eldegas.com

Hi Guys from the beautiful Okanagan Valley in BC Canada.I work up in northern BC and happened into a guitar store in Dawson Creek BC. Hanging there was a white El Degas in filthy condition. It had gold hardware and the abalone Gibson head stock marker along with MOP fret markers. I took it down and felt the neck...awesome and straight as an arrow. Nice and low action already. Ran to the bank machine for $220. The owner said to bring it back when I get it fixed up. It had no case and I was lucky to find an unused Gibson USA LP case in Prince George Craigslist for $75.My friend in the Okanagan does masterful setups so took it to him when I went south to my home. He removed the clunky "steel nut" (with deep gooves) and built a hand made nut out of bone. Fret level,shaping, and intonation. New heavy duty 3 way switch. The main issue was a bad pickup that sounded out of phase and 1/2 volume. Craigslist had 2 Epiphone G400 Alnico 5 pickups for 30 bucks so bought them and installed at the same time. (the old pickups had #'s that ID the guitar as the 1975 range and were likely Maxons). 8 coats of lemon oil and the rosewood looks new and tight grained
When I finally got it home and plugged into my old Fender Twin....I was blown away. Sustain for days and such musicality. The transformation is truly magical. I love bringing life to instruments that were built by first class tradesmen.
I took it back uo north with me and to the music store. The owner was shocked at how beautiful it was. He plugged it in and played some seriously beautiful blues which I took video of. He could not belive how gorgeous it sounds. I was going to put Grover tuners on it as 1 machine head is missing its dust cover. He said do not change a thing. With all the big bends he made it stayed in perfect tune. I now agree...it will stay as is unless I find a dust cover
We hardly see El Degas in the west. All our old MIJ are 'Mann' Branded... brought in by West Coast Music Supply. I have a mint Mann LP Custom in cherry burst that is of equal or better quality. Its the same as a 1975 Ibanez 2350. Ibanez in the day was a white brand as well. They never actually made guitars.They just happened to succeed when others faded into the sunset. By the way, my ED has a plain "badge" neck plate with no MIJ on it. Who cares, its fantastic. My Mann has a MIJ regular neckplate
You cannot buy any Uncle Mats etc for this price anymore so if you see a nice El Degas Custom (or Mann)....jump all over it. Truly a steal. If you do not like the stock pups try Giovanni's on ebay. Look up Artecsound.com as well. Also Bill Lawrence at Wildepickups.com makes fabulous pups. The original master of pickup design for Gibson and Fender too. All these are very reasonable and great quality pickups....check em out. Bye for now

Thanks very much for sharing... but... where're the pics, and a link to the video?!?! Don't leave us hangin'!

Yeah, what Charles said! Pix!

Great story, thanks for taking the time to recount it. I was sad to hear that the original pickups were replaced. If they were Maxons they would have been very good. It sounds like you had a break in one of fine wires connecting the coils and you were, in essence, playing in "coil cut" mode. That can be repaired but it is tricky.

Dunno 'bout Epiphone replacements though?!

Thanks for the welcome.
My guitar tech said it was a difficult fix and beyond his scope as well. The shocker was how great the Epi pups bonded with the ED. I am sure a lot of it has to do with the cleaness of the Fender Twin too.....
Yes I will try and do the picture thing Charles but ....the pain boss... the pain. I am fricken challenged when it comes to posting pics. I do want to get the machine head tuners ID'd as they are half black and half gold. Never seen the likes of them.

I have tips here: http://www.eldegas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=45

Let me know if I can be of assistance.

Thanks Charles....you just were. I have a photobucket account and find it not bad at all. It was the transfer to the other boards that was tricky if you rarely do it. I'll get out the camera tomorrow. By the way did anyone tell you that you are awesome for the help you give and the effort you make to keep this site going. Awesome!

Thanks so much for your encouragement. I enjoy being a help to people looking to find out more about these instruments and share the ones they own & love.

Pics u say. Check out the tuners...any idea what brand. Also note a neat twist with shaping the pickguard. First time I ever saw that. Quite imaginative don't you think. Obviously I never did it. LOL....Jeff

The pickguard and tuners are both non-original, but I happen to think they both look pretty great!

Charles...Any idea what brand of tuners they are as I would like to find a dust cover for the missing one. They stay in tune well so I would prefer not to have to put new Grovers on her

That pick guard is weird, eh? Dunno if I like it or not.
I think your chances of finding a replacement dust cover much less identifying the machine heads is about slim to nil. If they're doing their job best to leave 'em alone. They do appear to be period correct though, no? Hmm...

Your only hope of the dust cover may be to just take the guitar to various techs and see if they have any dust covers kicking around in a miscellaneous-parts drawer...

Thanks guys...I will start looking for a cover ...but the needle in the haystack comes to mind. I am in the honeymoon stage with this guitar so I will just play and enjoy. Eventually the other 'girls' Hanging in the room will want their 'G' strings pulled too. Later!!