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!
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!
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!
