That’s right, 2% milk jug lids are the same size as the inner diameter of a 45RPM.All you need to do is drawl an X across the entire cap to find the center position of the cap. Next match a drill bit up to your record players spindle (or just cut a hole with your rusty switchblade) and drill out the center for your $free.99 spider that will inevitably save the party and get you laid.

People do stupid things constantly and one of the most ignorant things someone can do is smash a guitar. Granted it’s a lot of fun, I don’t condone it unless you plan on rebuilding it. Read on for the how too.So you got a little too wasted before your show (or you’re just a rich snob and your parents bought your guitar) and you thought it was a great idea to smash up your guitar after your set. Now that you’ve sobered up and the regret has kicked in, it’s time to mend your baby.

The guitar pictured here was apparently smashed (not by me of course because I’m not a fucking idiot) because there is a stress fracture at the base of the guitar along with the neck being nearly completely broken in half. I managed to score the guitar for a mere $30 because “it’s un-repairable” Fuck that. Nothing is un-repairable.

Let me begin by saying I’m no way a guitar luther so you can take my advice here with a grain of salt. I’ve worked on guitars for some time now, but all of my research has been done online from other sources and I’m not a professional. I would suggest doing additional research if you’re working on a vintage/expensive guitar.

Things you will need:

• Paint stripper
• Putty knife
• Shop rags/towels
• Rubber gloves that won’t melt from the stripper
• Wood glue (Titebond is the best)
• Glue syringe (for the tight spots)
• Clamps
• Sandpaper
• Paint Brush
• Paint and lacquer

The first step is going to be removing the paint around the broken area. This is usually not necessary but I did in this case so I could see the crack better and would be able to smooth out the damaged area later. Plus whoever had the guitar before did some whack sanding job to the neck and the entire thing needs repainted. If your fractures are not that bad I would suggest skipping this part.

**Use the solvent outside because it has harmful fumes. Also wear a mask and the gloves silly. (Seems like that would be logical information, but you were stupid enough to smash a guitar…)

Begin by taking your paint brush and cover the area you want stripped with the solvent. If you have plastic binding along the fretboard, be very carful to not make contact with the stripper. It will melt the plastic!

Let it sit for a while so it can soften up the paint. Once it is soft enough, begin to scrap off the paint with the putty knife. It may take a few applications to get it all off. Once it’s all off it should look like this:

If there are small points of paint, don’t worry those can be cleaned up with sanding.

Now that you have the area cleaned up, make sure there is no debris inside the broken area to be glued. Get your putty knife out again and gently open the cracked parts with it so you can get glue in the entire area. I’ve always used Titebond brand glue, mainly because I’ve heard it’s the best and it seems to be.

(Titebond original and the glue syringe is on the right, you can purchase them at a local wood crafting store. The PBR is for scale)

Take your glue syringe and get plenty of glue on all the parts to be glued. Don’t be afraid to get a lot in the cracks so it can work it’s way into harder to reach areas. Just wipe off the excess prier to clamping. Once you have all the areas glued up, make sure the broken pieces are perfectly aligned and clamp the shit out of it.

The glue sets in 30mins but leave the clamps on for 24 hours so the glue can fully dry. You want to make sure you have a really strong bond for the glue so it wont break apart again on you later. The glue joint will actually be stronger than the wood itself.

And that’s it. Once the glue has dried, sand the area down and fill any holes with a high quality wood putty. Tape off all the areas not to be painted and paint it back to the original color. If you’re really careful and take your time, it will appear as if nothing happened. I recommend reading up on how to sand and paint, I’m not going into that. Good luck!

Tired of paying $5 for a decent coffee? You’d have to be crazy to drink McNasty coffee. I make this quick drink everyday to save some money and thought I would share the recipe.I have never liked the taste of instant coffee, but I’ve found a way to make it work for me. I got all the ingredients from my local grocery store.

Here’s the ingredients:

1. Instant coffee. Organic Fair-trade Hawaiian blend.

2. Oregon Chai - Vanilla Chai Tea concentrate.

3. Vanilla Soy Milk (or real milk if you like to consume hormones and puss)

Directions:

Mix equal parts of the Chai tea and Soy milk. I take a large 12oz cup and fill it half way with the chai, then top it off with the soy milk.

Next, take one scoop of the instant coffee (or more if you’re hungover for example…) and stir all the ingredients. It will take a while to get the coffee to dissolve in cold liquid so keep stirring until you don’t see chunks.

