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NGD... well, NUGD anyway...


KuruPrionz

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Value Village had a Strat clone with a strap for $24.99. I had a 20% off coupon so $21.79 with tax. 

 I picked it up and it was really light, comes to 5lb 6oz on my kitchen food scale. 

Big tall frets, virtually no play wear. Decent tuners and bridge. I know I'll have to replace the jack, jacks on import guitars are mostly crap and I have a decent stash of Switchcraft jacks. It's a good guitar all things considered, something I could take out and play and not worry about in the slightest. 

 

Since I don't like the sound of the middle pickup blended with the neck or bridge pickups, I'm thinking I'll lower it way down. It does cancel the hum, that way I'll have 2 sounds that are quiet if I use position 2 and 4. If that works out then I may just hardwire the middle pickup to the volume control and re-wire the switch so I can get bridge and neck together. Or not, if I decided to flip it I can just raise the middle pickup back up and it's ready to go. 

 

Best of all, it says Assassin on the headstock. That's killer!!! :keynana:

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2 minutes ago, Caevan O’Shite said:

The Assassin! 😲 Lookout!

Enjoy. Maybe put an SPC in it, and throw it at that Dyna Comp compressor pedal that you scored recently...

The Assassin name sold me to be honest!

 

I'm going to see how it does as an adjusted stock from the factory $20 used guitar. If I take to it I might do some tweaks. Kinda wanting to keep it passive, no battery. 

I took the Dyna Comp off craigslist after talking to a friend who watches an influencer on YouTube (name escapes me) who started promoting a different vintage pedal and the price went up several hundred dollars. Now he's touting Dyna Comps so my friend suggested I keep it and wait for a bit. Seems worthy. Mine is the block letter version, the script version was first but I think the block letter is more or less the same thing. No LED to show if it's on and nowhere to plug in a power supply - it's a 9v battery period. 

 

It's a good compressor but my Vypyrs have compressors built in, no cords no batteries and they squeeze in a similar sounding fashion but I almost never use compression. So it goes. I LIKE dynamics, they are part of expression. If I want it louder I just pick harder. 

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5 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

The Assassin name sold me to be honest!


Haahh!  :laugh: 
 

  

5 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

I took the Dyna Comp off craigslist after talking to a friend who watches an influencer on YouTube (name escapes me) who started promoting a different vintage pedal and the price went up several hundred dollars. Now he's touting Dyna Comps so my friend suggested I keep it and wait for a bit. Seems worthy. Mine is the block letter version, the script version was first but I think the block letter is more or less the same thing. No LED to show if it's on and nowhere to plug in a power supply - it's a 9v battery period. 

 

It's a good compressor but my Vypyrs have compressors built in, no cords no batteries and they squeeze in a similar sounding fashion but I almost never use compression. So it goes. I LIKE dynamics, they are part of expression. If I want it louder I just pick harder. 


The Dyna Comp should be a LOT like the coveted (and overpriced) vintage Ross Compressor pedals, and the HomeBrew Electronics ComPressor Retro pedals that I love so (and many, many others) based on the Ross and Dyna Comp squeeze stomps. Sometimes JUST THE THING with a Strat, especially for clean tones- and MAGIC with a Tele. Maybe not so much with humbuckers. You might like its 'squish' for occasional special moments, rather than as an 'always on' pedal.

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Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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I probably would have bought the Assassin just for the name, myself, especially for $20+/-.

 

Have to agree on hanging on to that Dyna Comp for now. If it doesn't have an AC adapter jack, it's an original Rochester MXR pedal, not a Dunlop RI! I recently saw an original Micro Amp in rough shape going for $165 on Reverb, through my FLUMS. That Dyna Comp could wind up being worth a stack of $20 Guitars.

 

Regarding "Script" vs. "Block" logo vintage MXR pedals - the logo only tells you so much. Somewhere in my stack of Guitar ephemera, I have some promo material from MXR, where, among other things, they talk about having changed the internal circuit of the Phase 90 four times within a very short production period. I'll try to dig it out at some point, but it raises the question of "Which one is the real Vintage circuit?" The answer is, pretty much any of them, at this point.

