What Did You Do With Your Guitar(s) Today?

Okay, finally got some work done on guitars!

Been on a vintage Fender kick lately, and decided to restore my '97 California Strat more to it's original parts. I have modded this guitar to hell and back over the years, and lately I had Gotoh locking tuners and a Gotoh 510 bridge. Took everything apart, did a full shielding job with copper tape, reinstalled the original Fender AVRI tremolo (outfitted with Highwood saddles which are amazing), and put a fresh set of Fender vintage style slotted tuners. Oiled the board, cleaned it up, put it back together, and got a fresh set of 9.5's on it. Kept the same pickguard I had on it, which is mint green with aged white plastics and a set of Suhr V60LP pickups.

It's really nice now! The locking Gotoh tuners were great, but the old style tuners work really well too and just look a lot better. Honestly I prefer the action of the Gotoh bridge but the Fender is really solid. Maybe I'll cave at some point and put the 510 back on there.

Then for my Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster, I ripped that apart and shielded with copper tape. Reinstalled these Porter J90 pickups which are like lower output P90's. Again, fresh set of 9.5's and it's much quieter and sounds pretty good. I might swap out the tuners at some point because they feel really cheap, they have weird slightly oversized tuners, not true Fender vintage style. Also might try and find a hardtail conversion.

Last project for now will be the Tele. I have a Fender American Special Tele which is like their slightly cheaper USA model. I converted it to Fender locking tuners with the 6 saddle Gotoh bridge and Dimarzio Area T pickups. Ordered some of those Fender Classic Gear tuners which are drop ins for modern Fender but with the Vintage slotted style. Heard good things. Then I'm going to do the copper shielding, put it back to a 3-saddle bridge (Gotoh In Tune brass), and put the Suhr Classic T pickups back into it.

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Been spending most of the last couple days tracking guide tracks for drums recording still. CE24 semihollow and SE silver sky doing the majority of the grunt work. LP and cu22 came out for the chugs tho
 
I wasted a couple hours rewiring my RG655 to make the bridge pickup parallel or series using the diagram on the bare knuckle website. Parallel worked but series was dead. Maybe i have a bad DPDT on the potentiometer or I’ve got a stray wire strand grounding out.
 
I KNEW IT!

Read all the specs which said the Schecter strat comes with 9s stock. Played it for a bit at the dealers and thought the thing felt tight but the salesman confirmed Schecter's spec. Been playing it a month and settled in on the strings but they've still been bugging me all along.

Changed them this morning to Elixir 9-42 and sure enough, the damn thing had 10s or at least 9.5s on it cause I had to adjust the trem screws
a lot once the new set was on. Feels much more right now!
 
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"Finished" my trio of guitar updates yesterday.

For my Tele, I swapped the tuners from locking Fender to the new "Classic Gear" vintage style. These are two pin drop ins that look like vintage Fender slotted tuners. Unfortunately they have the same 3/8" screw installation so they don't have a vintage look from the front, but from the top and rear it's a lot better. They're also lighter weight and pretty smooth, also nickel instead of chrome.

Did the copper shielding throughout the pickup cavities and under the guard, then swapped back to a set of Suhr Classic T pickups. Also put the Gotoh "in tune" brass saddles on the original Fender bridge plate for a more traditional look. The wood screws were loose for the bridge so I added some toothpicks and wood glue...not the preferred method but it's extremely solid now.

Tonally it's a lot more vintage than the Dimarzios. Even though the bridge is overwound and supposed to roll off the high end, it still sounds pretty damn twangy. Had to raise it up fairly high to get some punch. Neck has a narrow sweet spot to match, but sounds good. It's a little darker to my ears, where I prefer the more Stratty style 42ga tall bobbin pickup, but I like it. Something different.

So now I have the vintage slotted tuners on three guitars, replacing thumbwheel locking tuners in two of them. I really like the vintage tuners for all the strings except the top ones. I need to figure out a better way to lock in the skinny strings.

Before:

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After:

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I decided to go with my original instinct and use this pickguard material for this particular guitar. Glad I did. I loved the black guard too but it never quite felt right. I had my friend laser cut this so I was able to move the mini cutout closer to the neck which improved the sound imo. Just slightly warmer but with a smooth bell tone that's :chef. Really digging it now.

IMG_1865.jpg
 
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FuzzyAce said:
I decided to do with my original instinct and use this pickguard material for this particular guitar. Glad I did. I loved the black guard too but it never quite felt right. I had my friend laser cut this so I was able to move the mini cutout closer to the neck which improved the sound imo. Just slightly warmer but with a smooth bell tone that's :chef. Really digging it now.

View attachment 25032
Click to expand...
That's close to what I'd want from a Tele. I'd probably want a middle pickup, and rail pickups for all three.
 
FuzzyAce said:
I decided to go with my original instinct and use this pickguard material for this particular guitar. Glad I did. I loved the black guard too but it never quite felt right. I had my friend laser cut this so I was able to move the mini cutout closer to the neck which improved the sound imo. Just slightly warmer but with a smooth bell tone that's :chef. Really digging it now.

View attachment 25032
Click to expand...
What bridge is that? Looks nice!

I'm building a Tele right now and needed a short bridge due to pickup choice. Going with this aluminum one (not my guitar):

C3748122-DCC4-489D-BABE-BB0D1351A1CA.jpeg
 
unix-guy said:
What bridge is that? Looks nice!
Click to expand...
Thanks. It's from a MIJ tele, '95, so probably a Gotoh I'm guessing? It was originally gold but most of it was worn off or tarnished so I just put a scouring pad on a palm sander and smoothed it out. It still has an aged looked which I like. I added raw brass saddles too.
 
FuzzyAce said:
Very cool. Thanks.
I'm looking at one of these now:

m2eef56flskozibhscea.jpg


:rofl:rofl
Click to expand...
Yeah, I thought those were pretty cool!

I love purple and was thinking about purple hardware but I just didn't think that would work with this nice wood.

So it's getting all raw aluminum (brushed control plate) with brass saddles, brass knobs and switch, nickel neck plate and tuners with amber buttons.

Body and neck from Musikraft.

I've got several weeks to wait for all the parts, but trying to be patient :D
 
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