Gibson Les Paul Finished

With the cleanup finished all that’s needed now is to put it all back together and set it up.  First then the curve in the neck. It had a little too much of a bend so I tightened the truss rod a little… I had a look at the action at the 1st fret, it’s […]

Jazzmaster Build – 4th update

While I’m waiting for the last couple of parts I fitted the strap buttons.  Carefully marking the centreline… I thought that was all I could do today until the postman arrived.  Again I marked out the centreline and screw holes, making sure everything is square.  Drill the holes……. and screw it in place… Just the pickups […]

Jazzmaster Build – 1st Update

Started on the Jazzmaster today.  My first intention was to have a look at how the neck fitted, but it’s going to need quite a bit of work. Not fitting very well, or at all actually.  I don’t want to force it or I’ll damage the body and neck. To make things a little more […]

Telecaster Custom – Rebuild final update

The final stage, fit the strings and a setup, should be easy, not with this one…. more problems…. Starting with the neck set, a little large…. so a quick turn of the truss-rod.  So far so good. The action at the first fret is a little high…….. so I cut each nut slot down a […]

USA Fender Telecaster Tuning problems

A really nice Tele’ but the owner’s unhappy as it won’t stay in tune. There is always the problem with the standard Tele’ bridge.  The Intonation is always a compromise so I’m going to change them for a compensated set…   With the strings off I’ve had a good look at the machine heads.  They […]

US Stratocaster Setup

Had a rather nice US Stratocaster on the bench today.  Nothing major, just a clean and setup. I rather like the body, nice paint finish over a very nice piece of wood…. The fretboard was a little grubby… A quick rub down with some steel wool will remove that and polish the frets at the same time.  […]

Les Paul# Copy

I’ve not had one of these Chinese copies before.  I’m all for cheaper copies and cheaper lines.  There’s nothing wrong with Squire, I’ve got an Electromatic Gretsch myself and I even built a “Rickenfaker” but I don’t like labelling things and pretending they are something they are not. However one of my customers took a punt on this […]

When is a speedloader really slow?

The answer is, “When you can’t get the strings anymore”. It’s a great idea, you can change strings in seconds, just hook the string in at the nut and clip the bottom end on the bridge.. It was a fairly simple conversion,  Change the nut for a locking one… and install a set of machine […]

Fender Squire – Fret-dress and new heads

A fairly routine job.  Take a standard Squire Stratocaster and those special touches which will make it so much better.  The biggest setback to a really good playing action are the slightly uneven frets. They are a little worn as well so a fret dress will sort out both problems. The other problem lies in the machine heads.  […]

5 String Telecaster

  The first thing I did was to have a good look at the Guitar.  Since the owner wants a low action the question is how accurately are the frets set, any high frets will cause buzzing when the action is lowered.  I’m pleased to say it’s pretty good so I won’t need any work […]