Guitarists of Singletrack…

Have you checked the frets are in properly and none are lifting?

If you have a fret loose it can get pushed down when leveling then pop up again after.

a feeler guage is handy to test by trying to slip it between the shoulder of the fret and the fretboard

What could cause the frets past the 9th to be higher than each other?

Do you mean the frets get taller as measured from the fret board or do you mean the action gets lower? If it’s the former that’s really odd. If it’s the latter it’s the angle the neck is set at and that’s easily fixed with paper shims as suggested a few times over the past few pages. I don’t know if this helps but I’ve measured the action of the fat E string on all the frets as best I can by eye with a steel ruler on a Tele with a 10-12 compound radius neck. Played normally it’s fine but dig in hard and it will buzz:

.5mm
.6
.7
.8
1.0
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.7
1.8
1.9
1.9
2.0
2.1
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6

I’ve also got a Strat which is really low at 1.7 at the 12th and only 1.8 at 21, but it isn’t buzz free. Raising the saddles .5mm (which will raise .25mm at the 12th) is on my to do one day list

Edit: Having measured I realise that the Tele would benefit from tipping the neck back a tad. The next time I restring it I’ll add a slip of paper so there’s less difference between the 12th and 22nd. It’s obviously warped slightly since I built it.

Thanks Edukator – I can’t find the talk about using paper shims – where would I be shimming?

More than willing to give it a go!

In the neck pocket. When everything else is set up correctly – nut height, neck relief and action at the 12th – the action between the 12th and 21st fret will increase only marginally. If it decreases (which can cause buzzing) you need to tip the neck forward so add a 1cm wide slip of paper in the open end of the neck pocket. If it increases too much (which result in an unnecessarily high action on the last frets) add a 1cm wide slip of paper in the closed end of the pocket. I’ve even had to use cardboard from a Kellogs box on one guitar which was way out.

IIRC corrctly you can buy wedge shaped wooden shims from Stew Mac, I’ve always made do with bits of paper. Stew Mac did a vid I think I’ll have a look.

Edit: I haven’t watched the vid so have no idea if the guy is using them correctly but you’l get the idea:

Having never had this problem as I’ve been lucky with bolt on necks I had to draw it out on a bit of paper (AKA Adobe Illustrator) to get the geometry clear in my head. It made a few things I’d heard quoted recently make a lot more sense. Every day is indeed a school day.
Paper shins should indeed be your friend. It wierd how extra neck relief can make the problem worse not better as you lower the action to compensate for the extra neck curve. Ita all interconnected.

The mini Vox amp worked really well with my boost, drive and fuzz pedals. A pleasant surprise!

Excellent. That’s one of the few things the THRii doesn’t do well. Light overdrive is ok, anything more is just wrong.

Now then, guitarists.

I haven’t weighed in on this thread before (I don’t think…) as I’m sort of a lapsed guitarist, having pretty much just done the odd bit of acoustic strumming here and there for the past decade or so.

But. My mate is getting married later this year, and for his “stag do” he had me sit in on a jam session with his band. I had to rebuild my old Squire Strat, and borrow an amp and a fuzz pedal. And it was joyous! Proper grin-inducing wonderfulness…

So I’m quite keen to get set up for electric guitar again.

First order of business is an amp of some kind. I’m quite space constrained, so I like the look of the Orange Micro Dark as a headphones-based practice machine which could scale up to driving a cab for jamming volumes easily enough.

Any experiences of this amp? Or alternatives? I like the idea of having some tube-ness in there, and would like something that will play with pedals…

Ok!

I’ve sanded down my tusq nut so I now have about 0.4mm at the first fret, consistently. And I’ve adjusted the saddle so it’s a low as it can go without much buzz.

It’s much much better. Obviously, intonation is better at the first!

Thanks Edukator – I should have listened right at the start.

What I’ve noticed is that my strings incrementally go from 0.4mm to 2.25mm at the 12th then they stay pretty much at 2.25mm up to the 21st.

