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Post by GuitarAttack Forum on Aug 31, 2023 5:58:42 GMT -6
I did some work on this cool DiPinto guitar a few weeks back. I made a custom bridge pickup for the rig that gave the player a little more “whack” and power. I like getting the guitar from the owner and working on the pickups in the shop so I can get a good before and after on the sound. This one did sound better after, and I wound up really liking it. I love the sparkle paint job. www.dipintoguitars.com/safari-galaxie-guitarsJohn  |
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Post by dnic on Aug 31, 2023 7:27:03 GMT -6
Very cool retro vibe! did you record the before and after? Are the rocker switches just on and off. So you got all kinds of options.
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Post by antares on Sept 1, 2023 2:29:23 GMT -6
Sure does look sweet John. Proof positive that much is in the set up and pickups, yet on first impressions our eyes fall upon the general shape and the timber used affording no feel for the instrument nor its sound.
でつ e&oe ...
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Post by GuitarAttack Forum on Sept 1, 2023 7:46:58 GMT -6
Very cool retro vibe! did you record the before and after? Are the rocker switches just on and off. So you got all kinds of options. Dane - I did record the before and after then realized that what I played was copyrighted music. I'm going to make an MP3 version and email to those who are curious. The switches are On-Off only. My favorite position, as with the Strat, is the bridge - neck combination. I wish Mr. Fender made that position selectable on the stock Stratocaster. John |
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Post by GuitarAttack Forum on Sept 1, 2023 7:48:06 GMT -6
Sure does look sweet John. Proof positive that much is in the set up and pickups, yet on first impressions our eyes fall upon the general shape and the timber used affording no feel for the instrument nor its sound. でつ e&oe ...Steve -- it is made of a mystery wood and the finish is very thick. However, it has great sustain and is pretty light for a Jaguar-sized guitar. John |
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Post by dnic on Sept 1, 2023 8:59:54 GMT -6
Very cool retro vibe! did you record the before and after? Are the rocker switches just on and off. So you got all kinds of options. Dane - I did record the before and after then realized that what I played was copyrighted music. I'm going to make an MP3 version and email to those who are curious. The switches are On-Off only. My favorite position, as with the Strat, is the bridge - neck combination. I wish Mr. Fender made that position selectable on the stock Stratocaster. John I would be interested in hearing that file John, when and if you put it together. I made a stray kind of guitar early on and modified a "normal" 5 way switch to get that neck bridge combo. I honestly don't remember exactly what I did but it involved cutting a tab and tweaking it so it hit different contacts. I'd have to take it apart and run it all down again to be certain. |
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Post by antares on Sept 1, 2023 16:54:49 GMT -6
On those two Strats that I wired as per the "Mike Richardson" circuit, you get that bridge-neck combo in the middle position on the 5-way 'SuperSwitch", but you have to give up the middle pickup alone selection. Moreover you get that bridge-neck in parallel with the piggyback switch down, and bridge-neck in series with it up. I find it to be a more appealing sound than the middle pick up alone and worth the forfeiture. And, yes I'm acutely aware that you asked for a sound file years ago John and I've never come up with the goods. No excuse other than I haven't recorded anything at all over recent years, let alone that one.
でつ e&oe ...
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Post by GuitarAttack Forum on Sept 19, 2023 6:35:50 GMT -6
We got into a discussion about the apparent fact that some guitars just sound better than others no matter what you do. Here is a blast from the past. I guess the lesson is that sometimes you just get lucky. I wish I had bought that Strat! guitarattack.com/opinion/tone2.htmJohn |
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Post by dnic on Sept 19, 2023 9:02:28 GMT -6
I missed my chance at a Santa Cruz 000. I fixed the guitar for a client. Had a few of side cracks. Brazilian rosewood back and sides. Perfect V neck shape and sounded... well the best guitar I've ever heard or played. 4k was out of my league. When I saved enough money it was gone.
