Gibson Les Paul Standard – Fret Stone and Electrics Troubleshoot

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

There seems to be lots of lovely Gibson Les Pauls around here! This particular one is a left hander, in ebony, and the condition was such that it needed quite a deal of love and tidying up.

The fret wire came to me severely pitted, and it looked like it would be borderline whether this would be a re-fret or whether a simple fret stone/re-crown would suffice.

Having seen how little fret height you can get away with on a Les Paul, I went ahead with the fret stone option, and it came out really well. There’s a lot more life yet in these frets, and after some careful work, this guitar was back to playable!

The action was so low when it arrived, that the strings were completely choking on the upper frets, however that has been rectified and there is a consistent feel along the length of the neck.

One other problem that needed fixing was a faulty tone control. Upon inspection this turned out to be a broken leg from the capacitor joining the bridge volume pot to the tone pot. It was an easy job to switch it out, and now the LP has its full compliment of controls working again!

A final clean and polish finished this baby off, and she was gratefully received!

Ibanez Set-up

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

Just a quick post about an ibanez guitar in need of some love!

The nut was sitting white high on top of a couple of brass shims, and upon removal the action over the lower frets was much better.

I was also able to tweak the truss rod to allow a little more bow in the neck, then take the bridge down by a fraction, and now she’s playing super-slick! Oooh yeah!

Classical Bridge Saddle and Nut Replacement

Posted on November 27, 2014 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

Today I completed a bridge and nut replacement on a classical guitar. The saddle in particular needed some work to become thin enough to match the slot on the bridge, but she was there after a little sanding and coaxing.

With a fresh set of strings, a polish and tune up she’s ready to go!

Yamaha Pacifica Jack Sevice

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

This was a nice and quick turnaround – just a simple re-solder of the jack socket connections. First I used a solder pump to remove the old stuff, and stripped, twisted and tinned the new bare wire before soldering it in position through the contact. A quick retune and away she goes!

Tanglewood Acoustic Re-crown and Set-up

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

Tonight I worked on a Tangelwood acoustic which was in need of some love. Having already re-glued the headstock, it was now time to move on to get this guitar back to playing ways!

There was a great deal of fret wear down the lower end of the guitar so I needed to do some heavier work down there, and re-profile the rest of the fret work accordingly.

Once the frets were levelled, I polished them up to a high shine, and began work on setting the guitar up.

I lowered the height of the nut a fraction to make the feel a bit lighter down in the open position, and then worked to bring the bridge saddle down a touch to get a lower action across the rest of the neck.

New machine heads are now fitted, and with fresh strings she’s now playing much better, and looks great after the thorough polish I gave the guitar!

Les Paul Classic Overhaul

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

Today I worked on a beautiful Gibson Les Paul Classic that needed a bit of attention. There wasn’t anything massively wrong with the instrument, but it just needed some elbow grease in a few areas.

Much of the hardware was heavily tarnished and lacked the lustre of a new instrument. Similarly, the fret wire was dull and starting to corrode in a couple of places, and there was also a little rust on a few of the pickup pole pieces.

To remedy this I used some metal polish along with my Dremel multi tool, and the hardware came up a treat!

The frets were fairly tidy in terms of wear, so I just needed to bring them up to a vibrant shine as above, and they now look great!

To finish I fitted new strings, adjusted the intonation and the pickup heights for an even response.

The fair amount of weight to the guitar, and 60’s neck carve really suited the instrument, and it sounded wonderful through my Marshall during testing.

Before and after…

Gibson Les Paul Nut Slots

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

A recent guitar I did some work on was a lovely Gibson Les Paul that needed a little attention to the nut slots. The nut had been replaced elsewhere and the new slots were sitting a bit high, meaning fretting at the lower frets was slightly harder work than in other areas of the guitar. Tuning stability would be challenged as well, had they remained.

So, I was able to maintain the action of the guitar as well as cut the slots a fraction deeper to remedy the aforementioned problems. This can be a tricky job to do as you don’t really want to make any errors! Cutting too deep won’t do, so I was checking each time I used my file to take a little more out. Also, it was necessary to pay attention to the angle behind the nut which, if too shallow, would possibly make the string ‘fizz’, giving an undesirable sound and compromising sustain and overall enjoyment of the instrument.

This particular guitar was really special. It has been played a great deal and bears the marks you’d expect – worn finish under the forearm, just under the bridge pickup, and a healthy dose of buckle rash. But what this guitar lacks in ‘mintness’ it makes up for in swathes with charisma and character. It resonated beautifully, and was so easy to play, it was fantastic. A real pleasure to work on it.

So it seems so far so good with the nut slots and depth, and the client seems happy with the adjusted intonation, too.

Since this one, a couple of similar jobs have come in, and it’s exciting to see the variety of instruments that are around! I look forward to updating you all soon!

Replacing Reverb Tanks and Finishing the SG

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

Today has been another interesting day in the workshop! So far I’ve replaced a couple of reverb tanks in a couple of amps, and I’ve been able to finish the SG off.

I got the replacement tanks from Hot Rox Uk, and the service was quick and efficient. They’re competitive on pricing so it was a good experience dealing with them.

The tanks are direct replacements for a Fender Blues Junior and a Mesa Boogie Lonestar Special, although the later tank is made by TAD rather than Belton/Accutronics, which is the brand you’re most likely to find in many Marshall, Mesa and Fender Amps and many more besides.

There are notable differences in the construction of both tanks – the Belton appears to be more expensive to manufacture, so we’ll have to see if it translates to a better tone/experience with the customer.

The SG client opted to get a new set of Gibson Classic ’57 and Classic + ’57 pickups with shiny chrome covers. These differ only slightly from the previous pickups, but sound great now that they’re in the guitar. They sound bright to my ears, in comparison with ’57s in a Les Paul I’ve got, but still lovely and versatile and definitely better than the stock pickups these guitars come with. It’s been a real treat to work on this guitar, and I look forward to the next one!

General Electric Repairs – cables and pedals

Posted on September 13, 2014 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

Today I dedicated some time to repairing a couple of items that have fallen foul through wear and tear, namely a couple of cables and the battery clip on a wah wah pedal.

These were quick and easy jobs which required a little thought, but were very satisfying, especially to bring everything back in to use and give it all a new lease of life, rather than going to the guitar shop in the sky!

The wah pedal is a Morley Bad Horise 2, and the stick battery clip is of the soft plastic variety, and due to the battery’s being progressively attached to the clip, it eventually meant the plastic tore and exposed the insides and connections. This obviously wouldn’t do, so a solid clip was the replacement.

The PCB was attached fairly securely to the chassis, so the new clip was soldered/spliced onto the former’s cables so as to avoid any damage. Heat shrink tuning was used to cover and protect the joins, and the job’s a good’un!

A couple of cables have been lying around for a while, and both simply needed one of their inner connections reconnecting and re-soldered. In one case I soldered an extension in order to create a suitable connection, and bring the cable back to life! All went well, and they will no doubt see some use in forthcoming performances!

Gibson SG Pickup Removal

Posted on September 10, 2014 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

A customer has brought me their trusty Gibson SG standard to remove the pickups in readiness for some replacements that they’re sourcing.

The pickups to come out of the guitar are Gibson’s own Classic ’57’s, and these ones in particular were originally in a Custom Shop Historic Les Paul, hence the ageing on them.

These are beautiful-sounding pickups, rich in warmth and pristine clarity. They sound fabulous. I can’t wait to see what goes in in their place! Stay tuned!