Butterscotch Tele with Joe Barden Pickups
I put this guitar together today for a customer. The body is from guitarbuild.co.uk and the owner finished it using my Butterscotch nitrocellulose lacquer. I fitted the Joe Barden pickups, with the bridge mounted to the body, G E Smith style. There is a 4-way switch fitted, giving in-series as well as in-parallel pickup combinations, [...]
Read MoreSkiffle Cat Jazz Guitar Upgrade
I spent just about all of today rewiring this jazz-style guitar. It was made by Skiffle Cat who may well now be defunct? It’s not the greatest guitar in the world but it is very servicable and now sounds the business. Last time it was here I dressed the frets, gave it a new Tusq [...]
Read More70s Bass Extravaganza!
Over the last few weeks I’ve been fortunate to have some unusual 70s basses in the workshop. It was a coincidence that they were all here at the same time, although the two fretless basses were brought in by the same person. Wal Pro II Bass The Wal Pro series of basses was introduced [...]
Read MoreGibson Lucille Varitone True Bypass Modification
The owner of this Gibson Lucille wanted to get a better sound from his guitar. Although position “1″ on the Gibson Varitone switch is supposed to be bypass, it does leave the choke in the circuit which loses volume and precious tone. As the guitar’s owner didn’t find the stereo feature of the guitar useful, [...]
Read MoreHöfner Model 4575 65-3
This Höfner Model 4575 “65-3″ guitar which dates to 1965/66 and I’ve just rewired it as the controls were unreliable. despite a good clean. Alan at Project Guitar Parts supplied the switches and also a reproduction pickguard and bracket. The pickguard needed to be cut to accommodate the pickups. Eagle-eyed aficionados will spot that the [...]
Read MoreGibson L4 CES
This beautiful 1989 Gibson L4 CES was brought in with a bad electrical buzz. I traced the buzz to a disconnected bridge earth wire which I reconnected. I noticed however that at some point early in its life the guitar had been rewired with different pots. The pots have solid shafts and whoever did the work [...]
Read MoreLeft-handed Epiphone Les Paul Upgrade
Here’s a lefty Epiphone Les Paul that I upgraded the other day. The list of upgrades is: Tusq nut fret dress rewire setup Tusq nut The nut on the guitar was a cheap hollow plastic replacement that had poorly cut string slots causing tuning problems. A new Tusq nut sorted that out. Rewire The existing [...]
Read MoreBuilding a SAGA TC-10 Part 6 – Fitting the Pickups
Neck pickup The first job is to find the right postion for the neck pickup. Place the pickup in the cavity and thread the wires through to the control cavity. Place the pickguard on the guitar and position the neck pickup central in the hole. Being careful not to move the pickup, remove the pickguard [...]
Read MoreBuilding a SAGA TC-10 Part 5 – Wiring the Electrics
Attaching the switch and controls Attach the 3-position switch using the screws provided. Attach the volume and tone pots with the soldering lugs facing. Use the lower nut to adjust the height of the potentiometer. Place the star washer between this nut and the control plate. use a dress washer beneath the upper nut and [...]
Read MoreFitting Graphtech Ghost saddles to a Fenix Jazz Bass
First job was to modify the bridge plate so that the wires from the piezo saddles would pass though. The holes were drilled just large enough for the plugs to fit through and the edged chamfered with a countersink bit to avoid any sharp edges and chafing of the delicate wires. The hole positions were [...]
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