A bit of a battered Hohner, in need of a little TLC……

The owner wants some new pickups fitting for a start, these pickups’ll sound fantastic but I fear it’ll need a little more than that…

I think it’s a bit of a waste to fit a great set of pickups like that but leave the old cheap pots’…..

So out with the old and re-wire it with nice new CTS pots.  It does mean a little extra work, the old cheap pots have 6mm shafts but CTS pots are 1/4 inch…..

so I need to just tease the holes out a little.

That’s the new wiring….

Including a new switch…

While I was sorting out the wiring I also added an earth wire for the bridge (missing from the original).

There’s also another problem with swapping to CTS pots, since the shafts are larger they also have 24 splines rather than 18 so the old control knobs won’t fit, so a new set’s needed…

With that done it should sound fantastic.  Before I do any more I gave the fretboard a good clean….

and oil…

Next the missing nut.  A little odd, belt and braces, a standard nut and a locking one?

It needs a new nut to replace the missing part otherwise the intonation will be way out.  The slot was a bit of a mess so off with the locking one to clear the way…

and tidy up the nut slot…

to make sure it’s square and flat.

Ready for a new nut.

Cutting a new one from a bone blank…

It’s easier to copy the existing nut but since it’s missing I shaped the top to match the fretboard radius.

With no existing nut to copy I marked up where I want the edges of the “E” strings to be.

and then where the other strings should be…

With the strings back on all it needs is a setup.  I say all but this one was way off, I’ve no idea how it played before, badly I should think!

To start with the neck had way too much curve…

So tighten up the truss-rod.

The action was rather high…

so I dropped the bridge saddles down a little, starting with the “E” strings…

followed by the others, matching the radius of the fretboard.

Back to that new nut.  The action was a little high, always safer to start that way.

and cut each slot down to the required depth.

Then the intonation, which was miles out.

Lastly a look at the pickup heights.  It’s just a starting point, you need to plug it in and listen to it.  The Dimebucker is probably the highest output pickups I’ve come across.  I’ve got a couple in one of my guitars and they’re fantastic!

There it goes.  ready for action….

For other stuff I’ve done check out www.guitar-geroge.co.uk