Same. I've learned a lot.

Texicurean said:

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Just wanted to say I appreciate Dallas Ags input on this thread.
I got myself a new pedal setup and loving the sounds I can get.
I'm sure there are other lurkers getting great info here.

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Always happy to nerd out about guitars and gear!

I too have been really loving the tones I am getting, right now.

Amp: Tone King Imperial MKII
Pedals: Keeley D&M Drive, Black Country Customs TI Boost and Secret Path
Guitar: Any of my lovelies!

That Keeley D&M Drive is turning out to be my favorite drive pedal, to date.

I forgot to ever post this. Most prized possession that I also can't play worth a damn:






*I can assure that picture of Ben Harper and me is real although it almost looks photoshopped as the gates had closed in the back of Cain's in Tulsa.

I had been on a 16 year mission to show him this. He said "We're like some real life Innocent Criminals here aren't we?". I laughed and then blacked out for a minute even though I was completely sober. It's wild to meet your guitar hero and watch them come over and recognize 1 of 27 in the world of which none are the same.

Random pickup wiring question, do you connect the bridge pickup in a strat to the tone knob?

My strat has a humbucker in the bridge that can split to a single coil. It currently is not hooked to the tone knob.

I assume there is some loss of tone by simply making the connection so that might be why it's not?

Frok said:

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Random pickup wiring question, do you connect the bridge pickup in a strat to the tone knob?

My strat has a humbucker in the bridge that can split to a single coil. It currently is not hooked to the tone knob.

I assume there is some loss of tone by simply making the connection so that might be why it's not?

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Good question.

Standard SSS strats are all generally wired to the 5-way selector (Or 3-way if it is old or some kind of reissue).

At the end of the day, a guitar can be wired however you want it to be.

I love this site, to look up various diagrams: https://guitarelectronics.com/guitar-wiring-resources/

You should be able to wire it through the push/pull before sending it to the switch. The push/pull pot is literally a switch and pot in one. The two parts of the whole do not rely on each other. Therefore, you could wire to the lugs of the push/pull switch, then to the selector switch, then back to the POT's lugs.

EDIT: Actually, didn't see a wiring diagram for this, in the link i provided. I can maybe draw one up, if you would find it helpful.

Here's an interesting way to do it:

EDIT: Lol.... i post too quickly. This type of switch doesn't seem to be getting you what you need. I did, however, like how he used the resistors to make the Volume pot 500K when you have the bridge position selected.

Hey, if anyone is looking for a great tele, Dave's Guitar Shop has a used '62 "Thin Skin" limited edition for a great price. I have one of their limited thin skin Strats, and it's the best strat I've owned.

Has a thin nitro finish, ash body, and slab rosewood board. This is about as good as you can get without jumping to the custom shop, imo. I don't even need another tele, and i'm considering it...

https://davesguitar.com/products/fender/daves-guitar-shop-limited-edition-american-62-reissue-tele-18/

Excellent resource.

Gonna open my strat to fix the 5 way switch so I might tinker around while it's open

Lol... that tele i linked last night has already sold. I knew it would go quickly; that was a hell of a great deal for that guitar. Wish one of yall had bought it, so we could hear about it.

It's amazing how quick some things go.

Frok said:

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Random pickup wiring question, do you connect the bridge pickup in a strat to the tone knob?

My strat has a humbucker in the bridge that can split to a single coil. It currently is not hooked to the tone knob.

I assume there is some loss of tone by simply making the connection so that might be why it's not?

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I prefer Eddie's "tone" knob - the volume knob.

I rolled the bass off and still not getting the sound I want. Super damp, dark and muffled even with the Tele (50s Tele pickups). I pretty much only play the casino through the amp now because it gets that great edge of breaking up sound. I feel like the solid-bodies sounding terrible is a new issue but maybe my ear is just getting more refined or something.

I know you've suggested a specific TB before but I must be overlooking that post now...can't seem to find it for some reason. I'm ready to snag one and experiment.

What do you think of the discussion below? I've been doing a little googling this morning and came across this discussion where a lot of the posters don't like a TB paired with a Fender amp but you haven't steered me wrong yet.

