Upgrade to Vintage “Lemon Drop”
Vintage Lemon Drop upgrade
I recently performed a full upgrade on a Vintage Lemon Drop guitar. These guitars are great value for money but obviously at such a low price, some components are going to be less than top quality.
The full list of changes is:
- bone nut
- Sperzel tuners
- Tonepros nickel bridge and tailpiece
- Tonerider Alnico IV pickups
- CTS pots
- Switchcraft switch and jack
- Sprague Orange drop capacitors
As well as a complete rewire in braided wire, fret dress and setup.
The total cost of upgrades including parts was about £370.
The pickups were, of course, wired out of phase. With both pickups on, and the neck volume rolled off slightly, it did the Peter Green sound perfectly.
That’s my guitar! Steve did a great job upgrading the hardware and the set-up is great too. Unbelievable low action with no buzz, in fact its a bit too low for me! I plan to get the top refinished so will get Steve to sort this at the same time. Now this guitars a keeper! Great sounds, great player with well fitted, quality hardware. Like Steve said, when new these guitars are great value for money, but the components are not built to last. With this upgrade it will still be a player in 20 years from now, and for half the price of a genuine Les Paul. Cheers Steve!
Looks like a great guitar after upgrading. Considering this option myself as I liked the Vintage LP after playing one recently.
I have another here at the moment for similar treatment, but it’s getting a Bare Knuckle Pickups PG Blues set.