From the Home of Tone bench
Getting the most out of factory pickups; MIM Fender Classic Series 50s Strat
In this article I'm going to share some of the ways I decide on wiring specs, to help achieve a customers goal for their guitar's tone. As well as touch on some of the various steps I take when re-wiring a Fender Stratocaster. The specific guitar in question here was a lovely Classic Series 50s Stratocaster. A made in Mexico model which I'm always impressed by each time I get to see/play/work on. I've owned a couple of the slightly later variant of these, the Classic Player, which were great guitars but I've always liked both the Classic Series and Player models. Great vintage correct styling and build quality in my opinion is usually really nice on this era MIM, would happily own one again!
Left handed 'Delonge' conversion!
Well this was a fun one! For quite some time now, I have been offering a pre-wired volume pot kit, made to the same specs as what was installed on the original 2000/2001 Fender MIM Tom Delonge signature Strats, (having worked on an original to make reference of it's treble bleed specs etc) for both right handed and left handed players to either restore originals or make their own delonge projects. These have proved to be really popular, and Tom contacted me as a result of seeing these kits to 'convert' his beloved Custom Shop LH Strat so he could easily swap loaded pickguards over for when he's in the mood to blast out some pop punk. As this was a factory single coil equipped strat, it did require some routing work, so I stripped all the existing hardware and planned out the routing.
Chris' Tele partscaster project
Kind supporter of the Home of Tone, Chris kindly asked me to be a part of his Telecaster parts build which was a pleasure indeed after seeing the nice parts he had compiled for it. This has been a fairly long term project for him, taking his time to carefully consider and decide upon the specs to hopefully end up at a Tele that'll suit his requirements, and I think he did a great job with that. A body from Guitarbuild.co.uk, finished beautifully in a lacquer checked Olympic White by the great Paul at Retro169. No relic work on it, so it had a fresh look but plenty of character thanks to the generous checking. The body being paired with a new, genuine Fender Road Worn 50s Tele neck, a selection of aged hardware from Fender, Gotoh, Kluson and Charles Guitars, and pickups by Bare Knuckle. I knew this one would be a pleasure to build, when you're presented with nice quality parts it's reassuring you'll end up with a great guitar. So let's dive in!
Squier Bass VI
This week saw me finish up some TLC work on a lovely Squier Bass VI reissue. It had the factory installed string set on it, along with a rather high action and overall lackluster playing experience. Upon inspection I noted how low the bridge was sat against the pickguard, not a great sign when the action was on the high side. This hints that the instrument would benefit from an increased neck break angle, something that a shim at the heel of the neck would help achieve. So after stripping things down, carrying out some spot levelling on the frets, polishing those up and conditioning the fretboard. I removed the neck and made a neck heel shim from wood veneer and got it all back together ready to string up with the specially developed 'Balanced Medium' Stringjoy Bass VI string set.
A partscaster build for Ryan
This build/project was from a few weeks back now and I've been sitting on the photos waiting for a chance to pop them in a write up here on the workshop blog. Finally made it!
Ryan kindly asked me to be part of his partscaster project, and I had a wicked time going through the ideas, remaining parts needed and progressing through the build. I was provided with a Guitar Build body, painted beautifully by Paul at Retro169, in a NOS lacquer checked Shell Pink body, a Hosco neck which Ryan had done a lovely job on oil finishing himself. Oil City pickups. A pickguard, some control knobs and other hardware bits from Charles Guitars, and I supplied the Gotoh tuners, Gotoh bridge, some other items here and there like jack plate, strap buttons, screws etc. And I of course made the loaded pickguard! Here's some photos from the process, where I had to get everything aligned, carry out a fret level, radius, crown and polish, rolled the fretboard edge, full assembly and setup. It turned out great and sounded beautiful, especially when Ryan played it on collection!
Ryan kindly asked me to be part of his partscaster project, and I had a wicked time going through the ideas, remaining parts needed and progressing through the build. I was provided with a Guitar Build body, painted beautifully by Paul at Retro169, in a NOS lacquer checked Shell Pink body, a Hosco neck which Ryan had done a lovely job on oil finishing himself. Oil City pickups. A pickguard, some control knobs and other hardware bits from Charles Guitars, and I supplied the Gotoh tuners, Gotoh bridge, some other items here and there like jack plate, strap buttons, screws etc. And I of course made the loaded pickguard! Here's some photos from the process, where I had to get everything aligned, carry out a fret level, radius, crown and polish, rolled the fretboard edge, full assembly and setup. It turned out great and sounded beautiful, especially when Ryan played it on collection!
