Oops, I did it again, again, again, etc., and so forth, ad infinitum....

Joe Bfstplk

Joe Bfstplk

Legend!
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NGD....

Roughed in the setup. Initial impressions? Sounds fantastic in the bridge and neck spots, but a tad dark/muffled whenever the middle pickup is engaged, as if it has a resistor in parallel with the middle pickup loading it down or a high-resistance short to ground. Will open it up and investigate. I imagine it has an import switch, which may get swapped for an Oak Grigsby switch or similar from the spare parts supply if it looks like the issue may be there or in the soldering job the factory did there. Plays super sweet with a little F-One oil having soaked into the rosewood and a fresh set of strings without the GC finger schmutz on them....
 
skolacki said:
Lol! Good for you man. New guitars are almost always fun.
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If I can't suss out the issue with the middle pickup, it doesn't matter much, as this guitar will eventually get the L45S pickups from my Strat, as it has a set of Fralin Split Rail Strat pickups coming semi-soon....

I happened to pass all the other Olive Gardens between STV and Tempe to end up at the one near the GC I spotted it at last week when I took the OL out for pasta fagioli and salad. Figured they might have a Labor Day Sale, and saved $150.... $399.99 out the door....
 
That’s a great pic! I have 2 made in Indonesia guitars now. One’s great as is and the other is also very good but might need a pickup. I think Korea got too expensive so they offshored to Indonesia. The Sterling line is MII yes?
 
skolacki said:
That’s a great pic! I have 2 made in Indonesia guitars now. One’s great as is and the other is also very good but might need a pickup. I think Korea got too expensive so they offshored to Indonesia. The Sterling line is MII yes?
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Thanks! Bennie is a cutie. He's starting to settle down just enough that I can get him to pose.

This is my third Indonesian-made guitar. PRS SE Standard 24, PRS SE 245, and this Sterling Cutlass. Three home runs in a row. I WISH the neck on the Custom Shop Strat I tried and passed over at Sweetwater last year had felt this great in my hand. This guitar's neck feels like a slightly deeper version of the '65 Mustang I had back in the late '80s, except normal scale. Just feels great in my hand, and has a super thin satin finish similar to the neck on my recently-acquired triple-P90 Custom 22.

Opened it up. No weird issues with wiring. Unsoldered the middle pickup to measure it with no other connections, as it measured about 3k in parallel with the volume pot. 3.03k by itself. It's either got an internal high resistance short, or they meant it to sound weak and dull. Neck pickup is fantastic, and measures about 5.4k. Bridge humbucker sounds great, measures 8.1k, and is staying put when the Fralins that are on their way here displace the Wilde/Lawrences in my main Strat. Added a 180pF treble bypass cap on the 474k pot. Going to leave it like this until the L45S are out of my Strat, and then we'll see what happens next....

No more gear this year. I also have a gorgeous burl top over cherry wood Tele body from some guitar company in Denver coming, a Warmoth snakehead neck to go on it, and various and sundry hardware coming from Rutters to put it all together. Going to have to put up another guitar hanging rail somewhere in here. :D
 
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Congratulations, Man! These Cutlass models check off so many boxes for me: upper fret access, 22 frets, HSS, trem…

And Bennie is growing into one handsome little guy. :)

What company is that making your tele body? Just curious since that’s where I am for the next couple of months.
 
Yes 3K isn’t right. Some defect there. Well you can find out if EBMM has good service or not. That’s a pretty guitar for sure. I like the headstock design too. Sounds like you got a good one despite the pickup issue. That Bennie is a cute little guy!
 
