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Wrapped up a few things the past week or so.

First, I finally finished the last bits of wiring on my old Squier strat. It came in an HSS arrangement, though it was routed for HSH. As a teenager I put some high output Seymour Duncans in it and wailed on the Peavey. Then I sold the pickups when I was broke. Now it has some GFS Surf 90 single coils (in Humbucker sizing). I think I got them on sale for 30 bucks a piece. At first I didn't think much of them, as I mentioned elsewhere. But I spent a good amount to time tweaking the height and amp settings. Now I think they are actually rather good. Tried them next to a friend's traditional strat pickups yesterday and these definitely sound bigger. Good full frequency range, a little louder, and definitely more bass in the bridge position.

It is a really solid guitar (and far heavier than I remembered), but I'm still not a strat guy. Notice that I got rid of the second tone control and moved the volume to a more reasonable position. Putting the toggle switch on the horn was just an experiment. $8 blank pickguard that I tried to dremel straight pickup routs free handed. I wound up using pickup rings to hide the imperfections.




Second, I put another $8 pickguard on my Squier Mustang and installed compensated tele saddles on the original top loading bridge. The string path is not all twisted around anymore and the thing intonates like a champ. I was able to polish out some rough spots on the frets so that they don't affect playing anymore. You can spot them if you look for them though. Kinda nuts how fun this guitar is to play. It has a neck width roughly what they call "vintage fender" online. (~1.6something") It is somewhere between the wide neck on my les paul and the stupidly narrow neck on my strat. If I get to choose in the future, this is the nut width I'd pick (and thicker like the les paul). Makes me wish my les paul was about a mm more narrow.

Those both look great!

MoreSpaceEcho wrote: Sun Feb 12, 2023 8:57 am Those both look great!

Thanks. I spent a good while playing both last night. Now I'm tempted to swap the pickups from one to the other. How neurotic. The mustang humbuckers are just too hot, not so clear, and a little dark. Still impressively better than what budget pickups used to sound like.

Honestly, I feel guilty about the mustang. At $150 new, people are just not getting paid right.

new years holidays project:
2 AB528 Microphone preamplifier for the 500series kits from Sound Skulptor.
based on the preamp of the 60’s EMI/Abbey Road console.
a pleasure to build. nice boards and quality parts.

bassdriver wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 11:23 am new years holidays project:
2 AB528 Microphone preamplifier for the 500series kits from Sound Skulptor.
based on the preamp of the 60’s EMI/Abbey Road console.
a pleasure to build. nice boards and quality parts.

Kits like these are the only thing drawing me towards 500 series. I want to build weird stuff into them too, but I just cant make myself jump off the cliff.

Kniferide wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 4:12 pm


Kits like these are the only thing drawing me towards 500 series. I want to build weird stuff into them too, but I just cant make myself jump off the cliff.

yeah, these days there are lots of 500 series kits out there!
I wanted a preamp that is switchable to a low input impedance.
and I had that 2 slot rack laying around.
it’s pretty much a Grace preamp at a fraction of the price that a Grace preamp would cost.

bassdriver wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2025 12:27 pm

Kniferide wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 4:12 pm


Kits like these are the only thing drawing me towards 500 series. I want to build weird stuff into them too, but I just cant make myself jump off the cliff.

yeah, these days there are lots of 500 series kits out there!
I wanted a preamp that is switchable to a low input impedance.
and I had that 2 slot rack laying around.
it’s pretty much a Grace preamp at a fraction of the price that a Grace preamp would cost.

we a have a Grace 103 at work. It sounds good, extremely neutral but really clean, but the build quality feels really plasticy and cheap. I was surprised buy it.

Kniferide wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2025 11:32 pm

bassdriver wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2025 12:27 pm

Kniferide wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2025 4:12 pm


Kits like these are the only thing drawing me towards 500 series. I want to build weird stuff into them too, but I just cant make myself jump off the cliff.

yeah, these days there are lots of 500 series kits out there!
I wanted a preamp that is switchable to a low input impedance.
and I had that 2 slot rack laying around.
it’s pretty much a Grace preamp at a fraction of the price that a Grace preamp would cost.

we a have a Grace 103 at work. It sounds good, extremely neutral but really clean, but the build quality feels really plasticy and cheap. I was surprised buy it.

Oh, I meant the Chandler preamp. Not so plasticy but in the same (crazy) price range!

bassdriver wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 8:51 am

Kniferide wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2025 11:32 pm

bassdriver wrote: Sun Jan 12, 2025 12:27 pm

yeah, these days there are lots of 500 series kits out there!
I wanted a preamp that is switchable to a low input impedance.
and I had that 2 slot rack laying around.
it’s pretty much a Grace preamp at a fraction of the price that a Grace preamp would cost.

we a have a Grace 103 at work. It sounds good, extremely neutral but really clean, but the build quality feels really plasticy and cheap. I was surprised buy it.

Oh, I meant the Chandler preamp. Not so plasticy but in the same (crazy) price range!

It is getting wild what people are willing to pay for a single channel for Mic Preamp. They have really successfully marketed to people that there is some sort of unobtainable magic in simple small amplifier stages these days. Especially when I see some IC OpAmp design going for like 1800 bones. You look at it and 90% of the schematic is just the Texas Instruments basic implementation example from the spec sheet. I've gotten into my weirder preamp solutions like my Modified Shure things and old tube PA gear lately cause at least it sounds different than just quiet and clean.