Recently I built a Tele-partscaster with some spare parts I had lying around. I had some cheap Chinese-made Gotoh styled tuners from many years ago (probably bought from Guitar Fetish but I don't remember for sure). I put in those cheap tuners onto my new build just to have something there, but also hoping that they would be good enough to do the job. Unfortunately, the posts were really wobbly and several of the tuners "chattered" when I turned them (probably gunk in the gear mechanism). Since I had always been curious about the Wilkinson EZ Lok tuners, and since they are only around $30 shipped from Amazon, I decided to give them a try.
First of all, these are just licensed tuners from Trevor Wilkinson and are made in Korea. They fit the typical 10 mm holes of import necks, and are drop in replacements for standard Gotoh/Schaller styled tuning machines, so if you are replacing that kind of tuner no need to plug and redrill mounting screw holes, which is a big plus. They have a 19:1 gear ratio, which is fantastic for the price. I figured that if I didn't like the "gimmick" of the EZ Lok tuners, I would just use them as regular tuners.
The "gimmick" of these tuners is that the string post has 2 holes perpendicular to each other, one slightly higher than the other. You are supposed to pull the new string though one hole first, pull it taut, wrap it manually around the post once, then thread the string through the second hole. The theory is that this creates two "kinks" in the string and locks it in place without needing multiple winds around the post. Presumably this means increased tuning stability. The official party line appears to be that for the wound strings you are supposed to use the bottom hole first, and the unwound strings you are supposed to use the top hole first. I just used the bottom hole for all strings, since you're not supposed to have a bunch of wraps around the post anyway so I didn't think it made a huge difference. The two holes are also fairly closely spaced, which is another reason I think it probably doesn't really matter.
In case this description does not make sense, here is an old video showing how it is supposed to work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3C7hrjXqgk
It's important to note that even though the product has "Lok" in its name, it is NOT a locking tuner in the traditional sense. These will generally not have the benefit of quick string changes that typical locking tuners provide. OTOH, they are not as heavy as locking tuners since there is no locking screw mechanism. And without a locking screw mechanism, it's one less thing to potentially break.
I will say that the quality of the tuners themselves are quite good. If you are looking to replace cheap tuners, then even without the EZ Lok gimmick these are a great value at $30. After stringing up a guitar using the EZ Lok method, I did find that it seemed to take significantly less time to get the strings settled in after stretching the strings. However, the wraps on the post are kind of ugly - they look like a rookie trying to put strings on a guitar for the first time where the wraps are uneven.
Pros: inexpensive yet good quality tuners, high gear ratio of 19:1, drop-in replacement for modern Gotoh-styled tuners with 10 mm holes. after installing new strings, strings can be tuned to pitch and "broken in" by stretching quickly. no additional mechanical parts - it's just a standard tuner with two holes instead of one. Can be strung normally if EZ Lok method not desired.
Cons: can be somewhat more complex to do string changes using EZ Lok method, so slower than typical locking tuners. string wraps around post look ugly even when done right. Not true "locking" mechanism.
overall rating: 8/10. I will be looking at using these to replace another set of cheap Chinese tuners that have poor tuning action.
Ikr? I fucking love fried chicken and watermelon but they had to go and ruin it for the rest of us.
the price gap is slowly closing, esp if you take into account total cost of ownership. It agree that the upfront cost makes it out of reach for many people.
Easy fix: marriage will become mandatory. Checkmate, libtards!
Geez, has this dude never watched a crime drama before? If you’re gonna be doing bad shit at LEAST get a burner phone. 🙄🙄🙄
If they do that and Adblock doesn’t work anymore, the solution is quite simple - stop watching YouTube. Sure, there will be some content creators that I will miss. Maybe it will be time to move to Nebula.
Man I love G Shock. Indestructible little things. If you get a solar atomic version you also never have to worry about changing the battery or setting the time.
Vermillion (or more precisely vermillion) is the name of a fruit fly (Drosophila) mutant with bright red eyes (as opposed to wild type, which has brick red eyes). I always knew my genetics PhD would come into handy one day.
With an amp modeler you need some way to output the signal. I plug mine into my computer via USB and play through a DAW (Logic on a Mac) and monitor speakers. Some modelers have a headphone jack but in my experience it doesn’t sound very good. If your amp has an effects loop you can plus the modeler output into the effects return jack and use the power amp section only of your amp. If you have a PA you can also play through a PA. Finally you can get a cab specifically designed for use with modelers.
The Line6 Pod Go fits your budget and is immense value. It not only models a bunch of popular amps but also various popular stomp boxes. Since you play metal, I think it has various Marshall and Mesa Boogie amp models, as well as various other boutique amps. It even has a great Dumble model - just that alone is worth the price!
There is an official Apple Music desktop app for windows now, no need to use Cider.
I am a Chinese American. I can’t speak for the pope (in fact I’m atheist so I could not care less about the pope). But I can tell you that many recent immigrants who speak English as a second language are very bad at nuances in English. If someone hears the word “fag” in the context of talking about gay men, they’re not all going to pick up that it’s a slur, depending on where and how they’ve heard the term. Many of them will associate fag=gay as a matter of vocabulary. And my experience is that first gen immigrants tend to ignore or avoid pop culture so their overall exposure to language trends and usage are usually poor.
not affiliated with Guitar Center at all. Noticed that D'Addario EXL 110 strings (10-46) are on sale online. $39.99 for 12 sets ($3.33/set) with free shipping in the USA. It's really hard to find these, even in bulk , for less than $5/pack so this is a killer deal.
https://www.guitarcenter.com/DAddario/EXL110-12P-Nickel-Wound-Light-Electric-Guitar-String-12-Pack-1432909766128.gc
This is not the first partscaster I've built but it is the first Telecaster-styled partscaster I've attempted. I have learned the following lessons:
- Neck was bought from a no-name brand on Amazon for about $50 bucks - it's actually quite nice. 14 inch radius, two-way truss rod adjusted from the heel. looks like Indian rosewood. if you are willing to put in the fret work and want to save money, a cheap neck with a two way truss rod is the way to go. you can fix almost any kind of neck with a two way truss rod and get it dead straight.
- Body was bought from aeguitars.com. Allegedly it's alder but it seems a bit too light and soft for alder. I suspect it's poplar? The body shipped quickly to me but had a lot of off-gassing smell for a few days. The finish looks nice but the neck pocket is NOT tight.
- pickups are the EMG-T set. the neck pickup did not fit into the pickguard (also a cheap no-name brand from amazon, I picked it for the pattern). Cheap parts are nice but be prepared to get work with a file or Dremel.
- A telecaster is (counterintuitively) harder to build than a Strat. It's a very nerve wracking process to position the bridge.
- If you're used to building Strats, don't forget the a Telecaster has a SINGLE cutaway body. Don't drill the strap button hole on the horn... ask me how I know.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/11345601
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Area_Outer_Underground_Discharge_Channel
Fewer electric car models qualify for tax credits in 2024 after new requirements kicked in on Jan. 1.
A software update to address the problems is on the way.
... in good fun, of course. although I feel I still don't understand the Fediverse well enough to see how we can start a cross-server meme war.
hello,
I'm interested in setting up a jellyfin server that will only serve streams to TVs on my LAN. Files will be on an existing NAS. Usage will be low (probably just one stream at a time); cheap and reliable is the name of the game, and cheap includes power consumption. I am thinking of some kind of NUC but don't know enough about jellyfin yet to decide on specs. Any recommendations for a specific NUC model or CPU/GPU? I assume I will be running linux - any distro recommendations?
