There are a lot of after-market pickups out there which can represent a good upgrade. While I was at that with this guitar the owner also wanted me to remove the modern printed circuit board and replace it with traditional potentiometers and capacitors, he felt they would be more reliable in the long run. The […]
Category: General
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 […]
Taylor Setup
Taylor Setup Not something I would expect to have to do, a setup on a top end Taylor. A guitar setup is quite a personal thing though, so the standard factory setings may not suit everyone. The owner just wanted a slightly lower action. The neck had just a little more relief than I would […]
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 […]
Fender Strat – Not holding tune
This really is a beautiful guitar. It’s been through my workshop before but it’s not behaving as well as you would like with a guitar at this level. It doesn’t seem to want to hold it’s tuning very well. I think it’s the usual problem but the owner assures me that he never uses the […]
Gibson Les Paul G-Force Autotuner Upgrade
Well I said I’d live with the Tronical Autotuners for a while and see how I get on with them. They seem to work OK, they can tune the guitar, not as accurately as my Peterson rack tuner mind you, but close enough for Rock N’ Roll! It seems to hold it’s tune, perhaps helped […]
How do you deal with sharp fret ends?
How do you deal with sharp fret ends? There are a couple of reasons why your fret ends can seem sharp making the guitar hard and painful to play. The guitar was just badly made in the first place… The wood has dried out and shrunk a little, so leaving the fret ends poking out. […]
How do you adjust a Truss-Rod at the heel of a Fender Neck?
How do you adjust a truss-rod when the screw is on the heel of the neck. The usual way is to take the neck off, adjust it, put it back, check it and repeat! Of course the other way is to take the neck off and bolt it on a neck jig, fit it with […]
PRS – Fret Dress and Setup
I can’t say I’ve ever really been a fan of PRS Guitars, they’re normally better than this one though. This one has some rather uneven frets so it’s never going to play well as it is. A fret-dress and a setup will sort that lot out though. Using a Fret Rocker over 3 frets there […]
What are the best replacement pickups?
A question I often get asked: What are the best replacement guitar pickups available to upgrade my Guitar? Quite simple: Radioshop Pickups. They make a fantastic range of hand wound pickups and come right at the top of my list of upgrades… I’ve just fitted a pair of P90s to an Epiphone Casino. Rather than […]