Top it off with some ice and enjoy!

I did the math, it comes out to about 5.5 12oz drinks costing about $2 each. May be cheaper if you get the ingredients on sale.

Vintage effects can sometimes add unwanted signal loss to your sound and a simple mod can fix this. A True-Bypass switch’s purpose, put simply, routes your guitars signal only through the connections of the switch, leaving the effect’s circuit completely disconnected. An easy way to picture this is when you switch your petal off, it’s as if the the input/output are wired together (like with a coupler). You can find a more in depth explanation here. This method should apply to most effects pedals, for information on how to wire a wah with a 3DPT check out Stewmac, also a good place to pick up a high quality 3PDT switch. I used a Electro Harmonix brand switch I got for under ten dollars on eBay, great quality.

***NOTE: The addition of this switch to a MXR Distortion+ makes the 9v battery no longer fit in the case properly. I haven’t solved this issue at the point of this writing, so if you can (or have) found a better way to mount the battery let me know. If you will not be adding an LED to your pedal, you may want to use a DPDT switch instead. (check the link at the end for a how to) DPDT switches are slimmer than a 3DPT switch and you should have no problem mounting the battery. If you use the DPDT switch, it will wire the same as this example because the 3DPT adds only the other row of posts useful for adding a status LED. (Keep in mind this may devalue your vintage effect and you risk the small possibility of damaging your pedal.)

What you’ll need:

• Soldering iron and solder (need to learn how to solder? go here)
• Philips screwdriver
• 3DPT switch
• Some yellow color wire (same gauge as the other wires in the pedal)
• Wire snips and/or stripper

First step:

Take the back off of your D+ pedal, warm up your soldering iron and de-solder/remove the old switch. Once you have that out, install the new 3DPT switch.

Second Step:

Next you need to unsolder the yellow cable from the input tip (labeled A in the pic below) and the other end that is connected to the circuit board (labeled B below) These will need to be wired to different posts on the switch. The yellow wire from the circuit board will need to be longer, this is where you will need some new wire. Make sure the new wire can reach from the circuit to the switch and re-solder it to the circuit board. Then re-solder the input tip yellow wire.

Third step:

Now you can begin to wire the posts of the switch. Here is a diagram for what posts you want to use.

Position one and two will be the on/off functions of the switch when it is engaged. For this example posts 7,8,9 will not be used, but they can be used to add a LED for on/off status (I will revisit this and show you how to do that at a later update). Refer back to this diagram for wiring posts.

First tin all your wires and all the posts we will be using on the switch.

We will start with wiring the yellow wires. You should have two yellow wires, (from step two) one connected to the circuit board, and one connected to the tip of the Input. Solder the yellow wire from the input to post number number 5 (shown on the diagram above). Then solder the new longer yellow wire from the circuit board to post number 6.

Fourth Step:

Next you will need to wire a jumper from post number 1 to post number 4. Use a piece of scrap wire to make the connection.

Fith Step:

Finally there should now only be two wires left to connect, the blue and brown wire. Solder the blue wire to post number 2. Now solder the brown wire to post number 3.

Your new switch is now wired, plug it in and check it out. You should now have improved performance and more than likely a higher quality switch that can hold up to more road abuse.

Trouble shooting:

If for some reason your unit doesn’t work when you turn it on, go back and check your signal flow. Make sure the wires are attached to the correct posts and check for cold solder joints.

If your wires were different colors than mine their connections are as follow:

• Brown is connected to the middle terminal of the output pot.
• Blue is connected to the tip of the output jack.

Useful links:

I found some more useful information about modding the MXR D+ online that I will be doing a tutorial for at a later time, so check back. Here are some links;

Nice tutorial on wiring a DPDT switch on a 1980 D+ - Link here

Premier Guitar shows you some D+ mods - Link here

Distortion Plus schematic - Link here

At a later time I will post the mods from the Premier guitar link and post a tutorial with switches to bypass mods so you can still have the original pedal sound as well as the modded sounds. Will also show you how to add the LED (witch is very simple).
Have a link to some D+ mods? Comments? Something you would have done instead? Let us know in the comments.

Sometimes it’s necessary to remove the fretboard from your guitar and may seem like an impossible task. You may be surprised to know that it’s not all that hard and you probably have the tools you’ll need already.

Here’s what you will need:

1. Iron (with steam function)
2. Razor Blade
3. Putty Knife (or knife)
4. some rags

The iron is going to soften the glue used to bind the fretboard to the neck and make it easy to remove.