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"Monsters are real, and Ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." Stephen King

 

http://www.novparolo.com

 

https://thewinstonpsmithproject.bandcamp.com

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@KuruPrionz, You will now be known as a real killer...If you are going to play with the wiring, I wonder if you could have all 3 pups active with 3 individual volume pots (one for each pup)?  No tone pots just wired straight to the jack?  Not needing the 5 way, just adjusting the 3 volumes for whatever tone you want using 3 combos and pup locations.  Might be fun to try and wouldn't cost more than 3 new matching pots...Have fun and keep us posted on however your wiring comes out!  I could also go for 2 single coils, no middle pup and a 3 way with two volumes and a master tone.  I have a Strat set up that way already using 2 EMG humbuckers! 😎

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2 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:


Haahh!  :laugh: 
 

  


The Dyna Comp should be a LOT like the coveted (and overpriced) vintage Ross Compressor pedals, and the HomeBrew Electronics ComPressor Retro pedals that I love so (and many, many others) based on the Ross and Dyna Comp squeeze stomps. Sometimes JUST THE THING with a Strat, especially for clean tones- and MAGIC with a Tele. Maybe not so much with humbuckers. You might like its 'squish' for occasional special moments, rather than as an 'always on' pedal.

Decades ago I had the Ross, and at one point a Dyna Comp. I really like having dynamics!!!! My Vypyr amps have a nice, squishy compression, I turned it on... once. 

I build my guitars to have sustain and the bit of compression that is part of a distortion/overdrive circuit does the trick when I want the guitar to sing. I use an extra-heavy pick and a light touch, which leaves space for a heavier touch when needed. Just how I roll. 

Plus, the less stuff on the floor the better and especially stuff that requires a battery. One of the biggest reasons I gravitated to the Vypyr amps is the Sanpera 1. It has 4 switches for presets, you can program up to 12 (I'm using 2 and it's plenty) plus a volume/wah pedal. One cable from the pedal to the amp, one guitar cord from the guitar to the amp. Done. Neat, clean and tidy on stage and quick to setup/teardown.

All the "pedals" are accessible on the amp, one dial to select your effect, push that same dial to switch 2 of the digital knobs to "Edit", adjusting effects settings (this doesn't change the Pre-Gain or EQ settings, when you switch back, they are still the same as before). It's an extremely efficient and usable system with a built in bank of pedals. 

Peavey got everything right except the speaker, I put a Peavey Scorpion 10" in my VIP 1 and it's all I need to gig. 

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2 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

I probably would have bought the Assassin just for the name, myself, especially for $20+/-.

 

Have to agree on hanging on to that Dyna Comp for now. If it doesn't have an AC adapter jack, it's an original Rochester MXR pedal, not a Dunlop RI! I recently saw an original Micro Amp in rough shape going for $165 on Reverb, through my FLUMS. That Dyna Comp could wind up being worth a stack of $20 Guitars.

 

Regarding "Script" vs. "Block" logo vintage MXR pedals - the logo only tells you so much. Somewhere in my stack of Guitar ephemera, I have some promo material from MXR, where, among other things, they talk about having changed the internal circuit of the Phase 90 four times within a very short production period. I'll try to dig it out at some point, but it raises the question of "Which one is the real Vintage circuit?" The answer is, pretty much any of them, at this point.

Yeah, I've never seen an Assassin guitar. The origin of the word is interesting. 

"The term 'Assassin' is widely believed to be derived from the Arabic term 'Hashashin,' often interpreted as 'users of hashish. ' This moniker was not self-chosen by the medieval sect we now associate with it but was rather an epithet applied by their enemies and outsiders."

