I built a solid Saligna wood cabinet to house my amps and one side's speakers to help clean up my office a bit.

Pretty happy with how it came out, thought I'd share the pics.





Will still build a pedal board for my RC-300 and GT-100 that slides into the bottom

Finally added a 7-string to my collection! Schecter Omen-7 Diamond Series.



Picked up 2nd-hand for R 3k. Access high-end access is not the best because of a very bulky neck-body joint but since I plan to use this for mostly rythms only it wasn't a deal breaker. I plan to replace the pickups with a Seymour Duncan Zazgul & Sentient set with a coil-split push/pull on the tone knob. Also needs a bit of setup work (action is quite terrible) but it should turn out to do exactly what I want it to do once all done.

Also managed to finally fix up my '94 MIM strat (first guitar I ever owned) by soldering in a new pickup selector switch which has sorted out 99% of its electronic issues.

I have also experienced the tube volume problem. Both of my amps (Laney Ironheart 60w and Marshall JVM410 100w) have master volume controls, but they tend to ruin the tone.

To try and solve this problem I bought a Blackstar HT-5R, thinking that dropping down to 5w would surely sort me out however I can report that this is still not really low enough for home use.

I am now looking into attenuators as I was considering the Mesa Mark v 25 but it is still at minimum 10w. Anyone have any experience with these?

Either that or start major construction on semi sound proofing a room!

I've had this now for about a year, incredibly happy with how it came out! I'll leave it here for y'all to salivate over ?

It's a 1995 LP Studio that I bought second hand which started off as a nightmare purchase, turned something good and something me ?





Full credit to mr Neon Gecko, the wizard with the finishing touch!

I have finally had a few moments to pull the guitar apart, do a proper cleaning and of everything and put it back with strings that haven't been rusting away for a few years.

it still sustains like a beast, but it's a bigger adjustment from my 21-fret MIM strat than I thought, the neck is a little wider too. It does play rather nicely though. One thing:

The tone pots:

Everything happens between 1-3 and Nothing happens between 3-10. I checked they are the right linear pots. Can this be the cap? It's some brown thing not the green that is in my MIM strat. The volume was changed from a linear to an audio taper - but honestly, I think I prefer the linear. With the audio taper it seems more difficult for me to get the right drive/clean adjustment, here again most of the change is between 7-10 and not a whole lot at 1-7.

Can someone maybe suggest something here?

Maybe I am just used to my MIM's strat's controls because it is a little unconventional (500k instead of 250k pots) and it also has a different configuration (no tone on bridge pickup, bottom tone control is for middle pickup only). I just find it nicer/easier to find different tones I like. Should I just change this new one to match that or rather put in time on this guitar and see if it grows on me? Also, what was the original configuration - would anyone know? I think the pickups are still the original ones btw.

Other than that I for the first time ever managed to intonate my own guitar which I am rather proud of. Although, I have some buzzyness - it's either too-low nut, or truss rod fiddlery which I am not comfortable with to mess with myself so I will get it properly setup. The pins for the tremolo-bridge also needs to be replaced (one is badly bent, so if you adjust the bridge up/down it actually also moves forward/backwards/sideways).

Other than that, man it is pretty all cleaned up:

Oh and just to add,

Yes I am no intentions of changing the pups. Maybe one day if I really don't fall in love with this guitar I'll consider it if the rest of it technically plays well.

I am putting the frontman in the family house then I don't have to cart my marshall jvm 410 up there and back for silly things like Christmas Carols.

Aside from condition issues (which will take no more than a day and some elbow grease to sort out - Strings, pots, Clean, pickup height) it seems to be coming awake now after making some noise on it. 3 notable things:

1. The pickups are much lower output than my MIM strat. I use volume control only to chop and change between clean-ish chords and gain-ish leads. With this I had to step up the gain control on the amp halfway extra to get the same palatable tones.

2. The pots need to go and I need to spend some time with the tone controls. Findinding niceness here and there but also a lot of really unpleasant noises inbetween there. Hopefuuly will improve when I replace the pots

3. It siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiings. It has this moments of sustain found all over the fretboard that even with the silliest lightest touch come alive and signs by itself. It is comparatively better than my ESP MH35FR which is a neck-through and has high-pickup actives. I don't remember my Les Paul (before it went In for the big overhaul) having that ability, and my MIM strat would probably come up short too (it's a lovely guitar, that is just not something it is good at).

4. Thank you all for your help to me with this, I am so far lost, trying to learn and do with what I can muaster!

Full pictures at:

http://www.tainted.co.za/mij/IMG_2371.JPG

http://www.tainted.co.za/mij/IMG_2373.JPG

http://www.tainted.co.za/mij/IMG_2374.JPG

Sorry forgot it is being auto resized

That's why I have doubts about the 1980s idea of this guitar. Either that or it was bought and never really touched. Has a piece of lacquer off at the back cover and on the fretboard, nothing really else. Pictures:

Amazing client of mine, gifts me his Stratocaster and Fender Frontman 212R Amp (Yes I know, I am very very very lucky) which he bought off his old guitar teacher a very long time ago (turns out acoustics and vocals are more his thing).

