Surface Pictures

This is a story about modifying a guitar

It was a Gretsch 2627t, but it’s now my Vulture’Tron.

I didn’t like the way it sounded and the knobs didn’t look or feel right. I could have traded it in or not voided the warranty, but sometimes we make choices.

I swapped the bridge from a tune-o-matic for a roller bridge to fix the horrendous tuning instability. Added off-brand cheapo knobs made of cheap, cheap metal. I also sewed a muffler for the strings between the Bigsby and the bridge to stop the overtones.

I had no idea how an electric guitar makes noises. Was it magic? Magnets? Aren’t magnets sorcerous? Was there soldering involved? Isn’t that painful?

I got a basic soldering kit off Amazon and watched a few dozen Youtube tutorials. I read as much as I could find – the best was from the Seymour Duncan and Stewmac websites.

I learned how magnets work. How they create an electromagnetic field. How that field being disrupted by ferrous metals creates variations in the signal that then gets routed through circuitry and to the output jack towards an amp. How different magnetic configurations and electronic parts can affect tone. I learned to solder. Mistakes were made.

Each of the four volume potentiometers now has a greasebucket circuit with different resistor placements. The lipstick pickup is overpowered. The center block is lined with copper shielding tape. The output jack is also (arguably) upgraded.

I will totally post that sound when I can get my amp-to-computer interface working again. Until then, just imagine a blend of Bo Diddley, psychedelia, surf, and garage rock.

Ah, the visual part. Because until recently I have mostly done visual art things.

I learned how to draw birds. Specifically, black vultures, because they’re everywhere in Florida and are adorable. I also learned how to write demotic Egyptian text to charm this bad boy from P.G.M. III, #295-300. My sketchbook looks much cooler as a result.