State of Epicicity said:
Congratulations, Man! These Cutlass models check off so many boxes for me: upper fret access, 22 frets, HSS, trem…

And Bennie is growing into one handsome little guy. :)

What company is that making your tele body? Just curious since that’s where I am for the next couple of months.
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Thanks! Rebirth Guitar Company.

lauke-lux said:
3k is ridiculously low for any SC PU. Smells like a short in the wiring somewhere halfway. I think you should contact the supplier for a replacement.
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skolacki said:
Yes 3K isn’t right. Some defect there. Well you can find out if EBMM has good service or not. That’s a pretty guitar for sure. I like the headstock design too. Sounds like you got a good one despite the pickup issue. That Bennie is a cute little guy!
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I suspect a shorted turn in the pickup windings themselves, at this point. I unhooked the middle pickup's wire from the switch and measured it directly to verify the wiring or the switch weren't the issue. I looked at the pickup itself and it looks normal. It measures as if there was a 6.8k resistance shunting its output.

I have a set of Fralin Split Rail Strat pickups coming to upgrade my Strat. When they are installed, the two Wilde/Lawrence L45S pickups that will suddenly be lying around will go in the Cutlass....
 
Commerce City is right outside of Denver, and Grand Junction is as far west as you can get without being in Utah haha. Living there was like living on the face of the sun, but I imagine Phoenix is even moreso.
 
So, finally getting back to 'normal' around here after the NJ trip, possibly COVID or at least a bad cold, and all of that fun.

Got this put together with the new 2p5t super switch and S1 volume pot/switch set up to swap middle for neck+bridge on the 5-way.

Man, does it sound good.

The L45S pickups are 'supposed to' be used with 250k pots, but sound bloody fantastic on 500k pots in this guitar. The lighter load of the pots allows the treble peak to spike a bit more and really brings out the Strat-y attack and 'cluckiness' in the 2 and 4 positions.

The bridge HB is a relatively low output number, and balances perfectly with the other two pickups. It's just a smidge closer to the bridge than my usual preference, but it works great with this one.

Once it gets the Wilkinson WLS130 saddles, and a fresh set of strings, it's going to be a killer guitar. Only thing left to worry about is whether the nut needs work or replacement to keep tune, as it comes with a pretty decent set of locking tuners stock.

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Need to get a Parchment Strat switch tip, I suppose, but this extra Tele round one works just fine, so pretty low on my to-do list....
 
Joe Bfstplk said:
So, finally getting back to 'normal' around here after the NJ trip, possibly COVID or at least a bad cold, and all of that fun.

Got this put together with the new 2p5t super switch and S1 volume pot/switch set up to swap middle for neck+bridge on the 5-way.

Man, does it sound good.

The L45S pickups are 'supposed to' be used with 250k pots, but sound bloody fantastic on 500k pots in this guitar. The lighter load of the pots allows the treble peak to spike a bit more and really brings out the Strat-y attack and 'cluckiness' in the 2 and 4 positions.

The bridge HB is a relatively low output number, and balances perfectly with the other two pickups. It's just a smidge closer to the bridge than my usual preference, but it works great with this one.

Once it gets the Wilkinson WLS130 saddles, and a fresh set of strings, it's going to be a killer guitar. Only thing left to worry about is whether the nut needs work or replacement to keep tune, as it comes with a pretty decent set of locking tuners stock.

20221108_211832_0.jpg


Need to get a Parchment Strat switch tip, I suppose, but this extra Tele round one works just fine, so pretty low on my to-do list....
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I dig the color and actually think the Tele switch tip looks cool!
 
unix-guy said:
I dig the color and actually think the Tele switch tip looks cool!
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Yeah, it caught my eye back in August, when I stopped in to GC in Tempe as a stop on a test run of the MINI after installing the intercooler scoop. Free air conditioning and some nice guitars to look at. Went back on Labor Day just to check, and was entirely unsurprised to find it on sale. For $399, I couldn't say no....
 
The quality of some import stuff is great these days . If you can cherry pick to find nice wood in the neck and don't mind upgrading some electrical parts there are some bargains to be had. That said the full size Alpha pots and switches rarely fail anymore and I often swap them out just because. Looks good, how's the fret work?
 
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