What a great guitar! A friend of mine has been working on an Epiphone Les Paul. He’s done some fantastic work on the finish. It’s a gorgeous satin finish with just enough of the natural wood showing through. Pity, but the photographs don’t really do it justice! I was called in at the last minute […]
Nothing particularly odd about this one. A fairly standard fret dress to even out a few playing problems. and a nice bone nut. It’s got a lovely colour, I don’t think I’ve seen one like that before. I rather like the poker chip, I’ve never seen one of these either!! For anything else I can […]
Nice looking guitar, just not playing right. The problem is with a couple of rather uneven frets. Unless they’re sorted out it’s never going to play well. With the strings off and the neck levelled it’s just a case of grinding the frets down to the lowest common point. You can see where the 4th, […]
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. […]
I’m often asked what’s the best way to improve an average guitar? The first thing to consider is do you want to improve the sound it makes or the way it feels to play? The first is easy, strip out the pickups and fit something special, Bare Knuckle are probably my favourite, and their choices are […]
It’s a sad reflection that some guitars are just not as good as they really should be. This is a lovely alternative to it’s Gibson cousin but still should be better. A little bit of attention to detail though and it’ll be better than the Gibson… The action at the 1st fret is a little […]
The first step is to check the amount of curve in the neck. It should bend up slightly and is measured half way along the neck using a notched straight edge and a feeler gauge. The tension in the strings pulls the head up, increasing the curve. This tension is balanced against the truss-rod which […]
Been a quiet week, with nothing of real interest. A couple of fret-dressings. The last one a rather nice Epiphone Les Paul The fret-dress was a routine job, as was the setup.. The neck, unusually had very little set in it… The owner wants a fairly low action but I think it needs a little more […]
Quite a simple update. The chap has an Epiphone Les Paul that didn’t quite sound right and so asked me to fit a pair of Gibson pickups. I like jobs like that, nice and easy, old ones out news ones in. Before… After…. (can you tell the difference?) Well I guess you have to hear it. […]