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

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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Re: Is the love affair over? Might sell my Ultrasonic....

Post by pad » Sun Oct 09, 2016 4:40 am

hmm, I've got the same bridge on my 70s lawsuit sg with bigsby. mine was rocking around too much (well im might playing fairly hard..), I've just drilled 2 holes though the bottom and put two screws though it. That should be no option for your vox!

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

Post by mgeek » Mon Oct 10, 2016 3:15 pm

PorkyPrimeCut wrote:
Sorry, I don't quite follow part of this. When you say "angle the top bit" do you mean "straighten the compensated bar"? When I first installed it & tuned up I realised that the bar was leaning pretty far forward. Even though some forums suggested this was normal I tried to re-tune/re-set the thing up & this time ensured that the bridge stayed straight. It worked out fine & now sits how I'd hoped it would.

It's funny, with even light but regular use the vibrato knocks this thing out of tune. Only slightly but enough to have to spend 10-20 seconds adjusting the tuners.
Yeah straighten the compensated bar...you get it I'm sure- so it can rock back and forth

I wouldn't judge the tuning until you've slotted the bridge. I'm using one of these on a NON trem guitar and the pitch stability was crap til I got around to slotting ;)

That said- might also be worth experimenting with a stronger spring.

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

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:36 pm

I can't thank you enough for your input with all this, mgeek

Since I switched the bridge out this feels like a different guitar. I've deliberately kept it in the living room, on it's stand, and I've found myself picking it up way more than I normally would. The acoustic's taken a backseat for a while.

I've taken some detailed photos of inside & am thinking long & hard about removing the Wah mechanism. While it's an interesting device & absolutely screams with the Treble Boost engaged, it's way too awkward & fiddly to use effectively.

I'll look into slotting the bridge next. Do you find that your two e strings don't lay naturally in the centre of their saddles? Mine don't, even though the strings are evenly spaced.

Lastly the spring. While a change might me a good idea I've found that changing the spring on my other Bigsby'd guitar has caused a new problem. A softer one has meant the arm angle is shallower &, when I use it, the arm actually taps the selector switch. A stiffer one was perfect but less responsive.
With the Vox arm, it's the other way round - a stiffer spring would make the angle more extreme & it's already as far away from the body as I'd like it. It's a shame the springs in both units don't match (the Vox one's narrower) as I have 2 different Bigsby ones lying around gathering dust.

Anyway, all's good really. I shouldn't complain :)
Last edited by PorkyPrimeCut on Tue Oct 11, 2016 7:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Is the love affair over? Might sell my Ultrasonic....

Post by mgeek » Tue Oct 11, 2016 6:41 am

Hey no worries! Happy to help!

by weird coincidence this is exactly the sort of stuff I"ve been thinking about guitarwise this year- got a vox phantom that was being ruined by the crappy bridge, and a hofner veri that sounded WONDERFUL, and when I put it's bridge on a Fenton Weill that was sounding ass, it came to life!

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

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Oct 11, 2016 9:46 am

Hmmm, the bridge still ends up leaning forward every time I re-tune.

I've read up on possible ways to prevent this & pencil lead/graphite in the grooves (that I'm yet to cut) seems about the only possible fix.
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Re: Is the love affair over? Might sell my Ultrasonic....

Post by mgeek » Tue Oct 11, 2016 12:43 pm

You just have to fiddle with it- keep pushing it back as you tune up. Hold it in place as you do the low E and A particularly. It's a bit fiddly at first but you'll get the hang.

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

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Wed Oct 12, 2016 1:34 pm

I think I need to step up to 11s.

I ignored the fret buzz on the higher frets (an area I don't venture into that much) to begin with but I'm enjoying playing this thing so much I need to get it set up properly.

I know playing a 12 string with 6 strings isn't the greatest of ideas. I've read plenty of opinion on other forums saying it's bad for the neck, isn't bad for the neck, impossible to intonate, easy to intonate with heavier strings, blah blah blah. There's not really a definitive "DON'T DO IT!" so I'm just gonna go ahead.

To try & negate the buzz I've ended up loosening the truss rod so much that it almost feels loose. I could raise the bridge a bit more but I think it's worth giving heavier strings a go. The guitar's sounding great & plugged in the buzz isn't a problem but it's turned into a couch guitar.

I've found that Ernie Ball do "Power Slinkys" that are 11s with an unwound G (that I need because of the compensated bridge I've added). Anyone know of other brands that do the same tailored set (without the clownish coloured ball-ends)?
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Re: Is the love affair over? Might sell my Ultrasonic....

Post by mgeek » Thu Oct 13, 2016 2:19 am

That bridge is compensated for a wound G I think, not an unwound one... Could be wrong, but I don't think so.

RE: using a 12 string as a 6, there is absolutely NO problem with this whatsoever. It's still a lump of wood with a truss etc. Sounds like you may have a spot of backbow though, so yeah, heavier strings, loosening the truss is all good

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

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Thu Oct 13, 2016 11:47 am

Ha! OK. I'm struggling to find out what a compensated bridge for an unwound G actually looks like.

I could've sworn the eBay listing for this one stated "unwound" but I was wrong. It must've been another one that I'd been interested in.

I figured 11s would help, they'll probably give me a little volume increase too. These 10s actually feel super light so I can't imagine the step up will be that bad. I had 11s on my Eko Ranger for years.
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Re: Is the love affair over? Might sell my Ultrasonic....

Post by mgeek » Fri Oct 14, 2016 2:26 am

if you image search compensated bridge unwound you'll see loads of em!

Aside from the notches for each string, there are two general 'lines', before a reset to allow for the unwound section to take over.

For unwound g there are two equal length lines, for wound g, there's one general line that covers the bottom 4 strings and a shorter line that covers the high E and B

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

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Fri Oct 14, 2016 12:44 pm

mgeek wrote:if you image search compensated bridge unwound you'll see loads of em!

Aside from the notches for each string, there are two general 'lines', before a reset to allow for the unwound section to take over.

For unwound g there are two equal length lines, for wound g, there's one general line that covers the bottom 4 strings and a shorter line that covers the high E and B
Yeah, I've Googled it & seen the images but there are so many different bridges that come up.

As to the notched bridges, I almost pulled the trigger on one of these to sit on top of the original wooden bridge base but opted for the all-aluminium one instead.

This whole unwound G thing seems to be a bit of a ball-ache. I don't see the point & everyone else seems to hate them!
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Re: Is the love affair over? Might sell my Ultrasonic....

Post by mgeek » Fri Oct 14, 2016 2:58 pm

i don't think it matters that much- got an wound type bridge on my fenton weill rn and unwound strings and it's fine- though i have kinda fiddled a bit

for avoidance of doubt- this is an unwound compensated bridge

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/smiert/ ... e.jpg.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and this is for a wound one

http://www.elderly.com/images/accessories/GEPT/0240.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Sat Oct 15, 2016 10:29 am

I got some great Nickel Wound Pyramid 11s, notched the bridge & set it up so it wasn't leaning forward & played it for 3 hours solid. I'm hooked, again!! :)

I still have my eye on Compton bridge, eventually, but for the time being I'm really happy with how it's playing.
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Re: Is the love affair over? Might sell my Ultrasonic....

Post by elektrovac » Thu Dec 29, 2016 2:44 am

The Reuss Treble/Bass Booster clone is out now - intended as a companion to the Repeater Fuzz. Put a wah between these, and you have the full chain of effects of the Ultrasonic etc. (but none of the flimsy, noisy switches etc.) 8)

Image

http://www.reusseffects.com/products/tb01

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

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Thu Dec 29, 2016 3:45 pm

Super cool!
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