This a rather unusual one, Ibanez guitars are normally a lot better than this… Having set it up to a normal standard it was choking out badly at the first fret. Turns out the first fret is really low. The only way to dial that problem out would be to put in a rather excessive […]
Category: Electric Guitar
Jazzmaster – Shielding and Pickup swap
Need to improve the sound of your guitar? How about a new set of pickups and shield the pickup cavity to stop any unwanted hum while you’re at it… The inside of the Jazzmaster must be about as complicated as they come. However, a one-for-one pickup swap should be easy. Before the new pickups go […]
Custom built “Les Paul” style guitar
A kit guitar, just needs finishing off and setting up. It does have some problems though, the frets are very uneven and so causing quite a lot of fret-buzz. The first fret in particular is rather low. That’s a big problem as it means having to take every other fret down to that level. So, […]
Hofner bridge and nut upgrade
A rather nice guitar, but with room for improvement. I’ve had this guitar in the workshop before but we couldn’t quite get the intonation properly adjusted as there wasn’t enough space to move the saddles far enough. The nut is also plastic, so while we’re upgrading the bridge, I’ll cut and fit a bone […]
Fender Stratocaster – Setup
What a beautiful piece of wood! A lovely American Strat’, just needs a setup. The neck was rather flat. so ease off on the truss-rod a little. Adjusting the neck relief will throw the action at the 12th fret, so that needs to be reset. Starting with the outside “E” strings. and then the others, […]
Strat’ – Setup
Here’s a rather nice Stratocaster, just needed a bit of a tweek on the setup. It’s got some nice pickups as well. Although for an American made Strat they got some basics wrong, the neck is on a little wonky. Since the neck will come off to adjust the truss-rod I’ll sort that out when […]
Gretsch – Full setup
Those that know me will know I love a semi-acoustic, particularly Gretsch, and these ones coming out now are fantastic. Sadly the setup on this one wasn’t great. While the strings are off is the easiest time to oil the fretboard. The heads were also just a little loose as well. So with a […]
Epiphone Firebird – High fret
Hight frets? That can be sorted quite easily… A single fret isn’t something I would normally do on it’s own but there’s always an exception to the rule. This Firebird had just one slightly high fret. As there is just one odd fret I took just a little off the top.. Enough to level them […]
Flying V – Hard Landing
They say flying is easy, it’s the landing that can bight! Well this Flying V may have flown well but it must have been a hard landing! I’m not sure what happened but the neck pocket has been split along the line of the neck. It should have been quite simple. I opened up […]
When is a Fender not a Fender?
When it’s on of these…. Perhaps not the worst guitar I’ve had on the bench but you can tell from all the details it’s not genuine.. At first glance it looks OK. Just take a look at the jack plate, and the lack of quality in the finish. The screws on the scratchplate haven’t been […]