My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

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garbeaj
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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by garbeaj » Tue Jan 07, 2014 1:26 pm

I used to think the solo from "Panama" was spliced from different takes, but now that I have listened to the isolated guitar track I think it is probably all one take. I know my clip was just made to demo the sound, but damn I really need to work on the phrasing of the "Panama" solo some more! I've never heard anybody else on the internet play it anywhere near close to the record, but I'm going to give it the old college try:)

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garbeaj
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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by garbeaj » Fri Jul 18, 2014 1:44 pm

Here is sort've a reverse update...I found a couple of pics of the back of this guitar when the body was unfinished basswood. I took a couple of shots to show how I needed to sand the cavity a little deeper in order to fit the bell brass tremolo claw from FU Tone upgrades in the cavity-it was a little taller than a standard Floyd or Fender claw...

You can see the very straight grain of the basswood in these pics...

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Image

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Tone Slinger
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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by Tone Slinger » Fri Jul 18, 2014 5:03 pm

She's an 'A' endrain/join.
Rip Ben Wise (StuntDouble) & Mark Abrahamian (Rockstah)

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garbeaj
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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by garbeaj » Fri Jul 18, 2014 9:31 pm

Tone Slinger wrote:She's an 'A' endrain/join.
Thanks for chiming in Andy! The grain is so straight that I couldn't tell:)

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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by Tone Slinger » Fri Jul 18, 2014 9:36 pm

If you look at it layed on its face with back up (like your pics), it looks like a 'v' at the join. I always denote the orientation by laying the guitar on its back, top up. So in that case, its a 'A' endgrain/join. So you have 2 Musikraft bodies and 2 different center seamed endgrain orientations.
Rip Ben Wise (StuntDouble) & Mark Abrahamian (Rockstah)

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garbeaj
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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by garbeaj » Sat Jul 19, 2014 12:21 am

:thumbsup:

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Rich_D
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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by Rich_D » Sat Jul 26, 2014 1:03 pm

garbeaj wrote:the JB and the '59 sound like crap to me.
I've just about given up on my JB that I've had since 86. I can't get it to sound good in anything.
Interpretation?! I thought I was playing it right!

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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by garbeaj » Sat Jul 26, 2014 4:39 pm

Rich_D wrote:
garbeaj wrote:the JB and the '59 sound like crap to me.
I've just about given up on my JB that I've had since 86. I can't get it to sound good in anything.
I've never heard anybody sound good with a JB, but that may be because I was hearing some high gain amp that just didn't suit the pickup. I couldn't be happier with the combination of my Rockstah Marshall and the Custom Hybrid with swapped A2 magnet. It really is the magic recipe for me right now-LOVE IT!
Last edited by garbeaj on Wed Dec 02, 2015 7:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by Rich_D » Sat Jul 26, 2014 6:28 pm

garbeaj wrote:
Rich_D wrote:
garbeaj wrote:the JB and the '59 sound like crap to me.
I've just about given up on my JB that I've had since 86. I can't get it to sound good in anything.
I've never heard anybody sound good with a JB, but that may be because I was hearing some high gain amp that just didn't suit the pickup.
That fits because I'm playing through a 5150 combo and various modelers that are usually set to metal stuff. I never thought my JB (JBJ to be exact) sounded bad when I had a 50w Marshall. I got my 5150 body from KNE in Poplar because I hadn't dug into the sleuthing far enough to know that Unk had it wrong.
Interpretation?! I thought I was playing it right!

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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by Rich_D » Sat Jul 26, 2014 6:56 pm

Tone Slinger wrote:the NATURAL tone quality he had on the 1984 tour
I love this tone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwfmnD1yUAQ#t=50. So raw and honest. The open E chugs like metal when he mutes it but it twangs like a real guitar when he hits it hard.
Interpretation?! I thought I was playing it right!

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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by Rich_D » Sat Jul 26, 2014 7:10 pm

garbeaj wrote:I confine my search to the Farm Aid and Letterman appearances because they feature a relatively unadorned representation of the 5150 guitar into an amp (again, likely Ed's baby Marshall) minus Harmonizer, chorus or echo and that is where I'm headed, hopefully!
There's this also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIY86LO-z8g#t=70. I apologize in advance for the Sammy Hagar.
Interpretation?! I thought I was playing it right!

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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by garbeaj » Sat Jul 26, 2014 8:22 pm

Rich_D wrote:
garbeaj wrote:I confine my search to the Farm Aid and Letterman appearances because they feature a relatively unadorned representation of the 5150 guitar into an amp (again, likely Ed's baby Marshall) minus Harmonizer, chorus or echo and that is where I'm headed, hopefully!
There's this also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIY86LO-z8g#t=70. I apologize in advance for the Sammy Hagar.
Yep, that's one of the tones that I was trying to reach with this build, though it is with the small Fender practice amp.

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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by garbeaj » Tue Jan 10, 2017 12:30 pm

Rich_D wrote:
garbeaj wrote:
Rich_D wrote: I've just about given up on my JB that I've had since 86. I can't get it to sound good in anything.
I've never heard anybody sound good with a JB, but that may be because I was hearing some high gain amp that just didn't suit the pickup.
That fits because I'm playing through a 5150 combo and various modelers that are usually set to metal stuff. I never thought my JB (JBJ to be exact) sounded bad when I had a 50w Marshall. I got my 5150 body from KNE in Poplar because I hadn't dug into the sleuthing far enough to know that Unk had it wrong.
Hey Rich...I know I'm bumping this super old thread...but what did you mean that Unk had it wrong as far as the body being made of poplar? I made this guitar out of basswood, but I was considering rebuilding with poplar because that's what Unk said it was made of...what have you uncovered in your sleuthing?

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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by Berlin » Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:25 pm

garbeaj wrote:I also tried the Bourns EVH 500k pot and I don't like it...don't know whether it is the pot or the pickup, but when I turn down it is like a tone knob has been turned down and the highs disappear into a muffled mess
I recently built a MK 5150... Or I should say put together by a music store in the small town I live in- wasn't quite confident yet in doing it myself for fear of ruining anything Durning the process-

Image


But when I got it back and plugged it in, the exact same experience as you Allen- opened up all the way with a 500 pot and a MCP 2nd degree BB, it was a bit over the top for my taste but as I backed it off- it only got muffled, more bass, like a tone knob or something- so much so I called the dude and said- "by chance...? You didn't wire this pickup in such a manner that it acts like a tone knob did you?"...
As I would back off the volume I could almost go all the way down before the sound finally just turned off? :what:

I have since given the guitar away to someone... (Not because of the pickup issue mind you- :lol: ) but I still thought it was strange-

Hoping like you, when my '78 gets finished shortly the same thing won't happen.

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Re: My black Musikraft "5150" sort've replica

Post by garbeaj » Tue Feb 14, 2017 1:08 am

I had good luck with a 500k Dimarzio volume pot...I think it might have been a YJM model. Itvwas Dimarzio, but made by CTS. If I recall correctly I also read on the vintage Kranerbsire or some other Van Halen oriented site that the original 5150 used a Dimarzio pot, but who knows if that's true. I just ended having a good experience with the 500k Dimarzio/CTS pot that I got. Sometimes you just have to try different pots until you find the one that works...

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