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[Cherry Casino]

Hello beatle people!

ive been coming to this site for years now and have always found it a great read.
i was hoping to get some advice on my casino.
i play in a garage 60's band here in the uk, and i have been playing with a epiphone dot deluxe (customised), and i just bought myself a cherry casino, got a bigsby installed and its a great guitar, but the problem is that i use fuzz and overdrive, and it just feeds back on me so much, and not the nice feedback, its the mic squeal feedback, ive heard the usual things like dont stand near the amp etc....but if the volume is up and i dont even have fuzz on it it still does it, does anyone have and ideas that might help in this situation? im all out of ideas and id like to get it sorted before the summer as we are playing some festivals and would love to use it then.

cheers


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[Clint]

I think Les Paul, Leo Fender and Paul Bigsby worked on that problem some back in the '40s.

But seriously, if it's not the hollowness of the guitar, the pickups may be microphonic.

[servant]

Try stuffing some sort of foam rubber pieces into the f-holes (out of sight but easily retrievable), being careful not to pull any wires loose from their connections. This will give the body a bit of mass, and hopefully will muffle (in a good way) some of the sound. They are a very lively guitar at healthy volumes...

If that doesn't help then, like Clint, my guess would be microphonic pickups. If they are microphonic, chances are there is nothing you can do with the current pickups (I think I heard that they were epoxied into the covers) and will have to replace them. Hopefully that doesn't turn into expensive troubleshooting to find that it's not the pickups.

Good luck!

[doctorwho]

Try stuffing some sort of foam rubber pieces into the f-holes (out of sight but easily retrievable), being careful not to pull any wires loose from their connections. This will give the body a bit of mass, and hopefully will muffle (in a good way) some of the sound. They are a very lively guitar at healthy volumes...

If that doesn't help then, like Clint, my guess would be microphonic pickups. If they are microphonic, chances are there is nothing you can do with the current pickups (I think I heard that they were epoxied into the covers) and will have to replace them. Hopefully that doesn't turn into expensive troubleshooting to find that it's not the pickups.

Good luck!

+1

If you don't have foam, you can use stuff clean rags (or pieces of clothing) inside the body (B.B. King supposedly did this on his ES Gibsons). The idea is to prevent sound waves from setting up a resonance pattern inside the body, so that can be done by dampening the front and back surfaces or by blocking the path of the standing waves inside the body. If the pickup is microphonic, neither foam nor cloth will work, as the guys above have stated.

[teeder]

I used to do that with my old Hofner's too. Stuff them packed full of insulation.

[Cherry Casino]

hi all

thanks for the advice, but i have a couple of questions....

what's microphonic pick ups mean?
does sticking foam or rags change the tone? would it make it muddy?
if the pick ups needs changing, do you know of any that you could recommend that's good for fuzz?

one again, thanks for the advice.

cheers

[doctorwho]

... what's microphonic pick ups mean? ...

When a pick up is microphonic, it means that it will pick up vibrations (like tapping on the outside housing) and turn them into signal (output). (Remember that pickups such as the ones on a Casino normally work by the use of magnets and wiring which do not normally pick up such physical vibrations.)

... does sticking foam or rags change the tone? would it make it muddy? ...

Because the actual signal is generated by the vibrating string and not the body, the use of foam (or cloth) should not make the sound "muddy" ... but keep in mind that the interaction of the vibrating string with the body (through the nut and bridge) can create harmonics in the string which are picked up as signal and add to the overall 'color' of the note, so it might have an effect on the sound ... it just isn't that predictable.

... if the pick ups needs changing, do you know of any that you could recommend that's good for fuzz? ...

By that I am assuming that you mean, "pickups with strong output that will give good results with a fuzz effects box". I am not that familiar with other brands of pick ups and their characteristics, so I will defer answering that one.