Len Biglin's Page

HIGH LEN ARE YOU A LUTHIER ? WOULD YOU ENTERTAIN THE IDEA OF A TRADE FOR HARD WOOD I HAVE BLACK WALNUT FROM CALIFORNIA USA

WHAT COUNTRY IS HE FROM?

Dear len, I am the principle repairer for the Canberra area with a full time, appointment only, business working 5 days a week. My principle cash flow is from repairs and we service the two main shops in Canberra with specialist services. I am also a trained nitro sprayer (and all the other schedules) and have an electronics qualification. My main luthiery business is scratch built Electrics and we import all associated wood and componentry for this purpose and have a full inventory of OEM top-end electronics and harware. Our business is about to include a production guitar project we have been developing and that may see our focus shift once it is viable. Please contact me at vancegit@tpg.com.au to say hello and swap some files which I'm sure you will find interesting. rUSTY.

Lee -


Thanks for the tip on the eBay fret wire - I'll check it out.

a fussy customer wants a supper quiet guitar i have rewired it following Seymour Duncan s site and still i get noise when i release the strings? it has gold covers i was told maby to ground the covers ?it seams fine with no distortion the second we have distortion it makes background noise when rolling up and down the tone pot


Len Biglin Permalink Reply by Len Biglin on December 14, 2009 at 12:43am
Hey Paul, let us all know when you isolate the problem OK Len


Len I have found over time that I need to tighten things down I just ran acrossed the same thing today as I did when this post went up a few months ago. I found the 5 way blade was not making good contact with the control cavity as it was grounded with a Ground wire, but still seamed to hear what I felt was system noise rolling even the volume pot up and down at both extremes it was quiet but just like a setting between 9 and 2 it would make this system noise and rolling the tone pot I would get this scratchy noise .today I replaced this 5 way blade and heard the same thing so after just looking I saw that the switch was not seated all the way I cranked down the 2 screws and presto quiet guitar at last .

which one looks spooky

I believe the photo your talking about is KOA

Thank you, Len! That's a big job you did...i'm not a guitar tech, so it's not for me. I just removed the piece of plastic on the headstock,cause I thought that the rod is too short and it's possible to fix the problem by moving a stop washer further . On the x-ray that i did i saw that the rod is touching the stop washer and the nut is still too concave.

I can move the washer ahead but it doesn't help, the rod is moving freely inside of the neck and it's not broken, so I'm sure that something happened on the other side, neck joint, cause now i hear strange noise when i shake the guitar.I suspect that the bulb that is      supposed to hold the rod on the neck joint somehow is not connected to truss rod anymore...

Hiya Len.
I’ve sworn off publicly posting so I send you my thoughts via this message.
Here are couple facts:
LO Jr.s are chosen by most players because they facilitate controlled feedback when sustaining a note at a saturated volume. Feedback in this case is not related to an overabundance of microphonics within the pickup coil or shell.
This should not be confused with “squealing” which is caused by excessive gain in the player’s signal chain.
Your customer would be well served by trying pickups with a slightly lower output to minimize the current condition.
As a humorous query: does he actually perform on 10 less than a meter from his amp? Any guitar will feedback under that condition 😉
This is one of those things that players have to make logical choices to eliminate. He may have to rethink any gain based device in his signal chain, essentially his choice of instruments as he’s playing “the most wonderfully resonant guitars ever produced. Again, most guitarists choose the LP Jr expressly for that reason.
Also, if he’s using a tube amp he may have a noisy preamp valve. If that’s the case, he should have his amp checked and serviced by a QUALIFIED tube amp technician.
There’s also the possibility that his playing distance and position is greatly contribute to the problem.
If he’s an experienced touring player, the latter is not the likely issue as 99% of guitarists figure this out on their own within a month of taking up the instrument.
Let me know if my info was germane to your eventual
resolution of the customer’s concerns.
btw: since I no longer post on the main page, please email me at my direct email address at paulvjax@gmail.com
Best regards my friend and may you enjoy your best year ever.
Paul Verticchio