(Another) Brent Mason "ish" copy.

[mgaut051]

So - I found and bought this pup on eBay

One of the things on my mind is a Nashville Tele Brent Mason copy.
Although a Tele bridge hot stack is not a Strat middle (neck) hot stack, a real vintage burgundy cover is VERY hard to get by. And 33$ is not too much for an experiment - if I don't like it, I'll come up with an alternative.

So the plan is:

Out of plain maple (hollowed out of course) with a RW pinstripe.  All RW neck, of course.
Gibson mini HB in neck, beat up Tele bridge hot stack pup in the middle, Vintage stack in the bridge.

All hardware will probably come from GFS - to cut down on cost.
3 compensated saddle ashtray bridge, blank tele plate to drill for 3-4 knobs and 3 mini switches (series - parallel - tap)

If I get to eat waffles in a few days, I may upgrade to armadillo guitars for all the hardware.

3 independent volume knobs, so no switches.

Tru oil finish.

Keep ya posted.

Martin

 

[mgaut051]

I have a walnut cap with a nice sapwood stripe down the middle (a little less figuring that what I found online, but meh) that I wasn't planning on using for this build.

I also have some cherry lumber - but I'm worried that it has a dull taptone - bodies don't affect tone so much, right?

So I'm thinking 3 piece cherry back, walnut top, parchement PG, black Pup ring on the mini, all RW neck.

What do you think? Maple or Cherry/Walnut?

 

[dNA]

I have a walnut cap with a nice sapwood stripe down the middle (a little less figuring that what I found online, but meh) that I wasn't planning on using for this build.

I also have some cherry lumber - but I'm worried that it has a dull taptone - bodies don't affect tone so much, right?

So I'm thinking 3 piece cherry back, walnut top, parchement PG, black Pup ring on the mini, all RW neck.

What do you think? Maple or Cherry/Walnut?

lose the oversized inlays and that baby's a keeper. also, can't you do the mini hum w/o a pickup ring, or do you specifically want one? i feel like it's unnecessary baggage.

also, the consensus is that body wood makes less difference to tone than neck. and then there's the whole thing of variety and how two pieces of the same wood are never that much alike. and i don't think cherry's a bad wood for guitars. I liked the Godin archtops made out of wild cherry (dunno if that's a different variety.)

but if you're really concerned, I'd do the walnut cap on a maple body with the rosewood neck.

 

[mgaut051]

So the original mason:

I like that the body is simple, the pickups are soooo varied and seem to be more "grown" out of the guitar than thrown into it - organic would be the right word.
Don't like the full cover on the middle pickup, but I love the pup ring on the neck. Not too keen on the mismatched hardware either. Just feels like a guitar that's been modded so many times no one knows what the original guitar is like at all.

With respect to the ring:

I do prefer it with the ring, and a contrasting ring at that. The other part is that the guitar is already routed for a p90 and can be converted to a p90 tele deluxe if ever I think the brent mason thing is not for me. (pickguards cover routs nicely). But not the bright red mid pup cover. Ugh. And definitely not individual poles.

Here's another one without the contrasting ring:

And this one proves that I need that red pickup in the middle too. And more of a contrasting ring.

May contact James reed to see if I can get one out of rosewood, to match the neck... think that would be nice?

 

[dNA]

I get what you're going for. I think you're pretty much on the right track if that's the case. glad you don't like the mismatched hardware though. that's beyond a quirk for me

if I can get one out of rosewood, to match the neck... think that would be nice?

it's hard to imagine what it might look like in context, but i think rosewood anything looks nice in general

 

[mgaut051]

I get what you're going for. I think you're pretty much on the right track if that's the case. glad you don't like the mismatched hardware though. that's beyond a quirk for me

if I can get one out of rosewood, to match the neck... think that would be nice?

it's hard to imagine what it might look like in context, but i think rosewood anything looks nice in general

Should I go walnut cherry -( lumber on hand), or maple (which I feel is simpler/more consistent with the original feel of the BMT)?

 

[dNA]

well I think it just makes sense to go with what's on hand. On top of anything else, it'll make the guitar more yours - how many cherry/walnut guitars have you seen? I think it fits that image of a guitar that's been modded so many times you won't recognize the original. so that'd be my vote

 

[mgaut051]

My folks are in town for a couple of weeks - (we really appreciate the help with the girls) - so my dad and I went to Lee Valley and my father gave me a GREAT gift:

So I got the stones and honing guide to go with it, a dozuki dovetail saw and a chisel to make dovetails on my next next project - small boxes for my daughters. (padouk - walnut - curly maple for the eldest, and wenge - pau amarello - pernambuco for the little one - - I'll post pics in an off topic thread.)

And then we went to the lumber store, and I stroked a good many nice peices of maple,  but bought none. So I think the decision had already been taken on a subconscious level. I also did not buy the lumber I needed for the boxes (genius).

 

[mgaut051]

So I've got issues.

Cagey - I know, you know.

I know.

But I've got "other" *guitar* related issues.

I've decided on cherry for the body. The walnut will be for other guitar(s)
But my cherry is 6.25" wide (at best - Max, get your mind out of the gutter.) - so:

maybe a 1" - 2" walnut or padouk lam down the center,

or a 0.95 scale,

or a 3 piece body (3 x 4.25"). I just don't know.

