A Gibson for some Heavy Metal...

HAL · « **Reply #40 on:** 11 May 2012, 01:50 am »

Dave,
That amp looks very interesting!

The VHT Special 6 Ultra has a lot of cool features that gives you lots of flexibility as well. It is a hand wired tube amp. The Power Scaling feature lets me use an EL34 in the output and run it at bedroom levels! Put in a NOS Mullard ECC83 in the front end and the new reissue Mullard XF2 style EL34 in the output stage. This baby rocks!

Finally got the Goodmans 12P-G installed in the cabinet and this Geezer (not be confused with GZR that is Geezer Butlers group) is having fun rocking out!

Sent an email to SDCS today to see if they could get the parts to try. Still have my fingers crossed. The good part is that they did make pickups for Tony's Eggle style SG's in the 90's. They may have info on the Simplux 9 pole, so waiting to hear. The wait is killing me! AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

HAL · « **Reply #41 on:** 11 May 2012, 01:59 am »

Oh yeah, some new pieces for the setup. A JMI Dallas Rangemaster reissue and the Goodmans 12P-G 1x12 cabinet.

HAL · « **Reply #42 on:** 3 Jun 2012, 03:03 am »

The Seymour Duncan STK-P1 stacked P-90 style bridge humbucker pickup arrived. This is the stock unit they sell. Can be wired as series or parallel wiring for differing tonal qualities and still be a humbucker. Will try the series wiring for the increased mids.

The CrazyParts chrome plated german silver P-90 drilled cover is on order. It should look like the original two I have.

HAL · « **Reply #43 on:** 5 Jun 2012, 01:10 am »

A person I know built the guitar on the right for Tony Iommi. From feedback, he tried it out at the sound check for the Black Sabbath Birmingham gig in May and really likes it.

This has me thinking!

HAL · « **Reply #44 on:** 18 Jun 2012, 02:08 am »

Here is the guitar setup with all the pieces.

Made a video for Facebook of Black Sabbath's War Pigs for fun with it.

Hope everyone had a Happy Father's Day!

eclein · « **Reply #45 on:** 18 Jun 2012, 04:03 am »

Quote from: HAL on 18 Jun 2012, 02:08 am

Hope everyone had a Happy Father's Day!

Same to you and nice rig!!!!!

HAL · « **Reply #46 on:** 19 Jun 2012, 01:02 am »

Thanks!

SteveFord · « **Reply #47 on:** 19 Jun 2012, 01:18 am »

Are you all done and if so, what do you think about it compared to the stock SG Classic?

HAL · « **Reply #48 on:** 19 Jun 2012, 01:32 am »

I am done with the mods to this SG Special 60's tribute. This is only getting the cosmetic mods that you see. I am holding off on the SD pickup install as I am still waiting for them to respond on the neck pickup. Trying not to ruin two sets of strings

To me they are both very similar. The pickups on the SG Classic are in slightly different locations, so it sounds closer to the original 1960's SG Specials I have heard. When I used it with my POD XT with a HIWATT amp model, you could easily get the Pete Townsend WHO sound from the era that he played that model SG.

The satin finish on the SG Special neck is also a bit easier for me to play.

I like the look of the half pickguard better on the SG Special. More of the Mahogany wood shows. Also looks more like the 1965 SG Special that I like.

Hopefully one day soon I will get the SD neck pickup and give that and the SD STK-P1 bridge pickup a try. Those will probably go into another guitar, as I am working on trying to get one built.

Edit: Here are the custom set of strings for C# tuning from LaBella. I am using a lighter gauge LaBella set for D# tuning at this point.

nathanm · « **Reply #49 on:** 20 Jun 2012, 08:48 pm »

That's no guitar strap, it's a space station…

HAL · « **Reply #50 on:** 20 Jun 2012, 09:06 pm »

I like 4" wide guitar straps. Much easier on the shoulder! This one is a 60" long model from Levy, usually for bases.

Try it you might like it!

HAL · « **Reply #51 on:** 20 Jun 2012, 11:45 pm »

And for anyone brave enough, you can listen to the rig on this YouTube video.