Step #1:

The first thing you will want to do get your iron warmed up on it’s highest setting. (I used steam, but wouldn’t recommend it because it could warp or damage your fretboard.) While that is warming up, get your rags (I used a couple old towels) and place them over the fret board. The surface you use to lay the guitar neck down is going to get hot, so make sure you are using an area that will not become damaged.

Wrap the neck with the rag and place the iron on the fret side and let it sit for about 5 mins. Make sure to move it around occasionally so it will not burn anything.

Step #2:

Now that the iron has heated up the glue joint, we will take the razor and work it into the bottom part of the neck in-between the fretboard. You may have to use something to tap the blade in, being careful not to cut into either the neck or fretboard. (I used the handle of my putty knife to tap it into place) The thinness and sharpness of the razor is what will make it easy to later place the putty knife in. (You Also may need to scrap off any lacquer covering the joint before this process.)

Step #3:

Lastly, once you have make enough room from the razor slide in the putty knife and work your way up the neck. What I’ve found to work best is slide the putty knife back forth while pushing up the neck. Don’t rush this process or you could break the fretboard. Take your time, move slowly and if the putty knife doesn’t want to budge forward try some more heat. The more time you take, the better the pay off in the end.

That’s it, the entire process shouldn’t take you more than a half hour depending on the quality of the glue used during manufacturing. I would like to note that steam may not be necessary and might cause damage to the wood. This is how I was successful, but you may want to find a better way without the steam.

Check out these books on vanning.

I found two of these books at my library, “The Do-It-Yourself Custom Van Book” by Franklin Peterson & Judi R. Kesselman and the book “Customizing Your Van, 3rd Ed.” by Allan Girdler. Both are amazing documentation of the 70’s Vannin scene, both hilarious and spectacularly awesome. They are full of pics from vintage rides, clad in shag carpet and tear drop windows. (If I get a chance before they are due to be returned, I may make a PDF of them and put them up online since they are both out of print)

I think I may be the only person alive that thinks 70’s custom vans are cool, but I don’t see why. One of the books hasn’t been checked out in so long it was lost in storage and someone had to go retrieve it for me! I’m beginning to think I should partake in a documentary of the lost culture of 70’s vannin communities. Can’t wait to put some of these custom tips from these books into my ‘76 “Heavy Chevy.” and grow my mustache out…

If you know of some other good sites, throw ‘em in the comments.

Check out these rad rides right here!

Just picked up this guy the other day.

I know barely anything about this gem so far, In the process of doing some research. So far what I have found in the little amount of data available on the net is these guys were made in Flint, MI from 1966-1972. This model is the FIllmore (guessing since it was made in the 60’s they named it after the hippy venue?) The gentleman I got if off said that it’s not the original case due to the fact when he got it about 15 years ago the case was in rough shape from sitting in a basement. So he had built a new case for it. He had an “electrical engineer rebuild the insides” and I’ve been to afraid to open it up yet and have a look. It does play, but I noticed when you crank it it doesn’t get any louder past 3, so my guess is it’s in need of some fresh tubes, the transformers (they have two MASSIVE trans!) are going bad or my filter caps need replaced.

—I’ll post some more pics of the insides when I open it up.

The Fillmore’s are 200 watts and some info is available on the the West Lab’s website. But the guy I got it off said it’s a 100 watter, but he obviously didn’t look at the transformers in this amp (and the fucker weighs about 100lbs!).

The amp is running four 6550 power tubes, and a 12AX7 and 12AT7 in the pre-amp section.

I don’t know the output’s speaker impedance rating yet because my Fillmore has no labels (probably painted over when the case was rebuilt), but a fellow on Music Electronics Forum (user bennieusmaximus) has a Fillmore and informed me on this:

The 4 jacks next to the impedance switch are all speaker jacks and the other 2 are preamp in and out….the 3 position switch next to the speaker jacks switches impedance. The top is 4 ohms middle is 8 ohms bottom is 16 ohms. If you have 4 - 16 ohm cabs hook’em all up just once at the same time and make the earth shake. Feels like the 70’s arena all over again….. I think vintage guitar guide had these listed in the last guide as $1500 on the low end and $3000 on the high end. I was told that by a friend though and have not confirmed this.

I think I will be doing the FAB rebuild listed here on the West website myself to get this thing up and going again. Just hope I can afford all those new tubes!

I’ll post some updates and new information when if find out more. Here is the schematics for the amp, copied from the West Labs website. If anyone could help out with some cool links or information, please leave a comment or email me!!

