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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on Aug 11, 2019 14:50:40 GMT
Yes, the position of the neck pick-up should make a difference but not that kind. And anyway, I hear that same difference on the bridge pick-up alone. It's a more complex sound, extended in both directions: bass and treble. I guess the treble part could come from the strings: new D'Addario 10s against Harley Benton 11s. So I know the next step is to put new 10s on the SC… but I got the SC with new D'Addario 10s in the first place and I remember I wasn't happy with the sound. That's why I re-wired the switches to have a parallel position instead of just a coil split. Now I am actually quite happy with the full humbucker sound on the CST. It doesn't have that dullness I dislike.
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DefJef
THBC Moderator
Due to musical differences I've decided I can't work with myself any more.
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Post by DefJef on Aug 12, 2019 6:48:54 GMT
I was just reading one of the bibles of guitar books, The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer. It's been in print since before the internet and I've had it for decades as my main and first source of most things guitar related. Some of it seems quite quaint now but I can't remember ever reading this sentence in the chapter on refinishing a guitar: "With a natural finish the instrument is stripped down to the bare wood, which is then given a liberal coating of linseed or another similar oil. Boiled linseed oil will dry faster than raw, while white petroleum jelly is an alternative material." So Vaseline seems to be an old and accepted trick known at least to that author and anyone who's read that chapter properly. Well done on resurrecting a vintage treatment LeoThunder. Ralph's advice is to "...allow the jelly to soak in for a day or two, then remove the surplus with a rag. No further treatment is necessary if you want a matt finish...for a slight sheen you can burnish the surface with a soft cloth."
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on Aug 12, 2019 8:09:09 GMT
That's interesting. The body is meant though, and I assume this could be used on the back of a neck just the same. Worth trying first if someone ever wants to remove a glossy finish. I don't remember what Vaseline costs (update: it's 2€). I know I got mine from a common chain store and will never use it all. I assume "a liberal coating" means quite a lot, which is very much the opposite of what I did. My aim was to put the equivalent of finger grease on the fingerboard for merely visual effect and it appears to be persistent. It's a funny thing that this guitar and quite possibly a batch of them likely went "deko" because a new factory (in Vietnam) didn't know to coat Roseacer fingerboards with some appropriate product. I'm sure it was quickly fixed of course but it displays the risks of cheap "banana" products which ripen in the customer's hands. Harley Benton has a history of temporary failings and continuous improvement. Think of the problematic retainer bar in the first batch of HSH Fusion models, the unfortunate choice of an angled Tune-o-matic bridge in the SC-7 or the muddy pick-ups in the Fanfret 7 and 8-string models ( apparently improved now). Better beware of new models and wait until faults are ironed out but similar issues can happen when models are transferred to a different factory or materials change. There is no mystery. Whenever people do things mistakes will be made and problems will occur. Brands that do not let such issues out to their customers charge them extra to cover the internal cost. When we buy "guaranteed quality" we secretly pay for everything that was dumped and all the work that was re-done along the learning curve. It's a choice we take. I had 12 Harley Benton and apart from one that was sold as non functional (and, surprise, it was not functional) all became well playable instruments without major issues. The worst I had to do was cutting a nut and shimming a neck on a cheap old model from the mid 2000s. I never had an ugly one either.
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on Aug 12, 2019 8:25:46 GMT
Foreword by Robert Fripp? That's another interesting thing. I'm not completely surprised though.
I don't get the point of such double-neck guitars, beside looking impressive. The sonic mush of about any live gig I have attended in my life made the difference in sound between a 6 and a 12 string irrelevant.
Here's an example:
Compared to the studio original:
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3,457 posts
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Post by LeoThunder on Aug 12, 2019 9:09:40 GMT
I guess most 12-stringery live can now almost be simulated by a pedal. It's not quite the same but close enough for live. … Live sound improved dramatically during the seventies and has continued to do so. … I've been in football stadium gigs where the bass wraps itself around the back of the stand and woollies up your ears so you can barely even make out who's performing. I've always preferred gigs where the main aim of the show wasn't volume. My point was that I never made out any difference in live situations. Playing on 6 strings would have been just as good. I stopped attending amplified concerts because I was never satisfied with any of what came out of a PA. I kept going to classical performances, though, but spent the extra money to be close to the stage. I remember an orchestral concert that was mush from the back of the room (in a room designed for the purpose, not a cathedral or a stadium) and an opera I could hardly follow from the middle (yes, I know, singers are a problem of their own but I understand them from the front rows).
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1,773 posts
Member is Online
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Post by MartinB on Aug 12, 2019 11:49:20 GMT
I was just reading one of the bibles of guitar books, The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer. It's been in print since before the internet and I've had it for decades as my main and first source of most things guitar related. Some of it seems quite quaint now but I can't remember ever reading this sentence in the chapter on refinishing a guitar: "With a natural finish the instrument is stripped down to the bare wood, which is then given a liberal coating of linseed or another similar oil. Boiled linseed oil will dry faster than raw, while white petroleum jelly is an alternative material." So Vaseline seems to be an old and accepted trick known at least to that author and anyone who's read that chapter properly. Well done on resurrecting a vintage treatment LeoThunder . Ralph's advice is to "...allow the jelly to soak in for a day or two, then remove the surplus with a rag. No further treatment is necessary if you want a matt finish...for a slight sheen you can burnish the surface with a soft cloth." My brother has that one, I have a more modern one iirc. Really good book, introduced me to Steve Cropper. Learned a lot of things from it.
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Post by LeoThunder on Aug 12, 2019 12:42:27 GMT
Final(?) word on the sound difference with the SC-450 Plus: it's the strings! Yes, that's not much of a surprise, is it? Fresh D'addario 10s sound better than 4 months old Harley Benton 11s I verified it by putting fresh 10s on the SC-450 Plus and while they still sound different, the "life" (high end) I was missing has returned.
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Post by LeoThunder on Aug 13, 2019 13:27:43 GMT
I'm trying to remember if I have ever tried to fully lower one side of a tun-o-matic to see if the the other side binds. I can see why it would but it's interesting how neither of us have noticed the problem of string tension generally on lowering one. I just realised why that is. A Tune-o-matic bridge is not subject to the whole string tension, only to the downward part of it caused by the angle to the tail piece or the top of the body for a string through. The wraparound bridge of a CST (or a PRS), on the other hand, also works as a tail piece and is laterally held against its posts by the whole string tension pulling towards the nut. That's why it doesn't move.
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Post by sknepper on Aug 14, 2019 15:03:30 GMT
I have just ordered a B-Stock CST-24TOL and I am very interested to find out what it will be like. It's therefore not a "D" for deco. version. I'm now curious . Will post when it comes with photo's.
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