How grubby is your guitar? Need a bit of a clean? It’s not something you might often bother with but it’s worth spending a little bit of time looking after your cherished guitar. This one wasn’t bad but it’s always worth giving the fretboard a light coat of oil whenever you change the strings. Some […]
Month: March 2014
Epiphone Les Paul – Fret Dress and Bone Nut
I’m often asked what’s the best way to improve an average guitar? The first thing to consider is do you want to improve the sound it makes or the way it feels to play? The first is easy, strip out the pickups and fit something special, Bare Knuckle are probably my favourite, and their choices are […]
US Fender Stratocaster HSS to SSS conversion
A nice US built Strat’ but the owner wanted it converted back to the standard three single coils. The most obvious thing is the pick-guard, I’ll have to get a new one of those or it will look naff. Rather than re-use the old switch and volume pot I think it better to replace them with new […]
Hohner Rockwood Re-build – 2nd update
I’ve had quite a problem getting the lacquer to adhere to the surface of the fretboard. However, I’ve got a good base coat on now. Once it’s good and dry I’ll use some fine “wet and dry” to blend it back to get a nice flat surface and put another half-dozen coats on. While I’m waiting for […]
Custom Built Spanish 5th Update
I don’t seem to get much time to work on this one, but it’s been a little quiet this week so I’ve finished off the bridge. The 2 white strips are bone so that the strings don’t cut into the wood when they are tied on. I’ve still got to cut the saddle for the […]
Gibson Les Paul – Overhaul, Final update
With all the parts together now all I have to do is put it all back together. Life is never that simple though, the pointers for the Vol/Tone controls don’t fit the pots’. Not a big problem, I just need to file the hole out a little. With the new pots’ fitted, wire them all […]
Gibson Les Paul – Overhaul, 1st update
Got the frets polished… Next I turned my attention to that broken nut. I used a grinding disk to cut a bone blank to the required size… It’s a fiddley job which I rather hate, the job is easy, it’s just the smell of grinding bone, like working in a slaughter-house! yuk. It needs a […]
Gibson Les Paul – Overhaul
This one is going to take a while, I like a challenge now and then! It’s perhaps going to take longer than I thought but since it’s a quality guitar it shouldn’t be too difficult. The guitar with the new parts… Along with the new parts it also needs a little bit of TLC, the […]
Fender Telecaster setup
A quiet day in the workshop today, a couple of odd bits and bobs. Did have a rather nice Tele’ in need of a setup. Nothing really wrong with it, just needs a tweek here and there. The neck set was a little high, so about a 1/4 turn on the truss-rod. The action at […]
Jazzmaster Build – Final update
At last the pickups have arrived so I’m on the final lap. The only problem is, they don’t fit! The standard covers the pickups came with are designed to mount differently. The pole pieces are slightly closer together… The covers have 4 holes for mountings but the pickups have 2, one at each end.. All I can […]