Don’t know jack
What is up with the jacks on these semi-hollowbody Epiphone guitars. When I was shopping for guitars in the stores, I often saw Epiphone Dots and Sheratons with the jack missing inside the guitar. How can that be good for sales?! And when reading in the Epi forums, I saw folks complaining of this happening to them. Does this happen on the more expensive Elite Epi’s, or other semi-hollow body guitars?
Update: I added a 1/4″ inner-tooth lock washer between the nut and round washer, and it has stayed tight ever since.
I never thought it would happen to me. I made a point of periodically hand-tightening the jack when plugging in a cable, just to be sure.
Tune-o-matic, buzz-tastic!
The retainer wire on a standard Tune-o-matic bridge can buzz and rattle if the bridge isn’t machined to perfection.
I didn’t expect this to bother me as much as it does. The buzz doesn’t come through the amp, but I don’t usually play very loud, so hearing a buzzy rattle from the bridge results in a real lack of clarity in the sound I’m hearing.
Here’s a video where I demonstrate what it sounds like when the retainer wire on your Tune-o-matic gets all buzz-tastic.
Trying to fix it
Gibson/Epiphone factory in Qingdao
Let’s visit the factory in China where my new Epiphone Riviera was made: Qingdao Factory Tour. I love the picture of the drying room full of flying Les Pauls:
There’s lots more pics, and an interview with the plant managers, Scott Lewis and Lloyd Williams at Gibson Qingdao Factory – All Epiphone… All The Time!
Learning to learn how to play guitar
Oh, how it pains me to say this: I’ve been playing guitar for over 20 years. But I can’t call myself a guitarist.
I have a pretty solid background in music theory and harmony. I minored in music at UC Berkeley. I can find my way around a piano. Yet somehow, I never learned how to learn how to play guitar! I never once took a lesson.
For the first five years or so, I learned just enough to be able to play the songs I was writing, and I even played and sang in a band. I never learned more than the open chords, the E-form bar chord, and the note names on the first string. Mostly I wrote songs by noodling on the guitar until something sounded good. It was “art”.
For the next decade or so, I didn’t really learn much more. More
Pots and caps
I’m assuming that the tone caps are more critical to the sound than the pots themselves. Please leave a comment to share your recommendations or experiences.
Here’s some background reading for the upcoming capacitor and potentiometer mods.
Auditioning Tone Capacitors Part 1 (Premier Guitar)
Auditioning Tone Capacitors Part 2 (Premier Guitar)
Article about pots in general, with good charts about tapers
Treble Bleed Mod for Volume Pots
Resistor-Filter Cutoff Calculator
And here’s some shopping resources:
CTS Pots at Guitar Parts Resource
Sprague Drop caps at Guitar Parts Resource