Fender MIM upgrade and set up
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2024
- Mike's early era MIM Fender Strat had spent the last 20 years or so in an attic... and prior to that, he remembers getting electric shocks from it! So it came to me for some upgrades, a complete check over and a Reloved Guitars set up. There was nothing about the electrics that could have contributed to any electric shocks; but the switch, pots and jack all needed replacing so it was an opportunity to re-wire and make sure everything was shielded, grounded and hooked up properly.
I also fitted new tuners and a new bridge. The only downside came with the bridge's slightly short block (36mm vs. the original 40mm) left the tremolo springs dragging along the inside of the spring cavity. I fixed that with some careful chiselling. This is the second time uploading this video (no idea why the first didn't process properly).
![The Perfect Stratocaster Trem / Vibrato Setup [Floating, Flat Or Blocked?]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PjVXWyUGpwc/mqdefault.jpg)
Hi Sam! Certainly you are the only Luthier/guitar technician I know, in the entire world, who shows all the details and ways to achieve an excellent final work. No edition. Really how it was, and the solutions you gave for each difficulty that arose. Four hours in the face of the difficulties that occurred. No magic solutions.
I truly believe that you, without so much pretension, are drawing the attention of Luthiers who do not show the way in the face of difficulties.
Each instrument has its characteristics, differences and difficulties. When you allow and show a video like this, and solve all the difficulties, you gain the trust of those who know what happens when we face real life. It is not necessary to agree or disagree with the solutions presented. But it's a fact: everyone who watches your videos always learns a lot.
Thank you very much.
Please keep it up. It is the only way true knowledge can be transferred.
Thanks for your kind review Victor. I'm less noble than you might think; my lack of editing is as much motivated by the fact that spending hours editing adds no value to my business model as it is about the benefits of showing 'warts and all' :) Both aspects are true, and both are deliberate choices (which some people just don't get lol).
If my business depended on ad revenue then I would have to be focused on engaging content, snappy editing and all those things that million-subscriber channels do. But it's not; never has been and never will. It exists to show customers what I DID to their guitars and to show prospective customers what I would DO to theirs if they chose to send them to me. It does both those things perfectly well (as intended) - and spending HOURS editing with the aim of being more 'entertaining' or more likeable and driving up subscriber numbers would be unprofitable; wasted.
And yes - it happens that showing stuff in real time, including the less-than-glamorous screw-ups and disappointments, with rising frustration is human and realistic. And for some people that leads to trust and confidence; for some others it leads to angry put-downs and criticism :)
At my age I don't have the time or inclination to pretend to be something / someone I'm not. All in all, my approach translates into customers who come through to me 'ready qualified' - they've already decided they like what I do, that they want me to do it for them and that money is NOT the primary consideration. This kind of 'qualified prospect' is the Holy Grail of business and it makes for a highly rewarding and satisfactory way of doing business.
Hello Sam
I still use the old thin Stew-mac truss rod and your original E-Book method for all the Nickle fretted guitars. My 1st fret level was on a coworkers guitar. After that, I fret leveled a few Harley Bentons, and replaced a few nuts. I have not tried to level SS frets yet, but eventually when I find the need, I will give it a go. I am turning 66 in a few weeks and my hobby interests keep expanding. I recently bought a CNC router to be able to make a guitar out of a blank, and of course that led me to another learning curve , Solid_Works Maker, and Eventually Vectric Aspire . I can relate to your past experiences with people not wanting to share info. I've seen it. In my case , I worked QA and pushed my crew to do their best and after 31 years , I finally retired, and my old position was filled by one on the crew that I pushed along. I am enjoying my retirement and strangely find fixing guitars more enjoyable than playing. Although I still play when I run across a video of a tune I used to play ages ago.
Well done retiring at 66! I made 'other choices' in my life lol with the result that I'll be working til I die, should I be so lucky to stay healthy and sane enough to do so. What better then than to do work that I at least enjoy and find interesting and rewarding (even if it's a bit 'subsistence'!)? I told someone the other day that "I'm a better guitar setter upper than I am a player" so I know that feeling.. although I enjoy both. The balance right now is 98% working on guitars, 2% playing them (on my own or with others) so it's 'outta whack' as Steve Martin says in 'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid'.
