THE GUITARS: GRETSCH SYNCHROMATIC JET JR.

SO apparently in the late 90's to early 2000's Gretsch started making a line (or multiple lines) of cheap guitars called 'Syncromatic.' Reminiscent of a Les Paul in shape, these guitars were made in Korea out of plywood until around 2004 when they were switched to a solid wood body (maple?) and renamed 'Electromatic.' The strange thing is that a Gretsch Synchromatic was previously a totally different guitar- a much nicer, archtop hollowbody guitar worth much, much more. So why did they suddenly put out a line of cheap ($300) instruments? No one, insofar as I can tell, has any idea.  Most of them don't even have serial numbers.

I'll admit, I bought this guitar because, first and foremost, it's a cool looking little instrument. I first saw it on Craigslist before I bought my Tele, and I actually contacted the owner but he was out of town, so I sort of forgot about it for a couple months. Then right after Thanksgiving it came up again. I guess I didn't really need a second electric, but I couldn't stop thinking about how pretty this one was. I did a little bit of research, and everything I found on line about the 2001 Synchromatic Jet Jr was just so-so... plywood body, scratchy pots, rough frets, all the usual low-end guitar stuff. What intrigued me, though, was the single bridge humbucker pickup on a cheap guitar- I felt like it must sound unique somehow. Plus, I like simple things that no one else likes. It's kind of my thing, and this was too interesting to pass up.

So I called the guy up again, went and checked it out, and, of course, bought it. Turns out that even though this is really, truly a shitty guitar in the truest sense of the word, there are a few things that make it completely worth owning.

First, it looks pretty badass, and if you're going to own a low-end guitar, it might as well look good, right? The black and orange sunburst is beautiful, offset with the rosewood (?) fingerboard. The old-school jazz style Gretsch pearl pickguard is a nice touch as well. everything is in really nice condition too- no dings or chips, just a little belt buckle scratch on the back.

Second, the single bridge pickup is still a Gretsch, and even a cheap Gretsch pickup (the "Gretschbucker") sounds good, apparently. It also has adjustable poles, so I was able to raise the low, level the mids and lower the highs to balance out the gratingly bright sound it had when I got it. Coupled with a single tone knob that has a surprising range, this pup is pretty versatile. In fact, I like it for a Johnny Cash/50's style country tone better than my tele. I set the tone at about 4, my MXR DynaComp at 12 on the 'sensitivity' dial and my analog delay with the frequency and time at 1.  I get a nice, warm, slightly hollow, squishy slapback that sounds awesome in open E with a sort of 'chugga chugga' rhythm. Move up to the 12th fret and lay down a simple pentatonic lick with the same settings and you get some considerable tone that sounds pretty unique.

Third, I have been using Beefy Slinky's (.11-.54) to darken up the (in my opinion) icy, tinny tone that lighter gauge strings seem to produce with this particular humbucker. I experimented with the same mix of Beefy and Power Slinky's that I use on the Tele (see previous post) but I didn't like that set up at all, especially for lead guitar- this is mostly due to the action that is slightly higher than it could be, but mostly the fact is that it sounds full and warm with heavy strings and tinny even with mediums.

Finally, I love the way this guitar sounds with a Delta Lab Tube Overdrive.  The combo of the Delta Lab TO-1, MXR DynaComp, and Analog Delay is pretty killer.  Oddly, the TO-1 sounds like shit with my Tele.  I don't know why, but it really does. I was going to sell the pedal, which was a disappointment since I got a killer deal on it and most of the reviews I've read were really favorable. I'm glad I kept it, though... maybe it just doesn't sound good with single coil pups? That makes no sense really but it might be true. It's fat and warm as a drunk beagle with the Gretsch though, and it sounds way better with a humbucker than my Boss SD-1 (which sounds great with the Tele...)

So, overall, even though this guitar was probably not worth a penny more than the $140 I payed for it, with a little work and experimentation I ended up with something that can lay down some pretty awesome, unique sounding alt-country licks and look good doing it. Moral of the story? Cheap can be great, as long as you're willing to experiment with different setups; plus, it's a good learning experience, and if you get lucky like I did, you end up with something very few people have- a Gretsch Synchromatic Jet Jr that sounds cool and is fun to play.

