Fender Stratocaster – Custom build

A collection of bits and pieces, put together should make a nice guitar… To make it a really great guitar, rather than just an average one I levelled the frets.  Firstly making sure the neck is level.With it nice and flat, grind down the fret tops to a common level….Once levelled each fret needs to […]

Tanglewood Chicago – Service and setup

What a lovely guitar.  I’m not sure if it’s been under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe but it’s not been played for ages and needed a good cleanup and service.The electrics were the biggest problem, scratchy and crackling at best, and plain just not working at worst.To be sure I pulled […]

#Telecaster – Setup and service

A little unusual this one, not the standard Tele’.  It had  few minor problems, nothing too difficult… The first one was a couple of stripped out screws.  It’s easy to do, in this case it’s the screws from the control plate.  I drilled out the old hole and glued in a couple of wooden plugs… Once […]

Epiphone ES339 – Fret dress and setup

A great looking guitar, sadly not playing as well as it should.  In fact they made a bit of a mess of this one, the frets are all over the place..The 11th was the highest but they were all very uneven.  You’d like to think a new guitar would be better than that but, sadly, […]

Richie Sambora Stratocaster

Nice guitar but It’s got some problems.  Probably been there from new, but now I’m going to put it all right… The first problem is the Intonation.  No matter what the owner did it just didn’t sound right all the way up and down the neck.Looking at the nut the slot for the bass E […]

Jackson Custom-build

A recovery of something just about fit for the bin.  A bit of a mess really, but I thought I’d see what I could come up with…. Before:  in need of quite a lot of work… The fretboard was coming off so I helped it along it’s way.  Next I drilled out the old fret […]

Gibson ES 335 – Bone Nut

I Love these guitars.  Their Quality control isn’t great, but there’s nothing that can’t be fixed.  A bone nut will help the sustain and keep it in tune… I’m going to use a large blank….This one is already nice and square which saves a little work.It’s a little thick mind you, so I’ll need to […]

Telecaster Build

I’ve just been given a mixed bag of bits, some old some new, to put together…. I think there’s a very nice Telecaster in there somewhere!  But where to start?How about at the top, the machine heads.  First the guides.. they’re rather tight so rather than hammer them in and risk damaging them I pressed them […]

Epiphone Les-Paul – Fret dress and Nut

A nice little guitar.  The trouble is they’re built to a budged, seemingly without much care.  However I’m going to make this one play really nicely.  While I’m at it I’ve been asked to fit a TUSQ nut.  Not something I like to be honest, but I’ll stick it on and see how it works.  […]

Custom Build

An interesting little one, finishing of a project.  Most of the hard work has been done, and they’ve made a good job of it, but I’ve been asked for a little help with the last little bit to get it playing properly… The first thing, the wiring.  A couple of dry joints just needed sorting out…..With the […]