The Coca Cola Guitar Pedal Board!

I'm still working on my "Woody 57 Tweed Deluxe Mini Stack" amp. All pine, all hand wired, all the good stuff. I decided I wanted some pedals to go with it but I want to be careful about his whole pedal thing. I have fallen down the guitar pedal rabbit hole and I actually made it back out. I have had the boutique high dollar pedals and I have had $20 Danelectro pedals. What I don't want to do is get lost in my pedals when really the tone I want is going to come from the amp. With this in mind I ordered two Danelectro Fish N Chips equalizers (1 for each channel), one Visual Sound Garagetone Axel Grease delay, one Visual Sound Garagetone DriveTrain OD, and A/B box that goes to the Equalizers and then out to the amp and finally an ancient volume pedal. This story is not about the pedals, it's about the board.

I have been watching a Facebook page from a pretty cool pedal board maker called Salvage Custom Shop. They make killer boards that are new and also use old type writer cases and suitcases. You can see their stuff here. Don't go look yet though. I thought I was going to get one of those but I didn't really want to lay out the cash. So then I was on Ebay and found a killer board that was all fauxed out in my favorite colors. The problem is that one doesn't pack up in a case. Right after I looked at that I walked out of my guitar room/office and my eyes landed on two wood Coca Cola crates given to me long ago as a birthday present by the vivacious Cheryl. BAM!! I knew right then I was going to make a Coca Cola pedal board! I put some pedals in one and while not huge it seemed about right for what I needed. Then I slept on the idea. By morning I had the whole build worked out in my head.

First I started with the two wooden crates. I wanted to make sure every piece of the board looked as old as everything else. That is when I realized I could take apart the wooden sections that held the cokes and use them for the board. They were already close to the perfect sizes. The other holder was for two six packs and it had some nice wood in it as well.

As I was trying to figure out how to get them apart I really got a good look at how these were built. While the long sides were always red I realized the short sides were originally yellow, the old color. Also under the red paint is the name of a town and the word "TEXAS", how cool is that?! It also looks like these were hand made and hand cut. I have no way of knowing for sure but they look hand made to me. It made me wonder about the people that worked on them. Another interesting thing is that when I was cutting some of the pieces the wood smelled just like Coca Cola. All I can figure is over the years more than a few cokes were spilled on these crates.

I used the main piece of wood for the pedal board floor. I hinged it on the back so I could open it up and put my daisy chain power supply under there. It also has enough room for extra cables, slides and pedals. I used a piece of the wood as a lip for the board to lay down on to stay secure while playing.

To create the case I went to our hardware store and bought 4 snaps and put them on all four corners. I didn't know if that would actually worked but damn it did! They also had a metal handle that looked perfect to me. I got all that together one evening and brought it upstairs to show the wife. She actually really liked it. She even called it "art." High praise!

I decided the new hardware didn't fit. It looked too new. Everyone went to bed and I googled "aging metal hardware." The first link listed things I had in the house so I set out to age all the hardware. By morning every piece of metal looked as old as everything else. I was petty blown away.

I stole some rubber feet off an old type writer we have and took two of the side boards to elevate the front of the board. After I was done it looked great and worked just as well!

A few days later my pedals arrived and I went about figuring out how I wanted everything laid out. It all fit perfectly! I found some foam for the top and bottom. The top foam holds all the pedals in place firmly. I will anchor the pedals down with bicycle chain links when I feel good about what I'm running but it totally works as is now.

I can unplug the power and cables, put the top on and lock everything down and actually haul this thing around. I think it looks pretty damn cool. It's exactly how I saw it in my mind...and that's a pretty rare thing.  So there you have the "Coca Cola Pedal Board" from Jim T!

A Pine Speaker Cab, Tung Oil and a Burlap Sack!

When I started planning my all pine 57 Tweed Deluxe clone I had in the back of my mind that it would be Johnny cool if it sat on a matching cab to form the ultimate tweed stack.

The Tung Oil Learning Curve
I found a cab maker on ebay that had a pine 1x12 box that mimicked the combo amp cab I already had. These two cabs are so similar that I almost thought the same guy had built them both, but I'm sure this is a pretty common design. The combo was done when I bought it. If it was up to me I would have a less glossy version but the combo does look pretty sexy.

The speaker cab was raw with no finish. The combo was finished with tung oil. I looked on my shelf and I already had two bottles. After my first application I read the label and the Formby's Tung Oil has no tung oil in it! It is a thinned wiping varnish.  I hoofed it to the hardware store and bought the Minwax Tung Oil. Guess what, Minwax doesn't have tung oil in it either!
After some Googling I found out most people use the Minwax. I let my first layer of Formby's dry for 24 hours and then I applied my Minwax. I followed the instructions and wiped the excess off after 15 minutes. The problem was after 2 or three applications I found it hard to believe it would ever look as shiny as my combo cab. I thought, "man that guy must have used some sort of clear coat and not confessed to it!"