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Post by antares on Sept 20, 2023 2:15:58 GMT -6
John, around 1980 or thereabouts I had my 1973 sunny(ash?) maple necked Strat refinned in red by (Ron) Roka's, then of Covent Garden in London. When I collected it I marvelled at the paint finish but the guy said it was actually more of a thick plastic skin and my heart sank. That said, of the five "S" types I own it is probably the best sounding. Later on I had Roger Giffin (via Chandler Guitars) machine down the neck and apply an ebony fretboard which was kind of unheard of back then. It was a Mark Knoppfler thing! A superb job as you'd expect from Roger Giffin. On reflection I think (well know actually!) I'd have left the guitar as original. It has the grey fibre bobbin pickups which I believe predates the serial number which dates it as 1973, and it retains its original three-way switch. It has a Callaham vibrato now which is slightly narrower to ameliorate Leo's wider design's tendency to lose a string off the edge, and that is high quality steel as opposed to the Fender's junk Mazak offering. Just like the DiPinto, the thick finish doesn't appear to have harmed it. I know that those types of finish peel off if you attack them, but since there are so many nooks and crannies, I've elected to leave well alone. Also, it is screened internally with Crellon Industry's "Electrodag 915" heavily silver loaded syrupy conductive paint (expensive and apparently unobtanium nowadays- it doesn't show up in Google searches) and I'd lose all that. I'll just keep twiddling my fingers!  [/quote]Steve -- it is made of a mystery wood and the finish is very thick. However, it has great sustain and is pretty light for a Jaguar-sized guitar. John[/quote] でつ e&oe ... |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2023 8:06:20 GMT -6
After all the years of working on and making guitars, I think I have disproven the myth of the thickness of a finish many times. I know there are a few out there that will swear that it does. But I have had a lot of guitars in my hands since I was 9 years old. I am now 69. And I can't find anything in a thick finish or a thin finish that would keep a guitar from sounding off. The only thing I can tell is the over all feel of the guitar. A thick finish can feel more plastic. That's it. I know there are a lot of YT videos of people stripping off a thick finish, claiming that it improves the "tone" of a guitar. Not so. I fined that a lot of these videos are from people trying to get paid to do a refinish of a guitar, so, they come up with some kind of story to back it up. I have done 2 guitars for people that they insisted that the finish was robbing the "tone". NO mater how much I tried to tell them otherwise, this is what they wanted. I did the work, but after it was all said and done, guess what? The guitars still sounded and played the same. To me, all that work was for noting. I wonder if them 2 guys still have them guitars to day? Hum... 
Like I keep saying, if a guitar sings to you, then that guitar is for you. No mater how much it cost. If it's $50.00 guitar or $10,000 guitar if you can afford it get it.
I have played, owned and worked on a lot of plywood guitars. I can never get over how many of them sound and play or are set up better than most other guitars.
Talking about thickness of a finish. Most production guitar have a thick finish. Gibson, Fender, Dean, and many more. It does not matter if they used Lacquer, Poly, or a number of other things for a finish. It is all pretty thick. I have even seen acoustic guitars with a thick finish that still sound great!
Too many get hooked on Myths. Or we get hooked on it must be a bad thing because someone said so. We all like different things in life. Does not mean one is worse or bad over another. Here in the USA, I can remember the Edsel car was one of the worst cars anyone could buy. Now they are sought after by collectors. LOL!
I have gotten to a point in my life where I don't care what people think of my builds or the guitars I have. The guitars I made for me are just that, for me. Not anyone else. If someone likes what I do, fine. If not also fine. But if one does not like what I made, that is no excuse to try and put me down for it. I'll never understand why people find the need to put someone down. I am happy with what I have done. No one will ever take that away from me. Sorry, I digressed back to this. But what a miserable life some out there have. They can find no good in anything.
Yep, still having issues with a person. Been almost a year now and it still goes on. Oh, well... 
Good move on what you had done to the guitar, Steve. Bet it's a lot of fun to play! 
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Post by dnic on Sept 21, 2023 9:17:47 GMT -6
Steve, I think you just proved the point. Finish thickness, and just for fun I'll throw in wood type, don't have much of an impact on electric guitar tone. Those gray fiber bobbins and the wire and the magnets have everything to do with the tone. You could probably throw the the stings, nut and bridge in there as well. Aren't magnetic fields wonderful?
Eddie I don't think everyone on line are evil, just misinformed. There are many strange myths about guitar tone. I won't try to list them all. Maybe we should start a new thread on guitar myths. That would be fun. Maybe list one weird thing per post to keep from writing novellas.
I too have worked on a plywood strat. One of my clients favs. The guys has many, very many guitars. I've worked on most of them and they are all very nice guitars. Meaning, the plywood strat is one of his favs.
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Post by GuitarAttack Forum on Sept 22, 2023 6:31:36 GMT -6
That is a great looking Strat, Steve. It is a one of a kind custom for sure!
John
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Post by dnic on Sept 22, 2023 9:56:12 GMT -6
I didn't to sound live that everyone is Evil, Dane. But there are some who are... LOL!  All I was saying is so many will make videos like what they are doing is true. Not all things we see in videos is the end to end all.
"Tone" is the big one, as we all know. It is so subjective, I don't see how anyone can say what is right? Or the right "tone" Now there are ways to improve ones "Tone" or sound. The biggest way is to practice. I know, to me, I sound nothing like I did at the age of 9. With age and a lifetime of playing, my sound has changed. I am at the time in my life I no longer hunt for "tone" I pretty much set my amps up the same way on all my guitar amps. There are tones that everyone into guitar can point to and say, Jimmy Page's tone is what I'm after or Pete Townsend's tone or pick any well know player. But like you said Eddie it's very subjective. I know a guy whose preferred tone on acoustic is the deadest cruddiest set of strings. He loves it, sounds like complete crap to me. Of course I'm right. I think you're right in a lot of cases the word sound is a more accurate way of saying it. |
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Post by dnic on Sept 22, 2023 10:03:17 GMT -6
Eddie, I have worked on many vintage guitars and basses with finishes (I'm not making this up) thicker than a 1/16". I don't remember if it was The Baldwin bass I did repairs to or the Guild Starfire bass I refinished. But there were chips that went to the wood and I could measure them.
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