Pimp my instrument

B45-12 · Post by **B45-12** » Thu May 12, 2005 9:31 pm

Hey Rog and others; while we're on the subject of pimping guitars/bass etc did anyone ever go for the bell brass inserts in the bridge plus the bell brass plate for the head and/options brass nut (note the singular!!). These were all the rage umpteen years ago to theoretically add mass to soldibody guitars at both ends of the strings and thus additional sustain. Gibson used to call their brass blocks under/by the bridge 'sustain sisters'.

Anyway I wonder if it works - anybody know??

Also (for Ash) what does a strat with a set glued in neck sound like?? Do you get more bass? or what?

My one pimp was when I got my repair guy to add a lyre tailpiece from a standard SG to my SG special (one with the old P90 pickups) - turned the special into a monster sustain wise and if any of you ever see it, you'd be getting a really good one!! (I swapped it for my 335 back in '72 or 3).

ash · Post by **ash** » Thu May 12, 2005 10:01 pm

My tele has a brass nut. Its horrible.

That whole brass parts fad was founded on rumor and guesswork. It makes a difference in tone, but not neccesarily a good one. Adding extra weight to a guitar is mostly a bad thing. Its only good when extra stiffness comes with it, or a bad resonance is cancelled out. Thats why the brass head plates sometimes worked, because they moved bad resonances out of the playing spectrum. Some bass players still do that to eliminate dead spots in P-bass necks.

Brass certainly can improve sustain, but always at the expense of some part of the frequency range, often the bass end.

Aluminium bridges are all the rage these days, because its light, but nearly as stiff as brass. Steel is alway stiffer than anything else though. When it comes down to it, some materials will help on a particular guitar, but not on others. It depends on what's lacking or excessive to start with.

A glued in strat neck will sound the same to most ears, but an astute listener may notice a difference. I don't think I could tell easily myself, but I imagine the difference would be similar to turning down the presence knob. Bolt-on necks aren't intrinsically bad, as was once thought by many. They're just different and have a different set of potential problems. Many high end acoustics now have some form of bolt-on neck and strangely I've never heard debate about the tonal differences...

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Thu May 12, 2005 10:27 pm

Tried a Badass bridge - couldn't tell any difference myself.

The rounds on my FrankenP have to go - I loathe rounds to play - to bright and squeaky. I'll import another set of Thomstik-Infield jazz flats from US. They suit me best.

ash · Post by **ash** » Fri May 13, 2005 9:10 am

On a Fender type bass with a bolt on neck and light wood body, there is a school of thought (propagated by MV Pedulla) that suggests a very light bridge is the way to go... just like the original stock bridge. They say you need a stiff through neck to make the most of the mass of a solid brass unit.

I tend to agree, but at this stage I can't fully explain why. Intuition, I guess

Rog · Post by **Rog** » Fri May 13, 2005 9:59 am

> On a Fender type bass with a bolt on neck and light wood body

LIGHT smegging wood???
I have to use a forklift to get my P into my car....

B45-12 · Post by **B45-12** » Mon May 16, 2005 10:30 am

Um in one sense this may all be subject to the reigning tastes of the time. You like to think a particular pimp or custom resu'ts in the best sound but what is 'best' I uspect changes form era to era. The old bass players often just got a percussive 'thunk' out of their basses and for countr or 50's dance music 'Les Spazzy and the Spazztones' type sound that older sound was probably ideal.

A lot of 50's guitar sounds, to me, very middy and sometimes muddy - no doubt in part due to the technology but also in part due to the choice. One thinks of Jim Reeves (and shudders) or even Carl Perkins - only later in the 60's do I recall Roy Buchannan's tele sound.

So our pimp I'd suggest is as much a product of the present in so much as it's the 'best' sound for now. Aside from a reall few oriignal weirdos like Junior Barnard, you don't think of the 50's Country players using the snarling, biting, stuttering strat we all know and love but the smoother middier swing sounds of Eldon Shamblin.

artyone · Post by **artyone** » Tue May 17, 2005 2:23 am

One of my favourites is replacing magnet material on pickups.Alnico slugs can be found to replace the steel pole pieces and so discard the ceramic bars sitting underneath while the other is making a booster to send a low imp signal and so avoid noise.Then I always for for phase reversal switches where needed and a cut through the track at the top of the tone pot as a tone ground lift.Oh,and I hardly ever get around to painting my guitars..that seems to work too!

DBM Music · Post by **DBM Music** » Tue May 17, 2005 8:20 am

Heres an update

ash · Post by **ash** » Tue May 17, 2005 9:36 am

You might want to flip that bridge pickup around there, cowboy... Polepeices on the outsides or the coil splitting will be out of phase.

DBM Music · Post by **DBM Music** » Tue May 17, 2005 9:42 am

Opps. lol i am sending it to you anyway. they are not stuck on there yet.

We have changed our mind about the tuners so we are getting some locking ones. I have the Kluson for sale on trade me.

Cool ay

tasty · Post by **tasty** » Tue May 17, 2005 5:41 pm

nice DBM

im guessing that the switches are for coil splitting....but 3 switches?

Tsuken · Post by **Tsuken** » Tue May 17, 2005 5:53 pm

You could split both pickups with one switch. You could use the other two switches for switching between series/parallel wiring.

Even better though, would be to use two DP3T switches, and have a series/parallel/single coil switch for each pickup. The third switch could then be for phase reversal of one pickup.