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/tell-me-about-treble-boosters.221553/

Some Junkie Cosmonaut said:

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I rolled the bass off and still not getting the sound I want. Super damp, dark and muffled even with the Tele (50s Tele pickups). I pretty much only play the casino through the amp now because it gets that great edge of breaking up sound. I feel like the solid-bodies sounding terrible is a new issue but maybe my ear is just getting more refined or something.

I know you've suggested a specific TB before but I must be overlooking that post now...can't seem to find it for some reason. I'm ready to snag one and experiment.

What do you think of the discussion below? I've been doing a little googling this morning and came across this discussion where a lot of the posters don't like a TB paired with a Fender amp but you haven't steered me wrong yet.

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/tell-me-about-treble-boosters.221553/

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How far back are your pickups from the strings? Play with moving them back a bit, or dropping the bass side a bit.

I personally use the Black Country Customs TI Boost, which is Laney's pedal shop. They made this one to replicate Tony Iommi's modded Dallas Rangemaster that was thrown away by a roadie. I really like the pedal, and find it to be extremely transparent. However, there are a lot of great treble boosters on the market that work great, and I recommend checking out some Youtube videos on Treble Booster shootouts.

Also, I would highly recommend looking at an eq pedal. Those really help you adjust your frequencies. I posted a video earlier by That Pedal Show about pedals they recommend for people who don't like pedals. The first pedal they talk about is the MXR 10-band EQ pedal. Definitely worth a watch.

EDIT: here is the video from TPS. Go to about 17:00 in the video to where they start talking about shaping the EQ:



I'll also say this, I am not a fan of the V-type speaker in the Bassbreaker cabinet. Here is celestion's frequency chart for the V-type:



To compare, here is the frequency chart for a Celestion Greenback:



Notice the lower frequencies of the greenback are dropped more. When I played my bassbreaker, I ran the audio out to my Marshall 2x12 slanted cab with V-type speakers, and I was also getting a muddy sound with my LP. I swapped the speakers out for a pair of used Greenbacks and that made a noticeable difference in the low frequency response and tightening it up a bit.

People really tend to overlook the important of the speakers themselves, when thinking about their tone. 12 inch vs 10 inch. The size of the cabinet itself. Open backed cabinet or closed back. These all affect your guitar tone.

Swapping speakers in your cabinet is EXTREMELY easy to do. I would suggest watching some speaker comparison videos on YouTube so you can see how the speaker changes your tone with the same setup.

Appreciate it. I'm going to head up to Tone Shop sometime this week if I get the time and play around with some pedals. I will admit that moving pickups and stuff like that is still a little over my head at this juncture.

If they have a green bassbreaker, try it out. They make a green bassbreaker with a greenback in there instead of a V-Type.

Have you tried the hi gain channel with the gain turned WAY down?

Also, adjusting pickup heights doesn't require any technical know how. Just grab a screwdriver and start playing around with heights.

So, installed new pickups in my blue strat. DAMN, but it sounds better than ever. I put a couple of seymour duncan Antiquity surfers in the neck and middle, and an Antiquity Texas Hot pickup in the bridge for a little more "beef".

Absolutely love the dynamics of these pickups. installed them and cleaned the fretboard, today. Ended up playing it for a couple hours afterward, just loving what I was getting out of it.

If you ware looking for a vintage sound, I can't recommend SD Antiquity pickups, enough.

Alright, how about I ask for some opinions.

I've had the new guitar itch for a couple of weeks now. I'm an electric player, and I have a decent sized collection. That being said, I've got a few holes in my lineup. Specifically, at some point I need to acquire an acoustic guitar (leaning Collings), a semi-hollow (probably a 335), a hollow body (white falcon?), and something with P90s (not sure here. SG special? Jazzmaster?).

I've been eyeing one of those Jimmy Page teles, even though I have a couple of teles already (none with rosewood boards though). Also, been thinking about grabbing an HSS for a while now, and the PRS Fiore might be exactly what I'm looking for.

So, should I try to plug holes in my collection, or get something similar to what I already have that I know I'll enjoy? Help me make a bad decision.