Is the paper shim gonna help with that? have I just got my levelling wrong? Or should I dial in more relief?

I feel like I’m learning, so that’s a good thing!😆

Next to no change between the 12th and 21st is normally fine. It certainly won’t cause buzzing when you’re playing near the nut and with the action at 2.25 should be OK all the way up. If the buzzing gets worse as you move up you could try a single thickness of A4 paper out of your printer at the open end of the neck pocket and then tighten the truss rod or lower the saddles so you get the same action at the 12th (Eddiebaby is right when he says that everything interacts)- I cut a 1cm wide strip and then use a hole punch so it locates on the screws. Careful when you tighten the screws, the originals in Squiers and Mexican Fenders aren’t very good and strip easily – I systematically replace them.

When you’re looking for where a string is likely to touch and buzz bear this in mind:

Any experiences of this amp? Or alternatives? I like the idea of having some tube-ness in there, and would like something that will play with pedals…

See the posts from @yourguitarhero above. That wee vox amp he has looks superb.

First order of business is an amp of some kind. I’m quite space constrained, so I like the look of the Orange Micro Dark as a headphones-based practice machine which could scale up to driving a cab for jamming volumes easily enough.

I love Orange amps and bought one of these as a backup.
I couldn’t get rid of the terrible mains hum.
Even had it checked by an amp tech, no joy.

Sounded decent and properly loud, but none of my other amps have done this.
Tried it at a friend’s house and the hum was just as bad.

Thanks folks…

@oldtennisshoes that does look pretty interesting too! No effects loop is a bit of a bummer, but if I could find one for 80 quid it’d be a no-brainer I think 🙂

@RustySpanner ugh that doesn’t sound massively encouraging. I guess it’s possibly a bad unit (such things happen I suppose) but still…

No worries.

Mine was £80.00 secondhand from my local shop.
They took it back and sent it to their tech, who couldn’t replicate the problem and pronounced it perfect.
I just took a refund.

I’ll try another at some point, because it was a nice piece of kit.

Neither of my other Orange amps had the same issue.

Good luck!

but if I could find one for 80 quid it’d be a no-brainer I think

https://www.kennysmusic.co.uk/vox-mv50-high-gain-compact-guitar-head?source=googleps&gclid=Cj0KCQjwk4yGBhDQARIsACGfAetJaGClJcoPXcQovv7_wOz9u1XfsQ74980vuIOqqZK3b6TaE704jsIaAskSEALw_wcB

It’s the high gain one, but with the gain turned right down, and volume up it has a nice tone. Not fully clean, but close.

It’s a simple little amp, but the controls all have an audible effect.

Gain on full is hilariously heavy 🤘

https://www.kennysmusic.co.uk/vox-mv50-high-gain-compact-guitar-head?source=googleps&gclid=Cj0KCQjwk4yGBhDQARIsACGfAetJaGClJcoPXcQovv7_wOz9u1XfsQ74980vuIOqqZK3b6TaE704jsIaAskSEALw_wcB

Thank you for this! I was scratting around on ebay and not getting anything under 120 quid or so.

I’d forgotten how addictive the electric guitar is. I was playing it unplugged today and trying to make 3 semitone bends with the big fat 11s on it 🙂

So, looking at the MV50 (and now being picky…) it’s frustrating it doesn’t have an effects loop.

Especially with the high gain version I imagine running a delay/reverb into it won’t be great 😐

I wonder whether it would possible to hack one in?

https://www.amazona.de/wp-content/uploads/2030/01/mv50-bc108_gallery_800x600-6-580×435.jpg

This picture isn’t great (I think it’s a promo shot showing off the nu-tube thing) but the fact that the tube is on its own board suggests that splicing into the circuit between the preamp and power amp might be doable 🤔

Of course, whether I need another electronics project to ignore/neglect is another matter.

Of course. Someone on YT has done it already.

