Messages

Oooops, I missed the "mac" part.... sorry.

I use expressSCH. It's free. Comes bundled with expressPCB. You don't have to use the PCB part of it.

Fairly easy to learn, comes with a library of components and google will find more.
Plus you can create custom components.

Another Hippy kind of reply.... 

For the "no drugs" option...

Diet, Meditation, and/or Yoga (might be hard for a young person to get into the last 2, but worth it)

Meditation especially can help with focus, has helped me immensely, going on 60 yrs old and I've been ADD for as long as I can remember.

More...

Thanks bluescage!

Well, the O/T went bad. Open primary winding. I guess that's common for these...

Anyway I installed a 3 wire power cord and clipped the death cap.

Since I'm waiting for a new O/T, I decided to replace the baffle as its pretty much shot.

Made a new baffle from 1/2 inch plywood.

No, haven't shimmed the neck yet.  That'll happen when I do the pickup swap.  I'm looking at a JB or a Steve's Special currently.

Anyone know of any decent hum free singles (haha) that aren't humbuckers per se, or rails?  What are the opinions on GFS?

My recent experience with GFS.

I recently bought a set of GFS "noiseless" Strat pickups.

These ones...  http://www.guitarfetish.com/Classic-Trucoil-Fixed-lead_p_24605.html

They are the TCVS True Coil Vintage Set. 7K / 6K/ 5.5K

The Strat I installed them in had 250K pots and with that, the pickups were very low output.
I changed out the pots for 500K and they are better, but still much lower output that any of my other Fender guitars with actual Fender single coils.

To be fair, GFS says to use 500K pots with humbuckers, but still I would have expected better (more) output.
Perhaps it's because they are "vintage" that the output is low.

Maybe their "Hot" wound noiseless have more output, but I thought then I might be getting away from the single coil sound.... IDK...

These GFS TCVS are 4 wire plus shield, they came with 2 of the wires already twisted and soldered, leaving the other 2 wires for hookup + the shield.
I installed them as the came out of the box.
Noise was just as bad as regular single coils.
(my house has a reeeeely baaaad "noise field" is several rooms where I simply cannot use single coils.)

A couple emails back and forth with GFS and it turned out the set they sent, were wired wrong.
Fixed that and the hum/buzz is much less, but not completely "noiseless".
Granted my situation (house) may be unusual. Or maybe not....

I'm still kinda disappointed with these pickups, re; the low output.

I'm gonna try a 1Meg vol pot and if that doesn't help, I'll see about sending them back.

Gotta give kudos to GFS for the help they gave me so-far, for figuring out the wiring.

HTH

Edit; I may bite the bullet and spring for an actual Fender noiseless Strat set....

Edit 2; Oh yeah... I had to router the pickup cavities deeper to fit the GFS set.

Anyone need a killer little practice amp?

The Dean Markley K20 is (was) an awesome sounding little amp. 

I found these on ebay NOS from 1993 unused leftover inventory.

For the price I snagged one, figured for the price I couldn't go wrong. I was right. 

Shoot, mic this up and use it at a gig!

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Unused-Dean-Markley-K-20-Electric-Guitar-Amplifier-Fully-Tested-Working-/162525379119?hash=item25d7447a2f:g:XZAAAOSwKtlWisVD


Edit; He's got some K20-B's too...

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Unused-Dean-Markley-K-20B-Electric-Guitar-Amplifier-Fully-Tested-Working-/391803895360?hash=item5b3954fe40:g:luYAAOSwXeJXf-Ec

+1 for Paint.net

I found it fairly easy to learn and powerful enough for the type of graphics I do.
Water slide or sometimes stickers.

I wouldn't use tantalum caps willy-nilly to replace electros or any other kind wherever.

But if a circuit specifically called for them, the rules are....

Be very certain not to exceed the cap rated voltage, and

Never ever ever ever hook them up backwards. Be very certain of the polarity.

Cool! 

I like Strats but ya.... that volume knob. 

On mine I made a new pick guard (saved the original)
and re-wired for a master vol and tone in the original 2 tone locations.
No more bumping the vol when palm muting.

Thanks guys! 

I'm undecided about replacing the baffle board.
I guess it would be easy enough.
I am going to try some different speakers in it though.

Got a Weber on order for my Vibro Champ but I already like the Eminence that is currently in the Champ.

Maybe I'll try the Weber in this Silvertone.

Very sweet guitar!

Thanks, the 6X4 looks newer than the other tubes.
Kinda figured its a replacement.

Found this for a decent price on Reverb.

It sounds great considering the speaker cone is a little soft. Farts a bit on low notes.
Speaker looks original, as do the tubes.
The 6X4 rectifier is a JAN Phillips, not sure if that would be original.

I have that S-993A solder sucker iron in the second link.

It works pretty good, just don't store it hot with the nose down like they show in the picture.
I clamp mine nose up in a small bench vise when I'm using it.

In use, I try to have the board or whatever vertical and try to *never* point the nose down, always horizontal or tipped back a bit.

What's with not having it point down? Never had an issue with the old Hakko it's a clone of. I keep it in the holster while hot but not immediately being used. But honestly, I only have it on for maybe 10-15 minutes at a go. It's so fast to use that I get my work done and turn it off.

I got mine a bit cheaper on ebay, tons of them there, pick where you want it shipped from.
Most of them from China but a few in NorAm.

These days, I find the stuff on ebay and then see if there is an Amazon seller (preferably Prime). I'll pay an extra $20 bucks for no-hassle returns and free return shipping (for the DOA stuff). I call it "the Amazon tax". Totally worth it to me.

I found having it point down, it tends to clog more often, needing more frequent cleaning.

Sometimes (often) I am modding an existing amp or other device and am swapping out parts to try ideas etc.
The solder sucker gets left on for quite long periods of time.
If left nose down it really does get clogged easily.

Ya, I prefer Amazon too, but at the time I bought this, there were none on Amazon (Canada) except for the Hakko at approx $300 CAD
so I turned to ebay to find something cheaper since I didn't know how much use I would get out of it.

Now I see how useful it is, if it ever breaks again, I *might* go for the more expensive brand name.