Anyways, so the pickup I'm planning to use is a bridge SD Hot Stack pup from a tele - 21.4K. In the BMT it's a strat neck hot stack (13.2K). Now it's going to have it's own volume pot, so I probably don't need to match it's output to the other pickups, but if I *did* want to match the output to the other pups so that even at max power it would still be balanced, how do I calculate the fixed resistor value, and do I put it in series or in parallel with the pup? I really don't know where I would start to figure this out...

The 3rd issue is the other pups. I've been sniping on eBay unsuccesfully - a gibson neck minibucker is 110 without shipping, and a SD vintage stack bridge is 80 or so. The used ones seem to be selling for nearly as much as the new ones. Call me cheap, but I can't really afford that right now (or at least I can't justify it to my wife).  So... GFS? I'm loath to go that route, but I think I'll have to compromise until I have a little more cash, or until I win some rockin auctions on fleabay.  So the mini cruchy seems to be a reasonably good match (according to description + resistance). But I'm having problems with the bridge pup. A SD vintage stack is 18K, can't decide if what I want is a Lil puncher (10 or 15K side by side rails) or alnico fatbody overwound single coil (10K) or something. I hate the look of the rails. And we're still talking of 60$ for 2 "cheap" pups vs 200$ for the real deal. My whole body goes into spastic revulsion at the idea of GFS pups... bad sign right? I'm gonna regret it right? Anyone want to sell me a gibson or lollar minibucker or firebird neck pup for 50$ and or a sd lead vintage stack for 40$?

So -
Body?
Volume matching?
Bridge pickup?

Martin

 

[Mor Paul]

But my cherry is 6.25" wide (at best - Max, get your mind out of the gutter.)

Does anyone want to explain this? My immature teenage brain does not understand the humor.

 

[mgaut051]

Man, you really do read EVERYTHING on this forum. Incredible.

 

[Mor Paul]

Yep. I think I've read every post on here.

 

[mgaut051]

So what would you do? GFS or wait a LOOONG time?

 

[Mor Paul]

Personally? I'd wait. But, I'm a patient guy, and I am a big fan of doing guitars EXACTLY like you want them.

 

[bagman67]

Yep. I think I've read every post on here.

And written a quarter of 'em.

 

[mgaut051]

Enough nonsense.

I'll put the hot stack tele bridge pup in the bridge position, and I just bought a quarter pounder neck strat pup I'll put in the middle. Overall a little more low end than the BMT. And not very tele twangy. I'm  still looking for a mini bucker or firebird for the neck, may end up putting a cheap sd p90 (custom or stack) in there to warm up the seat. So not at all a BMT ish guitar, finally. More of a heavy, cherry Nashville tele deluxe p90.

And 3 piece body it is.

 

[mgaut051]

won this

Gonna get some rings for it (GFS).

Anyone know where I can get the mounting plates?

 

[mgaut051]

The plan

Just realized the humbucker is single conductor - it's going to need some major work (I'll turn it into a 4 conductor).

But first: boxes for the girls, finish the bass...

 

[mgaut051]

I call this one "whipping up some grub and double tasking." Since I don't seem to have any time with the 2 kids to do anything ever (since days are for family time, and when the kids are in bed, it's clean up time...), I decided to work on my pups and make tacos at the same time.

• Round up your food, your spices, your pickups, a screwdriver and a soldering iron
• Cook 1lb ground beef (in pan, not with soldering iron) with minced onion and add mixed beans in after
  
  
• Re-Solder broken red lead to it's lug on the hot stack
  
  
• Mix 2tbsp flour, 1tbsp ea of dried ancho chiles, chili powder, onion powder and 1tsp ea of cumin, oregano, garlic salt
  
  
• Solder broken ground (proximal) to green lug under hot stack, cause that's going to be allright, right?
  
  
• Add spice mix to meat and cook, 1/4 cup water, and simmer until nice and sticky
  
  
• Separate mini humbucker from hack-job DIY dogear mounting ring while thinking of witty add to sell this piece of crap on fleabay
• Grate cheese, ask wife if every thing is ok with the kids downstairs
• Break solder between cover and baseplate - oh - what's this? It's already broken? Oh crap - what gong show am I going to find in there... I hate fleabay
• Chop lettuce and tomatoes, mince a fresh jalapeno
• Oh man, this thing falls apart without the cover...
  
  
  
  Tape on one end - not a good sign. Dog's breakfast...
  
  
  
  Oh, ok, not so bad.
  
  
  
  Although the hot lead wasn't really connected...
  
  
  
  I wonder if this wood stick is gibson standard issue? http://curtisnovak.com/pickups/repairs/MiniHum3x3/ makes it seem possible.
• Uh oh - time to eat supper. Serve on Tostadas (flat tacos) with sour cream, guacamole, salsa, minced veggies, grated cheese and cilantro.
  
  
  
  Snap a pic on the sly so that my wife doesn't accuse me of being a UW addict.
  Try not to seem like you're only dreaming of pickups.

Am I an addict? - yeah.

 

[Cletus]

Why is your pickup in your food?