A bunch of "Murderin' Rastafarians?" 🤪

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1 hour ago, Larryz said:

@KuruPrionz, You will now be known as a real killer...If you are going to play with the wiring, I wonder if you could have all 3 pups active with 3 individual volume pots (one for each pup)?  No tone pots just wired straight to the jack?  Not needing the 5 way, just adjusting the 3 volumes for whatever tone you want using 3 combos and pup locations.  Might be fun to try and wouldn't cost more than 3 new matching pots...Have fun and keep us posted on however your wiring comes out!  I could also go for 2 single coils, no middle pup and a 3 way with two volumes and a master tone.  I have a Strat set up that way already using 2 EMG humbuckers! 😎

Thanks Larryz, I tend to go in the opposite direction regarding knobs and wiring. My 335 has 4 knobs, one of them is a volume for whatever comes off the 3 way switch. The rest of them are disconnected. I've been known to move the volume control on a Strat to the middle hole and leave the top hole blank since I seem to change the volume unintentionally while playing. I NEVER use the volume control on guitars, possible exception being to turn a guitar all the way down for a break. 

I'm working on a massively boogered 61 single cut Gibson Melody Maker that came to me with 3 Strat pickups and a hole in the back so the 5 way switch would fit. Idiots owned it. I've got what was a NOS Gretsch Supertron that had an impedance of 168 ohms for some reason. I sent it to TV Jones and he rewound it to 4.8k, like it should be. 

I plan on installing that pickup in the neck position and running the cable straight to the output jack since the new pick guard I made does't have any holes in it yet. One hole for the jack, I can go with that. 

 

I don't like to think about knobs, switches or stuff on the floor when I am playing. I'm in another world at that point. 

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If I had seen that guitar, with that name on the headstock, I would have pulled my wallet out in less than the blink of an eye.  And if it didn't work good, it wouldn't cost much to replace the bad parts with better ones, as long as I could keep the Assassin name on it.

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1 hour ago, surfergirl said:

Ebay has some starting at $99. + shipping. This is the $99. one.s-l960.webp.7648298c33574e47089fc1a6ff4ab208.webp

They also make one called the Viper, this on Reverb.zh1uqlbii3et6d8krqmi.thumb.jpg.0be568cac8218b32ec0d31a4bbcf3f51.jpg

That case is a value-added feature except that I mostly don't like cases. I like quality, well-padded gig bags and it's amazing how often they show up at thrift stores around here for less than $10. I already have one for the Assassin. 😇

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I have a hard-shell case, but I  also like a good padded gig bag. I'm not flying to a gig.🙂 I'm bored so a lot of time to browse through every music related website. They're teaching me to use THE CNC machine and it's broke, so I'm getting paid to sit around the break room till it's fixed.

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Jennifer S.

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2 hours ago, surfergirl said:

I have a hard-shell case, but I  also like a good padded gig bag. I'm not flying to a gig.🙂 I'm bored so a lot of time to browse through every music related website. They're teaching me to use THE CNC machine and it's broke, so I'm getting paid to sit around the break room till it's fixed.

I want a job where I sit around and wait for broken stuff to work!!!! :keynana:

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2 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

I want a job where I sit around and wait for broken stuff to work!!!! :keynana:

Back in 2000, I worked for the U.S. Census, working in an office entering census form information into a computer.  One day I had to wait until the computer system was updated, so I set up three chairs together and laid down, reaching up to push the enter button every few minutes to see if the computer was back online.  My supervisor walked in, saw me laying there with my eyes closed, and said "Are you asleep?"  I replied "Why, is it time for my break?"  I liked working there, because they kept paying me, so I kept showing up.

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I'm going in on my own time to make up for that lost training. It's important to my future endeavor. I can't afford a CNC machine, but I can rent time on one to cut my own Surfboard blanks.

I did make good use of the down time looking at assassin and viper guitars on reverb and ebay.  I also spent time looking at pickups, pedals, straps and everything else I could think of.

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Jennifer S.

