Peavey Road Master - It's Alive!!

I have finally fixed my Peavey Road Master. Following the diagnosis a while back I have got the resistors that I needed, and replaced them (along with putting smaller LEDs in the front panel so they don't catch so easily.










And Eric the Destroyer is back in action! After all that it was a couple of duff resistors. Less than 50p's worth of parts. Feel kind of silly that it's taken this long to sort a simple problem, but I am quite new at this, plus I get the good feelings that go with having sorted the issue.

Doubleplusgood is that I can take Eric to band practice next weekend.

Hondo II Rickenfaker

Regular readers will be aware that I'm quite keen on the aesthetics of Rickenbacker 4000 series basses, but less keen on Rickenbacker as a company, so I compromise by being into so-called Rickenfakers.

Yesterday I bought a Hondo II Rickenfaker (not sure what the actual model name is) that needs quite a bit of TLC; at the very least a new switch, replacement machineheads, and a lot of cleaning.


 It looks awesome. And is far closer in apperance to a 'proper' Rick than my Retrovibe RV-4.

There are more pics over on Flickr.

Now it's lunchtime, and I'll start the cleanup this afternoon.

New Bass! RetroVibe RV4 Blueburst Rickenfaker

I bought a new bass last week. I wasn't intending to, but the guy won't be selling them for much longer and when even your wife says "wow, that's a really nice bass, you should get it" there's no point in resisting.
Technically I can't afford it, but we have savings and I'll be making regular payments back into the savings until it's paid off... yes, I could have saved up for it but if I had it might have gone (and I certainly wasn't prepared to risk paying inflated prices on eBay).



Isn't it lovely? Of course this being a guitar modding blog I can't just say I'll leave it as is, can I? I've already ordered a new nut (because the stock one is as naff as stock nuts usually are) and I think I might replace the plain white scratch plate with a nice cream/black/cream 3-ply job at some point in the future.

Peavey Roadmaster Gut Shots

Today I added some handles to my Peavey Roadmaster head to make the thing a bit easier to carry (there were three handles originally but a previous owner decided to remove the ones at either end of the top for some reason. I can only assume he was a really strong guy), and while I had it out I decided to take some photographs of the insides.





I love how those PCBs look. Modern parallel track boards just don't have that same flowing aesthetic.

Swift Les Paul Copy - First Photos

Thought I'd take some photos of the guitar before I dismantle it and start work.





As you can see it's not actually a bad looking instrument.




Of course it's a different story close up! Both pickups are set about a 1/32-1/16" too far towards the treble side of the guitar...




The binding on the neck could be a bit better, but I have to admit it is a nice touch on an instrument this cheap.




Obvious plywood is obvious...




Headstock and logo, the logo will be lost when I do the refin, the dodgy bits around the top are actually damage rather than poor workmanship.



The action was really high when I got it, the bridge is now as low as I can make it and the action is still a bit high, but only by 1/16", which is nowhere near as bad as it was!






Apparently whoever made it decided to put the selector switch upside down. No, it's not just that the switch ring is upside down, the whole switch is!

So there it is, the guitar as I bought it (almost, as mentioned before I lowered the action as much as I can). It's going to need a fair bit of work, but I don't think there's anything I can't manage.