New Butterscotch E1 - Setup questions

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Croyote
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New Butterscotch E1 - Setup questions

Post by Croyote » Sun Jul 29, 2012 5:13 am

FINALLY!!!!!!

I've now acquired my first Moog guitar, one of many I hope. Her name is Blondie, and she is a beautiful E1 tremolo.

I got a great deal on her as she was NOS and had been sitting in the box unplayed for two years! She was a virgin and now she's all mine. I haven't even plugged her in yet, because I've been letting her adapt to her new life in the wild and whacky weather patterns of Dallas. I've played her quite a bit acoustically.

I believe she came strung with 9's. Unfortunately, I didn't read the part about tuning up every other string when I first got her, so there were some dramatic tuning shifts and swings at first. :oops:

In fact, once I had her in standard and staying there, I started noodling and broke the high "E" string in a matter of five minutes. Immediately all the other strings swung about a quarter to half step sharp! I quickly tuned them down to normal, and installed a 10 - E string from my backup pack.

After, a while I had an acoustic jam party at a friends house, so I wasn't able to string the rest of the new strings until earlier yesterday. This time, I looked at the youtube tutorial and did it the right way, but much more slowly and gradually. I also lubed each nut slot and saddle w/ "Big Bends Nut Sauce," just in case. Then I tuned down the 1st, 3rd, and 5th string, but only changed the 3rd and 5th. Then I tuned them back up, but I didn't just tune them up, I was adjusting all the strings intermittently as I didn't want any particular string to go dramatically sharp.

Then I did the same w/ the 2nd, 4th and 6th, but this time I changed all the strings. I don't know if I did a good job though balancing out the tuning, because I was tuning down the 1,3,5 to normal before I was tuning up 2,4,6. I was more concerned w/ warping the neck by putting on too much tension it. Perhaps, I should have been concerned w/ putting too little tension on the neck?!

What has been people's experiences w/ the tremolo-neck tension balance? Have there been any detrimental problems that have arisen from uneven adjustment even over a brief period of time?

It was nearly completely detuned during shipping too, in addition, to what I imagine was occasional exposure to the super summer heat in UPS' hands . . . The neck seems pretty straight, but might have a bit of backbow. It can be hard to tell with the jumbo frets.

Before I got the guitar, I maintained a long and detailed correspondence w/ Steve Maass. I told him that I was planning to adjust the guitar to my specs, which is a higher than normal string height and floating trem. He warned me not to adjust the guitar too far from normal as the pickups may not function properly.

What have been users experiences w/ string setups?

My guitar is very buzzy right now especially on the "G" string–which really sounds like a sitar–and I suspect it will sound like quite a trainwreck in piezo mode until I compensate in some fashion. Also the trem is quite low and nearly flat against the soundboard.

I'm planning to put on the heavy Moog strings "11's" this week, because I prefer the feel of a thicker string. What are the experiences of fellow Moogers about the different string sizes? Do the 11's take long to react to the pickups because of their mass?

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks


Croyote
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Re: New Butterscotch E1 - Setup questions

Post by Croyote » Thu Aug 02, 2012 2:41 am

Any thoughts at all?

Okay, what about just a non-buzzy setup?

mhuxtable
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Re: New Butterscotch E1 - Setup questions

Post by mhuxtable » Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:05 pm

Are you not a guitar player?

Guitars always come shipped detuned...the neck can break if they are shipped tuned to pitch.

If you're not competent in doing a guitar setup, I'd take it to a local reputable tech and let them do it. A set requires intonation, setting saddle height, changing neck relief...all these things are normal and usually need to be done on new guitars. And if you don't know what you're doing, you can easily make it nearly unplayable.

Croyote
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Re: New Butterscotch E1 - Setup questions

Post by Croyote » Fri Aug 03, 2012 2:25 am

mhuxtable wrote:Are you not a guitar player?

Guitars always come shipped detuned...the neck can break if they are shipped tuned to pitch.

If you're not competent in doing a guitar setup, I'd take it to a local reputable tech and let them do it. A set requires intonation, setting saddle height, changing neck relief...all these things are normal and usually need to be done on new guitars. And if you don't know what you're doing, you can easily make it nearly unplayable.
Ok Dude . . . Clearly you haven't been following any of my posts or checking out any of my links to ask me such a question.

I'm not a guitar tech . . . and I don't know of any local guitar techs who are very familiar with this system as it's unusual. Even my go-to guy, who was the tech for a very famous local blues guitarist you might have heard of, is reluctant to take it on.

The manual is full of precarious warnings about lowering this and dropping in the cavity that. I was just asking for advice; it's somewhat daunting.

The guitar probably hasn't been tuned to standard pitch for years before I got it. It was likely only tuned once before it was sent to the merchant, then sat for two years in a box. I've been informed that it is bad to leave a guitar lower than standard tuning for an extended time if you want to the neck to remain straight. Well, my guitar buzzed like a banshee when I received it tuned to pitch.

I'm not touching the bridge yet, but I have adjusted the truss. Now I've strung it with 11's and loosened the rod and conditioned the neck with F-one. I'm going to see how it settles into playing condition. I'm a classically trained guitarist, so I've grown up setting guitars for higher than standard action. It seems like I have to find a completely new feel to make this guitar work. That's okay, I'm willing to adjust, but not enough to eliminate my style.

I'm tentative about doing too much to it. There are way too many QC issues with this guitar for it to be labeled an "A" stock, and I'd prefer to move up in build quality.

I do love the electronics.

Croyote
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Re: New Butterscotch E1 - Setup questions

Post by Croyote » Sat Aug 04, 2012 2:16 pm

11's improve the feel a great deal.

A higher setup seems to produce some very odd overtones with full sustain. Pretty interesting.

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stiiiiiiive
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Re: New Butterscotch E1 - Setup questions

Post by stiiiiiiive » Sat Aug 04, 2012 4:39 pm

Hey Croyote!

You eventually have your Moog guitar!! Nice, congrats mate :)

Croyote
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Re: New Butterscotch E1 - Setup questions

Post by Croyote » Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:25 am

stiiiiiiive wrote:Hey Croyote!

You eventually have your Moog guitar!! Nice, congrats mate :)

:mrgreen:

Thanks! Loving the filters! There are so many possibilities to explore. I highly recommend that other guitarists take the plunge.

It is surely the wave of the future, and there's still time to be part of the early legion . . . I suspect.

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