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@KuruPrionz, +1 on moving the volume knob on a Strat further away from the 1st E string. I know you, me and @desertbluesman agree on that one.  I believe DBM puts a dime in the volume pot hole and moves the pot to the middle hole.  I too have trouble accidently knocking the volume down  when I get carried away playing rhythm.  The Assassin will have the same issue to contend with...I like blending pickups and I usually set my volume and tone knobs on my electrics where I think they sound best and then its set it and forget it. I play the electric like its an acoustic and as you say, use dynamics to increase and decrease the volume.  I will use a clean boost pedal now and then to switch the volume up and down from rhythm to lead, so that I don't have to turn any knobs...😎👍

  

 

 

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19 minutes ago, Larryz said:

@KuruPrionz, +1 on moving the volume knob on a Strat further away from the 1st E string. I know you, me and @desertbluesman agree on that one.  I believe DBM puts a dime in the volume pot hole and moves the pot to the middle hole.  I too have trouble accidently knocking the volume down  when I get carried away playing rhythm.  The Assassin will have the same issue to contend with...I like blending pickups and I usually set my volume and tone knobs on my electrics where I think they sound best and then its set it and forget it. I play the electric like its an acoustic and as you say, use dynamics to increase and decrease the volume.  I will use a clean boost pedal now and then to switch the volume up and down from rhythm to lead, so that I don't have to turn any knobs...😎👍

  

 

 

Just for minute I thought about moving the volume knob down, but I don't think it would be a good idea for me. I use it a lot and it's almost second nature to me now. 

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8 hours ago, surfergirl said:

I can't afford a CNC machine, but I can rent time on one to cut my own Surfboard blanks.


:idea: ...aaannnd maaaybe someday some guitar necks, bodies, and other parts... ?  :wave: 


  

7 hours ago, surfergirl said:

Just for minute I thought about moving the volume knob down, but I don't think it would be a good idea for me. I use it a lot and it's almost second nature to me now. 


You, me, and Jeff Beck agree...  I have always thought that Leo Fender's location for the Strat's volume-control was brilliant, near perfection! In addition to volume/gain/clean-to-mean-to-scream adjustments, I used to do 'pinky-swells' A LOT, though less often with my Les Paul... 

Man, I'm gettin' nostalgic for my late '80s and early '90s days... !!

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Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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@surfergirl & @Caevan O’Shite,  I agree completely with your love for the volume location on the Strat.  I doubt Leo was thinking of pinky swells when he came up with the location, but I know tons of Strat players love the location of the volume knob for that exact reason.  It just doesn't agree with me. Roy Buchanan proved to be one of the greatest pinky swell players and perfected it using a Tele with the volume knob a long way from the 1st string.  I have a Strat with just a volume and tone knob, with an EMG volume knob set down a little further from the 1st string, that I love.  I can still do pinky swells easily with it.  😎

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1 hour ago, Larryz said:

@surfergirl & @Caevan O’Shite,  I agree completely with your love for the volume location on the Strat.  I doubt Leo was thinking of pinky swells when he came up with the location, but I know tons of Strat players love the location of the volume knob for that exact reason.  It just doesn't agree with me. Roy Buchanon proved to be one of the greatest pinky swell players and perfected it using a Tele with the volume knob a long way from the 1st string.  I have a Strat with just a volume and tone knob, with the stock volume knob set down a little further from the 1st string, that I love.  I can still do pinky swells easily with it.  😎

I can only do what I like and other guitarists do their thing as well. I've shown a tendency to accidentally tweak the volume knob on a Strat while playing. When you add in that I rarely (if ever) adjust any settings on my guitars while I am playing then it makes sense to move the pot farther away. 

Everybody gets to do what they do!!!! Yay us!!!!! :keynana:

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15 hours ago, Larryz said:

I believe DBM puts a dime in the volume pot hole and moves the pot to the middle hole.

I actually put a dime on the top and middle hole and drill between the two holes for the volume pot. See picture of my Agile strat clone below

 

 

Agile Clone.jpg

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7 hours ago, Larryz said:

I doubt Leo was thinking of pinky swells when he came up with the location, but I know tons of Strat players love the location of the volume knob for that exact reason.


I believe that Leo figured that a Strat player could also get some extra work in studio sessions and gigs doing pedal-steel like sounds using that thoughtfully placed volume-knob and the "Synchronized Tremolo" bridge...

