Straightening out an ornery Ovation

One of oldest friend's 35 year old Ovation Balladeer was bothering his hands to play and he brought the guitar to me for a look see.  "This is an ornery old dip in the neck!" I told him.  Normally, a simple neck adjustment would correct the neck bow, so I removed the truss rod cover cap and dug out a nut driver to proceed with the neck adjustment.  Oh Oh, not so easy.  The neck had been adjusted over the years and now the adjustment nut had come to the end of threads on the truss rod.  Whoa, Nellie!  After thinking a moment, I remember getting a tech update from Fender (20 years ago, while working for a Fender Dealer as a certified tech.)  By removing the adjustment nut and placing a washer over the truss rod end and replacing the nut, you position the nut out father on the truss rod, giving more thread area to turn on.  Brilliant!  I searched about and found two small nylon washers just the perfect size!  I put them both over the truss rod end and prayed that I'd have room to start the nut.  Hallelujah!  I did, but now will the neck straighten out for ole Tommy?  Did it ever!  Just what the doctor ordered; the neck came right back to normal playing range and with some extra light strings on, it played like butter.  I would have put lights on but Tom had suffered some nerve damage years ago and his left hand really appreciates the extra lights and that 35 year ole gitbox sounds sweeeeet!

Franenstein Tele on Steroids

I got a great mod a few years back, a Mexican Telecaster to dress to the 9's.  A customer brought in his Clapton Strat for some work and in conversation, he said he'd love to have the overdrive chip from the Clapton Strat in his Tele.  That is a pre-amp, powered by a 9V Battery and controlled by the bottom knob on the strat.  As it's turned up, the nice creamy overdrive kicks in.  He got the components on E-Bay, along with new tuners and the cool perloid pick guard, and I set to work.

After disassembling the instrument, I needed to route some space to accommodate the circuit board and battery and of course, the inevitable extra wires.  Next, I had to rewire mini potentiometers to make room for the extra pre-amp boost control.  Instead of the usual 250K pot for volume, I wired in a 25K to handle the post end of the overdrive circuit.  For more fun, I replaced the 3 Way switch with a 4 Way switch, adding two options when both pickups are selected; Parallel, and Series.  The customer supplied me with new black tuners, control knobs, and the perloid pick guard to dress it up.

I put the guitar in his hands, he turned it up, played with the controls, played his heart out and smiled with eyes sparkle!

Check list in preventave maintanence

You're at the gig and all set up but your guitar's dead in the water.  One of your control pots has loosened up.  You noticed it the last few times you played but ignored it.  Now it's dead and you have no spare guitar.  This might have been averted if you stayed on top of the situation.  You don't need a box of fancy tools to keep your ax in working order.  Things like the control pots, jack and other things come loose after a while.  Here is a check list you can go over when you change your strings.
While the strings are off:

1. Check to see your tuners are tight. The tuners are secured to the headstock by one or two wood screws from the back and a nut/washer/bushing through the top.  The nut comes loose from time to time.  The common size nut driver or wrench is 10 mm for the nut.  If you're very careful, you could use a pair of pliers but whatever you use, snug the nut tight.

2. Their is usually a small screw on the end or tip of the tuning button.  If you could wiggle the tuning button it's time to tighten the screw.  Don't tighten it as far as you can, just a little so the tuner doesn't wiggle.

3.  While you're at it, take some 0000 steel wool and clean all the crud off the fingerboard and frets.

4.  Now for the controls;  Plug in, turn up, and wiggle the jack (just a little)  If it crackles a lot it may be time to replace the jack.  In any event, see if the nut holding the jack is not too loose it may be possible to tighten the jack, and the control pots from the top without having to get underneath.  The trick is to snug all this down before it get so loose that it rotates round and breaks a wire. 

5. Check the pickups and mounting rings.  Sometimes they too loosen up and the pickup falls inside the pickguard or pops right out.  I was in the middle of a gig in a pit band when I discovered one of the screws holding my pickup down had vibrated up.  The pickup touched my G string and I could not play that string till the break or end of night when I could fix it.

