"Nickel"Rock

Finally the three way switch arrived today..so it was time to get the wiring diagram out, soldering iron and get the Tomte workshop in full swing..
"nickel" is the name of this one..basically down to the fact that I swapped out all the gold parts to nickel...
having soldered up the sds-1 (vintage) to the Shaw era Dirty Fingers to the single pot and three way switch, I stuck some strings on her and....and...disappointment! the neck pickup was weak..capital W!
hmm..I remembered I'd manage to drop the sds-1 and I'd stuck one of the magnets back on the bottom...could it be that easy that I put it on the wrong way round?
Off came the strings...the neck..the pickguard...out came the pickup and I swapped one of the magnets around on the bottom of the pup..I checked the magnetism and it was suddenly a lot stronger...
Back on with the pickguard..screws..neck..strings..

and...what a sound! great balance between the sds-1 and the DF with a warm sound from the neck pick up. Still experimental by using a 1 meg volume pot and no tone pot..
Since I've purchased this JV body it's been through several changes and from the start..it didn't work...but since then..since the Warmoth pro neck and full size steel block and of course the brass nut..has made this guitar into something special..
The neck is a beautiful top of the line Warmoth pro neck..birdseye maple with a Brazilian rosewood fretboard and jumbo frets with the 9,5 to 12 inch radius..
The JV body started as an 83 3 bolt squire body which I modified to take a four bolt neck and which I routed for a humbucker in the bridge. As the idea was to only have a humbucker in the tail I removed more wood than necessary which gave the guitar a different resonance (a positive surprise).

back to the smoking stacks tomorrow

Bike weekend.

On saturday I took the trip down the road to the Bike show in Gothenburg.
16€ later and I was off into a sea of motorcycles, mopeds, helmets and accessories.
To date, I have never purchased a new motorcycle and probably never will either.And to be honest, looking around the stands there wasn't much I would buy.
The theme for 2012 seems to be over done with huge touring chopper whatevers..with nasty paint schemes and horrendous prices...kinda gave me flashbacks to "orange county choppers" who , in my opinon, have never built a decent looking bike since they started...in fact, I would go as far to say that the yanks just don't have the eye for building decent choppers/bobbers/customs. Scandinavian chopper designs are much cleaner and better built and thats just the beginning...
..and at the MCM stand a few nice bikes were shown in a competition for best bike.
Otherwise the new "Victory" bikes were not my taste at all..and the Harleys..my god..I'll post pics of some of the "efforts" on show..the average age of those testing these bikes was Jurassic Period..I don't get it...but good for them if they feel cool driving around on something resembling a lucas ice cream van:

Apparently the lads of Motorhead have their own "victory" bikes..I was stopped and asked one of the younger girls handing out the adverts where the bikes were built...the answer I got was interesting...
- well, I know the drummer is Swedish..but the rest are ..like Americans I think...
I meant the bikes, I replied...
-Oh, America I think...
ok, thanks...incidentally..Lemmy is American ...I said
-Oh..which one is Lemmy...

hmmm...

Moving on and I got talking to some enthusiasts with the same interests which was very informative..a quick chat with Thomas from Motorspeed was followed up by a look at some marvelous bikes from a museum that were on show and had the rather remarkable "flying merkel"...

Now thats what I call a Bike!!! This was back to back with a Patton 500, a gorgeous blast from the past and a bike I've never seen before in the flesh..this however was a modern day replica..1 of 7 but who cares! I'll post pics at a later date that I took of the bikes.

Moving on and trying to avoid the "chopper space ship gliders"....I suddenly came across Checas Ducati superbike which was fresh from his winning 2011 season.This was followed by an incredible Honda Fireblade endurance racing..pics to come ...suffice to say , just the Öhlins forks had the same cost as a brand new fireblade! Swinging arm was HRC and crafted by the dwarfs of Mordor! I had a long chat with the mechanic who gave me some in-depth on the costs and technical datas of the project!

Right, think I'll stop there until I've uploaded the pics!

plans for the 77..

I've found it too hard to consider routing out the 77 hardtail..
The guitar (body, neck and neck plate) all came from the Isle of Wight and it just seems wrong to start cutting her up. This thing weighs in the same as a les paul , the heavier ones...so it's got a pretty special sound.
I came across a genuine Fender brass hard tail plate from the 80s which I picked up.I'm not sure if people understand that these parts made by fender were 22 carat gold electroplated and brass makes a wonderful ring to the sound.
There are a few options for this combo.We shall see.
I was happy that several parts dropped through the letterbox today, so the SRV p#3 got its black back cover and gold bridge screws and whitey got a claw and springs kit, so now I'm only waiting for a 3 way switch.Once that arrives I can solder up the DF and SDS-1 and see what the results are from that guitar.

Legend. Tone legend.thats all folks...

so..delighted with the srv neck project which sounds really great and resonates well...I started thinking about the 77 hard-tail but couldn't bring myself to take a scalpel out and route the beast for a bucker...instead, I thought it would be neater and an improvement to look at adding the new H/S pearloid guard to whitey to make her pearly now, and fit in the vintage sds-1 in the neck and retain the tim shaw Gibson dirty fingers in the tail..great combo from the analog days!
I'd completely forgotten that I'd actually fitted a 1 meg pot before to the DF bucker. This usually increases the higher treble frequencies..the idea now is to fit a Malsteen 250k pot to actually darken up the  sound. Although I have to admit, the DF sounded brilliant with the 1 meg pot and of course the Malsteen brass nut that I fitted..
To ensure the SDS-1 fitted in the neck pocket without fixing the routing, I cut back the cover which makes it look the business as well.
Just waiting for a few parts to finish her off and then the solder will be out again.
On the way there is a claw kit complete with springs which is just about all this one needs. At the same time a set of gold bridge screws will be fitted to SRv and the nickel originals moved back to Pearly.

I'm also thinking of making another hole for a tone pot and using a really heavy cap to darken up the sound even more.

JEM20TH

..out of the ashes of 1 project..comes others...

Some of the parts were stripped from the 77 boat anchor hard tail strat..so, when the new parts came in I starting thinking...maybe this guitar is destined to be a rhythm monster! It's on the same weight scale as a Gibson les paul custom , ie around 10/11/12 lbs...
so maybe this would be the guitar to route for a bareknuckles warpig humbucker and sds-1 in the neck!
Think it suits the pearloid guard that arrived today...

last winter I got bored and for a craic stuck the worst parts I'd amassed from fleabay together..i was actually surprised by the result as it played..however I  had to strip her of some parts to put the otehrs together..however, what I found interesting was the strap holders that I had on her are the same apparently as used by SRV on the genuine Lenny guitar...those actually came from the Gibson R&D shop...

pics from the workshop today...

Overdose of Volteraine and panodils and some guitar building..here are some pics from todays mekkin'..

The project #3 sounds awesome!