14

[Danny Mitchell]

Could support at Sierra Steels throw any light on your choices?

[Haddock]

That’s a good call Danny but I’ll leave it till I’m stuck. At the moment its all going nicely though £30 for a set of strings made me feel like a bass player for a moment! I figure if I’m starting with the tensions not too far from each other, then it should be in the right ballpark. In the meantime I need to locate some more pull rods and the correct die. Luckily I’ve got exactly the right number of cranks for my copedent but that doesn’t allow for additional pulls for the lower stuff or any mad ideas so I’ll need to make or buy some. A nice wintertime project and I’ve still got my MSA in commission while I do it.
Cheers
AS

[U_twelve]

Dont' understand your comment re E9th. My 25" Sierra does OK on E9th even with an 11.5 Thou 3rd string. The last string I broke was #9 B string. I think they had been on for over twelve month Just love d'addario...

[bob adams]

Not for the faint hearted Calum, I look forward to hearing it at Gartcosh in the not too distant future! Anticipating the 'Low Ground'

[Haddock]

Pete, the issue I had with going up to E9 was probably to do with the existing strings as it had been set up down at d. I had to grab a couple with mole grips and retension the tuner end as I didn’t have enough travel to reach pitch. And then I thought about going for D anyway and quite liked the thought. No point in it being exactly the same as the MSA.
Bob, you started me in all of this nonsense for which I shall be forever grateful. Not many instruments that require a milling machine to enjoy properly. The beast will come to the Cosh!
Cheers
Calum

[bob adams]

Perfect that will do for me!

[Haddock]

A long weekend due to Covid booster so thought I might make a start on the project to make this machine into something I can play.
THis morning I had this:

Now I have this:

Did a little bit of planning but then just decided that the only way was to go for it. I’ll be changing it many times no doubt! Nearly started a ‘fitting spilt screws’ project but will leave that for another day. I have simplified my copedent even more for this one by removing the C pedal so it will be a 0, AB and 5 lever set up. I could live without that on the MSA as well but I love the big maj7 with the low D and anyway, I cant play them both at once so no harm in a few differences. The Sierra is all about the bass!
Very impressed with the engineering and the cross shafts are superb, much better than the ‘removable’ MSA ones. I mean, how useful is it anyway to be able to spring out a cross shaft? In a complex set up, so many rods have to come off anyway to get to the cross shaft so not really much more hassle. The Sierra lets you pull the shaft through the slots in the apron and it just feels fabulous. Pretty much zero play but still super free so a much stronger solution than the sprung ones which do tend to wobble about a bit.
I got as far as putting on most of the raise rods but then I ran out of long ones. As the guitar had been uni, there are loads of the middle sizes ones that I wont need. And that will do for today…..
Cheers
Calum

[Haddock]

Unable to wait patiently for the new rods to arrive, I decided to tamper further and test my string tension theoreticals by restringing the beast. My goodness, what a sound! Tensions are pretty much bang on so thats now a good way of working out what gauge to use for particular requirements. I’ll need to work on the £30 a set thing though! Putting them on, I was glad of my experience putting up stock fences round the farm. The low strings could hold up the forth road bridge in an emergency.
Anyway, with the rods I’ve fitted so far, I was able to get some music out of it with basic A and B functionality and a couple of the knees partially working. Once again, I’m really impressed with the engineering! I’m a lucky bastard to have two really well made guitars and working on them is like doing a Vulcan mind meld with the guy that built them. So many clever ideas!
The pickup I have on at the moment sounds really powerful and is a bit louder even than my Telonics from the MSA. The coil tap gives three different tones, two I like and one muddy one and the individual pole pieces allow fine tuning string volumes. Interestingly, these were much easier to set up than the Telonics was as it was really obvious when you changed something. Perhaps something to do with the coil tap setting I was using.
Anyway, thats it till the rest of the rods turn up so it will be next weekend before I can move on any further. (Just as an aside, those of you who use the pros to do this work for you rather than getting your hands dirty- you don’t pay them enough!)
Let me know if I’m boring you!
Cheers
Calum

[Danny Mitchell]

Very glad to hear your progress on the revamp, Calum. I was impressed by the sound of your MSA, and if you're saying this is a step up, then I'm really looking forward to hearing 'the beast' in action. Keep them coming!

[Haddock]

Hi Danny
I wouldn’t say the Sierra is a step up - more a sideways step. Both guitars sound amazing and both have really great bits of engineering tech dripping off them. But the ultimate would probably be their bastard child!
The journey continues at the weekend…
Cheers