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Author Topic:  Check out my new #2 guitar...............
Jerry Hayes


From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
Post  Posted 24 Jan 2008 5:12 pm    
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I just got this in a trade for a bass. It's an Epiphone Casino to which I added an old Bigsby Palm Pedal. This thing has a killer tone to it with those P-90s and is much lighter than a 335 style as there's no sustain block. It's going to be my #2 guitar to take to the gig from now on as my #1 will still be my Telecaster but this one has a sound I can't get from the Tele. This very easily could become my #1 guitar. I've had it rewired so that only the top volume and tone controls are working as masters for both pickups, also since I took these shots, I've removed the pickguard and I think I'm going to leave it off.........

Just one problem though, at a high volume rate it tends to feed back a little, any suggestions on how to curb that? In the next couple of days I'll be adding a pair of Keith/Scruggs tuners on strings one and six......JH in Va.


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Henry Nagle

 

From:
Santa Rosa, California
Post  Posted 24 Jan 2008 5:37 pm    
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I used one of those as my main guitar for a couple of years. They're really alright! I like the feedback. It's usually the good, pretty kind of feedback.

I miss it.
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Frank Freniere


From:
The First Coast
Post  Posted 24 Jan 2008 6:10 pm    
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Looks like Dwight Yoakam's guitar.
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Charles Davidson

 

From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
Post  Posted 24 Jan 2008 7:53 pm    
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Jerry go to WalMart,Get some Angel Hair[They use it to stuff pillows with]It's real light weight,not like cotton stuffing,Just stuff it in the body through the F holes,will not effect the tone of the guitar,but WILL cure the feedback,I have used it in 175's,335's super 400's etc,it works,DYKBC.
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Bill Hatcher

 

From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
Post  Posted 25 Jan 2008 6:02 am    
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You will have to use some sort of cotton based stuffing. It would take about 10 times more synthetic to do the job cotton will do. The synthetic does not absorb sound very well which is what you have to do.

When I was out on the road I used everything from Holiday Inn towels to underwear in my archtop!

You might also try to make you some flat plates of plastic or hard cardboard to cover the sound holes. There used to be a product made that you slipped through the sound holes and then some tabs or something came out and you used those to sort of pull the cover from the inside and lock it down.

Here is another idea.

http://www.dougsplugs.com/DougsPlugs-Jazz-Improv-Review.pdf
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David Mason


From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
Post  Posted 25 Jan 2008 6:19 am    
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Quote:
...underwear in my archtop...


There's a song in there somewhere, but I ain't gonna be the one to get it out. Mr. Green
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Jim Eaton


From:
Santa Susana, Ca
Post  Posted 25 Jan 2008 9:20 am    
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A friend of mine made "sound posts" like a violin has out of a 2B drum stick, pulled the bridge pick up off for access and fitted them directly under the ends of the bridge, connecting the back and top of the guitar. Cut feedback to almost zero and got a nice boost in the tone and sustain out the guitar.
His was a Gibson ES-330 guitar.
JE:-)>
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Lee Baucum


From:
McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier
Post  Posted 26 Jan 2008 2:11 pm    
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Quote:
underwear in my archtop


That would also make a good name for a band!
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Bill Hatcher

 

From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
Post  Posted 26 Jan 2008 3:07 pm    
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Lee Baucum wrote:
Quote:
underwear in my archtop


That would also make a good name for a band!


Better if it were female underwear.
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Stephen Gambrell

 

From:
Over there
Post  Posted 26 Jan 2008 3:25 pm    
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Bill, I gottask---Was it a Super 400??? Mr. Green
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Chris LeDrew


From:
Canada
Post  Posted 26 Jan 2008 7:06 pm    
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Nice guitar, Jerry! Great choice to put the palm pedal on there.

My red one is completely stock. I got it in October '07 and have used it as my main guitar on the last few gigs. In the last year or two, the Casino quality has gotten a lot better for some reason. I love this guitar. It doesn't have any (unpleasant) feedback at all; it has just enough play in the feedback so you can use it to taste. I run it through a Deluxe Reverb Reissue completely opened up, and it sounds like Revolver!


You can tell I'm just tuning in this picture, due to the drummer's beer-slugging pose. Smile
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Jerry Hayes


From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
Post  Posted 28 Jan 2008 8:45 am    
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Hey Chris, I like that red one a bunch! I just took mine to the gig on Friday night and didn't take another guitar. It was great except for a couple of tunes the bass player did. He's a Merle Haggard freak and I missed the Telecaster on "Workin' Man Blues" and "The Fugitive" among others. There just wasn't quite enough twang on the bridge pickup. The Casino sounded wonderful on up tempo western swing and was also killer on ballads. These are very nice guitars and I'm starting to see a lot of 'em on TV with different bands. They're also pretty light and don't hurt your shoulder at the end of the night..........JH in Va.
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Jim Phelps

 

From:
Mexico City, Mexico
Post  Posted 28 Jan 2008 10:52 am    
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In the '70's I played a Gibson Super 400 CES in every kind of band, from lounge, country, blues, funk, to the Holiday Inn circuit.... with a Fender Super Six Reverb amp, and later a Twin w/JBL's. If you think that wasn't a combination just made for feedback....if anything will teach you how to handle guitar feedback, that one will!

