Project - new strings, new tubes

As part of my goal to have a fresh set of strings on everything by the end of the year, I spent a good chunk of the morning/early afternoon today getting a few more guitars restrung. Over the past couple of weeks I managed to do the Gibson Country Western acoustic, Voodoo Guitar Works electric, and Rogue mandolin; today I worked on the ASAT Special, SG Standard, Les Paul Classic Antique, Les Paul Standard Faded, and H-535. Everything got a fresh set of Elixir Nanoweb 10's installed (except for the H-535 which got 11's), fretboards conditioned, setups & intonations performed, and finishes polished up. Oh, and everything got Nut Sauce. All in all, it's kinda like having 5 new guitars. :) Still have 11 guitars to go by the end of the year... next up will be the remaining (2) Custom 24's, (2) Legacy's, Firebird V, and Explorer Pro.

I also picked up some new tubes this week to experiment with in the Randall RM50B combo. Can't remember what it came stock with, but I installed a pair of Winged "C" 6L6's and a Celestion Classic Lead 80 speaker as soon as it arrived. In an effort to branch out a bit, based on the recommendations of some folks on the Egnater forum, I ordered a pair of TungSol 5881's and a pair of JJ 6V6's. I installed and biased the 6V6's yesterday. Pretty sweet overall... definitely give the amp a slightly warmer & fatter tone... feels a bit more compressed as well. Reminds me of what I liked about my old Deluxe Reverbs! I'll probably try out the 5881's later this week... folks say they're like a cross between 6L6's and EL34's. I've been kicking around getting a pair of THD Yellowjacket's (EL84's) to try as well, but they're relatively expensive ($100/pair) vs. the other tubes ($20-30/pair), so it'll probably be a while (read: until I can find a used pair on e-bay).

--B

Merry Christmas to us - Home Theater G.A.S.

Yeah, I know I spend most of my time here waxing poetic about musical gear, but there are many other types of G.A.S. that afflict me as well... vehicular G.A.S. (not the kind that's $3.50 a gallon), photographic G.A.S., computer G.A.S., and most recently home theater G.A.S.

We've been in the house for about 2 1/2 years now, and the ol' 27" JVC TV is pretty inadequate for the size of the family room and my decaying eyesight. Not bad, though, considering that I've gotten close to 10 years out of this home theater system. So I decided to take advantage of some of the Black Friday sales online (actually I bought everything on Thanksgiving, so is that Black Thursday?).

I started with the Sony 60" Bravia rear-projection HDTV...


...then added the Sony STR-DG910 receiver and Sony DVP-NS77H/B DVD player...


In addition to the Sony gear, I'm planning on adding the DirecTV HD package with the HD DVR. It will be a considerable simplification to get the entertainment center down to 4 components (TV, receiver, DVD, and DVR) compared to the current 9 components (TV, receiver, CD, tape deck, DVD, VCR, PC, and 2 cable boxes).

Of course, there will be pictures and a full review once all the gear gets here (early next week).

--B

Project - how many guitars can I restring in a day?

Sunday turned into guitar project day... decided to see how many guitars I could get re-strung, setup, intonated, & polished in one day. So I started with the G&L ASAT Classic and worked my way through the fixed-bridge PRSi... two McCarty's, Custom 24, and Custom 22 semi-hollowbody. Spent most of the afternoon & evening working on it, and if I would've had more sets of medium or light gauge strings, I probably would have tried to squeeze in one or two more guitars (and been up until 2 AM in the process).

A few thoughts on the process...

• I've been gradually restringing everything with Elixir Nanoweb's... 9's on guitars with trems, 10's on fixed bridge guitars, and 11's on hollowbodies. Since I'm generally bad about restringing (everything gets restrung every 2-3 years around here), I'm hoping the coated strings will pay off in terms of improved tone/lifespan.
• The Peterson StroboStomp tuner is sort of a mixed blessing for doing intonation... on one hand, it's great to have such an accurate tuner at my disposal. On the other hand, it's so precise, it's virtually impossible to get all 6 strings perfectly intonated, especially on the bridges with non-adjustable saddles. I probably could have spent 3-4 hours trying to get each guitar perfect, but once I got it close enough, I'd double-check it with the less precise Sabine tuner. Almost every time, the tuning & intonation appeared perfectly in tune with the Sabine, even though with the Peterson it was still a bit off. Talk about diminishing returns!
• I've been a bit frustrated with getting the G&L's and Gibsons to hold tune recently, so I invested in a tube of Big Bends Nut Sauce (great name, eh?). It's a small syringe of lubricant that you apply to the nut, string trees, saddles, etc. in an effort to reduce friction and therefore improve consistency when tuning. I only used it on the ASAT's plastic nut & string trees on Sunday (the PRSi don't need it), but I imagine I'll use it on the Gibsons when those get restrung. In the mean time, I'm curious to see how much of a difference it makes in the tuning consistency on the ASAT.

Speaking of the ASAT... talk about a guitar that totally came to life with new strings. I didn't realize how "dead" the stock strings on it were... after a few months of playing it, I was thinking it was just a mellow-sounding guitar. But with new strings, it's twang-city 24x7. Almost makes me want to put together a country band, but not quite...

Assuming my Musician's Friend order arrives in time, I'll probably re-string a few more guitars (two trem-equipped Custom 24's, the Voodoo custom, the Heritage H-535, and the Gibson Country Western acoustic) this weekend. My goal is to get fresh strings on everything by the end of the year.

--B