Rock and roll 🤟

If anyone is looking for a speaker to put into a cab I have a spare 50w 8ohm for free, collect from Manchester.

50W Alnico Gold Celestion 8ohm?

So then, loopers. What about them? I quite fancy one, maybe a band in a box sort of thing to mess about with.

They’re brilliant. The basic TC Ditto does more than enough for most folk.

Loopers rock and I’d recommend one highly.

I’ve a Boss RC3, and have since bought an RC10 and a Digitech trio+ for “band in a box” type stuff.
I’ll be selling the Trio+ shortly as whilst it’s great I prefer the RC10. One isn’t necessarily “better” than the other, they’re slightly different things.

As above, plus a few loopers come with drum loops or at least a metronome which I think is worth having as a practice tool.

I’ve got an RC-3 and it’s fine but I wish the drum loops were better. There’s only a few loops and the sound quality is not perfect. But better than nothing.

I’ve got an RC-3 and it’s fine but I wish the drum loops were better.

Thats why I bought an RC-10. Basically it’s a good quality, flexible drum machine and a looper that happen to like be in the same box and can be used independently, but can also be linked & synced.

The drums can also be output via a different jack to the loop so you can have nice clear drums not affected by the guitar amp – either to Hifi speakers or the amps Aux In to bypass the pre amp and effects etc.

@edukator er no, it’s a Black Star own brand one, like a vintage30, 12in unused as it came with an HT5R, I think someone bought it to make an extension cab and never wired it up

Loopers are a good idea, I would recommend a secondhand ditto as there are loads about, it will teach you how to make a loop by hitting start and stop right on the first beat of the bar, once you have that down you can figure out what to get next as they can get complex

If anyone is looking for a speaker to put into a cab I have a spare 50w 8ohm for free, collect from Manchester.

@edhornby I’m sure I could give it a loving home if it’s still available? I’m up in Ramsbottom so probably not a million miles away.

Cool, thanks all for the replies 😎

@markwsf

I’ll be selling the Trio+ shortly

Hmm… interesting… want to PM me some details?

In other news, has anyone tried using a bigger speaker with a smaller output amp? I’ve got a 90s Peavey Bandit 112 that’s got knackered pots and wondered if I could stick my Vox VT20X amp through the 12″ speaker.

Yes you’re more than welcome Tom – I’m in Whitefield so not far at all, will message you later about logistics 🙂

Why does age make any difference?

my fingers are wearing out – thats an age thing as I understand it

Using bigger speakers is fine, Kayla, as long as the impedence of the new speaker is the same or higher than the old one. I’ve used a 4×12 with amps that came with a single speaker and they sound better for it.

My fingers are better at 60 than 50, Plumber, I had my carpal tunnel sydrome fixed in my left hand and I’m more sensible about abusing my hands climbing and with DIY.

Smashing, thanks for that Edukator.

On a similar note, I tried out the Vox MV50 through my 2×12 cab (2 x 8ohm speakers in parallel, so 4ohms) and it sounded great…bloody loud too!
I’m amazed how well such a tiny amp drives a couple of 12″ speakers.

When I saw the thread on Ned Deliverence I picked up the guitar to play the classic tune which the Toy Dolls used to do in concert. It’s pretty scrappy and only half remembered but I struggled through it with maxo concentration:

@edhornby

Yes you’re more than welcome Tom – I’m in Whitefield so not far at all, will message you later about logistics 🙂

Thanks Ed 🙂 much appreciated. You can also contact me on “my user name” at gmail dot com if PMs are not playing ball.

On a similar note, I tried out the Vox MV50 through my 2×12 cab (2 x 8ohm speakers in parallel, so 4ohms) and it sounded great…bloody loud too!

Mine is arriving tomorrow, allegedly.

Very excited 🙂

Finally scratched that j-shaped itch: MIJ Traditional Jazzmaster (in Olympic White) arrived this afternoon. And it’s nice!

I was thinking it bit of a one trick pony until I remembered the lead/rhythm switch… 🤦‍♂️