Feedback is (IMHO) the biggest reason these kinds of guitars are not as popular with the younger lead players, although you see quite a few rhythm bangers playing them now... the feedback is cool when you want it, not so cool when you don't. It's easier to just grab a Strat or Les Paul and not have the problem.... but good as those guitars are, for me they lack a certain "life" that only a hollowbody has.

Right now my main guitar is a Washburn J-9 thin hollowbody and I love it, it feels "alive", feeds-back just enough in just the right places, other times it gets just on the verge of feeding back and sustains forever or just has that "bloom". I leave my compressor off for rhythm, step on it for leads and it lacks for nothing in the sustain department, most notes will be on the edge of feedback and out-sustain any solidbody. My solid-bodies sound good but feel dead to me compared to this kind of "interaction".

If you learn to control the feedback of a hollowbody, you can play any kind of music on it at just about any volume. Use some of your steel-guitar technique here.... the main problem is going to be the lower strings, the 5th and 6th strings, to a lesser extent, the 4th. They will (depending on your volume and the type of guitar) want to feedback uncontrollably if you leave your palm off them. You don't have to palm them way back by the bridge, causing you to pick close to the bridge, you can mute them anywhere lightly with your palm while you play... you can't always leave your palm anchored there and play so you get used to lifting it as necessary and periodically muting the lower strings in-between. It's easier than it sounds when you get used to it. All you have to do is play the guitar for a while and you'll get used to doing it automatically.

The Casino and Gibson ES-330 also don't have all the frets clear of the body, neither do most Gretsches or many other hollowbodies (the ES-335/345/355 type does), so accessing the last few frets is more difficult which might cause you to avoid those last-fret screaming licks... which in my opinion really isn't such a bad thing overall... Wink

If Ted Nugent could play hard rock on a Gibson Byrdland hollowbody at his volume levels, you know it can be done. Wink

And as previously mentioned, cotton stuffing helps too, although at high volume levels (or even med. depending on the git.) might not completely eliminate the feedback.

I once put a soundpost made from a 1/4" wooden dowel in a Washburn J-6 (full-depth hollowbody) and it did reduce the feedback some but also changed the tone a bit which was actually the reason I put it in there, I wanted a slightly brighter sound for the stuff I was playing.

I do miss seeing more of these guitars with all kinds of bands... now the Strat is KING, and if you play anything other than a Tele in a country band you "playing the wrong guitar" to a lot of people's thinking. They're both great guitars but there are OTHERS...! Used to see everything from Gretsches, Gibson hollowbodies, Les Pauls, SG's, you name it, playing in every kind of band. I'd like to see that again. Get out those hollowbodies!

Here's my relatively inexpensive (compared to Gibson or other fine jazzbox) all-around work guitar, a Washburn J9 in "Gretsch Orange" (one of 23 made in that color):

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Skip Edwards

 

From:
LA,CA
Post  Posted 28 Jan 2008 11:59 am    
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With those palm pedals that Epiphone looks like an Al Bruno setup to me.
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Jim Phelps

 

From:
Mexico City, Mexico
Post  Posted 28 Jan 2008 12:33 pm    
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PS

I never did stuff any of my archtops with cotton (or underwear ..."underwear in my archtop", that <i>is</i> funny! ..."But honey, I <i>need</i> these panties in my guitar, it's for the sound, <i>really!</i>")... because I thought it might be a problem getting it all back out when I didn't want it anymore.

For my Super 400, for a while I did take some 1-inch foam rubber and cut it into rectangles slightly bigger than the overall size of the f-holes and push them in there directly under the f-holes, and stacked them up one on top of the other in layers until they stayed put by compression. That helped quite a bit and didn't seem to affect the sound much and they were easy to get out when I wanted it "full acoustic" again.

Friend of mine stuffed his Johnny Smith with cotton and that worked well too... I wasn't around if or when he ever took it out but I'm betting it wouldn't be easy.


Last edited by Jim Phelps on 28 Jan 2008 12:41 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Chris LeDrew


From:
Canada
Post  Posted 28 Jan 2008 12:39 pm    
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I found the feedback in my Casino to be sweet and very manageable with a '65 Deluxe Reissue (even at high levels). But one time I used a Hot Rod Deluxe on a provided backline, and it was much harder reeling in the squeals.
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Jim Phelps

 

From:
Mexico City, Mexico
Post  Posted 28 Jan 2008 12:48 pm    
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Chris LeDrew wrote:
I found the feedback in my Casino to be sweet and very manageable with a '65 Deluxe Reissue (even at high levels). But one time I used a Hot Rod Deluxe on a provided backline, and it was much harder reeling in the squeals.


Right. But if the feedback you're talking about is squeals, do you mean microphonic type squealing feedback? That would be from microphonic pickups and is an entirely different problem. PU's shouldn't make microphonic squeals, if they do they should be potted in parafin wax and that will solve that.

