Guyker Bridge through body strung bass mod install; gsr200 ibanez

 the only high mass bridge with saddle walls i could find with a solid rear wall was the guyker. unfortunately, its full of design flaws. since there was no option but to make it work, i had to just fix all the flaws.

1. the saddles arent through threaded, so the screws cant pass through for increasing string length. theres only approx 7mm of intonation adjustment (without the screw falling out) because of this. the saddle height & lateral adjustment are the reason they couldnt thread through.

2. the screws are way too long, the saddles at the front of the bridge are as far back as they can go. but for some reason they will adjust forward right off of the bridge. theres no way any strings besides extra light gauges will be intonated correctly like that. im using 50/70/85/105, & the 105 requires the saddle to be just 24mm from the rear wall.

 3. the reps that sold me the guyker bridge didnt know what the thread size of the hardware was, & were cunty about it, telling me to just buy it & figure it out myself. which i fucking had to do because theres no alternative & those cunts know that. FOR THE RECORD, THE SCREWS ARE M3x0.5 THREADS. the screw lengths i ended up using were 20mm for E, & 25mm for A, D, & G. the set screws for height & lateral adjustment are also the same thread.

4. the included mounting screws are punier than the factory ibanez screws, but since they are flat heads, i had to use them on the x4 rear screws, but i used the coarser threaded/thicker round head ibanez screws for the x2 front screws.

5. guyker boasts about their lateral saddle adjustment, but its basically pointless because the saddles themselves are slightly wide set, compared to the stock saddles. with the E & A adjusted to the right & D & G adjusted to the left, the strings BARELY BARELY BARELY make it onto the fretboard. the only adjustment you could make to this would take the strings over the edge.

6. they used non conductive paint, or enamel or something. this would ruin the ground for anyone not aware of string grounding. leaving it factory from guyker would inevitably allow 60hz hum to run rampant. after careful contemplation, i found that the best way to ground the strings would be possible through another modification that was necessary. since im doing through body stringing, i had to deburr the factory holes for through body entrances, which exposed a bit of the steel & since the strings pass through there, its a great spot for full constant contact for ground. the witness points on the saddles had approx .6kohms resistance with the intonation screws, so it was less reliable than bare steel, & i definitely wanted to avoid sanding or modding the witness points. after exposing the underside of the bridge to contact the pot ground wire, i found the intonation screw did have near zero resistance to the exposed spot, but the string entrance for through body was still more reliable.

7. i found the bottom lip of the saddle was too near the string entrance on the E when correctly intonated, so i had to actually grind away material there to avoid stress on the string at that point.

8. so not as much a flaw, but it wouldve been amazing to not have to change holes, but this is how i did it. i recorded the original bridge position with masking tape, marking the string position & saddle positions. after adjusting for the rear wall thickness & moving as far away as i could without compromising the end of the instrument, i marked where the new holes would need to be. i thought if i was lucky i could skip plugging holes  but x4 of the new holes were too near the originals, so i just plugged all the old holes with toothpick splinters & titebond wood glue, left to cure 24hrs.

NOW, i was finally able to get to the actual install.

i used an 1/8" drill bit for the string holes. i used a 1/64" drill bit to pilot the new mounting holes. on the back i used a 5/16" spade bit to pilot the ferrule holes, then widened that with a 3/8" drill bit (wiggled around to ease ferrule install, since 3/8" was still super tight). i sealed the exposed fresh wood in the holes with india ink & a q-tip. i used a clamp to press in the ferrules because using a hammer on a musical instrument is for mongoloids. since i didnt use a drill press because i dont have access to one  i free handed it & there was slight drift as the bit reach the back of the bass on the E, but its so minor it had absolutely no consequence besides an aesthetic irritant.

i found that the precut hole in the bridge for strings was 1/8" but the widest point on the 105 string was actually .126" (1/8 is .125) so i had to very slightly widen that hole & the hole in the wood to accomodate the E.

