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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2015 23:57:28 GMT -6
yeah, Dane, I do that too. There are a lot of things I don't charge for that I should. But once I’m doing a job for someone. I can't help it when I see something that need attention.Most of the time it's a bad ground wire or a bad solder on a pot. Stuff like that. Too me it, makes their guitar sound better. (In most cases) once they get the guitar back and play on it, they can't believe, not just guitar plays better, but it sounds better. I just tell them cool! But as a result of me going that little extra, they tell other people to let me work on their guitars. So far I have had a lot of satisfied customers.
OK back on the Gold top. I got the bridge pickup in today.It also looks like I'll be getting my parts for my lap top in tomorrow. So with a little time I should have it back up and going, so I can post pictures of this Gold top, as I bring her back to life. So keep on checking in. I plan on starting on this Friday...
EB
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2015 16:37:41 GMT -6
OK got my lap top up and going.... Here are some before pictures of the guitar up close. As you can see someone butchered the pickups routes up pretty good. So my plan is I'm going to rout out the ruff and make it smooth and cut some mahogany to fill in. As you can also see some one at one time had put P90's in this guitar. they not only glued that piece of wood in (neck pocket) they also had nails in it. The body also shows some signs of a ruff life. It looks to me like this guitar has had 2 different stiles of Bigsby's on it. then they were taken off and someone put the stop piece. I was going to refinish this guitar. But for now I think I will leave it the way it is and get her up and playing. I have 3 guys right now that want it just like it i, but playing. So I'll get her playing and see how much these guys really want it. Here I dropped the pickups in to see what she will kind of look like after the pickups are in. I am hopping that I can get started on the rebuild this weekend. I didn't get too today. (Friday) I have been working on other guitars. They took up most of my time today. EB
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Post by dnic on Mar 13, 2015 20:39:08 GMT -6
Eddie it looks like it already had P90s in it. I didn't realize. You would have to do a lot of work to make buckers work in there.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2015 22:24:58 GMT -6
Yes I know. But the person that put the P90's in it did a butchered up job of getting the P90's in it. The Mini humbucker is what came in the guitar. So I have them, so now I'm going to put them in the guitar. Like I was saying I have a few people interested in it with the original pickups in it. so I am hoping that after the hard work of putting it back the way it was, that it will pay off in the long run. the picture really don't show how someone took what looks like a screw driver and beat the wood out in the routs. Plus the P90's really don't fit the routed hole for the Mini pickups. the one thing I do not like about the original pickups are the that the ring and cover for the pickups are one peace. Not like a humbucker ring.
To me it also looks like someone has mounted more than one kind of pickup in this guitar. I would really like to know how someone could take a cool guitar like this (and it was not the cheap when new) and butcher it up like this. But I also and still say the same thing about cars. Eb
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2015 23:49:50 GMT -6
Here is a picture I found on eBay of how this guitar looked at one time. The guitar I have shows signs of that tail piece was on it at one time, but then someone also had what looks like two different Bigsby's on it. Looks like who ever waned this guitar at one time could never make up their minds of how the wanted the guitar to look like or play like. Eb
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Post by GuitarAttack Forum on Mar 14, 2015 7:14:53 GMT -6
Here is a picture I found on eBay of how this guitar looked at one time. Looks like who ever owned this guitar at one time could never make up their minds on how they wanted the guitar to look like or play like. Eb I'm glad that never happens to anyone around here! Lol John
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2015 10:26:28 GMT -6
HA! HA! John, But at least most of the guitars we are messing with are Kit guitars, or some of our own builds. I can see changing out pickup's and or even tuners. but this poor old guitar that I am working has gone through a lot. Well, now I'm back on the quest of finding a B7 Bigsby for it. I like the look of it. But they are just a little pricy... The B7 come up from where the strap button is on to the top. I think it has a better look the the one that screws down to the top and is short. EB
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2015 17:49:39 GMT -6
Well, I got the gold top up and playing. Sorry I did not get any pictures of fixing the pickup rout's. But what I did was I, routed out the botched up routs and made them nice a smooth. I then cut out some mahogany to fill back in what was taken out. Took my time and sanded and fit the new wood until it fit really nice. I let the repair dry (after gluing in) over night. The next day I put in the pickups. I used some strips of foam I use on my tube amps. It soft. It acts like springs.So I put that under the pickup mount. I then ahd to put the wires through the body for the 3 way switch, and pickups. Once I had the pickups mounted I wired her up, put new strings on her, set the action, checked the intonation, I had to flip two of the saddles on the bridge to get them to come in to tune. The action on this a really low. The feel of the neck is like a Les Paul with wise, but thinner than a Les Paul. So it has a good feel and like I said the action is so low that it take no effort to play the guitar. I really don't know if I like the sound of the guitar. But it is what it is. I'll post pictures later on of the finished guitar. The nice thing on this is I didn't have to level the frets at all, or adjust the nut. Someone had done that right at one time on the guitar. Even the fret ends are smooth.
