Fender USA Deluxe Jazz Bass

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

This was a lovely instrument to start the day with! She just needed a little attention to bring the action down a touch to make her easier to play.

The truss was already pretty taut, so straightening the neck further was tricky and I was naturally reluctant to push my luck!

Despite still having a some curvature (probably the right amount to be fair!) I set about lowering the bridge saddles.

Overall everything was able to come down by about a third, meaning there should be a marked difference in the feel of the bass when the player gets it back. I’m excited to see what they think!

Once the intonation was done, she got a good polishing and then back into the case to await collection. Done, done, onto the next one!

Reverse V Gauge Change, Jazz Bass and Tele Set-Ups

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

Have you ever seen one of these before? This is a Gibson Reverse V guitar, which was released in very limited number in 2008, and the owner wanted the strings changed up from 10’s to 11’s.

It was an interesting guitar to work on, although a little unwieldy as it pivoted on the bridge end of the body. Great instrument, though!

Once that was done it was onto setting up a Fender P Bass – nice and straight forward, and cleaned up really nicely – and a Telecaster. Both of these were left-handed instruments.

The Tele ended up needing an extra bit of attention since the high E and B strings were ‘fizzing’ in the nut, but after a little attention and fettling they were good as gold again! What will come through the door next?

Gibson Les Paul Gold Top String Gauge Change

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

How classy is this guitar? I love the gold too finish on these guitars… So beautiful!

The client wanted to take this up from 10’s to 11’s, and originally had a set of Elixir strings, with the new ones being Ernie Ball Power Slinky.

During the process I stripped and polished the hardware on the guitar, which also enabled me to get under the pickguard – it’s like a new guitar!

Stringing this baby up was a real joy! The action is set super low, but she sings! The clean sound is lush on this… Mustn’t covet!

Freshman Acoustic and Aria Electric Setups

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

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!

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!

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!

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!

Ibanez GMC Wiring Troubleshoot

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

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!