It was recorded at 24bit/96KHz, but had to go down to 16bit/48KHz for the video.

Used a Zoom H2 digital recorder with a Shure SM57 mic on the cabinet as in the picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIGbLaR-DB4&feature=youtu.be

Yeah, I know, don't quit my day job!

Ericus Rex · « **Reply #52 on:** 21 Jun 2012, 12:19 am »

Nice!

Did you see this guy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlF_iEuO5cs&feature=related

Makes me want to quit altogether!

HAL · « **Reply #53 on:** 21 Jun 2012, 12:40 am »

Hey same guitar! Cool!

NEVER GIVE UP!

He is good and having some fun with it!

HAL · « **Reply #54 on:** 22 Jun 2012, 08:30 pm »

Some good news. Some of the parts for the 9 pole single coil pickup have arrived at Seymour Duncan custom shop. Just maybe a 40+ year old pickup copy is beginning to take shape!

dBe · « **Reply #55 on:** 22 Jun 2012, 08:38 pm »

Quote from: HAL on 22 Jun 2012, 08:30 pm

Some good news. Some of the parts for the 9 pole single coil pickup have arrived at Seymour Duncan custom shop. Just maybe a 40+ year old pickup copy is beginning to take shape!

That's awesome! Any idea what magnetic material is going to be used?

I'm still searching. Thanks for the info on the KS steel.

Dave

HAL · « **Reply #56 on:** 22 Jun 2012, 08:55 pm »

They are looking at cobalt iron chrome, like K.S. magnet steel or AlnicoIII. Found that Hitachi metals in Japan makes cobalt iron chrome magnets, they call them CKS iron-chromium-cobalt magnets. Just found that yesterday and passed it on. The MGOe is about 0.9-1.0, slightly lower than AlnicoIII at MGOe of 1.3.

Website is:

http://www.hitachi-metals.co.jp

I have a feeling that it will be Alnico III as the other does not seem easy to find. However, SDCS still makes Charlie Christian pickups. Might get lucky!

They did get the undrilled german silver pickup cover. This one is not plated, so guess they will drill it and chrome plate it.

Wow, has this been a pickup project!

dBe · « **Reply #57 on:** 22 Jun 2012, 09:13 pm »

Quote from: HAL on 22 Jun 2012, 08:55 pm

They are looking at cobalt iron chrome, like K.S. magnet steel or AlnicoIII. Found that Hitachi metals in Japan makes cobalt iron chrome magnets, they call them CKS iron-chromium-cobalt magnets. Just found that yesterday and passed it on. The MGOe is about 0.9-1.0, slightly lower than AlnicoIII at MGOe of 1.3.

Website is:

http://www.hitachi-metals.co.jp

I have a feeling that it will be Alnico III as the other does not seem easy to find. However, SDCS still makes Charlie Christian pickups. Might get lucky!

They did get the undrilled german silver pickup cover. This one is not plated, so guess they will drill it and chrome plate it.

Wow, has this been a pickup project!

Seymour can just degauss it to suit. Are the secondary characteristics of the material close to the cobalt iron chrome? too much to know and so little time to learn it all, eh?

Dave

HAL · « **Reply #58 on:** 22 Jun 2012, 09:32 pm »

Still trying to wrap my head around it!

The Hitachi Metals CKSR-150 Isotropic alloy has an BH ave MGOe around 1.5 with a low of 1.1. The Coercivity Br is 8.5 kG, and Remanence HCB is 0.44 kOe. All the data I could find at the site. What I could find for AlnicoIII is MGOe max at 1.35, Br of 7.0kG, no HCB value listed. Probably just as easy to degauss the AlnicoIII. K.S. magnet steel has some tungsten in it that the CKS version does not.

HAL · « **Reply #59 on:** 23 Jun 2012, 01:41 pm »

Had a nice email from Tony's guitar tech. His company makes all the cables for Tony's guitar rig. Tony recently did trials between his wireless guitar setup to wired and decided to switch back to wired. The new cable is what everyone heard at the Birmingham and Donnington shows. Have one of the 8 meter guitar cables coming for trials with the setup.

This project has surely taken on some interesting turns along the way!