Here’s the Fillmore’s Schematics:

Click here for full size

UPDATE: 10-28-09

I found a West Avalon at a local guitar shop. They only want $695 for the head and cab! I am really tempted to take a bunch of shit in there to do a partial trade on it and slap the rest on a credit card, why not? They told me that the head and cab both came in separately from different owners, but have close serial numbers. Their guess is that more than likely they were originally sold together when new, got separated, and by luck managed to be brought together once again at their store. The Avalon is in working order and has been professionally cleaned. The cab is the 215 with two 15″ drivers. These guys have this amp priced right, supper rare combo at an amazing price! (update:  It’s sold)

here are some pics of it (cell phone):

The amp is located at this store as of 10-27-09 if you want to go buy it:

Fort Wayne Guitar Exchange - fwguitarexchange.com

3411 N Clinton St
Fort Wayne, IN 46805-1823
(260) 471-0200

Here are some links that I’ve found on West Laboratories:

• Website of Dave West (the inventor) - www.westlabs.com be sure to check out the history page.

• I guess West Labs make these guys - www.valvejr.com

• Fucking Grandfunk Railroad played these som’ bitches (and were pretty much one of the only few professional acts that used them) - Grandfunk interview (second question) And here is a link to the West Labs site section on Mark Farner

Here is a video of Grand Funk, you can see the Fillmore’s in the background (around 1:12)

• This guy has a Fillmore and uploaded a vid of him playing it on his YouTube page with some good information in the comments.

• This site has some informatio here and here,  it’s in another language so you’ll have to use Google Translate or something similar to make out what it says, has pics of the insides (nice point to point wiring!)
• We all know how worthless Harmony Central user reviews are…. but here a link on the reviews anyways (no Fillmore reviews)

UPDATE:

My friend is servicing the amp, turns out this thing is either a really poorly done rebuild of a West, or a clone. Kinda sad, but it is being returned to the original schematic. It also had good vintage Slyvania tubes, worth more than what I paid for the amp, so it’s still a win.

New remix of Ministy’s last ablum “The Last Sucker” out Sept. 15thWhat a great B-Day present for me!

Copied from their bulletin post:

“MINISTRY’S THE LAST DUBBER AVAILABLE SEPT. 15
Remix album of final Ministry release (The Last Sucker) coming
from Al Jourgensen’s 13th Planet Records

Aug. 4, 2009 (El Paso, Texas) – Ministry, arguably the most influential industrial band to date, punctuated the close of their 30 year recording career with 2007’s The Last Sucker. Now comes the remix album, The Last Dubber, an appropriately beguiling album that dabbles in both trance and metal.

The Last Sucker was greeted with a chorus of glowing reviews including Pitchfork proclaiming it “Ministry’s most exciting record since Psalm 69,” and Spin said Jourgensen “can still pile on the jackhammer beats and clever samples.” Following the album’s release Jourgensen and company embarked on the C U LaTour, which wrapped around the globe with sold out shows at each stop and is documented in the recently released Adios… Puta Madres DVD/CD.

The Last Dubber track listing is:

1. Let’s Go (La Fin Du Monde Mix)
2. Watch Yourself (The Clocks Strike Thirteen Mix)
3. Life is Good (Neuroplasticity Mix)
4. The Dick Song (Straight Outta Lincoln Mix)
5. The Last Sucker (Icke Mix)
6. No Glory (Sandpaper Condom Mix)
7. Death & Destruction (A Vote of Non-Confidence Mix)
8. Die In A Crash (Point of Impact Mix)
9. End Of Days Part 1 (One Less Sparrow Mix)
10. End Of Days Part 2 (Extreme Mayan Makeover Mix)
11. Let’s Go (Dawn of Oblivion Mix)
12. The Last Sucker (Hardware Revamp Mix)

All tracks remixed by Clayton Workbeck of RevCo with the exception of “Let’s Go (Dawn of Oblivion Mix)” by John Bechdel (Killing Joke, Ministry, False Icons) and “The Last Sucker (Hardware Revamp Mix)” by DJ Hardware

The Last Dubber is the fourth in a series of remix records from Jourgensen’s 13th Planet Records. The previous albums being: Prong’s Power of Damn MiXXXer, RevCo’s Cocktail MiXXX, Ministry’s Rio Grande Dubya and RevCo’s Sex-O MiXXX-O (which is set for a Sept. 29 release).”
ministrymusic.org