Sam Deeks ASMR. Your videos are therapeutic.
Totally agree,best unintentional asmr ever and you learn a lot!
@@Guitarfreak007 Indeed so. Guitars are not that complicated to service and fix if you know what you're doing.
That's essentially true - although there are times when the panic tries to draw you into believing it's complex, black magic. You have to hang on and talk yourself down occasionally: "It's wood, it's got frets, a nut and a bridge..."
Oooh a 4 hour video - you spoil us Sam :) I will be watching the whole thing of course !
I offer my condolences! :)
Great stuff! One of my fav channels
Blimey. A 4 hour marathon. That's half a days work on screen alone. Well done.
Thanks. Everything...just...takes...time. Sometimes, things are quicker and more straightforward and I 'win' back a half an hour. Sometimes it takes over 4 hours like here. It's 'swings and roundabouts' as we say in the UK :)
Sam, was nice to see the complete process. I looked at this video on and off for two days which is the great thing about youtube. You can spend as much or as little time as you like and still see the entire process. Thanks again for the fine example. I do always wonder what you have in that bottle that you clean them with ?
Sam uses Naptha, aka alcohol stove camping stove fuel.
@@rickpapineau2704 Thanks much for the reply.
Yes the stuff I buy in the UK is 'Coleman's Cooking fuel' for stoves. It's a consistent and dependable formulation in a usable 1L quantity. 5L would be better but it seems to have become hard to buy the right naptha in that sort of quantity here unfortunately.
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars , Thanks much for the reply Sam.
Looks like a good one
Love old MIM strat, somehow more lovable than the more recent ones.
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars I put a Squier standard neck on a 2017 50s edition. It has a great feeling. My favorite older guitar is my 86 contemporary Squier stratocaster which looks like a Telecaster but is a super strat through and through with a Telecaster heel and a stratocaster headstock. Thr bullet 1 is a strange beast. Made in Korea and sold in Japan. The neck is like a RG Ibanez with low narrow frets.
Hello Sam! That was it for the lovely day.. The Mexico Fender was probably still a bit nasty because it was roused from a deep sleep after 10 years: But once again you showed a guitar who's master.
Wonderful work!!
Best wishes from Lake Constance in Bregenz..
Have a lovely day,
from Andy
Love it every time you post a comment Andy; I think of life on the edge of your lake in cosmopolitan, clean and beautiful Austria... :)
Needs an edit and the sound is all over the place!!
Yep. The sound was messed up by one phone blipping into the circuitry of the other. I suspect it would be better to ditch the old head-mic and go back to *just* the iPhone mics.
The Real Thing.
Re your business model.
It is your choice to place your knowledge and skill on the market, either directly or indirectly for money, or other reward. Over time some may pick up your technique and use it in a commercial sense, others may pick it up and use it every now and then. But I suspect they are in the minority compared with the number of people who will watch you videos and think "That's a long way beyond my capability", for what ever reason, (physical, time etc.) and will gladly pay you to have their guitars set-up by "the master" so they can get on with playing their guitar(s).
There is of course another group of people who watch your videos as a sort of ASMR - a relaxing voice, and a simple video format showing the whole of a process rather than some other channels which cut the time for four hour job to 30 minutes (or less) and shout and scream about how good/great they are....
You ma guess that I have no problem in admitting that I fall into the last two categories, having been brought to your channel by one of customers who lives in Switzerland raving about your work, then watching a few of your videos before getting a a couple of guitars down to you, loving the results, then a few more videos and more guitars and more videos, and more videos........
Keep up the work - the long format is great as it shows just how much work is involved in finding the best in a guitar no matter its price.
Thanks Bob ;) You get it. And as I often say, I'm not annoyed that some viewers don't; it takes all sorts as they used to say. It mildly amuses me when people can't see beyond their own viewframe... but it's no surprised because we're all guilty of that at some point or other.
Great video. Question about shielding. Doesn’t it act as an antenna that catches EMI and sends it to ground, thereby reducing noise from interference? It’s clearly not a faraday cage as you mention with the pups sticking out. Just wondering how much time I’ve wasted shielding … or not.
