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NGD - SBMM Valentine

SBMM Valentine gut shots

:eek:

Dug out my bag-o-pots and other spare parts the other day and found a few goodies I need for upcoming projects, including a right-sized p/p pot for the Valentine.
But when I opened her up for surgery and got a better look at the tone pot, I was surprised to see how busy it is.
Along with the usual tone cap, there is also a wire from the boost circuit attached and tied into another cap & resistor!
Since I didn't have the correct match for those, and assuming that they just might be important for the gain boost circuit, I decided to hold off the mod... for now...:cool:
I'll collect up the right parts for later, but the reality is that this guitar is pretty much perfect as is. After I had some time with her I found that, on a clean amp setting in particular, on the neck pup, when rolling the volume from 10 to 8-ish, instead of turning the sound to dark mud, it just drops into a very smooth, sweet & sparkly voice. (that's a lot of commas!)
Just my opinion, but I'm thinking that adding a split feature might just be redundant, so now I'm in no hurry.
Of course, I might get bored and change my mind later...;)

OK, on with the pics...
Internals look very typical for an import... I've seen quite a few...
Some sheeple get tweaked about it and scream "OMG...I've got to upgrade all the electronics to bigger & better!!!"
....no, you really don't, unless something actually fails....

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The gain boost circuit is mounted to the top (bottom?) of the volume pot...interesting....

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Here's the busy little tone pot!!

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Don't know if this will help anyone, but there it is.
If I spent more time practicing rather than working on these things, I'd be a much better player :p
But, it's what I do and I enjoy it.

BTW - LOVE THIS GUITAR!!! :D
 
I thought the Sterling featured the boost, not the coil tap.
Anyone compared it to the EBMM Valentine?
 
SBMM said:
Yes, it does indeed only have the 12dB fixed output boost on the Volume VR. It does not have the coil tap.
Click to expand...

Did not realize it was a fixed boost.
I have been hunting for an aftermarket on board boost to add to a PRS that works similar to the EBMM Vaentines because it is awesome.
 
The colours seem to vary a bit on these from pictures ive seen across the net, RJKaneo's looks a lot closer to the orignal, but they seem more yellow-ish on yours xjebebop?

Anyone have any reference of how close this is the the MM Valentine buttermilk?
 
It's slightly off white. The 3rd & 4th pics of my original post (indoors) are pretty accurate. The yellowish cast in the first 2 pics (outdoors) and the later gut shots are just bad color correction. It's gorgeous in person.
I've not seen a MM model in person yet, but there are plenty of youtubes & great pics of these on the web.

btw- I'm well past the honeymoon phase with this guitar, and I'm -really- diggin' it! Fresh strings & a wee bit of personal preference set up out of the box, and it's solid! The 'wedge' body shape is way more comfortable than I expected as well.
 
Here's some shots of a rack of JV60 Valentines.

There really isn't much variation to the finishes. It's the wood grain variation that changes the finish the most.

Enjoy the shots!

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I have the EBMM and the finish does not always photograph well. Depending on the amount, type and angle of light, the woodgrain really shows thru, or it looks like just a peachy-off-white painted guitar. I have taken several pics of mine and deleted many... as I have a really difficult time getting it to look like it does in person.

I can attest, as xhbebop has, that it is, however, very nice in person. It's a very transparent off-white, and the wood grain shows thru beautifully. The contrast wth the darker neck really comes off well... in my opinion, of course.
 
xjbebop said:
It's slightly off white. The 3rd & 4th pics of my original post (indoors) are pretty accurate. The yellowish cast in the first 2 pics (outdoors) and the later gut shots are just bad color correction. It's gorgeous in person.
I've not seen a MM model in person yet, but there are plenty of youtubes & great pics of these on the web.

btw- I'm well past the honeymoon phase with this guitar, and I'm -really- diggin' it! Fresh strings & a wee bit of personal preference set up out of the box, and it's solid! The 'wedge' body shape is way more comfortable than I expected as well.
Click to expand...

Awesome!
 
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