Anybody else see Dead and Co on Thursday in Dallas? John Mayer was wearing a Charley's Guitar Shop shirt and he killed it. Saw him last night at the Woodlands as well. Dude is amazing.

aggiecouch said:

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Alright, how about I ask for some opinions.

I've had the new guitar itch for a couple of weeks now. I'm an electric player, and I have a decent sized collection. That being said, I've got a few holes in my lineup. Specifically, at some point I need to acquire an acoustic guitar (leaning Collings), a semi-hollow (probably a 335), a hollow body (white falcon?), and something with P90s (not sure here. SG special? Jazzmaster?).

I've been eyeing one of those Jimmy Page teles, even though I have a couple of teles already (none with rosewood boards though). Also, been thinking about grabbing an HSS for a while now, and the PRS Fiore might be exactly what I'm looking for.

So, should I try to plug holes in my collection, or get something similar to what I already have that I know I'll enjoy? Help me make a bad decision.

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I have that Jimmy Page Dragon and loaned it to my buddy a few weeks ago. He's been shredding it the last three Thursday nights on his weekly series. I think you'll highly enjoy it if you're into signatures. He has five teles but has been playing this one with tremendous fuzz.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/633908253

I played one of those Jimmy Page teles and didn't really like it. I have already told my Tele story on this thread, so I won't repeat.

After purchasing my Dave's Guitar Shop limited edition Strat, I would highly recommend taking a look at one of their Tele's. My strat is the best built strat I have played, seems to be similar build quality to team built custom shop. My rosewood board is so dark and beautiful. It is a slab board and a thin skin nitro finish, with no poly undercoat. Here are their special limited '62 editions: have: https://davesguitar.com/products/fender/condition/new/type/electric/series/62LTD/

For P-90s, can't go wrong with a LP special, imo. However, that's just personal preference. My P-90 guitar is my ES-330 '61 VOS Reissue, and it is a gem.

I too still need a 335 or 345.

When it comes to acoustic, I'm not the most knowledgeable. I have my Taylor 324ce, which i love; but I just needed a good acoustic to play when I need to. I don't see me ever buying a second one.

DallasTeleAg-I don't know why I didn't ask you this many pages/months ago but do you play in any bands in Dallas or elsewhere?

Your technical knowledge and collection is impressive and I've always assumed you have to be more than just a campfire player but never inquired.

I do not. I generally just play for me; my playing is very intermediate. I just love the technical and artistic aspects of guitars. I also have an "ear for music", so tonality and dynamics is extremely important to me and I absolutely love having complete control of overdrive and tone with a simple signal chain, and really only playing with pick intensity and volume/tone knobs.

I have an introductory knowledge with electronics, and a lot of experience with soldering and circuitry, so really got into modding my guitar in college, because I only had one guitar. For that reason, i was always trying to give myself as many options with one guitar as possible. This led me to experimenting with various pickups and wiring. Loved working with out of phase, coil tapping/splitting, and such.

Since college, started getting more into amps and have owned 7-8 other guitars that are not in my current collection, as I have been searching for those ladies I truly love.

As for my ability, I generally play at least an hour a day, which is how I relax in the evenings. For me, it's almost a compulsive thing. I have to pickup one of my guitars in a similar fashion to how I hear smokers feel about picking up a cigarette (best analogy I can give). All basic major, minor, and 7th chord voices, I've got down. Basic Major, Minor, and pentatonic scales are where I feel comfortable, but my speed is nothing to write home about. I am still working on having my circle of 5ths memorized, but don't really dedicate myself to it.

I'm not at the point where I can just point at a position anywhere on the board and tell you what note that is, without taking a second to get my bearings (for the D, G, and B strings).

Again, I would call all of that intermediate. I will also say, I come from a family of true musicians, so I always compare my ability to theirs, which generally causes me to downplay it a lot.

So, nothing new for a while. I was browsing Reverb and came across this:

https://reverb.com/item/44444422-2017-gibson-64-es-345-mod-series-prototype-od-green-made-in-memphis

Damn... the exact guitar I have been looking for, but they are wanting an extreme amount of money for it. There is no way I'm paying that much for a 345.

