New Project: Fix up my friend's POS

[FuseG4]

Friend has a sentimental attachment or something to this piece... he's asked me to fix it up a bit for him.

It's an Epoch made by Gibson and Baldwin. It was probably $75 new. So thank goodness I'm not the one who's going to pay for any of the parts to fix this because I'd never waste money or time like that.

So after going over it, I'm coming up with a plan to get this thing playable again.

The nut is just plain missing, the tuners are crap and one is broken, the switch tip is missing, and the knobs are broken or missing, and the tremolo cover is missing two screws.

The tuners are going to be replaced with these. As it is guitarfetish.com, and the guitar is chinese, I expect it to be a direct fit. if not I'll have to borrow a dremel.

I'm going to find a 42mm pre-slotted nut. I've never glued one in before, what kind of glue does one use?

Instead of finding a switch tip, I think I'm going to gut and rewire the whole electronics. He's looking for a gibson-esque experience so I'm doing a switchcraft switch but I'm sticking with mini pots as those are stock. To be very gibson-esque, I thought of doing a 300K linear volume and a 500K tone.

The stock buckers look like crap and I haven't strung the guitar up to hear it, but I'll bet that GFS would be a BIG improvement. The kid likes metal and so I'm thinking their 14K crunchy pat or whatever it's called. Dunno, what do you guys think? I have a JB laying around but JB+Plywood may not = awesome.


Fixing up a piece of crap is not what I call fun. And sorry to bore you guys with such a lame project... but any help on the installation the nut and the choosing of the pickups would be cool.
I also wanna polish the frets, they could really use it. that's just a "steel wool and painter's tape" kinda thing right? I've read about the job but have never performed it.

Anyways, pics. Hopefully the thing will look like a "beginner's guitar" and not a "piece of $***" when I'm done

[jtougas]

My personal suggestion would be to let him buy a pair of GFS hbs, since you'll already be placing an order. Better that than throwing good after bad, y'know?

As for gluing a nut : white glue, if you're going to at all, and only a small Dan at that. String pressure will make sure it won't walk.

[CTN]

before choosing pickups, I strongly urge you to find out what it sounds like unplugged. String 'er up and have at it.

Also, that neck looks like it's got some distance from the body at the pocket. You might want to consider checking the fit of the neck heel to the pocket, and making adjustments if necessary. Maybe even add some cut-to-size shims and fill/re-drill the mounting holes in the neck itself. Get a nice solid neck-to-body joint and it will improve the sustain and resonance (or whatever resonance it has).

If it ends up being kinda weak sounding, maybe the GFS Power rails or Fat Pat. If it's dark, then the Crunchy Rails or Crunchy Pat.

As for the frets, do they need to be re-surfaced or just polished? If resurfacing, I'd use some sandpaper, start at about 600 grit, and work up to 1000 or 1500, then switch to steel wool. And please do remember to tape the board right up to the fret edges, otherwise you'll be pulling a Jerry and have unsightly sanding marks running across the grain. If it's just a polishing, then yeah, steel wool will do it.

The nut, try to get your hands on a Graphtech/TUSQ pre-slotted gibson style nut. They should have 'em in 42mm. Great sounding, and easy to work with if you need to cut down the slots to customize it.

Also, one last thing, I don't see a truss rod nut in the pic of the headstock, but you might want to make sure it's still functioning and is capable of straightening out the neck.

[FuseG4]

Cool. Yeah I knew one wouldn't want to use anything crazy as far as glue goes... but it's good that the kind I need is so cheap and widely available.

And yeah, I don't want to say he knows nothing about tone, but I think he'd get confused about pickup choices. so while I'm pretty sure he's going to want new pickups, he's undoubtedly going to leave the choice to me. If we do it it's going to be GFS... I don't really know or trust any other "budget" pickup brand, and I'm already ordering other stuff from them.

What irks me... I can't seem to find truss rod covers or screws at guitarfetish. But I'm buying the mini pots somewhere else anyways.

[FuseG4]

before choosing pickups, I strongly urge you to find out what it sounds like unplugged. String 'er up and have at it.

Also, that neck looks like it's got some distance from the body at the pocket. You might want to consider checking the fit of the neck heel to the pocket, and making adjustments if necessary. Maybe even add some cut-to-size shims and fill/re-drill the mounting holes in the neck itself. Get a nice solid neck-to-body joint and it will improve the sustain and resonance (or whatever resonance it has).

If it ends up being kinda weak sounding, maybe the GFS Power rails or Fat Pat. If it's dark, then the Crunchy Rails or Crunchy Pat.

As for the frets, do they need to be re-surfaced or just polished? If resurfacing, I'd use some sandpaper, start at about 600 grit, and work up to 1000 or 1500, then switch to steel wool. And please do remember to tape the board right up to the fret edges, otherwise you'll be pulling a Jerry and have unsightly sanding marks running across the grain. If it's just a polishing, then yeah, steel wool will do it.

The nut, try to get your hands on a Graphtech/TUSQ pre-slotted gibson style nut. They should have 'em in 42mm. Great sounding, and easy to work with if you need to cut down the slots to customize it.

Also, one last thing, I don't see a truss rod nut in the pic of the headstock, but you might want to make sure it's still functioning and is capable of straightening out the neck.

yeah the nut is recessed in there, it's not like the bullet style or gibson style. My allen wrench fits and the rod turns.

And yeah, good idea about getting a feel for the sound first before finding pickups. I'll get some cheaper strings though. I'm not wasting my cleartone stash on this. So then it's obvious that the nut and tuners will have to come first, before all else.

I don't know if the frets need resurfacing or just a polishing, but now that I look at them it sounds like some resurfacing might be in order. The frets feel tarnished, like old cookware. There's no hint of luster.

As for the neck pocket, there is a shim in there already, so I'll have to play around with that once I get some strings, but the neck is seated well with no gaps that I can see.

I'll keep the tusq nut in mind. I can get one from where I order my potentiometers and truss rod cover+screws.

[Jocelyn]

Just put very little glue while putting the nut three small drops would be more than enough. GFS pups should be a good choice.

[Kramer Guy]

Cool. Yeah I knew one wouldn't want to use anything crazy as far as glue goes... but it's good that the kind I need is so cheap and widely available.

And yeah, I don't want to say he knows nothing about tone, but I think he'd get confused about pickup choices. so while I'm pretty sure he's going to want new pickups, he's undoubtedly going to leave the choice to me. If we do it it's going to be GFS... I don't really know or trust any other "budget" pickup brand, and I'm already ordering other stuff from them.

What irks me... I can't seem to find truss rod covers or screws at guitarfetish. But I'm buying the mini pots somewhere else anyways.

Look on E-Bay or www.stewmac.com for truss rod covers and screws.

[LatsMcGee]

I would forget the GFS Pups and snag a Duncan Designed Detonator......Honestly with a guitar like that I would want to make it uglier....sand it down...make it look even cheaper for uber mojo......

[Bfeeney]

If you go with the GFS pups let us know how they sound.

Stew Mac has the Golden Age series pickups, they're like $10 more than the GFS stuff. They get good reviews so they might be an option for you.

[FuseG4]

I would forget the GFS Pups and snag a Duncan Designed Detonator......Honestly with a guitar like that I would want to make it uglier....sand it down...make it look even cheaper for uber mojo......

Well, it's not my guitar so I won't be making anything uglier.

[dominus]

If you're absolutely sure that it's plywood, go for the Dragonfire 85A/81 set. They're like EMGs, but $80 for the pair. It'd be only a few bucks more than a GFS set.

If it's not plywood, the Crunchy PAT bridge and GFS 59 Neck would be PERFECT.