Reverse V Gauge Change, Jazz Bass and Tele Set-Ups

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

Have you ever seen one of these before? This is a Gibson Reverse V guitar, which was released in very limited number in 2008, and the owner wanted the strings changed up from 10’s to 11’s.

It was an interesting guitar to work on, although a little unwieldy as it pivoted on the bridge end of the body. Great instrument, though!

Once that was done it was onto setting up a Fender P Bass – nice and straight forward, and cleaned up really nicely – and a Telecaster. Both of these were left-handed instruments.

The Tele ended up needing an extra bit of attention since the high E and B strings were ‘fizzing’ in the nut, but after a little attention and fettling they were good as gold again! What will come through the door next?

Gibson Les Paul Gold Top String Gauge Change

Posted on January 6, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

How classy is this guitar? I love the gold too finish on these guitars… So beautiful!

The client wanted to take this up from 10’s to 11’s, and originally had a set of Elixir strings, with the new ones being Ernie Ball Power Slinky.

During the process I stripped and polished the hardware on the guitar, which also enabled me to get under the pickguard – it’s like a new guitar!

Stringing this baby up was a real joy! The action is set super low, but she sings! The clean sound is lush on this… Mustn’t covet!

Freshman Acoustic and Aria Electric Setups

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

Well today has been an interesting day of setter-up-ering!

The Freshman acoustic already had a very low action – almost too low – so alongside cleaning the fretboard of all of the gunky deposits, I raised the treble side of the bridge in order to relieve the buzzing on the neck a fraction.

The truss rod was pretty seized from a setup, so the neck had to stay as straight as it was, but this didn’t prove too problematic, and the guitar plays great – especially for an acoustic!

The Aria guitar was a very different problem, as the jack plate needed bending into shape – for some reason it was very flat in it’s profile from new – so I needed to flex the guns!

First I need to de-solder the Jack socket, and saw through the threaded section of the socket because the nut holding the Jack plate in place wouldn’t come off! Quite extreme measures, but it needed doing.

Once that was done it was a simple job to bend the plate to match the curvature of the body of the guitar, a re-solder of a replacement chassis, then a straightforward set-up from there. This was a really lovely guitar to work on, and the action is much slicker now!