What’s on *YOUR* workbench?

MichaelW said:
NGD Part II!
(Because good things come in twos?)

Couple of weeks ago I posted about the new Les Paul I just got.

This episode of Mike's NGD's is a little outside the scope of my tradition vintage-style sensibilities.....

Background: (TL;DR skip ahead to the pics)
I've been wanting a more "modern" super strat. I've messed around with some of my Strat builds by putting a Humbucker in the bridge
but somehow it just didn't work out as well as I had hoped. My vintage style M-Line Strats are better just being what they are and how I originally built them. So anyways, I had been looking at the usual suspects, Ibanez AZ, and some others.

I came across Vola blowing out the last of their inventory of their more "traditional" models. The OZ and Vasti (Strat and Tele).
These are Made in Japan at the same factory that makes the high end Ibanez, ESP, etc models. (Probably Fujigen but that's just a guess)
At ~$830 for an MIJ guitar is a bit of a steal so I ordered one. It was late on Wednesday night and I was half asleep when I ordered it.
It was on my doorstep on Friday. 2 days from the Hong Kong warehouse! That's absolutely nuts.

Anyway, it's pretty much everything I expected/wanted. The build quality is insane. Impeccable fretwork. I didn't need to touch them.
I've bought 5 or 6 MIJ guitars in the last few years and the Japanese are absolutely obsessed with quality and attention to detail. Some of the best guitars in the industry are coming out of Japan lately.

All Gotoh hardware, locking tuners, 2 point trem. HSS config.
It's got a straight 12" radius on a 1 pc maple neck. Very light alder body. I think the whole thing weighs just about 7lbs.

The stock pickups actually sound fantastic. It's their in house brand and not too hot. From neck to HB measured, 6.2k, 6.2k, 9.3k.
I was expecting super hot pickups and was planning to change them out but these stock pickups sound really good.

The only thing is they used 250k pots for the Vol and Tone, which makes the hum bucker sound a little too dark for my tastes. So a re-wire is pending.

The neck profile is like an Ibanez. A bit thin for me but I'm seeing if I can adapt.
The big topic is the body shape. It seems like either you love it or hate it. I happen to think it's a cool and unique take on an oversaturated market of these types of guitars. It's a shame they are disco'ing them to focus on their more high end models.
But with their direct to consumer sales model they are all about 50% of what a similar guitar costs through the dealership route.

I went with boring Olympic white..... :p

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@bluedmc777 , @Robert
Click to expand...
I thought it was a fretless guitar when I saw the pictue with the fretguard on it
 
MichaelW said:
NGD Part II!
(Because good things come in twos?)

Couple of weeks ago I posted about the new Les Paul I just got.

This episode of Mike's NGD's is a little outside the scope of my tradition vintage-style sensibilities.....

Background: (TL;DR skip ahead to the pics)
I've been wanting a more "modern" super strat. I've messed around with some of my Strat builds by putting a Humbucker in the bridge
but somehow it just didn't work out as well as I had hoped. My vintage style M-Line Strats are better just being what they are and how I originally built them. So anyways, I had been looking at the usual suspects, Ibanez AZ, and some others.

I came across Vola blowing out the last of their inventory of their more "traditional" models. The OZ and Vasti (Strat and Tele).
These are Made in Japan at the same factory that makes the high end Ibanez, ESP, etc models. (Probably Fujigen but that's just a guess)
At ~$830 for an MIJ guitar is a bit of a steal so I ordered one. It was late on Wednesday night and I was half asleep when I ordered it.
It was on my doorstep on Friday. 2 days from the Hong Kong warehouse! That's absolutely nuts.

Anyway, it's pretty much everything I expected/wanted. The build quality is insane. Impeccable fretwork. I didn't need to touch them.
I've bought 5 or 6 MIJ guitars in the last few years and the Japanese are absolutely obsessed with quality and attention to detail. Some of the best guitars in the industry are coming out of Japan lately.

All Gotoh hardware, locking tuners, 2 point trem. HSS config.
It's got a straight 12" radius on a 1 pc maple neck. Very light alder body. I think the whole thing weighs just about 7lbs.

The stock pickups actually sound fantastic. It's their in house brand and not too hot. From neck to HB measured, 6.2k, 6.2k, 9.3k.
I was expecting super hot pickups and was planning to change them out but these stock pickups sound really good.

The only thing is they used 250k pots for the Vol and Tone, which makes the hum bucker sound a little too dark for my tastes. So a re-wire is pending.

