interesting item at local thrift shop auction

[aallen]

I was at a local thrift shop this morning and they have a silent auction on an el degas doublecut LP? with p-90s. has anyone seen one of these? MIK or MIJ? logo looks MIJ but because it has a set neck there isn't that neck plate inscribed with Made in Japan I can't be certain. What do you guys think? How high should I bid?

[charles]

MIJ. Not sure how well it feels and plays, so not sure how much I'd bid for it; but you do not see these often at all.

[aallen]

Neck seems straight, frets feel smooth it seems to be in pretty good condition, but there are no strings so I can't test it. If the bidding doesn't get too high, I'll go for it. If it sucks, I'm sure I can salvage parts for other projects.

[aallen]

One thing holding me back is I despise wrap around bridges. Could I throw a bigsby on this?

[aallen]

One thing holding me back is I despise wrap around bridges. Could I throw a bigsby on this?

[charles]

It would probably take a bigsby so long as the lower control cavity does not interfere with the installation. Not sure!

[Barry]

I would grab it. That's gonna be a killer with P90's in it! Likely a mahogany body and neck too.

The wrap around bridge is part of this overall Les Paul design. It combines the bridge with tail stop removing one piece of hardware and adds significantly to the sustain. Very clever.

Many people mistakenly wrap their strings around the tail stop on a standard Les Paul in an effort to imitate this design. But that fails because the break angle over the bridge is reduced and sustain is compromised. And it scratches the metal on the top of the stop.

You "could" put a Bigsby on it but you would need to replace that bridge and be sure that you can intonate the guitar afterwards. You would also lose that unique sound. Personally I wouldn't do it.

Clean it up and play the heck out of it. My guess is that you will love it.

[aallen]

So... I won the auction.

[charles]

Congrats!
I recommend that before you go putting a Bigsby on that beauty, clean her up and try her out to see if you like it with the wraparound! I'm personally a big fan of the wraparound bridge.

[aallen]

Thanks Charles.

Yeah, based on what Barry said and some reading I did online, The wraparound is good, I just worry about intonating it. Would upgrading to a wraparound bridge with adjustable saddles sacrifice that sustain and negatively affect tone? I'm going to keep her stock for now, but there are issues (neck angle, electronics, etc.). Gotta make her a player and then decide on the bigsby.

[charles]

You could look for a compensated wraparound, which has little built in saddles to help with intonation. Your mileage may vary on these, as there seems to be a few different flavours of these which are meant for different uses (I've read that some are made for angled studs and some are made for straight studs). You also want to be careful because El Degas guitars tend to use the metric system so things like Gibson USA parts do not fit.

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than I (Barry, most likely ) can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think if there's a slightly angled stud configuration on the guitar it's done that way to work with a standard wraparound tailpiece without compensation. I'm sure you'll find out pretty quickly whether you want to look at intonation help once you get the guitar in your hands.

For what it's worth, I have just the standard wraparound tailpiece on any of my ED's that use them (though when you're a terrible guitar player like me you don't tend to sweat small stuff... like being in tune, or having good intonation, or technique, or skill ).

[Barry]

Thanks Charles, but I'm no expert, just been around the block a few times more than some.

You're right about the angle set on the bridge. That "should" be correct for the intonation. If I'm reading the picture correctly, there also appears to be set screws on the posts. You can use these to fine tune the intonation by "wiggling" the bridge

If you can't get the results you need, then, a compensated bridge should do the trick. And of course, it'll be metric, so be cautious as to what you buy.

Congrats on the buy! I think you'll love it.

[aallen]

Update.

John has been working on the guitar for me. Seems like one of the p90s is not working. He's adjusted the truss rod and got the intonation close using the stock wraparound bridge. He and I agreed the the tuners suck, so here is my question, in looking for replacements, I don't believe anything for Gibsons would fit, what do I search for? It seems like nobody specifies "for import", "for Epiphone", etc.

[charles]

I usually take a tuner off and go match it to the replacements. If your guitar is like mine it's got the sealed tuners with snot green plastic knobs, which are fairly easy to find (though I cannot remember if it's Grover, Kluson, or another maker that makes what you're after).

[Barry]

I think you'll find that tuners are sold according to their diameter rather than the make of the guitar. If memory serves, the Kluson style (a.k.a. "snot green") should be something like 10 mm and should be a drop in replacement.

If you're a *ahem* aggressive player you might want to consider a locking style machine head which will give you more stability. That probably means enlarging the holes which is easily done. Have a look at Sperzel or Gover (or a suitable clone) depending on your budget.