The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Q&A, discussion, and information for the labels covered by The Guitar Gallery (Specifically and exclusively guitars made by Matsumoku up to 1987)
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 Post subject: Vantage VS696-12
PostPosted: Sun 09 Jan 2011 07:46 PM 
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Virtuoso
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Joined: Wed 02 Apr 2008 02:55 PM
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Location: A Pineapple below sea level, Holland (Europe)
Most of you regulars already knew, but I got me this Vantage VS696-12 for (in hind sight) too much money. Besides some grease, dust and rust, the guitar seemed to be in pretty good shape. On the outside. The cavities were hiding an awful mess though.
Took her apart, cleaned up the fingerboard and the other outer parts. I repaired the heavily molested bridge PU (which turned out to be a 1983 Seymour Duncan StagMag, wound by MJ herself) and put it in the neck position, and moved the other (an also 1983 Duncan Custom, also MJ) to the bridge. Drew up a wiring diagram that should resemble the original one and had it checked by a couple of experienced friends (thanks guys! :wink: ). Ordered new pots, switches and a few caps. The ones in there were either cheap replacements, badly fitted or burned beyond recognition, or not connected to anything at all. It's a miracle the guitar produced any signal! Went shopping for a multi-meter and some other tools and materials (had no experience whatsoever with this electrical micro surgery stuff) and went ahead with the reconstruction.

Shielded everything with household aluminium foil (glued double) first, and heated up the soldering irons ...
I pulled it off. Well, almost ... I especially wanna thank John Cooper (http://www.planetz.com/) for his very useful basic instructions, and Jesper (Racing) for his expertise on wiring, volume mods and trebble bleeds.

Basically, I got everything working as it should, but from time to time the sound from my amp is dying out and coming back up again. There must be a bad solder joint somewhere, or a piece of the signal wiring that touches ground where it shouldn't ... This problem occurs in every setting, so I reckon the problem must be either in the output, or in the selector switch connections. To be continued ....

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 Post subject: Re: Vantage VS696-12
PostPosted: Mon 10 Jan 2011 09:00 AM 
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Virtuoso
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If your signal is dying in all settings and coming back, I would look at the connection at the jack first. It is easy to have a bad connection thee as they are magnified by your movement. Good luck.


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 Post subject: Re: Vantage VS696-12
PostPosted: Mon 10 Jan 2011 10:07 AM 
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Virtuoso
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Location: St. Catharines, Ontario Canada
Well done Kees. It's always nerve wracking when attempting surgery for the first time! Image

I think RSB may be right, either the jack point in the guitar or the cable itself may be the culprit here; and don't overlook the jack point at the amp too. Stranger things have happened I guess, but is it possible that there's a bad cap in there? I don't know much about trouble shooting those, but if it isn't a mechanical failing of the jack then what you're describing sounds like a discharge or dissipation of some kind. The only thing I can think of that does that in a guitar is a capacitor. :dunno:

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 Post subject: Re: Vantage VS696-12
PostPosted: Mon 10 Jan 2011 10:19 AM 
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Virtuoso
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Location: A Pineapple below sea level, Holland (Europe)
Barry wrote:
... is it possible that there's a bad cap in there? ... what you're describing sounds like a discharge or dissipation of some kind. The only thing I can think of that does that in a guitar is a capacitor. :dunno:

Could very well be. But I was very careful not to fry the caps (rerouted the heat through alligator clips wile soldering the legs). Could be a manufacturing fault in one of them, of course ... I'll look into it!

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 Post subject: Re: Vantage VS696-12
PostPosted: Mon 10 Jan 2011 01:12 PM 
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Virtuoso
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I may be wrong but the discharge rate of any cap used in a guitar should be way to fast for it to cause an intermitent signal.


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