TheFretShack

Martin binding separation is a too common problem - most bound Nazareth guitars will suffer from this at some point in life. Caused by a combination of their binding material of choice shrinking over time and their adhesive of choice simultaneously failing over time. Why they refuse to address and correct their shortcoming is beyond senseless.

We (unfortunately) have hundreds of reps fixing this specific issue with Nazareth builds. Go to thefretshack.com to get the phone number with the 917 area code. Call Patrick Welborn at that number. He will set your appointment and have your guitar in the cue within days.

The MVP bang-for-the-buck MIM Tele upgrade ... if you find the treble icy, pull the modern six-steel-saddles bridge and replace it with a vintage style - and warmer yet still plenty bright sounding - three-brass-barrel bridge. The market's best value performer is a Gotoh replacement that has their intonation-friendly compensated brass barrel saddles.





---------------------------

Before you consider pickup upgrades, make sure the control plate is CTS potentiometers. If not, I am a big fan of Mojotone's vintage taper 250K short shaft pots for Strats and Teles. You will pay a little more for the "MOJO" stamped pots, but they have a sweeter wiper sweep, a tighter spec tolerance, even the turning friction is perfect, not too stiff, not too loose. Available at mojotone.com and via Sweetwater and Musician's Friend.

Memphis, with absolutely zero question or hesitation.

I used Nady in the 1980s, Samson in the 1990s, then Shure in the 2000s. You cannot go wrong with whatever Shure is available in your price range.

Slightly cheaper ... I've heard excellent things about Boss's WL-20 and -50 systems, and Line 6's wireless offerings. Those utilize a "pedal" receiver that double as transmitter chargers from what I've seen, that you house on a pedalboard. SO much smarter than an amp-top console receiver.

If they don't have your price range covered, there are many bug-style wireless systems on Amazon that are stupid cheap in price. One bug is the transmitter, the other plugs straight into the amp or the console.

Considering good technology in general is more affordable than ever, and considering Amazon's bulletproof return policy if that first hypothesis is incorrect ... I may buy one of the bargain bug systems on Amazon to see how well and how conveniently it would do its job around the workshop. One less cable to potentially trip me up is always welcome.

Can never go wrong with a 58 for vocals or a 57 for miking instruments. Value priced, readily available, virtually indestructible.

If you can only afford one mic for both purposes (home recording), get the 57.

Vol. 4 and Master of Reality

From my social media feeds ...

A mutual friend put Carondelet P-90s on Charlie Starr's radar last year and he's been a friend and a fan ever since.
Charlie invited me to Blackberry Smoke's soundcheck in Baton Rouge yesterday (!), and no pickup winder meets up with modern Southern rock's patron saint of P-90s without something special in tow.
Behold three very custom Carondelet "Hog Ear" dog-ear P-90s, inspired by Charlie and hand-wound by yours truly to Charlie's preferred specs.
Specifically, an overwound (9k DCR) pure vintage Gibson single coil blueprint, featuring two roughcast A4 magnets, vintage inspired metallurgy, and an unpotted coil wound with 1950s spec enamel-insulated wire.
Charlie has two of the Carondelet customs, and he said one goes asap into a project '58 Les Paul Junior he has back home, so it can join the Smoke touring guitarsenal (!).
The third custom "hog ear" resides in my personal '55 Junior, which I brought to soundcheck so Charlie could get a relevant test drive. Raw Android A/V video snippet below. The amp is Charlie's go-to 1960 brownface Fender Concert combo.

Carondelet P-90 test drive with Charlie Starr

The name was inspired by a wasp buzzing around first bassist Rik Foxx when he and Blackie were trying to come up with a name for their new band, formed from the ashes of Blackie and Randy Piper's former band. Circus Circus.

Blackie came up with the idea of adding periods between the letters of "wasp" so it would appear to be some sort of acronym. The hope was fans, the press, anti-fans, etc., would speculate all kinds of crazy stuff, kind of like when Bible belt conservatives in the late 70s accused Kiss of being short for "Knights in Satan's Service." Then Wasp, like Kiss, would refuse to confirm or deny whatever fans or the press speculated the initials stood for, adding to the mystique.

To add fuel to the fire, they put "we are sexual perverts" in the debut album's liner notes but offered no explanation.

The name, the alleged acronym, the stage act, etc., eventually got Tipper Gore's PMRC crosshairs on them, which subsequently sold a ton of records.

So it worked.

G&L's biggest problem historically was their inability to effectively tell what could be (have been) American guitar-making's best story, at least in a way that that was able to convert ads, impressions, page views, etc., into actual sales.

If I was the CEO of FMIC, knowing I have the personnel and the ad/marketing budget to work with ... I'd pay whatever reasonable price I could to acquire G&L. What's at stake? Not only the G&L name, but Clarence Leo Fender's name and signature in all forms; rights and usage to every G&L, CLF and/or Leo-owned Music Man patent and IP I could get my hands on; the actual G&L facility (the old pre-CBS plant, down to tooling and Leo's office, untouched since his passing); unfinished prototypes; all of Leo's notes; and the list likely goes on.

First thing I'd do would be to move the Fender Custom Shop and the Fender Museum "back" to the old Fullerton plant. Then I'd execute a MASSIVE ad/marketing/promo campaign telling G&L's "coming home" story and why anyone should care. You'd be surprised how the people who know the story behind the G&L headstocks, MFD pickups, the Dual Fulcrum and Saddle Lock bridges, the PTB circuitry, etc. ... focus on Leo's ingenuity and innovation and reasoning for it, rather than surface cosmetics.

Here's my '96 Legacy. I've owned it longer than any guitar in my playing history. It has my pickups, my preferred wiring circuit, a Fret Shack refret with super jumbos, a trunk and fingerboard conversion from the stock satined poly finish to hand-rubbed Danish oil. I've had people offer me trades worth ten times more my G&L's value, the guitar is just such an incredible example of a S style solidbody. Not for sale. Especially now.

Bogner La Grange official video