Vintage SG – New nut, setup and service

Some of these “Vintage” guitars can be quite good.  For some reason the nut slots on this one have been cut rather deep and the open strings are buzzing a little.  There are quick fixes but the proper thing to do is to replace the nut. Gently out with the old one. The new bone […]

1956/58 Stratocaster Re-Build

Here’s another interesting project.  Another mixture of old and new.  A good friend of mine, Russell, has been colleting some fine old parts and has decided it’s time to put it all together…. Some of these parts are older than I am, a 1958 neck and 1956/58 pickups, tremolo, neck and back plates etc. all in fantastic condition. The […]

Stratocaster – New neck

Here’s a bit of an oddball.  This guy’s just got hold of a great guitar, the only trouble is it’s got no neck!  Yeh, it’s a complicated story, but I’ve sorted out a new one which should do nicely… The profile is really nice and it’s got a great finish too.  The only trouble is it’s got […]

Fender Jaguar – Fret Dress and Setup

This was an interesting one.  A 1970’s Fender Jaguar that’s seen some use!  It’s actually in quite good condition, just a little worn.  I’m sure it can be recovered and turned into something special…. The body’s been rubbed down to bare wood at some point, but looks cool! One of the switches has been broken, […]

Telecaster – Bone nut and setup

What a fantastic looking guitar.  Got to love a Tele’, but a Tele with a Bigsby, even better! That black and white finish look just great. There’s some problems with the bridge though.  It’s sitting rather low, I’m not sure if it’s able to rock backwards and forwards properly?  The trouble is, if I raise it […]

Ibanez RG – Fret Dress and Setup

I generally rate Ibanez guitars, but this one’s not so good.  It’s got some very uneven frets. The only way to get it playing properly is to dress them all, to get a common level.  It’s always easiest to do that with the neck off the guitar. There we go, taped up and levelled. As […]

PRS – Rebuild

A bit of a mess this one, but with a bit of effort I think it should be recoverable.. The first fault is rather obvious, it’s just between the nut and the machine heads! To glue it back together was quite simple, the break was along the grain. The trouble is there were some large pieces […]

Telecaster rebuild

Wow, an interesting mix of old and new.  The neck is genuine Fender, but I don’t know about the rest.  The body’s probably the heaviest Telecaster I’ve ever come across. I’m going to fit the neck to a new body with a mix of old and new hardware. The first stage is to sort out the […]

Gibson SG – Fret Dress and setup

I rather fancy one of these, This one needed quite a bit of sorting out though… The string break angle over the bridge looks a little extreme to me, but I can sort that out when I get it back together and complete the setup. The frets have got some worn spots…. and are a […]

Unknown Bass – re-wire

I’ve never been sure exactly what this is, it’s a bitsa’ (bitsa’ this and bitsa’ that)  It’s not been working properly lately, the electrics have been playing up so I’m going to replace the pots’ and possibly the switch. just a direct swap, one for one. While I’m at it, I drilled out and plugged […]