gets a bit "science" as Eddie would have it, and to some extent too theoretical. Certainly I've not found such compensatory additions to be worth the effort but that speaks volumes about my objectivity. I'll just hang my hat on the fact that I worked in factories for about forty years, formerly in sheet metal shops and latterly enduring contantly leaking airlines with an expected inflated hearing degradation compared to many folk.

e&oe ...

[Deleted]

Jul 30, 2021 11:54:18 GMT -6 antares said:

 I'll just hang my hat on the fact that I worked in factories for about forty years, formerly in sheet metal shops and latterly enduring contantly leaking airlines with an expected inflated hearing degradation compared to many folk.

e&oe ...

LOL! So you have a tinny ear? HA! HA!HA!

EB

[dnic]

I use the word ice picky to describe the very high pitched unpleasant sound of tele and Strat bridge pups. You know like some one sticking an ice pick in your ear. I generally roll the tone off the bridge to stop that sound. Stock Strat wiring doesn't allow the bridge tone to be adjusted so that's a standard mod on my Strats. A very easy mod as well. As for volume vs tone with and with out the ash tray. In Eddies example I heard volume increase for sure without the tray. In my own video I didn't notice the volume as much as the tone. And even then the tone was just slightly less bright but enough that it took that unpleasant edge off.

I put a treble bleed on the ZakOcaster, per his request. It definitely worked despite not being so obvious in the video. "lumped constant RC compensation on volume potentiometers is deployed by some folks to address that perceived loss of high frequencies as a volume cut is introduced." as Steve would call it.

And as to hearing loss, it may be why I perceive the high pitched tele bridge as annoying while others sing it praises.

[antares]

The "guitarnuts2" forum has a superb thread on treble bleed circuit topology somewhere, it's probably a sticky which would make it easy enough to track down. Next time I log on I'll sort out a link. I mention that because the antipodean contributor "johnh" carried out extensive calculated and experimental tests and came up with two RC combination solutions, one more suited to hummers and the other for single coils, and I think potentiometer values was factored in as well. He has also authored a free to download excellent modelling software for guitar wiring which was used to assist in the treble bleed findings. That Proboards forum is in my view the definitive guitar wiring resource with some very clued up contributors (not including me of course!) In particular, if our own John is not aware of it, he would find the obsessive pickup research of contributor "antigua" at least interesting.

e&oe ...

[antares]

Here is a link:

guitarnuts2.proboards.com/thread/9406/standard-treble-circuit-different-scenarios?page=1#post-98135

It is not the actual thread I'm thinking of, but it contains a link to the thread. Seems my memory is shot- it's not related to hummers and single coils but more to pot values (which is nonetheless influenced by pickup choice?)

I think there's also a link to the "Guitar Freak" software I mentioned for the brave of heart!

e&oe ...

[Deleted]

Yes on my video, I did have the Treble turned all the way up. I guess I should have done a few sounds with it turned down. My norm is to turn the treble down some. For me I never liked the treble bleed on guitars. But that is me. Even at 67 years old and being around super loud music and printing presses, I still have good hearing. I have been tested and the ear doctor could not believe how good my hearing is. Just don't tell my wife. LOL!

 I like all my guitars equally when it comes to what they do as far as sound goes. I do have my top favorites I like to play only because of the way they play. There are days if not weeks I like to play my humbucker guitars and then the same with single coil guitars.

 Then when I get tired of them I get the acoustic out. I do play all kind of music other than what I put on You Tube. I do what I do on there in trying not to get in trouble with copy right laws. Plus I am really trying to show how the guitar sounds over me playing.

 But, I do think it's always going to boil down to what we like and dislike. Pickups, pots, tone caps, wood, strings, all of it. even the music we like or don't like. And it's OK. We can't all like the same thing right?

