Not the greatest of guitars, but with a bit of work this one is going to something special!I I’ve been given almost a free hand to do whatever I want so I’m looking forward to producing something different.

The first thing it needs is a god clean.

The next step is to sort out the fretboard.  The frets are a little worn and uneven so I levelled and polished them up.Next the body.  A good clean and remove the old pickups and electrics.I’ve gone for Seymour Duncans, to give it a bit of an edge.  Since I’ replacing the vol and tone controls I’ve used Push-Push switched pots so each of the humbuckers can be coil tapped, the vol pot switches the neck pickup and the tone the bridge pickup.  I’ve also added a second 3 position switch to control the middle pickup, on-off-reverse phase thus giving a highly flexible combination of pickup selections.I fitted new bridge saddles since one was missing.With new strings fitted I now need to set it up fully, starting with the neck set.It needed just a small tweek on the truss-rod.The bridge saddles were much too high, being new they were never going to be properly set right out of the box.Starting with the outside strings…and then the other 4 to match the curve of the fretboard.

Next the action height at the first fret.  Again this was never going to be right as I’ve fitted a new bone nut.

With the correct width file I just cut the slots a little deeper to lower the action at the first fret.

With the strings at tension I also noticed that the tremolo block was sitting flat on the body…

so I loosened off the springs in the back.  Now it’ll bend notes up as well as down.      With all that done I gave the pickup heights a small adjustment, to make sure the balance between bass and treble is OK as well as the relative volumes, particularly important since there is only one volume control.

With all that done it’s ready to rock again.  Better than it ever was…A comment from the owner:

“I thought i’d drop you an email to say a massive thank you for the work on the two guitars I sent to you.

The Washburn looks and plays like a new guitar!!! Although I wanted to restore it for sentimental reasons (it was indeed my first guitar) it has turned out better than expected. Thank you for keeping me updated and it was a pleasure to give you freedom to do as you saw best!!

Anyway, thanks for your help and the top notch work carried out. I know where to pass anyone who wants any guitar work in the future!!!”