THE GUITARS: FENDER TELECASTER

THE first thing I needed, when I joined the band was, obviously, an electric guitar. I haven't owned one in at least a decade. This being an alt-country band (sort of) I figured a Tele would fit best; also, I've always wanted one- they look classy, they're simple and you can beat the shit out of them. Fortunately, the lead singer of the band had an old one out in his garage. It was a circa 1999 MIM, with a few dings for character, a warping pick guard, a missing volume knob, and the neck pickup hanging on only by the wires. Also, to top things off, at some point someone (I think a relative?) had scratched an "eye of Sauron" into into the face just back of the saddle with a pocket knife.  Obviously, it was the perfect guitar for me. Dave was willing to part with it for a very reasonable price all things considered, so I took it home and starting fixing it up.

I ordered a new black pickguard off Amazon for about 10 bucks to replace the dirty, scratched and buckling white one. While that was on the way I remounted the neck pickup; turns out the screws were a little stripped and had come out so the adjustment springs were down in the body chamber but it was an easy fix with some tiny splinter-shims. I also made a new volume knob out of a .45 Caliber bullet shell stuffed with cork.  It works alright (sort of too slick for quick volume changes mid-strum) but it looks badass, so it's good enough for now. The eye of Sauron remains scratched into the paint, and gives this guitar it's inevitable name, "The Necromancer," which is, of course, the nickname of Sauron in the Hobbit when he... oh never mind. The important thing is that it's set up fairly nicely, and sounds great.

The last decision I had to make before this guitar was ready to go was what string gauge to use. I've been playing acoustic guitar almost exclusively for about the last 20 years, and I mostly use medium gauge strings. This is probably why every time I pick up an electric I can't help but bend the shit out of every note, making whatever I'm playing sound really sharp. Also, one thing about Tele's is that they have a really nice punchy, twangy, slappy sound to them, but in my opinion the bridge pickup (at least mine) is pretty harsh sounding with anything but a high-end amp. My amp (which I'll get to in a post coming soon) ain't high end, so I figured I would see if I could darken up the tone with heavier gauge strings, and make it easier for me to play at the same time (more acoustic feeling, I guess.)  I strung it up with Beefy Slinky's by Ernie Ball, which colored the tone nicely and gave chording a nice heavy feel that was easier to really dig into without unwanted bends. Basically, I don't want to play lighter, I want my strings to accommodate my playing style. I quickly realized, however, that a lot of the riffs I was writing were requiring moderate bends on the D string and some pretty extensive bends on the G. So I started mixing in the D and G strings from the Ernie Ball Power Slinky's, which are a slightly lighter gauge, but still fairly heavy as far as electric strings go. Thus my string selection for the Tele is:

11   E
15   B
18p G  (switched from 22p)
28   D  (switched from 30)
42   A
54   E

So how does it sound? Some (read 'those who believe that price equals quality) might say that the fact that this is a Made in Mexico (MIM) Tele takes away from its ability to provide reliability, tone, etc; basically the differences are that the body on a MIM is Alder, not Ash, and that the fretboard is maple rather than rosewood. The pickups are some low end stock single coils. Supposedly this combination of cost saving measures kills the 'Tele tone' (the pickups and brighter sounding Alder body) and negatively effect playability (the maple fret board with poorly finished frets) and for that reason a lot of folks on the web are pretty anti.

To be honest, though, I don't give a shit. I've got vintage acoustic guitars with plywood bodies that sound fucking great. The neck is straight, worn in nicely, and the fret ends are smooth. The pickups in this guitar are Noiseless Tele single coils which were installed at some point to replace the stock ones and they sound really good. My favorite tone comes out of the neck pickup. Deep, dark, and hollow- it really howls with a good dose of overdrive and a touch of delay. For straight up, balanced tone the mid position (both pickups) sounds really nice- crisp and dark with just a hint of twang. Of course the bridge pickup  pure country goodness, especially with some compression and delay. Overall, no matter what pickup is selected, this guitar rocks harder than I was expecting. Our songs cover quite a range of tones, and it can do it all handily. I love the fact that I can go from a nice country sound to a low growl with a couple flips of the selector switch and a roll back on the tone knob. Add my new favorite pedal, the MXR Custom Badass '78 to that combo and faces begin to melt.

So do I stick with this awesome axe for all duties required of me as a lead guitar player? Hell no. Not when a sweet deal on a low end Gretsch Synchromatic comes along on Craigslist... but that's for the next post.

