The resurrection of the Le Brea

Another resurrection of an old friend. Many years ago, while working in a great music store, I sold a Fender LeBrea to a nice man. 20 or so years later, I get a request to repair a friend's guitar, belonging to her father. My friend, I hadn't seen in a dog's age either! It turns out, I did know her dad and indeed sold him the guitar. She got it from her uncle in Kentucky, years later, in stowage. I got it home, opened the case to find it without strings. Further inspection showed the output jack was gone. I found some wires bundled up and tie wrapped to the pre-amp inside the body. After removing the pre-amp, I found the wires going to the pickup and the wires going to the jack were cut, the pickup itself, gone. The jack lead was now too short to go out to the end of the body. My first plan was to unsolder the short wires off the pre-amp and install a new lead of proper length. Closer inspection reveled it would be necessary to completely unsolder and remove the three pots off the pre-amp circuit board. Nah!! Way too much labor. I opted to tack on a length of wire to the existing lead. Ditto for the pickup connections. First, I assembled the entire system out of the guitar and plugged into an amp to test it. Nice, everything seemed to work fine. The original pickup must have been glued somewhere inside near the bridge plate. I had a replacement under the saddle pickup for the repair. I was happy to find out the new pickup was going to act right married to the Le Brea pre-amp! Now to install the new pickup. First, I un-soldered my test connections to the pickup. Next, I had to drill a small hole in the end of the bridge for the pickup wires to feed into the body. Next, I had to re-solder my pickup wires to the pre-amp, install a new jack, re-install the pre-amp, put a fresh 9 V battery into place and tie wrap my wires and secure them out of sight. Now for new strings and the ceremonial test through an amp. It worked fine! Sigh of relief!!! The strings were a bit high off the fingerboard so remove the saddle and sand the bottom and install. Next, the height at the nut could use some adjustment. One string at a time, loosen, move out of the way, and file each nut slot. Replace string, tune to pitch and check. Repeat the steps until the string found it's proper place in the nut slot. Repeat the steps for the remainder of the strings. Test. Nice; I could play this one all night. Tomorrow, a good cleaning and polishing and this baby's ready for Bonnie to play her little pea picken heart out!

Attack of the Teisco Cont.!!

OK, the second and final post concerning the attack of the Teisco!

As I stated in the previous post, my friend passed on to me his first guitar to be restored, an old Zenon, made by the Teisco company in Japan, most likely in the early sixties. These student model guitars are now coveted by many. In the case of this particular Zenon, by buddy just would love to have his first guitar playable once again.

In the previous installment, I stated that half of the tuners were missing, the jack loose, and many years of grunge covered the instrument. I have always kept old guitar parts in storage, to be used or re-cycled as needed. I did manage to have the parts to re-assemble the six tuners! The nut was gone and I did use a new cheap plastic variety, I'm pretty sure Teisco used at the time. I took the pickguard off and checked the wiring. I found a broken wire and loose jack. I spritzed the three controls with WD 40, soldered the broken wire back onto the switch, and replaced the output jack. The tone capacitor was gone and the wiring to the controls altered. I did not want to disturb any more of the circuit than I had to, and decided to leave the tone control alone.

I removed the primitive tremolo system under the tailpiece, and attempted to adapt a Floyd Rose part to accept a whammy bar, but the system is too primitive, so that too I left alone.

I began to string it up after re-assembling and cleaning the area, only to find the strings high off the fretboard. I removed the neck and cut two plastic shims to place in the neck pocket, and replaced the neck. The strings were nicely over the fingerboard, requiring even raising the bridge adjustment wheels up a bit. The bottom of the pickguard, housing the output jack, was broken off. I decided to use the original repaired section, but added three more screws to secure the section. It was time for the test! I plugged it in and started playing. The bridge pickup really honks nicely and the neck pickup warms the tone. One of the rocker switches, is a bit persnickety, but does work. This baby is good for another 45 years, I reckon!!!

Attack of the Teisco!!

The latest restoration project: An old Zenon from the 60's, belonging to a good friend of mine. His first guitar, he'd love to have it restored. Many folks covet these cheesey guitars, most likely manufactured by Teisco in Japan, with names like: Norma, Zenon, Teisco.

Stay tuned for the latest news on this restoration!

Multi Meter is your friend

I've found the multi-meter to be more and more useful in my guitar repairs.