Speaking as someone with an Honours degree in Applied Physics I can say you need to look to Electromagnetic theory to answer this. General electromagnetism rule of thumb is that the opening in a Faraday cage should be smaller than 1/10th of the wavelength that should be blocked. For example, in order to block EM fields with frequencies of 10 GHz and lower, the hole size of the Faraday cage should be smaller than 3 mm. You don't need a continuous conductive cage unless you're trying to screen against high energy cosmic rays. Personally I'd say this would be a tad overkill for a guitar. Generally you want your guitar electronics screened against mains electricity frequencies - i.e. the oft referenced 50/60 cycle hum. A quick bit of secondary school maths will tell you that a Faraday cage to screen against 60 Hz (and lower frequency) interference can have holes as large as 500km (but only if you want to screen a small moon). The important part for a Faraday cage around guitar electronics is that all surfaces are grounded - the odd hole for a pickup or 3 makes absolutely no difference (unless you are really worried about amateur radio frequencies). Sam's inch of continuous copper would be a pretty effective shield against the gamma particle blast from a hydrogen bomb (although, sadly, the thermal and pressure shockwaves would still get you).
Hi Duncan - see Julia Lacey's reply on this same thread. I've read / heard some very different views from clearly qualified people - proving that even those highly specialised in the field have divergent views (and strong arguments to back them up). Good old science.
If I'm totally honest, I can't recall being struck by a tangible, indisputable improvement from un-shielded to shielded on a single guitar. But that could be more about how rarely I live with a single guitar for a long time before shielding it & then live with it for a decent long time afterwards to observe the difference... I tend to shield in the hope that it helps (since it's not a totally onerous task). Some sources seem to say that the way you install and solder your various ground wires probably has a greater effect on noise than the shielding...
"A bit of secondary school maths..." Oh how you bright people skewer the hearts of us dunderheads with that throwaway comment :D
So I take from your expertise that 1) shielding IS worth doing and 2) all surfaces need grounding and 3) the holes could be as large as 500k and it wouldn't matter...
Living about 12 miles from Devonport and with Russian TV pundits openly discussing their plans to send a nuke here before long, that inch of copper might yet come in handy ;-)
Hi, Why have you not put the black earthing paint in the Jack socket recess?, Shouldn't the positioning of the new scratch plate be datumed on where the pickup hole lines up with the saddles?
Hi good question. It's TOO easy for the tip of the jack socket (the 'hot' signal tip) to touch out on the shielding and basically short-circuit the sound. You can't see how tight the jack socket fit is inside that tunnel or how close the tip comes to the walls of the tunnel when the plug is inserted. So I prefer to avoid shielding in there.
Just out of interest. I note that the body has a circular pocket below the pickup cavity which would obviously be covered by the pickguard. Can't think of anything that might occupy that position on an alternate variation of the wiring except maybe a kill button. Is this likely just a residual of the MiM production process. It seems quite definite.
You'd still have to route a channel for wires if you used a kill switch in that spot. Nearly every Mex Tele/Strat body I've ever seen has that hole (Save for the Mexican version of the American Original 50's series from a few years ago). And a lot of the time, they'll have a round, green or orange sticker in the bottom of the hole. Even the Player series bodies have it. You are very likely correct as I've always been told it's a manufacturing grip/indexing point and nothing more.
I've always understood it to be a 'registration' hole for the CNC router / machinery to locate itself.
Four hours ? Respectfully suggest you edit your content.
So... my 'thing' is 'real-time'. If it's boring; fine, don't watch it and I don't mind. I'm not on CZcams for likes, followers or ad revenue. I post content a) to show customers what I did with their guitars and b) to give prospective customers an idea what I would do with THEIR guitars. The videos - exactly as they are - do this perfectly well for my business, bringing me EXACTLY the kind of customers my business needs. It's absolutely fine if it's too long for your liking; it works perfectly well for my business in ways - I respectfully suggest - you don't know (or even should know).
The thing that makes this channel one of the best is the real time footage of the setups.