Usually when a guitar feeds back it's the bass strings that are the biggest problem, the rest is "sweet" feedback as you said, and most guitarists like it on the higher strings, but the low strings can get out of control and sound crappy... Stand in front of a Super Six Reverb sometime (Twin Reverb head with 6 10-inch speakers) with a carved-top guitar... I'd been playing a Gretsch Country Gentleman with the painted-on f-holes and then got the Super 400... WOW was that an initiation into guitar feedback!

I'm playing my J9 now out of a 100-watt head into a 1 -12 cab and have no feedback problems, sometimes the bass strings will start going but I can control it.

How you physically place yourself in relation to your amp also greatly affects how much feedback you'll get. Of course if you're facing the amp so the top of your guitar is facing the speaker you'll usually get more. Sometimes the back of the guitar broadside to the speaker will cause more feedback too, and standing at a slight sideways angle to the amp will give the least feedback. If you have a monitor blasting into the front of your guitar, that will cause you to have more feedback too. Move around a little and find what's best for your guitar and amp.

Playing your guitar through a volume pedal helps too... I always use my light-beam pedal... no I don't do those disgusting "imitation pedal steel volume licks and swells"... yuck... Razz But a volume pedal gives you even more control of the feedback, as well as helping sustain any notes that are not as resonant as some others, especially if you've got any "dead spots". With the pedal, you can also squeeze a sustaining note out and oftentimes at the end it will start feeding back and change into a harmonic, which sounds pretty cool in the right places. Set your amp so your normal playing volume is 1/3-1/2 of the pedal so you have lots of headroom to work with, same as you do for steel.

With a hollowbody, you can <i>sound</i> loud without really <i>being</i> loud. Smile
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Jerry Hayes


From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
Post  Posted 29 Jan 2008 12:00 pm    
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Skip, it does indeed look like an Al Bruno guitar as he's been my hero for a long time.........

Jim, my feedback does seem to be the squealing type you mentioned so my pickups might be microphonic. I don't know how close to the original P-90s these Epi pickups are. I have a Epi Zephyr Blues Deluxe with 3 P-90s and a larger and wider body but it doesn't seem to feed back as easily as the Casino.

I have and Ibanez Artcore archtop that I revamped to do some gigs with an Elvis Impersonator (see photo). I was going to put P-90s on it but I found these Duncan "Phat Cat" pickups which go right in where a humbucker was and are single coil. I like them a bunch. Also here's a shot of the Zephyr Blues Deluxe


........JH in Va.

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John Floyd

 

From:
R.I.P.
Post  Posted 30 Jan 2008 2:53 pm     Some Ugly Toes In One OF those Pics
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But What would you expect from an Laughing Laughing Laughing OLD picker? Laughing Laughing Laughing
Happy Birthday Jerry, Sorry I missed it this Year and I'm not having one Saturday no matter what anybody tells you! Rolling Eyes
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Jerry Hayes


From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
Post  Posted 31 Jan 2008 6:48 am    
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Hey John, "Happy Birthday" to you but I can't remember what day it is! I know that you're gonna be pretty dang old though...........JH
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Gary C. Dygert

 

From:
Frankfort, NY, USA
Post  Posted 31 Jan 2008 7:09 am    
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Yummy-looking guitars here! I saw an Epiphone acoustic hanging on the wall of a pawn shop on Law & Order last night.
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Alan Brookes


From:
Brummy living in Southern California
Post  Posted 3 Feb 2008 7:19 pm    
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David Mason wrote:
Quote:
...underwear in my archtop...


There's a song in there somewhere, but I ain't gonna be the one to get it out. Mr. Green


If that were a Johnny Cash recording it would probably be "white powder in my archtop."
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Jan Viljoen


From:
Pretoria, South Africa
Post  Posted 3 Jul 2017 9:27 am     washburn J9
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Jim Phelps,

I have a Washburn J9 too and it is very nice with a slim neck. It has a mahogany block inside top prevent feedback.

It is a Byrdland copy and cost only 1/50th of the real mccoy.

I was lucky to find a suitable case here in South Africa. It fits perfectly.

Who says a jazz guitar cannot be used in a folk setting? I used ordinary strings though.



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Roland Cube 80XL, Peavey112-Valve King and Special, Marshall 100VS.
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Bill Hatcher

 

From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
Post  Posted 3 Jul 2017 9:42 am    
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i have a couple of gibson chet atkins country gentleman guitars from 1987. you can play it through a marshal stack with no feedback. sounds fabulous. i have had super 400, L5, es 350...and others. this is the best gibson i have ever owned. i will have it till its all over. its that good.
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Jerry Hayes


From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
Post  Posted 5 Jul 2017 10:01 am    
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Bill, I love that Gibson Chet Atkins guitar a bunch but can't afford one right now... I have an Epiphone reissue '62 Sheraton with the small humbuckers which is one fine sounding guitar. I also put a gold Bigsby Palm Pedal on board (tribute to Al Bruno) and I've had it rewired with only the top two knobs working as a master volume and tone control. The bottom two knobs are still there but they're now pull pots activating a coil tap on the rear and a phase switch in front. I also have a HipShot D-tuner on the low E string at the headstock... Here's a couple of shots.......JH in Va.




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Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!
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