New Guitar - 650xl

[Tiddles]

Guys I just got this on UK eBay and I thought I’d show you a couple of pics…it’s nothing usual, I believe it’s a 650xl (?), you’ve seen loads of them before I know, but I’m really pleased with it .









Guitar is in pretty good condition & frets are like new, has wonderful feel & really lovely to play … guy obviously didn’t play it much (he bought it new in 1990 & inc. the original sale receipt).

It did need a thorough setup though, and initially displayed a couple of odd sound effects…principally low/weak volume on top-E string (and also to lesser extent low vol. on low-E), and conversely a noticeably high volume on the G-string.

On closer inspection it was clear the saddle-blocks were all slightly different heights, ie with top-E a bit high and G noticeably rather low.

I wondered if the blocks had metal shims, & wondered if some of the shims were the wrong heights, so I took the blocks off. There were no shims, but the blocks are numbered…albeit strange seemingly unhelpful numbering…two blocks have no. “2”, two others are no. “1”, and the last two are un-numbered. Anyway I rearranged the blocks so that the top-E sits lower and the G is higher, ie so now all the blocks roughly follow the curve of the Fretboard. Plays great now.

The only odd thing, & here’s a question – the bridge pickup sounds far better when set really high & close to the strings (maybe 1/8ins. clearance), but that makes it much louder than the other pickups, & hence big volume difference when switching pickup positions. Is that typical for active pickups? The neck & middle pickups seem fixed (ie not adjustable for height), so it appears there’s no way around it?

As I say, I’m totally happy with the guitar…but if I did want to change the active bridge pickup, could I just remove the mini circuit board & install something like a Tone Zone or Custom Custom, or would I also have to swap the pots too? Would I need to change all 3 pickups?

OK, that’s it…apologies for long rambling post.

Cheers, Ian.

[Danacus]

Cool. I used to have a couple of those. Great guitars

[KennyF]

Hell YEAH!!!

Congrats!

[Sunbane]

Congrats on an awesome guitar!

The only odd thing, & here’s a question – the bridge pickup sounds far better when set really high & close to the strings (maybe 1/8ins. clearance), but that makes it much louder than the other pickups, & hence big volume difference when switching pickup positions. Is that typical for active pickups? The neck & middle pickups seem fixed (ie not adjustable for height), so it appears there’s no way around it?

It's typical for all pickups, and the pickups you have there are actually all passive. The battery is only for the JE-1200 onboard mid-boost.

You can adjust the height of the neck/middle pups. There are two wood screws holding each pickup down. Just unscrew them to increase height. If the pickups don't come up, it's because the plastic foam under them has shrivelled up. In that case, take the pickups out and put some fresh foam into there.

As I say, I’m totally happy with the guitar…but if I did want to change the active bridge pickup, could I just remove the mini circuit board & install something like a Tone Zone or Custom Custom, or would I also have to swap the pots too? Would I need to change all 3 pickups?

Well, like I said, all pickups in your guitar are passive, and you can put another passive bridge pup in there without a problem. However, if you do take the board out, you'd have to replace the pots with ordinary 500k ones.

The one thing you will notice when putting another bridge pickup in there, is that it will not fill out the pickup ring. The pickup ring is oversized to accomodate the plastic cover on the Jackson humbucker. It's not a problem per se - it will just look a little odd to begin with.

Btw, the bridge humbucker works fine without the board (although not very hot), but the J-200 stacked humbuckers (neck/middle) sound like crap without it.

[Rich#6]

Congrats Tiddles those are great guitars. I have 2 86 model 6's. I have kept one all original because of its low serial number (C600056) and the other I (had too) took out all the eletronics and put in a tone zone(B) , red lace sensor(M), Seymour Duncan hot rails(N). After its all set up the latter will be my main guitar.

[Mike]

Nice guitar!

[MortenP]

Hey man, great catch! I actually bid against you on that one

[Tiddles]

Hey thanks for the quick reply guys, appreciate it .

Sunbane – many thanks for all that info. … I just saw the 9v battery & mini-circuit board & immediately thought “active p/up”, so thanks for setting me straight on that (all my other guitars are typical vintage type things with old-style p/up’s).

Hey Morten …I had probably had the advantage over you on that one, because it turned out the seller was only 10 min drive away from me, whereas I see you are all the way over there in Norway . Actually the sellers pics were pretty blurred & you really couldn’t tell much from any of his eBay description, though as I say I was pleasantly surprised to find it in really nice condition & most important thing for me is that it plays quite beautifully.

Rich – yep, whether I change the pups or not, I’ll probably use this as my main guitar…which means my vastly more expensive “vintage” Les Paul & Tele + assorted others will all have to take a back seat for most numbers .

Ian.

[MortenP]

Hey thanks for the quick reply guys, appreciate it .

Sunbane – many thanks for all that info. … I just saw the 9v battery & mini-circuit board & immediately thought “active p/up”, so thanks for setting me straight on that (all my other guitars are typical vintage type things with old-style p/up’s).

Hey Morten …I had probably had the advantage over you on that one, because it turned out the seller was only 10 min drive away from me, whereas I see you are all the way over there in Norway . Actually the sellers pics were pretty blurred & you really couldn’t tell much from any of his eBay description, though as I say I was pleasantly surprised to find it in really nice condition & most important thing for me is that it plays quite beautifully.


Rich – yep, whether I change the pups or not, I’ll probably use this as my main guitar…which means my vastly more expensive “vintage” Les Paul & Tele + assorted others will all have to take a back seat for most numbers .

Ian.

Man, I'm jealous of you! How much did you end up paying btw?

[Tiddles]

Hi Morten – it was £311 (ie 470Euro). I’ve been looking for a few months … got outbid on a nice looking Firecrackle Model-6 on German eBay, that went a little high for me at 655Euro (& I’d have to add 17.5% tax plus shipping from Germany etc.)…there was a thread here about that auction http://www.jcfonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62551.

Ian.

[Sunbane]

Hi Morten – it was £311 (ie 470Euro).

That's a really good price!
Double-grats!

[MortenP]

Hi Morten – it was £311 (ie 470Euro). I’ve been looking for a few months … got outbid on a nice looking Firecrackle Model-6 on German eBay, that went a little high for me at 655Euro (& I’d have to add 17.5% tax plus shipping from Germany etc.)…there was a thread here about that auction http://www.jcfonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62551.

Ian.

Yeah, that's a great price..Congrats again! Now I can't wait to get another Charvel!!

[Speiro]

Nice find there Tiddles. Glad I missed that one, keep spending on guitars, I need therapy

[Tiddles]

Yeah I reckon around £300 is pretty good in UK & Europe, though in the US you can get them for less. However, US prices seem to depend strongly on cosmetic condition, so anything with obvious scuffs/dents/stickers might sell cheaply, eg a slightly beat-up model-6 just sold on US eBay for only £160!

But in this case the price really didn’t matter too much to me, I just needed a second 24-fret guitar with a Floyd (it was purely a practical purchase). Really I’m just delighted that it plays so well & since it will be my main guitar I think it’s probably worth me getting the max. from it by swapping the pickups.

Speiro – yeah I know exactly what you mean…I’m trying to stop buying the blasted things, but I always find some burning reason why I need another guitar or amp lol. ... hmm, come to think of it I just seemed to have demonstrated it by talking about swapping the pickups,..

Ian.

[usrname]

Great catch, man! It's good that you were only ten minutes away so you could save on shipping and actually see and play it before buying.

Does anyone know what model pickups those are? They have a raised logo, whereas mine are just painted on.