HIGH TIME FOR A MUSIC RIG POST

WELL, it has, again, been too long since I posted anything on this, my blog that details the shit I build, compile, or otherwise cobble together. The past year or so, I've been focusing a lot on motorcycles, and the Yamaha XS850 project is still in progress: more to come on that soon.  But this blog has also focused, at times, on music; or, more specifically, the instruments I've built/repaired. Lately I've been pouring much of my creative energy into relearning (well, lets be honest- learning) to play lead guitar.  The old time band I was playing with for several years split up at the end of the summer, and about two days later I was sitting at the bar down at Terry's in A-Town with my buddy David who happened to be looking for a lead guitarist/multi-instrumentalist for his band which could best be described as, I guess, ''garage alt-country.'' It's been a LONG time since I strapped on an electric (hell, at the time I didn't even own one) but I was happy to give it a shot, so over the past few months I've been spending a lot of time putting together a rig on an incredibly tight budget. As I've been endlessly researching guitars, pedals, amps, etc, (most of which I'll never be able to afford) I've realized that there's not much out there in the way of helpful product reviews and honest evaluations, especially from the point of view of novice players who are really into trying for interesting sound (and also dead broke.)

Most reviews are written by illiterate assholes who don't take time to mess around with their gear before reviewing it online, or by the same sort of folk who scoff at anything inexpensive or less well known. These are the people with full Boss pedal boards, a Jackson seven string, and a Line6 modeling amp.  Fuck them. So I decided it was high time to share what little I've learned recently about playing secondhand guitars through a some pedals and amps I scrounged up and the sounds I've achieved. Much of what I've learned proves that I have a long way to go, but I think my recent quest to put an extra pair of balls in some alt-country songs has led to a few victories at least. So my next few posts are going to share what I've learned. Hopefully it helps. If not, you're welcome to close the page and go buy a double necked Ovation. Have fun at Guitar Center.

PAINT AND ETC. (PART 1)

I'm a little behind on my posts right now, so here's an update on a few things that happened with the bike over the past few days; this post'll be a two parter.

First off, I started painting components. I decided on a Rustoleum Satin Black since my buddy just did his Sportster with it and it looks sick. Rather than tear down the whole bike, though, I decided to paint as many parts as I could in place. I pulled out every rag and sheet of packing paper I could find and started wrapping up everything I didn't want painted.

Here's the setup for painting the tank- note the use of an empty organic chicken feed bad to cover the crankcase. Profesh.

 
The tank came out nice, I think. I debated whether to leave the lettering chrome, but a lot of the finish was flaking off so I just sanded everything a bit and blacked out the whole thing. The paint on the back of the tank was pretty cracked in spots, but the satin fills it out ok... it might not look professional, but it does look badass, which is what counts, right?

The gauges sucked. When I took off the speedometer one of the mounting bolts came loose and fell into the case. I had to take the whole thing apart to get the screw out and put it back on the correct hole. So after an hour of screwing around with that (and the rubber facemounts that disintegrated and the almost slack-less cables, etc.,) I was able to 'mask' them off from the rest of the front end shoot them. Then I did the bars brake levers and lever mounts, top of the triple tree and the headlight bucket, leaving the ring around the lens chrome. I'm still deciding whether or not to do the fork ears and boots... Suggestions? 

the finished (for now) front end

DAMMIT.

Just a quick update on the bike this morning; in an earlier post I mentioned that I took off a broken horn and blinker controls... Well, turns out that this particular set of controls also ran the headlight. I missed this fact since the guy who owned the bike before me also installed a hi-lo beam switch on the frame. Confusing. I only left about 1/2 inch of wire in the switch box when I cut everything out, and fortunately I was able to VERY carefully connect the wires back together. Now my problem is that I'm not sure I can get the box back on the bars, so I might have to tape it all up, leave it on low beam and tuck it into the headlight bucket; I guess I got lucky with that extra switch on the frame. This was definitely my FML moment for the weekend.

XS 850- TEAR DOWN AND DESIGN IDEAS

I figured the first thing I should do is make the bike rideable and as safe as possible, so I decided to start with the rear brake. I've never worked on disk brakes on a motorcycle, and my experience with them on bicycles has been limited to cable controlled, not hydraulic. The problem was that the brake would stop the rear wheel but only back off very slightly when the brake was released, causing some very noticeable friction. I wasn't quite sure what was happening inside the caliper. But that's what the internet is for, right? I started watching some instructional vids on how to free a stuck piston; however, most of them recommended taking the brake to a shop, or buying a rebuild kit. I figured, though, that a combo of common sense and Firestone DBA was all I needed. 

