On the bench: An ongoing thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Music&Chaos
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On the bench:

-Partscaster Tele.

Work:

-Clean and setup.

-New wiring.

-Installed new neck and bridge pickups.

-Installed new pots.

-Filed/shaped metal control plate to mount new pots.

-Installed new cap.

-Installed new output jack.

-Filled incorrect hole for mounting plate and drilled new one.

-High fret seated and spot leveled, crowned and polished to relieve buzzing issue.

-Pots are 500k, so I wired a 470 resistor for the single coil in the neck so it seems closer to 250k.

-Will intonate and call it done.

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On the bench:

Gibson Les Paul Studio Plus

-Clean and setup.

-New MojoTone toggle switch.

-All new wiring inside.

-New switchcraft output jack.

-New CTS 525k pots.

-50s wiring scheme.

-.015 Vitamin T cap for the neck.

-.022 k40Y-9 for the bridge.

-New Planet Tone Blues Heritage pickups installed.

-Shielding tape added to control plate.

-I always strive to leave all factory lead length on pickups that are installed.

- I also shrink wrap things like the excess vintage braiding in the cavity, the legs on the caps, and ensure caps have proper side ran to ground for quietest operation.



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Just finished putting this together. i had a set of Rose Robusta pickups. It's not perfect. It's the 3rd pickguard test I do on this guitar. The two previous were off 😡 Difficult to find a basic S-S-S for a RG. This one had a lot of work to be done to be installed. I bought some tools to finish it. It was quite an expensive project overall for just adding that pickup configuration but i did learn a lot in the past two days. It was a fun project however. Tomorrow will be the final setup.


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Sire L3 P90

Came in with a neck bowed like a banana. Crazy high action. Dead notes on every string below 3rd fret.


New Planet Tone Hot P90 installed.

New Russian .022 cap.

50s wiring scheme.

Spot leveling, crown and polish.

Slight relief in neck.

Action is 1.4mm to 1.2 mm for nice strumming and lead.

First pic is during pickup change.

Last pic is after all wired up.

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Any tips for Floyd screws? Not the posts but drilling for the screws that go right into the wood. I just picked up a drill press because my first few holes were off and one screw went in crooked..
 
Any tips for Floyd screws? Not the posts but drilling for the screws that go right into the wood. I just picked up a drill press because my first few holes were off and one screw went in crooked..
Drill press is the solution to your problems. You cannot drill any type of holes for a bridge by hand. There are some holes you can get away with drilling by hand, but anything to do with the bridge has to be done with a drill press.

If they were off as far as measuring, and you need that system or tools explained in detail, that's a whole other thing and you would probably do better with a solo thread in the Tech forum.
 
All cleaned up and ready to go!

Action set to medium 2.4mm-2mm.

Neck straightened.

Nut filed.

Bridge saddle filed.

Cleaned up and oiled up.

Frets polished.

Humidified.

Ready to go!
 

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On the bench:

Les Paul Studio (plus?)

Gorgeous red flame top.

Previous client received their newly bought and setup guitar.

Immediately said it didn't feel as good as mine, and sent it over.

Dead spot at 9th fret

High action.

Bowed neck

Nut slots cut high.

D string wouldn't keep time due to bent)broken tuner.


Adjusted the bridge, filed the nut, spot leveled and crowned frets, replaced the tuner, polished the frets up (10 step polish treatment) and conditioned the board.

They also requested I removed the pickguard and leave it off it the top looked good underneath.

I left it off.


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On the bench:

PRS McCarty
Year: 2000

This model had recently been refretted with stainless steel frets.

Dead notes below 3rd fret.

Nut is filed too low on low E.

I installed a new nut, which I also filed all of the slots on. I Spot leveled and crowned a couple of frets, as well as polished all of the frets with my standard treatment.


This guitar absolutely sings now!

I tried to capture how straight, small, and clean of a crown I was able to accomplish.

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On my tech's bench as he had to redo the post inserts holes for a Gotoh 1996, the builder of the body did them a bit too small in diameter and as I don't have a vertical drill, was too scared of making a mistake.

Ibanez JPM Replica: Dimarzio Dreamcatcher/Rainmaker pickups, one volume, Gotoh 1996 bridge, Gotoh tuners

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Hey man, not trying to be offensive but this thread is for guitars coming across my own bench, not others.

Cool axe, nonetheless
 
On the bench:

Lacello Custom guitar

Nut slots were all lowered, along with the overall action.

Surprising how high everyone seems to cut them.

I get they need to slightly change per action preference but man, getting the slots cut the right height is crucial to change that guitar feel from "meh" to "yeah".

Gave the back and top a quick polish.

Honestly, there is a high fret or two that need dealt with.

When the new pickups come in for this, I'll handle that as well.

11s in D standard and plays like a dream!

1.3mm to 1mm action.

No filter or anything, just my crappy android phone camera.

First is with no flash and others, with.

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