Guitar Bench Spotlight:
Tom Hamilton’s Custom-built Lotto "Liberty"
Tom Hamilton’s custom built Lotto was in the Port Richmond Guitar Spa this week for some love before heading out with Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and Bill Kreutzman’s Billy and the Kids this summer.
Tom loves to abuse this beauty, and we swap kill switches a few times a year as a result. This time, however, I solved an electronics issue. The Alembic Stratoblaster preamp (hidden under tape by the jack) ships wired directly to its jack. I had originally wired this up for Tom (and luthier Joe Arlotta) as volume pot out, kill switch, Stratoblaster (to jack). Everything was awesome with the kill switch but when using the active ‘Blaster preamp we were getting hum when in kill mode (no signal to preamp). Not a huge issue when doing quick stutters, but definitely an issue if using as an “off switch” for tuning. So now the kill switch wiring has been moved from “pre-Blaster” to “post-Blaster” and is wired between the Stratoblaster circuit output and the jack. Problem solved.
The middle pickup’s coil split switch (humbucker to single coil) was super loose and twisted so that was corrected and reinforced. Pickup heights were then balanced for even output. Pickups are all Dimarzio and this guitar features a DP110 (FS-1) in the neck and a pair of DP104 (Super 2) pups in the middle and bridge positions.
A fresh setup followed with D’Addario EXL110 10-46 strings.
Excellent run of shows coming up between a pair of Billy and the Kids gigs in Baltimore and NYC as well as a bunch of JRAD shows summer/fall. Looking forward to seeing JRAD at The Met Philly on 11/17!
Very cool!!