My buddy Karl came over and, seeing as he had never worked on hydraulic motorcycle brakes either, we figured between the two of us we should be able to fix it easily. After both of us put flathead screwdrivers worrisomely deep into our respective palms, we decided it was time for a new plan. Karl pulled up some more videos on his iphone, and we agreed the best plan of attack would be trying to push out the piston with compressed air. My compressor decided it was too tired to help, so after giving up on that, Karl pulled the end off my bicycle pump and attached the rubber hose to the bleed nipple. He gave it 2 pumps and the piston shot out immediately, almost snaking one of my fingers. Underneath, the seals were soft and in great shape, so I cleaned all the corrosion off the piston with some brake fluid, reassembled the who thing, and mounted it back on the bike. We bled the line (another thing neither of us had done) and called it a night after testing what is now a smooth, correctly operating rear brake. I'm going to buy a new rotor at some point, as this one is pretty bad, but at least it stops well and doesn't lock up.

Next I started taking shit off... anything I don't absolutely need is going: rear fender (soon to be bobbed... somehow,) blinkers, passenger pegs, broken horn and blinker control assembly, running lights, old sponge grips, etc.. I also started cleaning, got rid of the wasps and most of the spiders, and started Google searching for design ideas. I don't like cafe' racers all that much (although some are definitely cool); it's not really my style. Since this bike is already a beefcake, I don't think it makes much sense to try to get it too slim. So I'm thinking lean and mean, but not anorexic and bitchy. After some searching, I found this pic:

I don't know who built this bike (it comes from an online used vehicle database) but as soon as I saw it I knew that this was the style I was looking for. I recently met a dude at a poker run my band played who has a Street Bob set up in a similar way and it looks badass... so I'm using this as a template. I like the satin black with tasteful chrome highlights, and I like the short rear end. I also think the black mags are killer. The gauges sort of create a little extra hight in front too. 

So I've got my inspiration. But I think I can make my bike look better than this one. For one thing, it needs a rear fender that comes up past or flush with the back of the seat, and I don't like the tank he used... the stock one looks better (even though it's a goddam whale.) So here we go; next post, new paint and new, lo-pro seat mounting.

UH OH. XS 850 PROJECT BIKE!

It's been a bit since my last post, mostly because I finished the SL125 (dubbed the "Nazgul") and haven't had anything to do (except work 55 hours a week.) Lately, though, I've been itching for a bit more power and reliability than the Nazgul can deliver. This is probably the fault of my buddy who lets me take his 883 Sportster for a spin every now and then. I even started thinking about dropping an old 250cc motor in that little frame (which I have been told, categorically, is a bad idea.) But a few weeks ago I was helping my friend's dad clear out his garage and (cue singing angels) lo and behold, in the back, covered in spider webs (and, as it turned out, filled with wasp nests) was this 1980 Yamaha XS 850.

                                                                   




The bike had technically been for sale for a while, and had been sitting for about 3 years, so the owner was anxious to get rid of it. I payed $500, loaded it into the trailer, and that was that.

I got her home and took a quick ride around the block before the battery died, and the motor runs fine considering it hasn't been started for a long time. I'm used to the Nazgul (top speed, 55mph) so when I hit 60 in second gear I realized... this is going to be fun.

The XS 850 is a sweet bike. Shaft drive, 3 cylinder, dual front rotors-- all power and BEEFY. Check out the size of that tank! Usually these bikes either get restored as close to original as possible, or they get cafe'd out. I'm not sure what to do with her yet; the first order of business is to clean her up.

Obviously, she needs some work. A new battery was a must, as the old Wal Mart special was refusing to recharge and blowing fuses.  Also, the rear brake was stuck, and, unfortunately, had been ridden that way for what looks like a long time, judging from the glacial tills in the rotor. The whole thing is riddled with spiders, and there's a lot of corrosion and rust so most of the components could use a good scrubbing and probably some paint of some sort. The seat is giant, so if my feet are going to even get close to reaching the ground she's going to need a new, lower profile saddle, too, at the very least, and maybe shorter rear shocks.

Next post, I get at that rear brake, start slimming her down, and begin brainstorming design ideas.