The continuity setting is probably the most used. It's invaluable in tracing wiring paths. Yesterday, I installed three mini switches in a guitar with three pickups. After I completed the job, I used the tap test; hooking up a line cord from guitar to amp, I selected each pickup, one at a time and gently tapped the pickup coils for each pickup. At first, only one out of three worked. Each pickup is hooked to it's own switch, the positive and negative outputs on the switch is hooked to the other two switches in a series, and then terminates out to the volume pot, the positive going to the leg 1 input of the pot, and the negative grounded to the back of the pot. With only the bridge pickup working, I decided to take an ohm's resistance reading on each pickup to make sure the pickups were functional. Each pickup read 5.84 ohms, telling me that they all were working properly. I began with switch 3, controlling the neck pickup. Following the path of the wiring on that switch, I got positive continuity on the switch in all terminals. I took continuity checks starting with the positive output on switch 3 which travels over to switch 2, then over to switch 1. Touching the probe at the output terminal on switch 3, and the other probe at the output terminal on switch 2, I got positive continuity, so I kept my probe on switch 3 and moved the other probe to positive output terminal of switch 1. Again, I got positive continuity, so, keeping the probe on switch 3 and moving the other probe to the final destination of the positive wire output path, the volume pot, I got positive continuity again. The open circuit was not in the positive wire circuit. I repeated the test, probing the negative wire circuit, probing the negative output from switch 3 to switch 2. Ahh; no continuity! I looked with a magnifying lens and found the negative wiring at switch 2 had an open circuit. I carefully re-soldered the open connection and bingo; my pickups worked. I always use the DC voltage setting to test the 9V battery common to active pickups and pre-amps. This is one of first things I check when diagnosing a problem with no output or distorted output. In guitars or other audio systems, effect pedals, etc. the 9V battery is technically dead below 7V. I also use the voltage setting to trace the path of the pre-amp output to all points leading out to the output jack.

Adding a middle pickup to my Tele!

More Mad Mod Time, this time, with my G&L ASAT Tele, adding a middle pickup and turning it into The Nashville Tele!

Step 1: Remove strings, bridge plate, control plate, and of course, pickups!

Step 2: Mark body for routing middle pickup cavity. Carefully route the cavity, in steps, till getting the proper depth for the new pickup.

Originally, I had a 4 way switch, volume and tone control. The Mod called for a 5 way switch, and an extra volume control added to the neck pickup so I could select it, independantly of the pickup selector switch, giving me the options of any pickups (including all three) on or any other combo of selections. Cool!

Step 3: Remove all controls from control plate.

Step 4: Mark and drill additional hole for extra tone control. I used a mini 250K push-pull pot. This would give me the Strat set-up: Master volume, tone control for middle pickup, and tone control for neck pickup. The little switch under the center tone control, was to turn on the neck pickup, even if it was not selected on the new 5 way Strat switch I was adding.

Step 5: Re-install the pickups in their positions, and route the pickup wires into the control cavity. The new pickguard did not line up with the G&L bridge plate or under the bottom of the fingerboard, requiring some grinding with the Dremel and some hand filing.

Step 6: Install the 5 way selector switch, push-pull tone control, and solder conections in place.

Of course, their was the inevitable re-positioning of the controls to fit neatly in the control cavity when the plate was re-installed.

Step 7: Test the pickups with the control plate uncovered, using a small screwdriver and lightly tapping the pickups with the switch and other controls.

Step 8: Install the modified pickguard and screw down. Install the control plate and screw down. String up and test.

Step 9: Major Twang!

The end result: 1. Switch far right: Bridge pickup
2. Switch, one click to left: Bridge & new middle Strat pickup.
3. Switch one more click to left: Center pickup.
4. Switch one more click to left: Center and Neck pickups.
5. Switch last click to left: Neck pickup alone.
By using the Push-pull switch in positions 1 or 2, you acheive Bridge and Neck, or all three at once, giving seven selections to choose from!

As it turned out in the trial run, the new middle Strat pickup was out of phase with the Tele pickups. Back to the control plate and reverse the Strat pickup wires and WOW!

High action on your Bass or Electric?

OK, so most players like the slinky strings with the action low. I said most, not all, but most. There are many ways to skin the proverbial cat, getting the action lower. Today, we are going to refer to guitars and basses with bolt on necks. The first rule in theory is: Tone and Volume are determined by how heavy the strings are and how high they are off the body. The heavier the string, and the higher the action produces more volume and desirable tone. The trick is to get the action low enough for the player's style. Fender, years ago evolved to the micro-tilt adjustment at the neck base. This allowed for pushing the heel of the neck closer to the strings. From there, it is a matter of adjusting the string height at the bridge saddles. By moving the base of the neck out, it requires raising the string saddles up to avoid buzzing. The higher saddle height gives more volume and tone, and the micro-tilt allows for lower action for better playability. With me, so far?