The serial number on the guitar says E742328 Online I read that E-series is dated as 1984-1987

That can't be right can it? Or did his guitar teacher cheat him out of money with a replica? I don't know Fenders well enough to judge here. Can someone maybe point me to a guide or something before I pull this one apart? (Needs some serious cleaning and I think the original pots have been replaced with quite terrible ones, or they are just really old and damaged, it goes from all-nothing in 1/8th of the turn)

I've never touched a guitar finish

But I know Chemspec does a nitro product. Maybe contact them and ask? They were real helpful to me with a DIY Furniture build project:

http://www.chemspec.co.za/woodfinish_nitrocellulose.html

Hope that helps

I got one a few weeks ago.

I was looking for a small tuner to leave in my case, man at shop recommended it instead (said it just got in).

Fantastic piece of kit, very happy with it! Sometimes have some annoyances with the automatic-flip function since it is sort of border-line-skew on my MH350FR (with it's very tiny headstock) but is hardly a problem - slight tilt at the hip and it goes back to where it is supposed to be. Doesn't look like it will damage the finish and it is very accurate and precise.

Know it's an old thread, just thought I'd report back, hope that helps! ?

I think I have a disease..

I got the Blackstar HT5-R 5w combo to have something reasonably mobile that can be used as a practice amp. Read some reviews online, even though it seemed like the best option available for my use; I was somewhat scared as a lot of people said it is a high-gain only thing. The biggest concern I had was that the clean channel only has one single tone control.

However very happy with it after ten days or so. It's very much like a smaller version of the Marshall JVM410 I usually use to play around on for clean and crunch tones. This has the FX loop I can use with my existing setup (GT-100 + RC-300 4 cable method) and is small and sounds good (my 3 requirements going in). I did try some of the Orange alternatives but they were either tinny (less expensive though) or bulky/heavy (35w instead of 5w though). I fiddled with a Fender Blues Jnr which was very beautiful but it is more of a one-trick thing that doesn't go well if you try to go high-gain (which I occasionally like to do).

It is very nice to be able to orbit more around the turned-up-volume side for a change, unlike the 1/10 mark I have to stay at with my other amps. Squeels beautifully when the madness takes you ? Weighs 12 kg or so, can't recommend it enough. Lots of people online complaining about it being over-hyped or the clean channel lacking or the gain channel being unusable. This was a lesson learned by myself; if you're interested in something, try it yourself - other people's opinions can help, but it's not always everything!



Now I just still need the Mesa to fill the empty spot. Oh and the blues jnr. Oh and then that other.. oh sod it!

The last time my guitar was in for some minor work it also came back with elixir something 10s. It was terribly dull.

It's actually made me find strings I like (for the first time I've started playing I started caring what I use) - my Strat now has the Ernie ball slinky cobalt 10s which are to my ears a lot more crispy and brighter than anything else I've tried.

On my LTD Floyd Rose active EMG guitar (this was the one that the elixirs were so dull for me with), I used to use the Ernie ball slinky cobalt 11s, but now trying D'Addario NY XL 11s and so far so good, a lot better than the elixirs it had on.

Disclaimer: Not an expert, just my experience - and apparently it could be that I just had a dodgy set of elixirs or something.

Closest place to me could actually help. Guys at Musicmate in Boksburg gave me a spring for free and quickly helped to center the floatingness, excellent service ?

Thank you!

Thanks much I will try!

Oh I forgot to mention - in Gauteng please

Anyone know where I can find an additional spring for my licensed Floyd rose bridge tomorrow (Saturday)?

I think when the guitar was set up last time it had less-tense strings and even with the screws all the way in I can't get it to go parallel with the body

I would like to get this sorted tomorrow if possible?

Did this work?

I did Violin and Music Theory through Unisa.

Basically (the way it is usually done) you take lessons from a third party, and just do the examinations/certifcations through Unisa.

For the practical, for every grade (1-8) they have a Syllabus with a list of things you might be asked to do in the practical exam (Scales, Arpeggios, Sight-Reading and so on). Then there are a few (usually 4) "prepared" pieces which you need to learn and play in the practical exam. With the pre-prepared pieces you usually have a choice of a few different ones (3 or 4 for each) and you pick the ones you want to do.

That is anyway the way I remembered it when I did my Violin exams ten years ago ? I hope that helps but if I were you I would get in contact with a teacher that teaches the Unisa material who will probably be able to be more definitive / clear / confirm.