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Topic: SX-change: modification of Rondo SX LG1 lap steel |
Aled Rhys Jones
From:
Berkeley, CA
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Posted 18 May 2010 10:22 am |
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Hi all. Just finished some mods on my SX lap, and seeing as I got some handy hints from the forum I thought I'd reciprocate by posting my modifications/processes. Pics below.
- one of the original tuners had broken and another was well on the way. I replaced with Grover-style tuners that are a big improvement:
http://store.guitarfetish.com/fusigrch3x3t.html
Didn't require the drilling of new holes. One of the tuners is slightly off vertical but it doesn't bother me.
- as the tuners were off I thought I'd go the whole hog and refinish the guitar. I sanded off the 'natural' finish with 80, 120 and 220 grit sandpaper and finished with 2 coats of Formbys Tung Oil Finish (high gloss) 24 hours apart, with a 0000 steel wool rub after each coat had dried.
- replaced the pickup with a GFS pro-tube chrome lipstick:
http://store.guitarfetish.com/gfsprlifistc.html
These are sold in 4.9K, 6K and 8K Ohms, I went for the 8K. Pickup screws that came with the SX were too long, fortunately the GFS pickup came with shorter screws that were just fine. There is a third wire from the pickup for grounding the casing (GFS says this is optional), I did this.
- replaced the original 500K volume and tone pots with mini 250K audio pots from ebay. From what I can gather 250K pots are more suited to single coils. Used the cap from the original tone pot (47nF). Circuit diagram for the SX is here:
http://www.rondomusic.com/photos/electric/lg17.jpg
The guitar sounds great! And looks nice, IMO. Can't be sure if the change in sound is due to the pots or pickup though...! If I were to attempt a description of the difference I'd say that it's 'brighter' with the tone all the way up, but not in a pokey way. Back off the tone a bit and it can blend in nicely. Note separation is way better, particularly with harmonics.
Hope this might help anyone else who is considering SX modifications.
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John Burton
From:
Manassas, Va
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Posted 18 May 2010 10:47 am
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I put that exact same pickup in my SX. Good tip on the tuners! I may have to get some of those.
I found the GFS Lipstick a little too bright, though.
I do have it strung up E13, however. So, that's a pretty bright sound anyway.
G# ,E ,C# ,B, G#, E Hi-To-Low.
I also put that same Pup in a different steel, and there it sounded fine...soooo I'm not sure what the issue is with my SX. Like I said, I'll have to change the strings and try C6 tuning with it.
Anyway, the Lipstick is definitely an improvement over the stock one.
It's funny that you mentioned the screws for the sx pups being to long..I have two tiny holes in the back of my SX that attest to the fact..DUH!!!!
AFTER I realized my problem I replaced the screws with shorter ones.. |
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Roman Sonnleitner
From:
Vienna, Austria
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Posted 19 May 2010 3:17 am
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If that pickup is too bright, try placing a "load capacitor" in parallel with the pickup (= solder one leg of the cap to the + and the other to the ground wire of the pickup) - use small values like 220,, 560, 680, 1000 pF - just get a couple different values, and experiment, they are only a few cents a piece, anyway.
What they do is lower the resonance frequency of the pickup, which will make it sound slightly fuller & darker, without making it dull & muddy. |
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Mark Mansueto
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 19 May 2010 5:17 am
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Aled, Your mod's look cool, good job. Working on these Rondo's is fun because they're good basic guitars with lot's of ways to mod them and no worry about hacking a vintage instrument.
I recently completed my second Rondo SX conversion and I've been meaning to upload some pic's and info but I haven't got to it yet.
In brief, I bought 2 Rondos when they first came out and modded one of them after about 6 months. I re-routed the control cavity and put in full size pot's, shielded, new tail piecs, refinished and installed a Vintage Vibe P90.
It turned out so well that I did the second one the same way but used a different pickup. I wanted a different sound so I bought a Bill Laurence dual coil rail pickup and wired it for series/parallel and added a switch to toggle between the two for additional tones. So far so good but I'm still in the testing phase so I'll let you know the final results.
_________________
https://markmansueto.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/65dQ3EyZC2RaqawA8gPlRy?si=dOdqc5zxSKeJI9cISVVx_A |
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John Burton
From:
Manassas, Va
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Posted 19 May 2010 5:59 am
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| Roman Sonnleitner wrote: |
If that pickup is too bright, try placing a "load capacitor" in parallel with the pickup (= solder one leg of the cap to the + and the other to the ground wire of the pickup) - use small values like 220,, 560, 680, 1000 pF - just get a couple different values, and experiment, they are only a few cents a piece, anyway.
What they do is lower the resonance frequency of the pickup, which will make it sound slightly fuller & darker, without making it dull & muddy. |
hmmm...I'm going to try that. Thanks!! |
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Aled Rhys Jones
From:
Berkeley, CA
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Posted 19 May 2010 7:44 am
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Thanks Mark. Yes, the SXs are good to work on. (reduced fear factor I guess!)
John, I think it was one of your posts that inspired me to get the GFS lipstick - I was after a pretty bright sounding pickup. Did you keep the 500K pots or switch to 250K? |
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John Burton
From:
Manassas, Va
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Posted 19 May 2010 9:30 am
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| Aled Rhys Jones wrote: |
Thanks Mark. Yes, the SXs are good to work on. (reduced fear factor I guess!)
John, I think it was one of your posts that inspired me to get the GFS lipstick - I was after a pretty bright sounding pickup. Did you keep the 500K pots or switch to 250K? |
I switched to 250k (I think...hmmm...) I DID change the pots for some mini's I bought online. I need to open it up and measure them, but I intended to switch them for 250k...maybe they are 500 by mistake? |
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