Paul's Custom Coodercaster
Paul kindly brought in his custom made Coodercaster for me to try and improve it's general play-ability. A lovely spec build, featuring a custom colour/finish, amazing pickguard, set of Mojo Pickups (gold foil and lap steel models) and a Duesenberg bridge w/G & B benders. I can however see why he felt like he was battling with it as the action was very high and inconsistent. Upon initial inspection I noticed that the neck wasn't seated very well in the neck pocket, with a gap at the outer edge resulting in a rather interesting neck break angle. Also, the bridge saddles were pretty inconsistent in terms of their individual heights and how well that matched up with it's 7.25" radius fingerboard. Ultimately though, none of this matters as it would all be something I'd be refining during the setup process.
Chris' Les Paul project
This has been a lovely project to be a part of for it's owner Chris. He fairly recently took ownership of this '90s Gibson Les Paul Standard burst, but it was rather sorry for itself. A too low cut top nut, insanely low action and 8 gauge strings left the playing experience, to put it bluntly, awful. Chris had decided it was worth saving though, and I agree, as even through those issues you could tell it was a resonant example. He had purchased a Faber tune-o-matic and a pair of 'Wizz' un-potted PAF humbuckers for it. So I was set with the task of fitting the pickups, installing one of my Signature Series 50s style wiring kits (pots section only), re-wiring the original switch and jack with some Gavitt 22awg traditional braided 2 conductor wire, removing the plastic top nut and replacing with an in house made unbleached bone nut and then setting it up on Stringjoy Broadway pure nickel 10 gauge strings. All went really well and I'm blown away by the results, it plays beautifully and is one of the most resonant LPs I've played in a long time. Here's some pics of the progress and the final beauty shots.
Building a custom hardtail Strat body
I wanted to feature something a little different to the usual content on the blog, so have decided to document my process of making a guitar body. I'll may follow on with more like this if it's of interest! Within this article I'll be making a hardtail Strat body for a project, there are of course some superb pre-made bodies available these days, including custom specs but when you've got a workshop full of tools they need to be put to use don't they! So let's get busy and I suspect as a result the final product will be more meaningful too. I have a few spec ideas that will make this body a little unique, something that has been bouncing around my head for a while so will be nice to bring it to life.
2012 Gibson Double Cut for new wiring and nut
I have neglected my workshop blog a little the past few weeks, apologies there. So let's make up for it with a cool job in this week. Steve dropped off his very cool 2012 Gibson Billy Joe signature Les Paul Double Cut for a new wiring harness and new bone nut. This one has been gigged a lot, and Steve took it on from it's original owner opting to give it some Johnny Thunders vibes!
A partscaster build for Nik
Nik first reached out to me to inquire about some pickups and wiring for a partscaster project he was starting. Cut a long story short, he kindly opted for a loaded pickguard from myself, including the awesome McNelly 'S-Bar' hybrid strat pickup design, wired to a 7-way Strat harness and all mounted to a nice pearloid pickguard w/parchment plastics to soften the colours a little. Whilst we waited for the pickups to be made and arrive, we discussed his project further and he kindly asked me to assemble the whole guitar when everything was ready.
Descendant Vibrato install on a nice Vintera Jazzmaster
I had the pleasure of installing a Descendant vibrato unit on a really nice Jazzmaster earlier this week. It had the factory Mexico spec Fender vibrato, and Karl opted to give the Descendant upgrade a go. I have covered installation of these on my YouTube channel and main blog before, so I won't show those steps in specific detail again but will chat through a little about the approach. I've gotten pretty used to installing these and can usually eyeball the guitar as is, to see whether it'll be best with 1 or 2 depth shims installed. If the bridge sits pretty high in the thimbles therefore hinting that the neck break angle is fairly steep, then I find you can use two shims. If the neck break angle is shallow meaning the bridge sits pretty low in the body/thimbles, then two shims may be too steep of an angle so only one shim will be best/optimal.
A little TLC for a Miguel Malo Classical
Had a fun day working on a really nice nylon string guitar, courtesy of my Dad! His 20 year old Miguel Malo classical guitar needed a little TLC and refinement after many hours of use. Although in the grand scheme of things, it is in great condition, Dad's pretty meticulous to say the least. But understandably after years of regular use, some things could do with a little care and attention.