Troubleshooting problems with acoustic guitar saddles can often be problematic. This document is really useful to help one’s understanding and appreciation of just how important it is to set up these pieces of equipment well, and also suggest ways of fixing them.
Have a read, and if you’re not sure about something, please get in touch.
http://www.fishman.com/files/advanced_undersaddle_pickup_installation.pdf
This Epiphone SG guitar required some much needed TLC in order to make the electronics work as designed.
A third-party selector switch had been installed in such a way that the pickups only worked independently of each other. This meant that the middle position did not work at all, so the choppy, funky, scooped sounds synonymous with this combination was inaccessible.
A replacement switch was purchased, and soldered back into the correct configuration – the previous switch direction was connecting the opposite pickup to the one described on the switch surround. Needless to say I corrected this as well.
The fretboard, frets and body received a thorough clean and polish, leaving the guitar looking and feeling much like it would have done in the shop, making this a very satisfying job to do!
This Epiphone SG guitar required some much needed TLC in order to make the electronics work as designed.
A third-party selector switch had been installed in such a way that the pickups only worked independently of each other. This meant that the middle position did not work at all, so the choppy, funky, scooped sounds synonymous with this combination was inaccessible.
A replacement switch was purchased, and soldered back into the correct configuration – the previous switch direction was connecting the opposite pickup to the one described on the switch surround. Needless to say I corrected this as well.
The fretboard, frets and body received a thorough clean and polish, leaving the guitar looking and feeling much like it would have done in the shop, making this a very satisfying job to do!
It’s been another busy week here at Aylesbury Guitar Repair, with an interesting mixture of jobs required to be done.
The first was a rather sorry, 30yr old Tangelwood acoustic, whose frets were in appalling condition littered with dents from strings, bizarre diagonal ‘grazing’ and one or two frets with flattened edges under the high E string. Furthermore, the bridge saddle was so low that the guitar was more or less completely choking out around the 5th fret up, and as such was more or less unplayable!
The owner just wanted a basic setup, so the guitar could be played along the length of the neck – not the most demanding of requests on the face of it, although the work to get it there was fairly substantial!
I started by levelling the neck and fret-stoning and re-crowning the frets, then polished to a high shine.
Next, I set about cutting a new bridge saddle from a bone blank, only this one was about an extra third deeper than the original to get sufficient clearance, but with a friendly action to aid playing.
Once the new strings were added I checked the string spacing, action, the intonation, and once satisfied I polished the guitar to finish the job.
This is a completely different guitar from when it arrived, and was very fun to do. Delivering a like-new instrument is always a buzz for me, and I know there will be many hours of enjoyment as a result of the work that was carried out here.
The next guitar was an Ibanez whose pickup selector switch was malfunctioning – there was a spot between positions 1 & 2 where the guitar cut-out completely, and would often get stuck there mid-performance. This was clearly unideal, so a replacement was required.
The switching for this guitar is quite complex, utilising an OTAX VLX91 switch that has double the number of contacts available to create many interesting pickup combinations when using 4-conductor cable.
A a H-H equipped guitar, the sonic options for this guitar are very varied with the following…
1. Neck wired series
2. Neck wired parallel
3. Neck and bridge together
4. Inner coils
5. Bridge wired series
With this you can get some lovely warm tones, powerful ones (courtesy of the DiMarzio Evolution pickups) and single coil out-of-phase-type scooped ones.
The wiring was a little bit tricky in places – quite precise and fiddly – but the job was done first time and the owner is super happy with a more taut switch, minus the unwanted killswitch bonus!
Another job that took place today was a setup on an incredible Overwater bass. This is a custom-made instrument that needed thicker strings to accommodate the new owner’s preferences in feel. The action needed to go too, and this was helped by the increased gauge, and then the intonation needed some adjustment.
I typically find that 5-string basses are quite challenging to get perfect on the Low B, but the Hipshot bridge on this bass was fantastic and settled really well! Highly recommended.
What was interesting on this instrument was that the fretboard was so flat – there was minimal radius in the fretboard, but it was wonderfully playable!! An all-round beautiful instrument!
So the Martin got finished beautifully – the action was so good that any electric guitar would be proud to bear it, and it really plays effortlessly.
I’ve since received some school basses that have a myriad of different issues, including missing jack sockets, missing pickguards and exposed wiring, and intonation issues. They need some serious love but I’m sure the results will make them a real joy to play in the end!
Next, this Ibanez walked in. It needed a fret stone, re-crown, setup and also needs it’s switch replacing as there’s a spot on it where the signal cuts out completely!
I started with the fret stone and re-crown so that I could batch some soldering together once I get the go-ahead on the basses.
The pits that were present in the frets came out really easily, and they polished up beautifully after lots of elbow grease! Once that was all done I set about lowering the action (came down by a 3rd so is now mega-low!) and now it’s so easy to play. Unreal, and so exciting! It’s a new guitar. One tweak of the intonation on the high E string and it was good to go!
Well today has been an interesting day of setter-up-ering!
The Freshman acoustic already had a very low action – almost too low – so alongside cleaning the fretboard of all of the gunky deposits, I raised the treble side of the bridge in order to relieve the buzzing on the neck a fraction.
The truss rod was pretty seized from a setup, so the neck had to stay as straight as it was, but this didn’t prove too problematic, and the guitar plays great – especially for an acoustic!
The Aria guitar was a very different problem, as the jack plate needed bending into shape – for some reason it was very flat in it’s profile from new – so I needed to flex the guns!
First I need to de-solder the Jack socket, and saw through the threaded section of the socket because the nut holding the Jack plate in place wouldn’t come off! Quite extreme measures, but it needed doing.
Once that was done it was a simple job to bend the plate to match the curvature of the body of the guitar, a re-solder of a replacement chassis, then a straightforward set-up from there. This was a really lovely guitar to work on, and the action is much slicker now!
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!
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! 
Today I had to diagnose and correct a problem with a guitar with a circuit with a push-pull tone pot. The middle pickup only worked when the tone pot was in the raised position, and was silent when down, so this needed some investigation.
Due to the fact everything was working in theory, the solution should be relatively simple, and required only to make sure everything was attached, primarily all connections to do with the middle pickup itself. Within moments of opening the cavity it was obvious the problem was that one of the middle pickup wires had become detached, and simply needed reconnecting. Seconds later, the guitar was in full flow once more, on every setting.
The switching is quite interesting on this guitar – it operates in a similar fashion to most HHH guitars, only all of the coils are split when the tone pot is lifted, and this provides a rich set of tonal options from powerful rock to delicate and brittle single coil tones. Check out the wiring diagram below!
Wow! Check out the refret on this… Nice and shiny and new! It’s like a brand spanking new axe, better than a factory finish! Combined with a full set-up and electrics overhaul, this little baby is ready to sing again!