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Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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Today I started the clean up/ set up process. I took the old jack out, cheap piece of crap. Now it has a Switchcraft jack, which will always work and last forever.

A value added feature even if I sell it. There was no fret wear or finger gunk on the fretboard, I leveled the frets, crown and polished them. I gave the fretboard a light dressing of lemon oil to bring out the color. Currently I've got the middle pickup lowered but I think I'll put it back up. New strings - D'Addario .010-.046. 

 

Tomorrow morning it will have settled in and I'll do a slight lowering the saddles and some of the nut slots after double checking the truss rod adjustment (seems fine now, I loosened it and re-tightened earlier). Then I'll tweak the intonation, it's really close now. It sounds good, looks good and it's very light. Tomorrow evening I'll be sitting in with friends at a cheerful venue downtown, I plan on playing this guitar. Maybe it gets to stay and maybe it finds a happy new owner. So far I think it's pretty cool for how cheap it was. I like the lower cutaway, it's more open than Fender's and easier to access the entire neck. I would prefer 22 frets, so it goes. I've considered putting a Warmoth neck on it, one I have stashed. I suspect it will make it neck heavy, the neck is maple but probably Pacific maple which grows faster and is much lighter in weight than Eastern Hard Rock maple. 

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5 hours ago, Caevan O’Shite said:


I believe that Leo figured that a Strat player could also get some extra work in studio sessions and gigs doing pedal-steel like sounds using that thoughtfully placed volume-knob and the "Synchronized Tremolo" bridge...

I did find on the Fender site that Leo and his staff envisioned a steel guitar like sound using his new tremolo design (2nd design as the 1st one failed). I couldn't find anything on the volume knob placement for volume swells. I know Jeff Beck uses the whammy and the volume knob at the same time in his techniques, but he's well above most guitar players paygrade...😎

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51 minutes ago, Larryz said:

@KuruPrionz, I would hate to see you lose that "Assassin" status symbol headstock logo by replacing it with a Warmoth neck!  But I can understand the need to do so if it has to be LoL! 😎

I'll either keep it as is or sell it to somebody. I'll know more after the gig tomorrow evening. 

I like it because it's really light weight and not headstock heavy. I'm working on a 61 Gibson Melody Maker single cut that was massively boogered by an idiot but now it's mine and it's very light as well. My main giggers are kinda hefty guitars and I'm tired of that. Switched to mostly acoustic guitars, they are nice and light be tend to be headstock heavy when you play standing. 😇

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9 hours ago, Larryz said:

I know Jeff Beck uses the whammy and the volume knob at the same time in his techniques, but he's well above most guitar players paygrade...😎

I saw Jeff Beck open for BB King. Mr. Beck is my all-time favorite electric guitarist, bar none. 

His techniques are at the service of his amazing tone and sense of melody. In context, the dexterity is liner notes. 

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@Caevan O’Shite, Thanks for remembering Jeff Beck and reminding me.  He passed away last January 10, 2023. It was a sad day for all of us.  In addition to my problem with the volume knob location, I don't care for the floating tremolo.  Jeff was a master with both.  My problem with the floating tremolo design (which is one of Leo's great accomplishments) is when I rest my palm on the bridge saddles it causes the guitar to go out of tune here and there.  So, I lay my tremolo plates flat on the body so they do not move when I rest my palm on the saddles, and I can't use the upward whammy bar.  They still work fine for the downward whammy and dive bombs.  I like the way Jeff played using both up and down strokes, but I like resting my palm on the saddles and play further back most of the time.  

 

BTW, I tried the DR Blues strings that you recommend on my LP and LP jr. in 10-46 gauge.  I liked them so well that I'm cutting off new sets of Magmas and replacing them with DR Blues on all of my electrics and DR Sunbeams on my 2 acoustics...The DR's really sound alive and I can put up with a little squeak here and there.  The round cores are more flexible than the hex cores and they bend easier with less tension.  😎

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