ShortScale.org

Considering this is the EXACT guitar I was planning on building last year (gave up on it and sold the body to hotrod)... I'm dibsing this if you ever sell.

I couldn't take having two cords connected to it, so I pillaged an old broken drum machine to pull the midi sockets out of it. There was no way to fit it in the Strat jack and now the Strat jack is for guitar only, the midi jack is for guitar and bass. On the other end of the midi cord I made a box with a midi jack wired into two 1/4 jacks, that then go on to the amps.
Much better!

kerrrrazzzzy

whats with the midi?

poorhillbilly wrote:whats with the midi?

here you go, dipshit.

rodvonbon wrote:the midi jack is for guitar and bass. On the other end of the midi cord I made a box with a midi jack wired into two 1/4 jacks, that then go on to the amps.

hotrodperlmutter wrote:here you go, dipshit.

real life lalz

Could you have used a 1/4 stereo jack instead?

hotrodperlmutter wrote:

poorhillbilly wrote:whats with the midi?

here you go, dipshit.

rodvonbon wrote:the midi jack is for guitar and bass. On the other end of the midi cord I made a box with a midi jack wired into two 1/4 jacks, that then go on to the amps.

ok cheers

cur wrote:Could you have used a 1/4 stereo jack instead?

I tried that, but I was having issues with signal bleed when they share a common ground wire. A midi Jack has 5 pins in it. 2 for the bass +-. 2 for the guitar +- and the 5th is for shielding the wire.
This seemed like a good idea and the guitar is pretty quiet on it's own then as soon as I plug the bass amp in it starts buzzing like crazy. I know it has something to do with a ground loop and I think it's because the cable is shielded off the guitar amp ground. I just need to figure it out. If all else fails I've got another Jag plate and I'll go back to using 2 cords. It'd be nice if I didn't have to though.

Holy shit that is hot.

Looks awesome.

SGJarrod wrote:

hotrodperlmutter wrote:

rodvonbon wrote:I'll try to do an demo next week when hotrod is in town (need someone to move the camera around to get the full effect).

i'm down like a clown charlie brown.

make sure u get a clear picture and have none of that operator error lol


I will be waiting impatiently for thiz demo

Well, the demo didn't happen. Between hanging out and just being rad dudes in general the demo kind of got away from us.
Both hotrod and Willie got a chance to play it though, maybe they can comment on how it sounds/plays.
If I can work out an issue I'm having with the guitar half making a bit too much noise, I'll whip up a video this weekend.

rodvonbon wrote: This seemed like a good idea and the guitar is pretty quiet on it's own then as soon as I plug the bass amp in it starts buzzing like crazy. I know it has something to do with a ground loop and I think it's because the cable is shielded off the guitar amp ground. I just need to figure it out. If all else fails I've got another Jag plate and I'll go back to using 2 cords. It'd be nice if I didn't have to though.

Yeah, you need to isolate it from the other output. Try putting a buffered pedal (like a Boss) in between at least one of the amps and the guitar, see if it helps out.

Thanks Doog, but I am beginning to think that's where the problem is. On the guitar there is complete isolation from both pickups and their volume/tone controls all the way to separate outputs (they don't even share ground). At no point in the signal chain do they cross each other.
All of my pedals are Boss and on the bass side the signal goes into an octave (oc-3) then compressor (cs-3) then a noise gate (ns-2). As soon as I plug into the first pedal ( without the bass part of the guitar active or the bass amp even on) the guitar side (which is going straight to it's own amp) starts to get a noticeable hum/buzz. It's impossible for me to explain it in words and really it's not that bad of a buzz, I just want to clean it up before making an demo. One thing I haven't tried is running the bass pedals off batteries. That could be the whole problem for all I know. I'm using a Boss pedal board and it's getting power from the back of the bass amp.
Would that make sense.

Hmmm.. does it still hum that badly if you run both amps and all pedals from the same mains socket? I've done the whole 2 amps/1 guitar thing for a number of years and have found that'll definitely help, goddamn ground loops..

the hum really isn't that bad. I've had noisy tele pickups that hum about as bad. that being said, it's definitely not single coil hum. It's a small grounding issue some where.

I took your advice Doog and figured out it's my bass amp.
The pedal board is now plugged into the same outlet as the guitar amp and everything is dead quiet up until the point of the cable going to the bass amp. As soon as I plug the cable into the amp the noise starts, even if the bass amp is turned off. My bass amp has a 3 way ground switch on the back of it and the different positions range from high pitch static/buzz to low static/hum. I've even tried plugging the bass amp into the AC socket on the back of the guitar amp and the buzzing drops a bit, but it's still there.
When I plug the bass side into a different guitar amp the noise is gone, so at least now I know it's got nothing to do with the guitar or pedals.
I think now I can put the issue to rest and just live with it knowing there's nothing I can do about it.

Did an demo.
I should preface these videos by saying anyone whose been around me the past week knows I've done nothing but piss and moan about getting my wisdom teeth out. With that said my jaw is still swollen and I'm on a bunch of pain pills, so the playing and overall quality isn't that great. I recorded the video on an iPad and I spent zero time setting up the mics, just draped them over the amps and didn't check them.
Anyway, enjoy!

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That is soo fucking awesome. I've never heard an octave pedal get an actual bass sound, but you got as close as possible. Unbefuckinglievible craftsmanship and sound dood!

Fucking brilliant.