08-04-2021, 12:29 PM
(08-03-2021, 10:25 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote:(08-02-2021, 02:10 AM)Nayrb Wrote: Looks cool! Good idea making a second cab. I also still have a Rage 158. I think it's in the garage right now. I got it when I was 10 and it's held up like a rock for 24 years, but it doesn't sound all that great. It just doesn't get hot enough. I liked that for practice though, because it really pushed me to be accurate.
What vintage of Rage 158 do you have? There's a few of them. I have the all-black early TransTube one, from (I think) the mid nineties. There's also an earlier one with a teal stripe, as well as a newer model with details in red. Might even be a modern one with the silver knobs, I'm not sure.
(08-02-2021, 02:10 AM)Nayrb Wrote: Speaking of unexpectedly good tone: years ago, I had this computer-based thing called a Black Box that had a pretty decent sound for 2006. I did some bad recordings with it, but the guitar never sounded totally awful (unless I was trying to be "black metal" about it). I gave it away, unfortunately. Kind of miss it.
Huh, never heard of that one. Computer-based? Like the Line 6 POD's you could hook up to your computer via USB?
(08-02-2021, 02:10 AM)Nayrb Wrote: I don't really have pics to share, but I recently refretted a friend's project guitar (under his supervision and using his tools). It also involved a soldering ironNow I kind of have the bug and I want to do some more such modding...
Refretting or fret dressing is something I would never attempt! Looks very difficult and time-consuming and you need to absolutely know what you're doing if you don't want to wreck the guitar beyond rescue. But I'm thrilled to hear you liked doing it, we need more people with such skills
I got my Rage 158 when I was 10, and that was 1997, so it's the all black TransTube one. When I worked at a guitar shop between 2005-07, we had that red one with the added hot gain switch that we used up at the front to test stuff out. I was into TransTube back then because I didn't have the money or the know-how to deal with tubes, and good digital stuff was in its infancy and totally out of my league. I even had a TransTube half stack (the XXL).
Yeah, the Black Box was a USB dealy. It was really annoying, because when you used it as your soundcard, it cut the bass out entirely for some reason. It's possible that was user error, though. I wasn't all that savvy back then. Still, wish I still had it as something to plug into my old Rage 158 for better tone
I used to do fret dressings when I worked at a shop, but it was sort of the hackish get-it-done-fast version that I would probably not do nowadays. I didn't get to actually do the filing on the recent project, but I will when I get my own project guitar to work on. This time around I just removed and installed old/new frets. One thing I've learned about modern mass-produced guitars is that the reason the frets are so high is because they haven't taken the time to properly level the fretboard. Once you get the old frets out, you can sand it down a bit and make it more level. It also gets to be more smooth that way. This is assuming you don't have a sealed fretboard, of course.