I went back to the builder of my extension cab and asked how he got his cab so shiny in the "after" photo. He simply replied, "with 400 grit sand paper." I found it hard to believe but this gave me a chance to drive the Caddy and crank up my new favorite song - ZZ Top's "Heartache in Blue". I almost bought some clear coat for backup but I came home with 8 sheets of 400 grit. I sanded the cab and then wiped it down. I hit it again with a nice wipe down of Minwax Tung Oil. 12 hours later it looked better. I sanded it again and noticed that the sanding was actually shinning it up in some areas. I laid down more Minwax but this time I didn't wipe it down after 10 minutes. I let it sit in the sun. Right before I went to bed I sanded it down and hit it again and left it "wet" over night with no wipe down after 10 minutes. When I woke up I ran down to the basement and it was pretty shiny! I was afraid it might not dry and be gummy but it was pretty good. I waited until noon and sanded and wiped it down with Minwax one more time. By 5 PM it looked almost exactly like my cab. I would have never believed it!

Burlap Potato Sacks are Cool

After watching Heartworn Highway and spotting Charlie Daniels wood amp cabs and burlap feed sack speaker covers I had to have my own. That led to me sitting on my porch in the evening on Ebay looking for two feed sacks. It's not as easy as you would think. I would find cool burlap sacks and they would want $80 bucks for them. There is no way I could bring myself to pay that much for some burlap. The other problem was finding sacks that looked cool but also had a graphic that would fit the cab. After weeks of looking I wanted the sack that Charlie used. I had given up and then out of the blue there it was and for only around $8!! The sad reality was that there was no way it was going to fit my cabs. It was just too big.

It was a sad burlap sack hunting day. I ended up scoring an Indian head that looked super bad and was just the right size. Usually I would feel a little funny about an Indian head as art work but since my people walked the Trail of Tears I figure I can pull it off. I also scored a sack with a train on it. When they showed up I was blown away. I just didn't expect potato sacks to look so damn cool! My wife and I both felt bad that I had to cut them up. I think I'm going to get a few more to frame for the basement.

There you have it - my retro, all natural, potato sack boxes of wood. The cabs look even better than I thought they would...and how often does that happen?

The BarnCaster de Billy Hell

 The 150 Plus Year Old Barncaster - Telecaster - By Jim T.
I started really getting into barn wood telecasters a year ago. I love the idea of real barn wood being used for a Tele. I would spend my night doing Google image searches of barncasters and I decided I had to have one. I contacted a great body wood crafter. His company is called Wildwood. He cuts great bodies. He had a few pieces of barnwood left over from another project.

The description of the wood:
That is actually wood from a barn. It is wormy chestnut from one of the chestnut barns in the Cuyahoga Valley in Ohio. Chestnut barns are rare. The wood was stored for about 15 years in a climate controlled room to make picture frames and the builder decided that he was not going to use it. It is 150 plus years old and could be much older. The marks on the horn are saw blade marks from way back when. Lots of nice worm holes and more!












I put the guitar together from all my favorite parts: 
Neck PU - Lollar Imperial Standard wind heavy relic. Thee hand wound humbucker!
Bridge PU - Rio Grande Muy Grande (purchased on TDPRI)
Bigsby - B17 (GRRRRREAT)
Bridge - The stock was good but the Compton has more sustain. He custom made it to fit the B17 bridge.
Knobs - I made these out of 12 gauge shotgun shells and a .45 acp for the switch.
Control Plate - That is a black GFS tele control plate. I just scrubbed it with a green Scotch pad. They may not make this anymore. I had this one laying around.
Wiring - Toneshaper for the Tele. The cool part here is that I can switch from a 500k to 250k pot depending on where I'm at with my switch.
Neck - That is a CEG Hardtail Mighty Mite. I tried many things to get the color right. Plays great. No complaints. I drilled it with a hand drill and everything is straight.
Body - This was custom made and he cut the neck slot with the 4mm angle in it. I bolted on the neck and it was ready to rock!
Nut - Earvana - I love em.
Tuners - GFS Gotoh locking knockoffs. These are great tuners and drop right in. I have put these on several guitars with no issues and they kick ass. I ordered the black ones and scrubbed them with a green scouring pad while watching Smokey and the Bandit. Nicely aged!
String Hold Down - I was popping the strings off the bridge and wanted something to hold them down. I contacted Trussart and he was nice enough to reply to me but he doesn't sell his separately (I knew he wouldn't). I looked over and saw some .357 shells and an hour later I had a killer home brew string retainer!  