Off subject;

 Here is a question for you all... Why do you think the Fender Tele is so popular? As you all know I have been selling and trading guitars for a long time. The fastest sales I make are with Tele guitars. No mater if the are Fender or another brand. Evey Tele I have posted sells within the hour I post it on sometime that day. I put a Start up for sale and it takes for ever to sell. Why is that. And most off brand Strats I have to almost give them away to get sold. But not the Tele. For me it's been one of them things that makes me go Hum... EB

[antares]

I always like your demonstration playing Eddie. As you say- never flashy but very measured and melodic. It always amazes me how folks will go on and on about sustain and then cram in 7 or 8 notes per second! Jazzy chords are where I'm at these days. I don't know what many of them are called, but when I find one, I try to memorise it!

So far as the Tele's popularity goes, I have no idea why that should be the case. When I was a young turk, the Strat was everything to me and I did not care for Teles at all. Whenever I went to see Rory Gallagher, it was the battered Strat I wanted to see and was almost deflated when he picked up a Tele. How shallow is that? I suppose a Tele wasn't racey enough for me in my youth. In the last decade, I've gone the other way and I much prefer the Tele. I think it may be subliminal because I started to listen to Danny Gatton and then I began to notice Tele players more and more. I am just drawn to the simplicity and rugged nature of a Tele nowadays, and I really like that middle position mixing both pickups that you don't get with a Strat. Actually, two of my Strats are wired to give me that combination! So, maybe lots of other folk have had a similar Damascine conversion? I rarely pick up any of my S-types these days and I have five of them!

e&oe ...

[dnic]

I have always loved tele's. I think ever since I first realized there were different style bodies. Don't know what it is about. I don't relate them with any particular player, not until later in my journey.

But now I am really tired of seeing everybody building tele's. But still there is no denying they are just totally cool.

I didn't give a rip rip for Strats for many years even after I was building and doing repairs. I had a Yami Strat copy and (sorry Steve) it just never felt right and I never connected with it. My 2000 mex tele was just the opposite. We bonded immediately. But anyway this is my Strat phase. For several years now. It came on when I started setting up strats. I like the 2 & 4 especially but with a band I play mostly the neck. What a sweet sound. Of course my Strat has Johns pups in it.

[antares]

The neck middle on the Zakocaster is awesome Dane, best I've heard.

My Yamaha Pacifica 904 S-type is more of an an evolution of the Strat than a facsimile really. It feels more like a Gibson than a Fender I suppose partly because it's a reflection of the skills of the people who made it. I get that set neck sensation from it despite that it's a bolt on. It doesn't get much attention though and that is largely to do with having too many to choose from. If they weren't all hanging on the wall like Eddie's, it would be a case queen!

e&oe ...

[Deleted]

For me I started out with a Strat looking off brand guitar. Once I got to playing in a working band 1969. I saved up some of the money I was making and bought a new 1971 Gibson LP. At that time almost everyone I knew was playing strats. So I bought the 71 and paid cash for it. $620.00 US with the case a strap a hand full of picks and a cable. It wasn't until years later I bough a Strat. I played Strats for a lot of years. I still have 4 of them. But at some point I heard my first Tele and been in love with them ever since.

 I now own a few of them to say the least. Most of them that I own are ones I made or like in the video, where I take them and rebuild them. To this day I cannot say why I like the Tele so much. I will say I do like how they feel while playing on stage.

 So, I like Teles and LPs. One reason for my Ms Candy guitar shape is because I fused the LP and Tele together. Only to find out other people out there have already been doing that. LOL...

My top favorite Strat right now is that Yellow one I build. It's a hard tail and I really like it a lot. I'll be doing some videos on the parts guitars I have made. I'll say something on the pros and cons of making guitars from parts.

 But, it is something about the Tele. It has been used on all kinds of music, even jazz. I can't think of another guitar with so much exposure and well loved by so many people. Maybe because it is a simple design. Or that it says something about the working people of the world. Yet another thing that makes me go Hum...

EB