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mooncaster guitar

dmraco

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I have this coming.  Mahogany and lace wood with tortoise shell binding.  Going with two TV Jones Power Trons.  I am considering splitting them but not sure the output is there for single coil operation.

Going with a 24.74 scale mahogany and blood wood neck with Warmoth headstock I have laying around.  IT had the new nut width and seems very comfortable.    I think just a simple SATIN poly is called for.  You do not see to many lace wood tops and I would hate to cover it up.  I will wait to I see the actual product before deciding.
 

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nice!  very close to the mooncaster build that I've been plotting for some time now.  Kinda a gretsch but not!
 
Soooo nice. Can't wait to see it.

Regarding PowerTron's they can be split, some folks do, however, the general consensus is most prefer them unsplit. I'm in the middle of a TV Jones build myself, and would highly recommend calling them with any questions. They are incredibly generous with their time and I've received excellent service from customer service to shop employees and everyone in between. Also, I recommend spending some time on the various Gretsch forums as they are a goldmine for TV Jones insights.
 
Cactus Jack said:
I'm in the middle of a TV Jones build myself, and would highly recommend calling them with any questions. They are incredibly generous with their time and I've received excellent service from customer service to shop employees and everyone in between. Also, I recommend spending some time on the various Gretsch forums as they are a goldmine for TV Jones insights.

What pickups are you using?    I used tv Jones on my sons moon caster bass.  They were super helpful and answered all of my questions and were quick to answer the phone or email.  I get the feeling it’s a smaller operation. 

The pickups I got were scratch and dent and picked them up at about 30% discount
 
DMRACO said:
Cactus Jack said:
I'm in the middle of a TV Jones build myself, and would highly recommend calling them with any questions. They are incredibly generous with their time and I've received excellent service from customer service to shop employees and everyone in between. Also, I recommend spending some time on the various Gretsch forums as they are a goldmine for TV Jones insights.

What pickups are you using?    I used tv Jones on my sons moon caster bass.  They were super helpful and answered all of my questions and were quick to answer the phone or email.  I get the feeling it’s a smaller operation. 

The pickups I got were scratch and dent and picked them up at about 30% discount

I'm using a Supertron in the neck, a T90 in the middle position, and a Classic Plus in the bridge. You can see a few pics here:

https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=32113.0

Their scratch and dent deals are awesome. Their company is awesome. I hold them in very high regard.
 
As mentioned, Power'Trons aren't really suited to splitting. Despite their name, they're still a bit brighter and clearer than regular humbuckers—fairly P-90-ish, really—so when you split them all you get is a volume drop; the EQ doesn't really get much brighter, just a touch less in the low-mids but with the volume being so low it's not like you can really notice it. You've got to boost the signal back up quite a bit to really hear the shift in EQ and at that point you are of course also boosting the hum.

You get more out of a split with them than you would with regular/vintage 'trons, but that's not saying much. And though I've yet to try power'trons split in a semi-hollow body specifically, I've done enough semi-hollows to imagine the muted tone of the body would eat up any extra treble and cover for the minor loss in low-end, anyway. In other words I wouldn't expect it to sound much different from just turning the volume control down. 

YMMV of course depending on exactly how you play, what you're plugging into and how your whole rig overall reacts to small changes, but, personally, I wouldn't bother ever wiring up a 'tron pickup for a split switch ever again, at least not without a custom design made specifically for it. There's just not enough meat on their bones to begin with—even the power'tron—to make splitting effective.

You could look into wiring up a bass or low-mid cut instead, which results in about the same tone but at least keep it hum-cancelling. I did that with a Cabronita's neck pickup, it was a while back now so I don't remember the cap and resistor values I used off the top of my head, but a low-cut is an easy enough thing to look up. The result, at least in that guitar, was 99% the same tone as the previous split but with no hum and a fraction more output than split, so there was no downside.
 
This is going to be great. Looks like a similar setup to my Mooncaster with TV Jones filtertrons.
 
Thanks for the tip ACE.  I will likely follow your advice.  I thought about using the Super Trons but did not want to lose the gretch vibe, not that happens but I already have too many high output guitars 🤪 

I will take a look at some of the options you mentioned.   
 
My phone doesn't take the greatest photos but this is it. Sounds and plays great. You won't regret yours for an instant.

mWLaLPG.jpg
 
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