Planet Z

This is part 1 of a new series on guitar electronics.  In the video, I demonstrate how to get the electronics out of a semi-hollow body guitar, with some useful tips and tricks.

Once the electronics are out of the guitar, it’s relatively easy to try some experiments on the circuit to see how it sounds.    I’m planning a number of upcoming experiments including:

• Experimenting with replacement pots
• Adding treble bleed to the volume pots
• Trying different tone capacitors to see how it changes the sound
• Replacing the jack with one with a longer bushing Switchcraft jack
• Replacing the pickups
• Putting all the electronics back into a semi-hollow body guitar through the f-hole

Every step of the way, I’ll be recording audio examples, how-to videos, and text writeup.

I look forward to hearing any comments or suggestions.  Please let me know your experiences too!

What is up with the jacks on these semi-hollowbody Epiphone guitars.  When I was shopping for guitars in the stores, I often saw Epiphone Dots and Sheratons with the jack missing inside the guitar.   How can that be good for sales?!  And when reading in the Epi forums, I saw folks complaining of this happening to them.  Does this happen on the more expensive Elite Epi’s, or other semi-hollow body guitars?

I never thought it would happen to me!   I made a point of periodically hand-tightening the jack when plugging in a cable, just to be sure.

Read the rest of this entry

The retainer wire on a standard Tune-o-matic bridge can buzz and rattle if the bridge isn’t machined to perfection.

I didn’t expect this to bother me as much as it does.  The buzz doesn’t come through the amp, but I don’t usually play very loud, so hearing a buzzy rattle from the bridge results in a real lack of clarity in the sound I’m hearing.

Read the rest of this entry

Let’s visit the factory in China where my new Epiphone Riviera was made:  Qingdao Factory Tour.  I love the picture of the drying room full of flying Les Pauls:

There’s lots more pics, and an interview with the plant managers, Scott Lewis and Lloyd Williams at Gibson Qingdao Factory – All Epiphone… All The Time!

Oh, how it pains me to say this: I’ve been playing guitar for over 20 years.  But I can’t call myself a guitarist.

I have a pretty solid background in music theory and harmony.  I minored in music at UC Berkeley.  I can find my way around a piano.   Yet somehow, I never learned how to learn how to play guitar!  I never once took a lesson.

For the first five years or so, I learned just enough to be able to play the songs I was writing, and I even played and sang in a band.  I never learned more than the open chords, the E-form bar chord, and the note names on the first string.   Mostly I wrote songs by noodling on the guitar until something sounded good.  It was “art”.

For the next decade or so, I didn’t really learn much more.  Read the rest of this entry

I’m assuming that the tone caps are more critical to the sound than the pots themselves.  Please leave a comment to share your recommendations or experiences.

Here’s some background reading for the upcoming capacitor and potentiometer mods.

Auditioning Tone Capacitors Part 1 (Premier Guitar)
Auditioning Tone Capacitors Part 2 (Premier Guitar)

Article about pots in general, with good charts about tapers

Treble Bleed Mod for Volume Pots

Pot quality CTS versus Gibson

Resistor-Filter Cutoff Calculator

And here’s some shopping resources:

CTS Pots at Guitar Parts Resource

Sprague Drop caps at Guitar Parts Resource

Speaking with Pete Biltoft at Vintage Vibe Guitars about possible dog-eared P-90 pickup replacements for the Riviera P93, Pete recommended I first try bypassing the guitar’s electronics to see if they’re sucking the tone away.   This experiment requires disconnecting the pickup wire from the electronics, and routing it directly to the output jack.  The results are interesting.   Read on for pictures, and audio, video before/after.

Gathering my tools, started to feel a little crazy!   Soldering iron and solder, needle nose pliers, locking pliers, big and small phillips screwdrivers, wrench, wire stripper, multi meter, alligator clips, 1/4” jack, magnifying glass, flashlight, tuner, string winder, spool of thread, soft cloths.

I did all my work on the floor – bad idea!  Why am I always too lazy to clear off a table top before starting?

Read the rest of this entry

The factory setup of my Epiphone Riviera P93 was horrible!   I had a luthier to do a full setup on the guitar, and it’s much better now.  Read on for all the measurements before/after the setup.

Here’s the “Pre-Pack Checklist” that came with the guitar.  What a joke! I imagine the inspector works like this:

• Intonation?  Sucks, check!
• String height?  Crazy high, check!
• Buzzing?  Yep, check!
• Fretboard cleaning? Yuck, check!

Well, Mr. 24 in the USA, I’m not impressed!

Here are my measurements of the lousy factory setup:  Read the rest of this entry

Just uploaded my first YouTube video ever   It’s a quick overview of the Riviera P93, along with some demos of the three P-90 pickups individually, and my thoughts on possible mods/improvements.

I’ve got some more videos and audio examples, coming soon, so stay tuned…

There are several things about the P93 that I’d like to change.  The pickups seem dull and lifeless.  The wire retainer on the Tune-O-Matic bridge rattles and buzzes, so I’d like to change to a better bridge.  And I hear occasional pinging in the nut when tuning and using the Bigsby, so perhaps I’ll change the nut to a Graphtech teflon nut.

I often read folks saying that a new nut gave them better sustain, or richer sound.  Or how a new bridge gave them less high frequency response, etc.    It all sounds a bit wishy washy to me.
I’d like to be more scientific about it.  For each mod, I’ll do some before/after recordings and post them here.