New member, bringing a ED LP back to life

[charles]

Fishman Powerbridge Tune-O-Matic
Be aware that this is Nashville-style (note the posts)
http://www.fishman.com/products/details.asp?id=56
$169 US at 8th Street Music - hopefully even less elsewhere

There are also Strat & Tele style piezo-equipped bridges.

[gerry]

the dimarzios are wicked pickups. They might just be old and oxidized. The coil tap mini switch lets you switch between humbucker les paul sound and single coil fenner twang sound. Makes your guitar sound very versatile...

[aallen]

Humming and hawing.... I want that piezo, but that makes things expensive and complicated. I wish I had taken more care when dis-assembling the guitar so I could easily put the coil tap back in. Do you know where I can find a diagram?

[charles]

You might want to check out sites like Seymour Duncan and Dimarzio to see if they have wiring diagrams you can use.

[wolf]

First of all, rofl @ spray painting your goldtop black!!! Second, rofl @ trying to sand it off!!! When I read that, I seriously woke up my roomate laughing - I didn't realize how loud I was. I think it's awesome that you're trying to restore or even customize your axe. personally , I'd go for the piezo. About year ago, I saw an Epiphone Les Paul with what I think is a piezo right in between the neck and the neck pickup. it played and sounded sweet ( I had to try it) It gave quite a nice accoustic sound. I think it's a great idea using the switch for a piezo. As for the 33, I'm wondering if it might be the grade or type of wood used as a lot of wood grain gets covered by opaque paint. Where there's a will, thre's a way, man rock on and don'r give up on your project. I find these things help us find out a little more about ourselves the more we go along

[Barry]

First of all, rofl @ spray painting your goldtop black!!!...

Obviously a Rolling Stones victim: "I see a Goldtop and I want to paint it black!"

[aallen]

Okay so I have had some time to work on this thing. The body just needs a clear coat and then I can re-assemble. The red stain is okay but came out a little more purple than I expected. My daughter asked me why I was making a pink guitar. I think she thought for a moment it was for her. I hope the clear coat makes it a little less purple and more red.

[Barry]

Looks like it's coming along nicely.
A clear coat won't darken the colour, it'll "deepen" it, in a 3D sense, if you're using a gloss finish, or put a sheen on it if using a matte finish. But the essential colour won't change.

If you want tp darken red the best thing is to use its complementary color. Red's complement is green, so you can use a dark forest green in small amounts. But if you add too much it will turn brown. If you add blue, you'll end up with purple, and if you use black it'll be dirty and muddy!

I'm a little puzzled though as to why you appear to only be doing the top. My Epiphone LP Studio has a worn cherry matte red finish all over and it looks great.

[charles]

It's a little "Daisy Rock" with the pink... not that there's anything wrong with that

[aallen]

Wow I haven't been in here in a long time, and a fair bit of work has been done on this project. Life got in the way for a while but eventually I got back to it. Tinkered a little more with the wood dye until I was satisfied with the top colour. Got back in to my old praypaint antics and did the back and sides in a deep blue. Many clear coats. Put everything back together. And struggled, struggled and struggled again with the electronics. I'm really dreadful with solder, I don't tinker with `tronics very well at all. So feeling totally disgusted with myself, I put the project away again, though somewhere in there I added chrome pickup covers.

Last weekend I had a buddy (bandmate, bassist) over at my house, he asked how the project was coming along and after I told him the tale he offered to take a stab at the wiring. Must say I have more faith in his ability than mine. Anyhow, here are some shots from before I added the pickup covers. I hope to have this done soon.





Headstock has some nasty nicks

[Barry]

Hey thanks for the update and the pix. You've been busy!
I kinda like the red colour, but I think you would have had a more satisfying look if you had used one colour all over. You're never going to get a satisfactory break between the colours unless you have very accurate paint applicator equipment or you cover the join with a binding edge.

The headstock dings are relatively easy to fix. As a first step simply colour the raw wood using a permanent black marker pen. You can stop there if you want, otherwise, use the "drop fill" method to fill in the dents using cyanoacrylate (crazy glue). Lots of info on the 'net about how to do this.

[charles]

It's really coming along! Cream binding would look AMAZING between the red/purple top and blue back! That's a whole 'nother can of worms, though

[aallen]

My friend has re-done the wiring, put it back together and intonated it. He says it is working and sounds good. The only thing is he is finding that he doesn't hear much tonal variation with the tone pots. Any ideas? He lives on the other side of the GTA so I haven't got it back yet. And wouldn't you know band practise is cancelled this week.

[charles]

What value are the pots? You might want to change them out or maybe add some caps or something.

[aallen]

I believe all but one of the the pots are original, (500k, I guess). I replaced one because half of the top had broken off so It wouldn't hold a speed knob. I replaced it witha Gibson knob. I'll try the guitar for myself before I do anything, but next step might be new capacitors, orange drops? Thanks Charles.