This guitar plays and sounds as good as my high dollar Fender Tele, in fact I like it much more. If you have never built your own guitar I highly suggest it. It's fun, rewarding and you get the exact guitar you want.

Here is video of Sam Eakins from Taylor Guitars taking a spin on the Barncaster de Hell:
 

The One Watt Amp

The One Watt Amp

So I have lots of 12/15/36/100/130 watt amps.
I like to sit on the back porch and play the blues.
All my Mustang modelers have died on me and I was on the hunt for something tubey.
I stumbled on the HT-1RH 1W. It had the features I needed:
* Low wattage
* MP3 input for backing tracks
* Reverb
* Tubes (push pull)
* Great price

I was also looking at old Fender Champs, Valco amps, Vintage 47 amps, Silvertone etc.

I finally landed on a 1 watt tube amp:

The patented ISF (Infinite Shape Feature) circuit gives you infinite adjustment over the characteristics of the tone control network and takes you from the USA to the UK and anywhere in between. Add a fully specified speaker emulated output, MP3/ Line Input and you have everything you need for recording or practicing.

So the question was how to do take the HT-1RH 1W and also have a cool look?

I put together an extension cab for my 57 Tweed Deluxe - oiled pine wood, potatoe sack grill cloth, Jensen Electric Lightening speaker.

I started out with a pine 12 inch extension cab with a Jensen Electric Lightening.
When the HT-1RH showed up I played it for a while and then I pulled the amp out of the head.
It's held on with the 4 screws that are holding the rubber feet on.


I pulled the back wood off the cab and started playing with ways to get the amp in there.
I could have installed it flat on the bottom of the amp but I thought it would be safer and more accessible on the top.


I put a piece of paper over the bottom of the cab and made a template for the holes.

I made my marks and drilled the four holes in the top of my cab (two were under the handles, so they are hidden. The amp was screwed on tight using the screws from the cab.

It was super simple.

I used the cab wood back plate to go around the amp face and I left the bottom open.
I figured the amp would be pointed away from me most of the time anyway.

I put on a cable keeper to keep from yanking out the power chord.

The cool part is that I can still use the cab for my 15 watt 5e3 if I want as well.

The one watt concept really works. I try to sit on my back porch and play every day. My 57 Tweed was jut too loud. I can get the Blackstar Ht-RH cranked up and get some really rich blues tones. I'm getting killer harmonics as well.



I'm really liking the tone and I really dig I can get some Fender type tweed tones and rounded off Marshall tones. 
My final thoughts - a 1 watt, pine combo with a 12 inch speaker? - SICK!!!

Take a listen. My neighbor, and killer guitar player, Karl plays as I jibber jabber:

TexCasters

BarnCaster

 

 

TexCaster II

The "Billy Hell" Les Paul - a custom Gibson

Well it was a pretty long journey to this guitar. It all started because of a single P90 pickup. That sparked a guitar build project that took on a life of it's own. Here is a journal of how this guitar was conceived and created:

01-27-2012 06:24 PM
1 LP Body, 3 P90s and a Bigsby

So here is what I'm thinking:
Black Les Paul style body
3 P90s - GFS Mean 90
6 way switch or 3 volume knobs and 1 tone or push pulls
B70 or B7 Bigsby
All chrome hardware (not gold)
Chrome knobs
Chrome trim rings
Chrome locking tuners
GFS roller bridge
I'm basically going to pull everything off and rewire/rebuild the whole thing.

01-29-2012 11:23 AM
Here are some Photoshopped mockups I have made:

The "Black Chromey" with humbuckers

The Gold Top Humbuggy option:

Flat Black

Flat Black w/Pinstripes


02-10-2012 12:33 AM
I have decided the Gibson '60's Tribute had everything I want - flat laquer black paint, chambered body, routed for two P90s, perfect candidate for a Bigsby and Vibramate and it's a real Les Paul! I purchased one site unseen from a shop off the web and I'm hoping for the best!

03-04-2012 03:00 PM
So The Bigsby is done.
I ebonzied the neck to get it closer to the black body.
I ground down a mexican peso until it was thin enough to work as a poker chip.
Next week I'm supposed to get my dogear routes. I may go soapbar is the dog ears are going to be a pain to adjust but I love the look of dogears.
Some photos (the peso pic is before i dyed the neck)....

