Uni to Ext E9 Conversion

[Danny Mitchell]

Thanks for taking the time out to record this whole undertaking/journey in such detail. Really informative, Geoff.
And, for considering to let us hear the new changes you've put in, too. Cannae wait

[Jif]

Thanks Danny

[Mr Bassman]

Thanks Geoff
Very informative, I've picked up some very useful tips.

[Jif]

Thanks Geoff
Very informative, I've picked up some very useful tips.

You're welcome Keith. I don't claim to be an expert, more an enthusiastic amateur. If my recent experience helps others then it makes it worthwhile posting it up here.

Let's face it, this instrument is complicated and any help we can give to each other is good for everyone in getting to grips with it

[Ken Byng]

I'm waiting with baited breath for your project of the slide-in pickups Geoff.

[Jif]

I'm waiting with baited breath for your project of the slide-in pickups Geoff.

I'll hopefully be getting around to it soon Ken. The biggest problem I have is my workshop is in my attic and it's brass monkeys up there atm

Here's a picture of some parts I've sourced for the project. The pins are the same size as on the MSA mounts.

[Ken Byng]

You’ve got the springs too Geoff. Fantastic!

[Jif]

A not so wee update on this adventure.

So I was halfway through recording a demo of my new copedent when I concluded some changes were required after playing it for a month or so, so I'll be starting the demo fresh sometime soon including the new changes.

First off, I decided the wound 6 string was affecting the action of too many changes, i.e. I had to either extend pedal/lever travel too much or have very stiff changes on some most used pedals/levers, so I went back to a plain string on string 6 and adjusted the rodding accordingly.

Second, I didn't like the 2 raise on string 1 & the 1 raise on string 2 being on pedal 4, I concluded that these would be better on a lever and racked my brains, such as they are, to re-arrange what my LKL and LKR were doing. I ended up putting both these raises on LKL and shifting the 1 lower on LKL string 2 to LKR. This worked out OK from a musical perspective but meant having 4 rods on both these levers. I removed the rod on LKR lowering string 11 a tone which eased up that lever considerably and put this change onto P4. On LKL I really wanted to keep all 4 changes as I use them all a lot and most of them work in conjunction with pedals, so it wasn't an option to move any to a pedal.

I ended up getting the travel and stiffness as good as I could get them and it is playable though a bit stiff still. I may try adding a spring to ease that a bit at some point.

In doing this a method of sorts came about that can be applied to all rodding changes. This is how I went about it,

(1) I set the lever travel to how I would ideally like it.
(2) I worked on the rod with the biggest change first, in this case it was a 2 raise on string 1. This would require the biggest pull so the other pulls which were all either 1 raises or 1 lowers would work OK with the amount of travel on the lever regardless.
(3) It proved impossible to get the 2 raise with the ideal lever travel so I adjusted the lever travel so that I could get the 2 raise, making sure that the rod settings were as good as they could get.
(4) I then worked on the other rods making sure that they were all starting in sync and experimented with crank slots and changer holes to get the easiest travel on each rod.

On pedal 4 I put a 2 lower on string 11 as mentioned and also a 2 raise on string 7, I have a 2 lower on string 6 on LKR so I can work that bend both ways. Both these changes have already proved useful.

I also did a bit of tweaking on some other pedals/levers to improve the action on them and I'm fairly convinced they are as good as I can get them.

On the MSA mount, this has taken a bit of a back seat as I have been spending time doing this and I'd like to do the demo and an example tune before I start on that, but will get around to it.

Here's my, (hopefully), final copedent for a while and my final rodding chart. The further changes I made in the copedent chart are in green, and the main rodding changes I made have an arrowhead.

[Jif]

As a reward to myself for all my hard work I treated myself to a new combo. It's a Fender Hot Rod Deville MK4, 60w all valve amp with 2 Celestion Type A speakers, really loving it, great clean creamy Fender sound, also sounds great on 6 string electric and a good bit lighter than my Fender Super Twin

[Danny Mitchell]

Nice one Geoff, and, in the wise words of that skinny bint on the telly, "it's because your worth it".