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

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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Gavanti
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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by Gavanti » Tue Jul 04, 2017 4:53 pm

I see yours has the same finish crack from the trem to the bridge that mine has. ;D

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

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Jul 04, 2017 11:22 pm

Gavanti wrote:I see yours has the same finish crack from the trem to the bridge that mine has.
Yeah, there's another smaller area just in front of the neck pickup, on the bass side. Other than that it's clean.

As you probably know, these guitars (not to mention countless Eko models) had very thick poly lacquer. You won't find many subtly ageing Vox guitars like you do with 60s Fenders & Gibsons. If there's a lot of it the guitar can look really ugly!
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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Jul 04, 2017 11:29 pm

pad wrote: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.
Aah, I get you. Nice idea. I could elaborate on it & use Ulrics idea of having the PorkyPrimeCut coat of arms mounted on the mahogany. Heheheh!
I'm really trying to get this guitar as close to a Vox Cheetah as I can (subconsciously, anyway). I might even try to replace the 2 bars on the vibrato for 6-string ones, just to have better string alignment. Probably completely unnecessary but once an idea gets hatched in my head I can't shift it.
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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by Fiddy » Thu Jul 06, 2017 4:24 pm

The triangle piece looks great. Nice save.

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

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Fri Jul 07, 2017 10:06 pm

tribi9 wrote:The triangle piece looks great. Nice save.
Thanks!

Seeing as it cost under £20 including postage I've got another one ordered, in the ever so slightly paler red.
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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Thu Jul 20, 2017 8:46 am

I somehow managed to lose the bracket that holds the guard in place. I've no idea how. I definitely had it at some stage as I've mounted a repro guard before (but got rid of it as it looked a bit tacky). Now that I'm ready to get one cut from decent material I figured I'd try'n source the part.

JJ (Gavanti) was a great help, hooking me up with a photograph of his guard & the all important metal bracket...

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What I'd not realised was that some of the old Vox pickguards were actually 2 ply - white with a veneer of tortoiseshell laid on top. I'm pretty sure I've seen others that are translucent (hence my looking for a similar style in acrylic) so this suggests that Vox Ultrasonics would occasionally have varying parts. Also, the white base might explain why his hasn't curled up like the translucent ones were prone to doing.

Anyway, after calling beforehand I took another trip over to Brandoni's armed with the detailed photograph of the arm. With a bit of luck he'd have what I was looking for. Me and JJ had discussed the fact that, while the angled bar would be easy to fashion, the barrel that threads onto it would be really hard to make from scratch.

In a strange twist of fate it turned out Roberto had a few of the little barrels to hand but none of the bars. In the end he spent 10-15 minutes making one from similar threaded rod. He cut it to size, bent it in a vice & even grinder the sharp end so it was blunt & flat. It was so good of him to do all this for me & I was even more grateful when he said I could have the pieces for free!! He even gave me a spare & another rod that I could bend myself, if the other one wasn't quite right. What a gent!!...

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So, all that remains now is to get the guard cut. Dan (Deedpoll) has agreed to cut it for me on his fab CNC machine so there's no need to get a template cut first. Once that's done the Ultrasonic will be as good as I can get it. I'm still sat on the 6 string neck but, to be honest, I can't see myself swapping to a tiny nut width when I'm so comfy with the chunkier 1.5" 12-string neck.

Oh yeah, lastly, does anyone know what this might be from?...

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It's really weird. It's been in the little wallet i've had stashed in the case since I bought the guitar. I was convinced that it was the bolt that held the pickguard in place but it doesn't fit in the barrel on the threaded rod. Also, the nut has been cut in half, suggesting it sits tightly against something. I can't get my head round where it should go. It's definitely not for something inside the body.

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

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Tue Aug 15, 2017 6:12 am

Ah well, I've put it away in the wallet.

Back to my tinkering. The rod Brandoni made me didn't quite serve it's purpose. The section that's gripped by the side bracket was shorter than normal & remained loose. I decided to have a go myself, found some cheap M4 steel, double-threaded rod & after bending it 90 degrees & cutting down one end I was left with this...

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It's not as long as the original bracket but I think it'll still be OK. I've actually made a slightly longer one, just in case.
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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Mon Jan 22, 2018 7:30 am

So, I'm part of an "Vintage Vox Guitars (from sixties)" Facebook group & there's this one Italian guy (who I think started the group to begin with) who generally posts pictures of the same guitars over & over again. I think they're all his.
Anyway, out of the blue he posted pictures of a custom-made plate to cover up the lower 6 tuner holes on a 12 string, if you want to convert it to a 6 string instead. At first I thought he'd got someone to do it but it turns out this was actually offered by Eko...

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While it looks pretty ugly & clunky it's great to see that it was considered doable & kind of kills the worries I had about my neck twisting.

Here's one for an Ultrasonic too...

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Even uglier but pretty cool, from a nerdy, historical perspective :jacked:
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Re: Is the love affair over? No! Modding the Ultrasonic....

Post by mgeek » Mon Jan 22, 2018 8:11 am

PorkyPrimeCut wrote:
Mon Jan 22, 2018 7:30 am
So, I'm part of an "Vintage Vox Guitars (from sixties)" Facebook group & there's this one Italian guy (who I think started the group to begin with) who generally posts pictures of the same guitars over & over again. I think they're all his.
aahahahahah that group is hilarious, and then the old timer who used to work for EKO who posts 'NO MAED BY EKO!!' on every picture of a UK made Vox ;D

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