my first bass ever in high school had silk winding on the strings, & the strings that i bought afterward had silk winding. i found that lately, its nearly impossible to find strings with silk winding. i guess companies have convinced consumers that they dont need it. i ended up buying ernies because theyve always been reliable on my guitar, but i added 3:1 ratio 3/16" heat shrink tubing to the tuner ends of the strings. you cant insert the heatshrink into the tuners so i made sure to leave a thumbnail length of bare string to go into the tuner hole. this is both to protect my tuner posts, as well as securely anchoring the strings in place & killing any possibility of headstock buzz.

using a long scale (37.25") to taper string set just BARELY made it past the nut by less than 1/2"!

i was able to perfectly intonate all the strings & set my height for string/neck gap & my neck was bent back into perfect alignment after adding full tension back onto it.

it was a huge pain in the ass but im super happy with the result. 

the only things left to do on this bass is replace the shitty old pots the prior owner burned when they were soldering with new a500k pots & the shitty rat nest cable harness with nice shielded wire, then replace the nut with a custom cut Tusq nut.

real vs fake shure sm58s mic

 i recently bought a $100 shure sm58s mic from amazon, then right afterward i saw one on ebay for $30. i bought it & did a deep comparison when it arrived, & found it was an obvious counterfeit.

here is all the evidence for your perusal:

its funny that the counterfeit strap is actually nicer.

the mount is totally functional, & the solid inner wall seems to be better design.

shure actually gives us a lower quality sticker

now for the actual mic

older counterfeits used red & black, but these days they use yellow & green. however, shure is now using 4 wires. i have previously also bought a used shure mic from guitar center for $80 that had the correct switch (not red pcb) but it also only had 2 wires. 

im upset that the counterfeit actually has better body construction.

i did actually also test them in studio one too.

it seems that theres a good reason for the real mic to not actually have a true off switch, something about avoiding speaker pops etc when switching.

however, i think shure should have a better design to acutally silence the input without risking pops.

ironically, when switching the fake mic on/off, there was no response from the interface, but when i switched the real mic on/off, i did hear an audible thump/bassy pop, so it sort of defeats the fucking purpose.

if the high-mids werent so harsh on the fake i would prefer it to the real one, 

however, the smoother sound is worth putting up with the lazier body machining but borderline is not worth the switch noise. if you still have to turn off the interface volume to avoid pops when using the switch, the switch is fucking pointless.

synth battlestation

 after being blessed with a surprise medical setback (thanks god), im finally back to learning vst instruments & setting up my daw workstation.

im pretty happy with this setup, even though i went over my budget. 

i did alot of research & decided on:

  Omen16slim for my portable machine, plenty of ram & on win11 for future proofing.

  minilab3 25key & smk37 37key for the controllers, instead of a longer piano i chose to use the 25 for a lower register bass synth & the 37 for higher lead or pad synth, which can be active at the same time on different tracks. it still also has the flexibility to shift the 25 down 1 octave, raise the 37 up 1 octave, & combine them into 1 long piano. the only setback i found is that the smk doesnt have a Hold button like the minilab does, but the minilab doesnt have the super nice oled display that shows you every note AND chord you play like the smk has.

  i ended up choosing Studio One Pro 7 sort of by default. i preferred Cakewalk, but ill never support the subscription only model, & they werent interested in that feedback at any capacity. Cubase i thought was just wildly overpriced for a one time purchase that doesnt update & also for a piece of software that can be infinitely replicated & theyve made their investment back on about 20 years ago. i think theyre just greedy & the activation/licensing software/procedures are a big fucking headache to manage for me. i tried reaper, & while i loved that it still has full compatability with older vsts, it just lacks the gui polish that i didnt have the energy to even attempt to modify myself. Studio One went on sale for $140 & that was a good enough deal for me, it has some very obvious things i wouldve changed, namely Macro custom placement like moving the Undo button somewhere else or making Routing more visual & intuitive like FLstudio or Ableton. Overall, after some sweat & cussing, ive boiled down & figured out most of the things i needed to have work for me.

  i really liked some of cubases & cakewalks instruments, & its a bummer i cant add those to my arsenal, but arturia (minilab) makes some really cool stuff & i ended up getting the V Collection & Pigments. really excited to delve into those. even studio one still has the built in presonus instrument suite that is no slouch collection too.