Absolutely gorgeous. Got the worn green casino because of that guitar. I need to find a black pick guard to swap out with the white one it came with.

Any thoughts on this amp issue?

1992 Carvin X212B. If you are familiar w/the X100B that Vai used for Blue Powder, this is the 2x12 100W combo version. Wattage can be dropped to 50 and 25. All tube and I immediately had it retubed w/JJ EL34s after I bought the amp used.

Problem: When playing with the gain/lead enabled, the sound randomly switches to where it sounds incredibly muffled. THink of a song playing on an FM station then suddenly switches to a poor AM station. I can get close to mimicing by taking the presence knob and dropping to zero.

Once it does this the only way to return it to normal is to put it in standbye for about 5 seconds. Sometimes after coming back it stays normal, sometimes it cuts like this multiple times for 10 minutes.

Have you already ruled out everything else in your signal chain? Different guitar? Different cable? Go directly into the amp?

To me, it almost sounds like poor contact somewhere in your signal chain. If it was a tube or component, I would believe it would be persistent at all times. Outside of that, I wouldn't have an idea.

DallasTeleAg said:

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Have you already ruled out everything else in your signal chain? Different guitar? Different cable? Go directly into the amp?

To me, it almost sounds like poor contact somewhere in your signal chain. If it was a tube or component, I would believe it would be persistent at all times. Outside of that, I wouldn't have an idea.

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I'm just guessing, but I wonder if maybe it's something to do with the solder on the presence pot if he can recreate the sound by turning that all the way down.

That shouldn't be it. That would most likely have the complete sound cut off. If the circuit is broken at the Presence pot, that should kill the circuit, though maybe not. I would have to see the schematic.

Even if there were a way for the signal to cut on and off with a bad solder joint, the pot itselft would not change its resistance unless it is turned.

DallasTeleAg said:

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Have you already ruled out everything else in your signal chain? Different guitar? Different cable? Go directly into the amp?

To me, it almost sounds like poor contact somewhere in your signal chain. If it was a tube or component, I would believe it would be persistent at all times. Outside of that, I wouldn't have an idea.

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I have ruled out everything except the lower power input jack which apparently was designed for if you have a high output pedal. I will use it and see if it identifies the problem is the regular jack.Different cables, straight in, effects loop on/off/empty, etc. I guess I can remove the 3 button foot switch (xlr connection) and see if that plays a part.

Good idea too on the presence wiring.

Plan is to replace the rig with a 1x12 cabinet, carvin's x1 tube pedal which mimics this amp's circuitry, and a power amp pedal. I want to fix this first however before I put it online to sell. I've never taken it past 3.5 and that rattles windows I never jam with friends because I loath hauling this behemoth around. Too old for that **** these days!

The tube snob in me cringes at this!

I did it...

Been GASing for an olive drab green ES-335 since seeing A Star is Born. I've been watching Reverb for years now, and haven't seen one come out with a reasonable price.

Finally got tired of waiting and decided to jump on one of these while Gibson was still offering them. Bought one of these: https://www.gibson.com/en-US/Guitar/USAK26579/ES-335/Olive-Drab

Beauty! Can't wait to hear your review.

That's awesome. Looking forward to hearing about it when it comes in.

DallasTeleAg said:

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I did it...

Been GASing for an olive drab green ES-335 since seeing A Star is Born. I've been watching Reverb for years now, and haven't seen one come out with a reasonable price.

Finally got tired of waiting and decided to jump on one of these while Gibson was still offering them. Bought one of these: https://www.gibson.com/en-US/Guitar/USAK26579/ES-335/Olive-Drab

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Gibson ES-335 is my dream guitar. So jealous

https://prsguitars.com/blog/post/blending_art_and_sound_mark_tremonti_x_joe_fenton_limited_edition_models?fbclid=IwAR0X4NGGtSc9dhIfWNxEOcodRQsQkmz0LGoTmick1tOuLxRi9izMGF2ZEEg

I'm sure the price on this is going to be insane. The artwork is cool. Definitely not for everyone though.