OK, so what if you don't have a micro-tilt at the base of your neck pocket? First check to see how straight the neck is. You want some relief, but not too big a bow, nor the neck bowed backwards. I have a previous post on adjusting the truss rod! It is in a post titled "Acoustic tough to play?" The truss rod adjustment is the same theroy as the acoustic. Loosen the strings

and unbolt the neck. Find some shim material. I like thin plastic, a bit thinner than a credit card. Cut a strip, a bit thinner than 1/2 ", the width of the neck pocket. Place your shim in the neck pocket, so that the very bottom of the back of the neck heel will rest on the shim. Bolt the neck back on, first snugging the screws lightly, taking care to keep the neck straight in the pocket. Next, tighten each screw tight. Re-tension the strings, and you'll find the strings may be resting right on the fingerboard. The next step is to raise the individual string saddle height. You may want to loosen the string you are working on before raising the saddle. Remember that the fingerboard has a radius curve to it and you want to adjust each string saddle to keep with the fingerboard radius. That means that the saddle should not be level on the bridge. One end is going to be higher than the other side of the saddle. Raise each saddle, one at a time and check each string for buzzing along each fret. Once you achieve this, every string should play on every fret without buzzing. Inspect to make sure each string is not grossly higher than it's neighbor string. Remember the radius of the fingerboard. You must mimic the relative same radius of the fingerboard at the saddles. Now that the saddles have been raised higher, you may need to raise the height of the pickups. They should not be so close to the strings that the magnets are pulling at the strings, nor each pickup, the same height. Listen to each pickup alone, and with the others and it should end up where one is not too much louder or softer than the other. You may want the bridge pickup hotter than the rest, but if they are close, it's really personal preference.

What have you ended up with? Higher saddle height for better tone and volume, and nice low string action up and down and across the fingerboard.

Rock on!!!

Trouble shooting electronics

Your guitar or bass cutting out on you or not outputting a signal to the amp? Most guitar electronics are not that hard to trace the problems. Most common problems are the output jack loose or worn; this causes the signal to cut in and out. If the jack has loosened up, some cases allow for it to twist about and eventually, sever one or more of the connections. Above, is a photo of one of the more common output jacks used on electric instruments, but there are other variations.

The first step is getting a look at the electronics. Guitars such as the Stratocaster encase the pickups, and controls on the pickguard, with the output jack on its seperate jack plate. Nut drivers are handy, but if you are careful, you may get away with needle nose pliers, and a steady hand. Remove, or loosen the strings , remove the pickguard screws, and carefully lift and slide the pickguard assy. out from under the strings. The wires are most likely not too long, so have a cloth ready to cover the body as you flip the pickguard over and lay along the edge of the guitar's body. If the jack is on its separate plate, remove the screws, and lift it up and out to inspect. Is it loose, or any broken wires? Inspect the contact area that the jack from the cord contacts. If it is clearly scored from age and use, the jack should be replaced. If the wire(s) broken, re-solder it to the terminal.

Soldering 101: Use an iron with a fine tip. Use only solder for electronic use. Clean the tip of the iron on a damp sponge, and clean up the terminal area; there are products for removing the old solder. Trim back the end of the wire, and strip the end just enough to make a solder connection. Tin the end of the bare wire by applying a small dab of solder to the tip of the iron, and hold it to the bare end of the wire, allowing the solder to flow to the bare wire. When its tinned, it will shine with the new solder. Heat the connection area, and tin the area. Heat the area your soldering, not the solder or wire. When you see the solder start to flow, move the wire to the area, and let the solder flow over the wire and connection area. The heat should only be applied long enough to do this, then pull the iron back. Do not blow on the area to cool it, but hold the wire there for a couple seconds; it will cool on its own. You should be able to use your bare hands to hold the wire, but there are tools to clamp the wire to hold it too. Sensitive components, such as capacitors should be clamped in hemostats to shield the cap from the heat of the soldering iron. Most solder connections do not require much solder or time to heat. The ground connections on the back of the controls, require more time to heat the larger mass, and generally those ground connections are best made using the hemostats to hold and position the wires. As you get close to the body with the iron, be aware of the entire area surrounding the work area and be on the lookout for near-by wires you may burn with the soldering iron. Solder connections should be shiny, and not gobbed up with too much solder. Practice makes perfect! Do not use wire to large a gage for the job you are performing; observe the gage of the wire that is there originally. If you must lengthen the wire, its best to install longer wire rather than tack two together. Sometimes its to your advantage to use small tie wraps to bundle groups of wires, thus minimizing refitting a tangle mass of spaghetti back in the control cavity. Be careful to orientate the wires completely into the control cavity, and not bunched up under the pickguard. The pickgaurd should lie flat into place, and not bulge from wires not positioned properly.

Subsequent installments will deal with using a multi-meter, replacing controls, switches, and more! Rock on!!