EB
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Post by dnic on Mar 17, 2015 9:08:27 GMT -6
It's a good feeling when you clean up someone else's mess.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2015 10:13:44 GMT -6
Yes it does. It looks so much better. One of the things I did was I put in full size 500 k pots. I took out what someone else did. The solder on the old ones were really bad. It's kind of like buying an old hot rod to find out the person that had it before you didn't know how to weld. That is what it's like when I get under the hood of a guitar and see how someone messed it all up. But I guess it gives me something to do. EB
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 19:06:16 GMT -6
Well, today, I sold this guitar. Didn't think I would but a guy came by and had to have it. He gave me a guitar and some cash for this one. So I did the deal. I haven't had a chance to get any pictures of it yet. But I will before the guy comes and picks it up. I have his guitar he traded in on this, but he will bring me the money By the weekend. Until then I keep the gold top. I did not realise that this guitar would be so popular... I had 4 guys wanting this guitar. I was going to keep it for myself, But after the offers started to come in...Well, I just had to let her go.
So now I am back to looking for a EPI LP gold top.
EB
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2015 14:21:01 GMT -6
OK here are some pictures of how she looks now. Went ahead and put the "G" knobs back on it. The are new. If I would have kept the guitar I think I would take off some of the shine off them so it would look more like the guitar. I also put on the type of strap buttons that came on the guitar. I might order some of these for one of my future builds. If I ever do another one. The one thing I did not get for it was the switch knob that came on the guitar. When I got this guitar it was missing the back switch control plate. I had this one (LP) I had to make it fit but it does the job. The rebuild went pretty good. The guitar plays and sounds great! The guy that bought it love the natural relic look. He told me he was glad I didn't do a refinish on the guitar. He tried out 3 guitars I had and this one was singing to him.... EB
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Post by dnic on Mar 21, 2015 9:55:14 GMT -6
Very cool, always nice when your client love the guitar.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2015 10:45:40 GMT -6
Dane, it seems I can sell these kind of guitars faster and I make a little money on them, than I can building my customs. This guitar I really didn't have that much into it. I traded a set of EPI pickups for it. Still had the cost of the pickups, knobs, and the strap buttons, plus the work I had to do to it so that i could put the pickups back in it. But I still made money on this one. Wish I could do that all the time, It's an easier way to make money on guitars, over building them. It was really fun to hunt for the parts and do the rebuild. I am glad the guy that bought it lived it just the way she is... EB
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Post by dnic on Mar 21, 2015 13:46:08 GMT -6
I've said this before but, I have made a lot more $ doing repairs than building one off guitars. But I'm still building them because I love doing it. I like trying new design ideas and pups and electronic configurations and woods. Plus I'm planning on setting up a booth at our local 4th of July walk/run thing our town does every year. Just to see if I get any bites. Don't know what that costs yet so it could go nowhere. Anyway gotta have some inventory to display.
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