6. Inspect your cords too; they all go bad sooner or later, even the Monster cables.

7. Got a battery in the ax?  Musically speaking, a 9V battery is considered dead below 7V.  If your guitar is quick change for the battery, carry spares.  Some are not so easy to get to on the fly on stage.

Happy Picken!

Dating Instrument Options

I got a nice vintage Fender Jazz Bass in for electronic service. The customer, an old friend claimed it was one of the first bass guitars he got as a teen. He thought it was from the 1960's.

The electronics were not putting out the normal output, the bass having not been played in time out of reckening. I could see where it had already been re-finished at some point, already de-valuing the vintage worth. I advised him that replacing the pots wires and jack would further lower it's collectible value. He said he preferred to play it so we agreed to have me re-do the electronics.

While I was working in it, I inspected it for the date of manufacture. It had a serial number stamped on the neck plate and the big reverse F. That dated it somewhere in the early 70's. Removing the neck should have shown dates in the body's neck pocket and the neck's bottom heel. No such luck; whoever re-finished the bass destroyed all that info. I knew in the early 70's Fender started making the jazz bass using the bullet truss rod at the top of the headstock and a three bolt neck attachment. This bass was before that period.

Inspecting the codes on the back of the potentiometers, it read: 1377310.

The date code of the pots broke down as follows:

137 Manufacturer: CTS (Chicago Telephone Suppliers)

73: 1973

10: The 10th week of 1973.

That narrowed it down some. The pots were made in March 73 and Fender went to the three bolt neck plate later that year, so the bass had to have been made in mid 1973. At least we narrowed it down to spring or summer of 73.

He is using the bass in the reunion of his first band from high school. I love history!!

The importance of a proper set up

What is a set up? Well, it's like a tune up on your car. A few subtle adjustments can make a world of difference in the feel, response, and sound of your instrument.

Strings: They don't last as long as people think and could even effect your tuning, clarity, and intonation. (We'll get into intonation later) Perspiration gets into the windings of the strings, causing them to sound dead or unbalanced with the others. I almost always advise the strings be changed with a set up.

Fretboard maintenance: Another advantage to changing the strings is the access to the fingerboard and frets with the strings removed.

0000 steel wool will clean the grime off the fingerboard and frets. A scant amount of linseed or lemon oil will add some moisture to the unfinished rosewood or ebony.

Truss rod adjustment: Almost all stringed instruments have an adjustable truss rod to maintain the proper relief in the neck. The tension of the tuned strings, after a while can pull on the end of the neck, causing too much relief in the neck. What that means is the strings end up too high off the fingerboard, esp. around the mid-section of the fingerboard. If the strings were left off the instrument for a period of time, the neck can bow backwards, causing the strings to fret out or buzz on the frets. The neck should have a bit of relief or "bow" to play true, but too little and you end up with buzz; too much, and the strings are hard to press down on the fingerboard.

Saddle height at the bridge: On electrics and acoustics alike, if the saddle or bridge is too high, the strings are too far off the fingerboard, making it much harder to play. If the saddle or bridge is too low, the strings buzz on neighboring frets, much like the neck bowed too far in either direction. Electric guitars and basses have individual saddles to adjust the height and intonation for each string. Also the individual saddle adjustment makes it easier to set the saddles to the proper fingerboard radius. The fingerboard is rarely perfectly flat, but slightly curved, making it more comfortable to play across. The string saddles need to be set to the same relation to the fingerboard radius.

Intonation: Correct intonation allows the open picked string to play in proper pitch at the 12th fret and the harmonic note at the 12th fret. It is checked with a reliable electronic tuner or better yet, a strobe tuner. After tuning the open picked string, the string is picked at the 12th fret and should maintain the same 440 pitch. If it is flat on the 12th fret, the string length is too long, if it is sharp at the 12th fret, the string length is too short. Proper intonation should be set with new strings installed and stretched.

Tremolo adjustment: The tremolo unit has to be adjusted to maintain proper bridge height. Even breaking or removing a string, or changing string gauges, can throw the bridge out of whack if it has a tremolo system.