  i also got Serum2 from Xfer, equally excited to delve into that too.

  even with the knobs on the controllers, i wasnt able to map to all the parameters i wanted to control on any given instrument, & if i could, i wouldnt be able to label them or remember which is what. i found an expensive solution but after setup & some jamming, i feel vindicated with the result. i bought a double touchscreen monitor that can hold 1 instrument each & i can literally move any parameter with a finger like theyre on a rack in front of me. the 2 main things i wish i wouldve been able to get a google answer for quickly were: keeping 2 instruments open simultaneously is possible by activating the pushpin icon on the top right of the instrument windows. & reactivating the laptop touchpad in windows bluetooth/device settings because the touchscreen monitors are recognized as external mouse devices & tells windows to shut off the touchpad. i have to make a custom tilt mount (likely out of wood) because i cant get the angles i want with the imbedded kickstand, but thats going to be a cool project to make custom too, & save like $150 vs buying some aluminum tilt stand.

  im still using my old gen 2 2i2 focusrite interface for monitoring the daw, but also for connecting guitar & bass. i cant believe how worn the frets are on both & i got a japanese fret tool to even/round them out again when i get a chance, & i have to somehow repair/replace the damaged jack on my guitar, but im stoked to finally have a better daw than audacity with way better effects/plugins than my old Pedalboard program was using, & i still have all my old flagship pedals i cant wait to break out again.

  i havnt gotten around to setting up the td27 drumset in studioone yet, but im super happy with the state of the kit right now, & i already have the driver installed & it goes in via usb so it wont crowd anything out.

ive still got a little more to research, learn, & practice before im confident enough to put it all together & write/record, but my plan is to eventually write some bg/soundtrack music for HoA, & use the art as a backdrop or video.

Heirs of Ashuradō ch03 has begun

 the 1st draft script is complete for hoa ch03!

All indie comic anthology book 04

 Tiny Power Comics latest All Indie Comic Anthology book is available now! 112 pages, 5 comics!

Check it out at TinyPowerComics.com

exfat partition extending & android file compatibility

 im just posting this for posterity because it was a pain to google for a clear answer, & maybe this will help someone else in the future.

i was trying to figure out why a 4tb external ssd i bought would be discoverable on my pc but not my phone or tablet.

some searching told me that it was either incompatible file system, or lack of power.

i bought a powered hub & was able to discover the 4tb ssd (formatted as ntfs) on my tablet. without the hub, it would cause constant restarting of the tablet due to power draw overload.

i also had a new 1tb sd card that i wanted to clone onto, & discovered that while the tablet can read an external ntfs drive, the sd card formatted to ntfs was deemed unacceptable & prompts a reformat dialogue, inviting a change to exfat.

i found that new sd cards inserted into the tablet first were automatically formatted to exfat.

my pc had no problem reading either exfat or ntfs sd card as flash storage.

i also found that new sd cards come with an unallocated partition proportionate to the drive size, i.e. 1tb had a 64mb unallocated partition, 512gb had a 32mb unallocated partition. apparently  this is meant as a sort of ram or temp storage for the card in the event that the main partition is completely filled.

bionic hand poseable artists model

 apparently there is a knockoff version of this hand model being produced with really no marketing divisor. 

searching on aliexpress i bought the knockoff because it was cheaper by half, but realized when i received it that the palm was out of proportion to the larger fingers.

i looked a little closer & ordered the more expensive one for a side by side comparison which noone else has done.

its easier to make a fist with the knockoff but the original could be remedied by shaving a bit of plastic off of the index pad (havnt done yet, picture is the unmodified version).

the original has a sturdier, heavier base.

the knockoff base mount falls out of the wrist seemingly by design intentionally or otherwise.

the knockoff has more exaggerated lateral palm flex, but that could be incidental due to missing linkage of the thumb crotch & pinky pad.

the original has better, unrestricted wrist movement.

in the end i decided to keep both because the knockoff looks like it could be a more feminine hand while the original seems more masculine, both could have their uses.