The neck profile is like an Ibanez. A bit thin for me but I'm seeing if I can adapt.
The big topic is the body shape. It seems like either you love it or hate it. I happen to think it's a cool and unique take on an oversaturated market of these types of guitars. It's a shame they are disco'ing them to focus on their more high end models.
But with their direct to consumer sales model they are all about 50% of what a similar guitar costs through the dealership route.

I went with boring Olympic white..... :p

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@bluedmc777 , @Robert
Click to expand...
I had to do a double look on this as I did not realize how cool it was at first!
 
Nice and congrats! Was almost expecting a Floyd Rose style trem when I saw “Super Strat”! FWIW you can never go wrong with Olympic White. I’ve somehow wound up with 2 OW strats and 1 Daphne blue that’s so pale it looks OW all with rosewood necks and mint green guards.

I’m still dabbling with my only SSH Strat. I just can’t get it to sound balanced for the life of me.
 
inspired by the recent Sheepylove DAFT Fuzz build(s), this brought to my attention the Dunwich Amps FuzzThrone, and upon seeing the schematic, was immediately amused/keen to try this fuzz face/big muff/mosfet boost goulash stew.

IMG_4589.jpeg
easy build with standard parts, hell yes.

and it's actually really good, so i think ill have to build one.
it's thick and scoopy like a big muff, raw and crackly like a fuzz face, and it's got plenty of volume.

 
owlexifry said:
inspired by the recent Sheepylove DAFT Fuzz build(s), this brought to my attention the Dunwich Amps FuzzThrone, and upon seeing the schematic, was immediately amused/keen to try this fuzz face/big muff/mosfet boost goulash stew.

View attachment 117783
easy build with standard parts, hell yes.

and it's actually really good, so i think ill have to build one.
it's thick and scoopy like a big muff, raw and crackly like a fuzz face, and it's got plenty of volume.

Click to expand...
Dude, you gotta show more of the guitar player in these demos so we can cop licks.........
 
2003 Lelit espresso machine, probably the third major rebuild I've done on it over the years. $150 in parts this time, but at least parts are still readily available. New pump, pressure valve, steam valve, and assorted fittings and gaskets. One major leak turned out to be a broken o-ring I hadn't ordered a replacement for, but somehow I have a whole bag that are just the right size, which I use as pot shaft spacers for 7mm bushings when they go into 3/8" holes. Dead dry inside now, which is pretty rare for these low level "prosumer" machines.

LelIt.jpg

Something like an 8 hour job all said and done, the amount of calcified lime on everything was ridiculous. I've always thought Lucas, Prince Of Darkness must have had a hand in the design of these things.
 
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That's all there is to the Minions' Fart Gun. The spring for the trigger looks like it came right off a ball-point pen.
Those batteries are not AA-size, power is supplied by 2xAAA, so 3v

Unpaid endorsement: The little screwdriver, a PicQuic, was a stocking-stuffer from my Dad, the yellow wonder is probably my most used tool.
So easy to swap out the bits, whether from Philips for the enclosure to micro-flathead for set-screws in knobs or to Robertson's for around the house. I've got a number of larger PicQuic screwdrivers as well. They're the best. Can't lose a bit, swap quick, and you can use the bits in a Dremel-style tool or cordless drill. Archibald McKenzie came up with the PicQuic-concept while working his day job, a pilot by trade, thus carrying on the fine tradition of screwdriver-innovation in Canada launched by Peter Robertson. Every solder bench should have one of these little guys, they're that good. [/advert]


The Fart Gun's postage-stamp PCB (albeit a large stamp), so it'll easily cozy up with an effect-PCB inside an enclosure. The effect was going to be a distortion thing, then it was to be a bit-crusher, then ... and now ... who knows?

Hate to see stuff go to waste, so maybe I'll make a mini-bullhorn out of the gun-carcass after I finish culling its guts for the pedal.
Or a "voice-changer", and give the "Blue Bullhorn" to my niece and nephew to fart play around with.

IMG_2497.jpeg



To bodge this circuit into a pedal I'll have to get 9v knocked down to 3v,
which could be either via
  • a regulator or
  • via resistors set up as a voltage divider.

Which do you folks recommend?
 
I tend to go voltage dividers for bias duties and regulators for supplying loads. So I’d go a regulator for your job. But it might not matter for the current needs of that circuit.
 
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