Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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PorkyPrimeCut
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Re: Is the love affair over? Nope! Modifying the Ultrasonic.

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Mar 07, 2017 3:55 am

I've been tinkering again. Two small changes....

Firstly, although the compensated bridge is an improvement it's not rocking properly with the vibrato & always ends up pushed right forward. Also, I wish it had the same post spacing as the stock bridge (something I forgot to check) so I could use the wooden base, rather than the slightly fugly aluminium one. It's no big deal & the guitar sounds way better than before but I've taken a punt on a Gretsch-style Bar Bridge. The string and post spacing is spot on. I just hope the radius is alright although it'd hardly be a hindrance with my fairly amateurish playing.

Secondly, and I thought long & hard before doing this, the Palm Wah's been removed. I just never use it. I've got photos of how it's attached to the guitar & what I've done can be completely reversed, should I suddenly want to try & get my head around one of the strangest & awkward features of these guitars. Removing the tension spring made the hinged, rocking mechanism loose so I've strapped it down with an elastic band & now it's solid. Taking it out revealed not one but two ground wires. One poking through a separate drilled hole & nestled under the palm wah plate (not do unlike the Jazzmaster ground wire attached to the bridge thimble. The other one was wrapped around a screw that holds the aluminium palm wah module bracket in place. Man, what a can of worms this thing is!!

I'll get a little plate (hopefully colour matched) to cover up that unsightly hole but it's great how much more space I now have around that area. Much comfier & it seems a tiny bit lighter, although that'll be in my imagination as the part I removed weighed very little...

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Last edited by PorkyPrimeCut on Mon Jan 22, 2018 7:23 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Is the love affair over? Might sell my Ultrasonic....

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Mar 14, 2017 5:53 am

The bridge arrived with an unpleasant surprise. Nope, it wasn't the wrong width, nor was it the wrong radius (at least it doesn't seem to be). I just got stung £16 import tax & handling. Bastards!! My own stupid fault for forgetting the old "buy it from the US cos it's cheaper" myth.

Anyway, it worked out pretty much the same as the ones sold in the UK so I'm not bothered. The main thing is, it looks fucking great & feels fantastic! I'm so much happier being able to use the original wooden base....

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I made sure to noodle around for 5 minutes with the older compensated bridge & this one's much more solid. It still rocks but hasn't got as much room to manoeuvre as the compensated bridge so it isn't leaning right forward when I use the vibrato arm. I rubbed a little graphite into the slots, just to help a little but it probably won't have made much difference. Overall it just feels like a really good quality upgrade.

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All that remains is finding suitable material to cover the hole left by the Palm Wah. Any suggestions for suppliers of cherry red/burgundy veneer are still welcome but I'm hoping I can find a company that cuts coloured 3mm perspex to size.
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Re: Is the love affair over? Might sell my Ultrasonic....

Post by UlricvonCatalyst » Tue Mar 14, 2017 6:02 am

Looks like it's crying out for a wee Porky Prime Cut coat of arms on there, a la the Hagstrom logo. :)

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Re: Is the love affair over? Might sell my Ultrasonic....

Post by shadowplay » Tue Mar 14, 2017 6:23 am

PorkyPrimeCut wrote:
All that remains is finding suitable material to cover the hole left by the Palm Wah. Any suggestions for suppliers of cherry red/burgundy veneer are still welcome but I'm hoping I can find a company that cuts coloured 3mm perspex to size.
Could you not get that Strider guy on here to cut you a stainless triangle thingy (which you could even get engraved with Ultrasonic locally or whatever or just use black plastic to match the pickup surrounds or a triangle of rosewood? I guess you could go to a French polisher make something up and get them to do it but my recent dealings with one makes me wonder if the chemicals do something to their brains because he was a right pain in the arse (though the end result was good).

There's a hole there on a lot of Gretsches where they removed the floating sound unit.

D
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Re: Is the love affair over? Might sell my Ultrasonic....

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Mar 14, 2017 6:41 am

UlricvonCatalyst wrote:Looks like it's crying out for a wee Porky Prime Cut coat of arms on there, a la the Hagstrom logo. :)
;D

My very own coat of arms. Now there's a thought.
shadowplay wrote: Could you not get that Strider guy on here to cut you a stainless triangle thingy (which you could even get engraved with Ultrasonic locally or whatever or just use black plastic to match the pickup surrounds or a triangle of rosewood?
Black plastic was my one of my initial thoughts. I actually have an old black Eko Ranger pickguard (for the modern lines, not the vintage ones) that I could cut up. Ideally I want someone with a proper cutting machine to do it on though. It'll need rounded corners & countersunk screwholes if it's going to look right.
I'd also like it to be as invisible as possible, hence wanting a colour match. I could maybe buy some wood stain & use any old scrap piece of thin plywood but it all adds up, cost wise. There seem to be a couple of custom perspex cutters online who charge very little (it seems) so they'll be my first choice.