Pained the Bigsby red:


My mock up with dogears:


After I ebonized the fret board to get the neck to be as black as the body:


My Peso poker chip. This was a coin my Dad brought back from one of his many Mexico trips:

[hr]
Also - I was wanting some silver/chrome for the poker chip and could not see paying someone $15 for a chrome washer. After I had the peso idea I was on ebay and it hit me that after my Dad died I found a bag of coins in his closet. I dug it out and found a nice peso in there. So now there is part of my Dad in the guitar. Nice.

03-05-2012 10:49 AM
Pickups
I'm pretty firm on going with the VintageVibe P90s set of three. I like the whole magnet concept:


03-07-2012 02:18 PM
Routing the LP
Where it's at! So I dropped her off at Glasers today. 3 soapbars coming up. About to order the Vintagevibeguitars p90s.

I just got back from Glasers Instruments - the best luthiers in Nashville! They said it would be 2 weeks but it was only one day. The only thing left is for my VintageVibe Guitars P90s to show up. I'm going to bolt on the Bigsby and start the wiring this weekend.

03-09-2012 12:55 PM
Nick from Glasers did the routing:


The LP with the P90 covers slid in. I had to route the existing holes corner radius for the non Gibson P90s to fit:


There is no sign for Glasers but the mailbox gave them away:

Wiring (Les Paul, 3 P90s, 6 way rotary switch from Stewmac, push pull pots:
So Deaf Eddie came through again! I know I like P90s but I have never had 3 to play with before. Deaf Eddie hooked me up again! Go check out his site. Here is the schematic:



and here is what it does ala Deaf Eddie:
PULL the bridge volume, and it puts the bridge pup out of phase. This will affect throws 2, 3, & 4, you can make them spikey and/or sweet, but also nasally and thin, DEPENDING on how you balance the volume of the bridge pup with the other volumes. Lots of tonal variations here from working the volume knobs.

PULL the tone control, and it puts the bridge pup in series with the neck pup. This is a "brute force" tone (usually). This will affect throws 1 and 2, and the series combo should be BIG and FAT, and probably a tad louder - some players think they hear a little high-end rolloff, but it's just the bass coming on gangbusters. A side effect of series combos is that the bridge pup will "disappear" from throws 3 and 4, as it is shunted by the presence of the neck pup.

PULL BOTH, and the bridge is in series/out of phase with the neck pup. On almost all the axes I have - single coil or humbucker - throw 1 will be a stinging solo voice, and I like it a lot. Sounds best with some overdrive/crunch. Throw 2 will be a tad mellower, and the other four throws will again be missing the bridge pup.

The red chicken head will point down at the neck pickup. With this wiring here is how that works ala Deaf Eddie:
"the sweep is all on the "neck" side of the arc, with "up" as the neck and go clockwise "down" as the bridge"

03-10-2012 10:48 AM
I put the Bigsby on and the knobs just to see how she looked. I think the Bigsby bar looks better than the Chet bar but I have found a Bigsby with Chet bar is a lot more controllable for me. It comes close to Strat trem with the Chet bar. The Chat bar also stays in the perfect place for me. I don't have to go hunting for it when I need it.


03-15-2012 10:02 AM
1. She looks killer!
2. For the first time ever I got the wiring right on my first try! (I had one ground that popped off but after a resolder all was good!)
3. Where the Gibson P90s were like, "that sounds pretty good!", the VintageVibeGuitars.com P90s were like, "WOW!"
4. I got to play it for a while with some throw away strings and now it's off to my friend and luthier JFK at Virginias Music Center. He is going to make sure the frets are good and round them off, do a setup and make her right.
5. I'm going with .10s

I should have her back tonight!

Changes - The volumes are dependent so I think I will rewire it to be independent this weekend.

To do:
If I can bring myself to do it it still needs to be pinstriped but man it's looking good the way it is!

(She isn't fully put back together in this photo but she is fully functional!)


03-25-2012 12:41 AM
She is finished just in time for guitar night. The only thing left are the pinstripes and I'm going to have to warm into that idea. I like so much right now I don't think I can stripe it just yet!


It was passed around quite a bit at my guitar pull last night and even the guys that didn't want to like it ended up playing it for a long time. The chambered body of the '60's Tribute seems to really add to the tonal characteristic of the guitar. You can almost get an acoustic sound out of it but it will also get severely gnarly as well. I was afraid after all the thought, time and money I put in the guitar I might end up not liking it but man do I love it. The action is also great - super fast. The B70 with Chat bar is also very smooth and responsive. And totally by accident the balance is perfect. I don't know the actual weight but after adding the extra p90 and Bigsby it is still lighter than my Epiphone Pro FX but now feels substantial like an LP should. My luthier commented that the combo of the chambered body and the Bigsby somehow really opened up the sound. Audio clips soon but today I have to do my first mow of the season!