Electric instrument controls: All the volume, tone, switches, jacks, etc. should be checked and tighten if they have become loose. If they are allowed to become too loose, the entire control ends up roating when you turn the knob and eventually, it can lead to a wire breaking off the control. This is very common with the jack!

If the instrument has active electronics, the battery should be checked for it's available voltage. Musically speaking, a 9 volt battery is dead below 7 volts and should be changed.

Tuner adjustment: Most tuners on the headstock have an adjustment to keep them from slipping too far out of whack. Properly adjusted, the tuner should turn freely with just a bit of relief. If it's adjusted too tight, the tuner guts will wear out prematurely. The securing hardware should be tightened on the tuner also to prevent the tuner from rotating around in the headstock.

Cleaning: All of the instrument should be cleaned. A damp soft cloth should clean most grime off the finish. A good non-silicone polish will bring the luster up on the finish after it is nice and clean. Extremely grimy instruments are cleaned with a bit of naphtha solvent. This does not harm the finish. In fact, if the grime and grease is left on the finish too long, the finish will be compromised by trying to rub the grime off.

Most professionals know what it means to have a set up on a regular basis. Most new instruments probably can use a set up at the start. A change of string gauge is another reason for a set up. Beginning students will greatly benefit from a set up by having an instrument that they do not have to fight to learn how to play.

The set up is the start to a long lasting relationship with your ax!

Hum reduction on a Tele

Today, I'm working on a Squier Telecaster. The stock pickups were noisy and wimpy and the customer acquired a set of stacked Bill Lawrence Tele pickups to install in the attempt to reduce the 60 cycle hum. I installed the pickups a few weeks ago, but the customer claims it's still as noisy as ever!

Back on the bench it goes and this time, we're going to install copper shielding to the pickup and control cavities to reduce the hum.

The neck must be removed before the pickguard can be removed on this model! Off with the strings, off with the neck, and now we can get the pickguard off. All the electronics have to be un-soldered and removed to work on the shielding in the cavities.

The channel for the neck pickup wires was originally a tunnel leading to the cavity for the bridge pickup. I decided to route an open passage so I could apply the copper shielding in that area also.

With the copper shielding cut and glued in place, the next step is to re-mount the pickups in their cavities.

I thought it best to replace the original switch, volume and tone controls, wiring, and jack with new.

I used a switch for the Fender American Standard Tele.

Well, there we have it. All back together and strung up with D'Addario EXL-110 strings.

After a set up, this baby should quack like a good Tele should!

Repairs Rock Prices

REPAIRS ROCK PRICE LIST


$ 30.00 Basic Set up: Electric, Acoustic, and Bass Guitars:
Set up includes: truss rod adjustment, tuner adjustment, fingerboard cleaning, saddle height
and intonation adjustment, tighten loose hardware, re-string, pickup height
adjustment, test, clean.

$ 40.00 Set up with Floyd Rose Trem

$ 15.00 Jack replacement on most electric guitars & basses

$ 30.00 Jack replacement on acoustic-electric instruments

$ 30.00-50.00 Pickup replacement on most electrics *

$80.00-100.00 Re-glue bridge on acoustic

$75.00 Complete re-wire Les Paul (parts additional)

$50.00 Complete re-wire on Strat or Tele (parts additional)

$60.00 Copper shielding on electrics to minimize hum

• Custom work, such as routing body for over-size pickup install, custom pickguard mods, and other irregular modifications is subject to $ 40.00 per hour.


TELE MODS
The 4 Way Switch Drops in original slot and adds the two pickups on in Series. The other three positions stay as original.
Parts, Labor $ 60.00

Volume Control Closer to the fingertips. By re-mounting control plate 180 out and switching volume and tone control position, and turning the switch 180 out, you get from left to right, Volume, Tone, and Switch.
Way Cool for Swells!
Labor $ 30.00

Bigsby B-5 Tailpiece $250.00

Satisfied Customers


Tom Briggs Insurance Agent
tbriggs2@rochester.rr.com


John Stiles Professional Musician
jstiles@rochester.rr.com


Joseph F. Laubacker Engineer
jflaubacker@verizon.net


Albert Pacete Chaplan/Deacon
apacete@aol.com