I actually thought I'd blagged the perfect solution. I found a supplier of custom build office furniture that had all sorts of different finishes available, one of which was a dark burgundy wood veneer. Perfect. The image online looked spot on.
I emailed them, masquerading as a company director looking to revamp my offices & was hoping they could send me some sample swatches. Secretly I knew that even a 50mm x 50mm piece of veneer would be enough.
They fell for it & said they'd courier out a sample which I should get in the next day or two. I ended up missing the postman (it needed a signature) & had to walk 45 minutes to a depot in the heart of South Bermondsey (a Leeds fan walking through Millwall territory is never what I'd consider a fun day out).
Anyway, when I got there they handed me a pretty weighty package which I first thought must be full of every veneer they had available. It was only when I got it halfway home & ripped the package open that I discovered they'd given me a fucking massive doorstep of chipboard, thicker than a kitchen work surface) with the veneer glued to it already. The colour ended up being completely out to!!

I never seem to have luck with these kind of things! ;D
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Re: Is the love affair over? Might sell my Ultrasonic....

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Apr 18, 2017 2:14 am

I got some £1 samples in the post, this time 3 different types of acrylic from 3 different sellers. Here they are laid on the guitar...

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I'm going with the one that's in place, under the strings. Typically, just like some guitar finishes, the acrylic looks a slightly different colour in different lights. In natural light, without direct sunlight, it's virtually invisible. In very bright light & close up you can see it's a touch redder & the body finish is a touch yellower (I wonder if that's due to the clear coat, as with Fender colours). The sample piece is actually 5mm thick but they sell it in 3mm so I'll get that. The plate will have polished, bevelled edges & countersunk screwholes.

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When cut to size the triangular plate will be much smaller & pretty discreet, hopefully.
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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Thu Jun 22, 2017 12:51 pm

I ordered the plastic cover today. Too much umming & ahhing over which shade of red to go for!

Also, as seen in another thread, I've tracked down some decent Italian-made tortoiseshell acrylic that I'll use to make a replacement pickguard.
The originals are incredibly hard to come by & after a ton of searching I reckon this stuff is as close as I'll get...

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I took a slightly less lit up picture of the material & did a bit of sneaky cropping in Photoshop...

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I'm pretty happy with them all but the second from the left looks just how I'd pictured it in my head.
The marbling is more on the diagonal than the originals but the overall tones are perfect. The one on the far right comes in second.

EDIT - I've just seen these on my iPad. They look terrible. The second one Imlike the most looks jet back! I didn't realise the colours were so bad on Apple tablets.
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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by raphaël » Thu Jun 22, 2017 1:22 pm

Wow!! Where did you find that sheet?

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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Thu Jun 22, 2017 2:05 pm

raphaël wrote:Wow!! Where did you find that sheet?
A guy in Holland was selling them on eBay.

I got really lucky as I'd given up on eBay ages ago. I actually did a random GoogleImages search after getting let down by a seller in the US. His eBay listing was for "tortoise" instead of "tortoiseshell" so maybe it hadn't shown up before. As luck would have it he had 2 sheets left & said they were selling at a rate of about 1 sheet per week. I chose the best of the two & he sold the other one.
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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Sun Jun 25, 2017 12:30 pm

Another thing. This Gretsch bar bridge has fixed any problems I ever had with tuning stability. The vibrato works perfectly now. :)
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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Jul 04, 2017 8:41 am

I got the little plastic cover that covers up the Palm Wah hole delivered. Pretty neat....

Image

In some lights it looks hugely different in colour to the body, in others it's almost a perfect match. I'm really happy with it.

:)
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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by pad » Tue Jul 04, 2017 11:10 am

Another Idea: why not take a piece of Wood to match the bridge?
Shall be a great combo!

But, it already looks great and classy!
Love that ultrasonic!
:?

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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Jul 04, 2017 11:53 am

pad wrote:Another Idea: why not take a piece of Wood to match the bridge?
I actually considered cutting away some of the body, underneath the cushioned back pad. There's enough to use without it showing. I just can't do it though, not to a vintage instrument like this. Everything I've done so far can be returned to original specs, if I want.

I did looked at wood veneers (cherry red, burgundy, rose) but couldn't find a decent match. I guess I could've bought a plain piece of plywood, matched the grain to the body & stained it but finding the right stain could've been tricky.

I'll keep an eye out for suitable alternatives. A smashed up Ultrasonic body would be ideal. Unfortunately the only one I've ever seen is the wrong colour! Heheheh!
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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by pad » Tue Jul 04, 2017 2:33 pm

No, I mean to take a nice piece of mahogany to match the wood of the bridge and install it just the way you did.
:)

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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by Ursa Minor » Tue Jul 04, 2017 2:45 pm

Really classy! 8)
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