Ibanez Jem 7VWH Setup

this Ibanez Jem was in need of a basic setup, only with a couple of extra tweaks.

The action was high for the player, so put a paper shim under the back of the neck to increase the neck angle, raised the bridge (to enable increased raising of pitch when pulled back – as it’s designed to do – with more ease). 

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I also straightened the neck a touch and checked the balance of the pickups… A Hipshot Tremsetter system had previously been installed, and since it was no longer required, the arrangement in the image was removed and replaced with a more conventional claw. I added an additional spring in the back to match the tension/balance of the strings, so it’s super sleek and more or less plays itself! Fantastic guitar!

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Gibson Les Paul Standard – Fret Stone and Electrics Troubleshoot

There seems to be lots of lovely Gibson Les Pauls around here! This particular one is a left hander, in ebony, and the condition was such that it needed quite a deal of love and tidying up.

The fret wire came to me severely pitted, and it looked like it would be borderline whether this would be a re-fret or whether a simple fret stone/re-crown would suffice.

Having seen how little fret height you can get away with on a Les Paul, I went ahead with the fret stone option, and it came out really well. There’s a lot more life yet in these frets, and after some careful work, this guitar was back to playable!

The action was so low when it arrived, that the strings were completely choking on the upper frets, however that has been rectified and there is a consistent feel along the length of the neck.

One other problem that needed fixing was a faulty tone control. Upon inspection this turned out to be a broken leg from the capacitor joining the bridge volume pot to the tone pot. It was an easy job to switch it out, and now the LP has its full compliment of controls working again!

A final clean and polish finished this baby off, and she was gratefully received!


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