Frankenstrat Partscaster Build

I was handed the components for this partscaster build in a cardboard box, no kidding. The beat-up natural-finished body was solid wood capped with an ash-like veneer on the front and back. The body cavities appeared to be shielded with conductive paint, but further inspection revealed that it was just plain old black paint.

The preloved 22-fret maple neck was scalloped and sported a '70s-style big headstock. Those decals? They were already on there when I got the neck. It was clearly another one of those notorious Chinese "replica" necks. Don't nobody sue me now, you hear? I just put parts together so my clients can have a guitar to play on.

The client had provided me with a battered white pickguard, new Chinese single-coil pickups with cream covers; and replica vintage-style tremolo bridge with bent steel (read: pot metal) saddles. Putting everything together took a very long time, with "measure ten times, drill once" being the word of the day. Basically, the whole process mirrored what I went through on the Candlewood Strat Kit Build.

The bottom of the pickguard was shielded with aluminium foil, and body cavities with conductive carbon paint. New electronic components included Alpha A250K pots, a K73-16 0.022uF cap, generic five-way selector switch; and NYS229 output jack socket. This guitar was strung with 10s, and required a little truss rod tweaking and neck pocket shim to get it playing like it should.

Marshall MG100HDFX Master Volume Pot Replacement

No, I don't usually work on amps except when it's just a minor job such as replacing a pot or jack socket. Which happened to be the case with this Marshall MG100HDFX 100W head. The Alpha C5K master volume pot was really wonky and kept making all sorts of weird hissing and modulated alienoid noises even after normal servicing. So it was definitely time to put it out to pasture. Had a hard time finding a replacement, I tell you. In the end, I managed to find one advertised on Reverb by an electronics store in Spain. Yes, made in Taiwan, but I had to get it all the way from Spain. The new pot's splined shaft head was a bit longer than that of the original one, but it still fit the knob ok. Thank goodness the weird hissing and noises disappeared after this minor surgery; and the amp was working as it should again.

Taylor 150e 12-String Dreadnought Bridge Repair

This post details how I went about repairing the lifting bridge on a Taylor 150e 12-String Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar featured in a previous post. First of all, let me share with you that a lifting, or completely popped-off bridge is not an uncommon occurrence where acoustic guitars are concerned. And it doesn't only happen to the cheaper no-name ones; even those from big names are not spared.

The main cause of this malady is, as I see it; lacquer or varnish under the bridge. On lots of guitars I've repaired, the area under the bridge was not lacquer-free. In fact, there was no difference between this area and the rest of the top (soundboard). So, in effect, since the bridge was initially glued on, the glue on the bottom surface of the bridge had been adhering to a thin layer of lacquer/varnish; and not wood.

Given this scenario, it would only be a matter of time before string tension proved too strong for the thin layer of finish to handle, and the bridge would pull off the soundboard, taking with it a couple slivers of spruce; or whatever wood the soundboard was made from.

For a strong and long-lasting cohesion between the bridge and top, the bridge must be glued to bare wood. This can be achieved by taping off the area that would be under the bridge before applying lacquer or varnish (ie finish) to the top. Then, it would be a simple process of removing the tape, and gluing on the bridge. But perhaps this process consumes too much time, labor and dinero; hence the reluctance on the part of certain manufacturers to do it right.

On this particular Taylor 12-string, the majority of the bridge bottom-soundboard contact area was free of varnish. However, they'd retained a narrow band of varnish all around the inner perimeter of the bottom of the bridge. I guess that this was done for aesthetic reasons, ie to eliminate a visible "border" between the perimeter of the bridge and the varnish on the soundboard.

All fine and dandy, except for the fact that while the main area of the bridge bottom had been firmly glued to the bare spruce top, the perimeter had merely been glued to the varnish. That's a sure recipe for disaster! And so, string tension, compounded by a "bulging belly;" finally caused the bridge to lift from the soundboard.

After meticulously scoring the outline of the bridge (to minimize finish chipping), I carefully prised the bridge loose with a heated spatula. Much to my surprise, the bridge came off without much ado. Following this, I carefully scraped the old glue and varnish off the exposed wood, and leveled the area with sandpaper. I also scraped and sanded the bottom of the bridge clean of any glue or spruce remnants, made sure it was absolutely flat; and roughed it up a little with 180-grit sandpaper.

Now, since the Taylor was also suffering from a bulging belly aka acoustic belly bulge, I needed to address this problem before regluing the bridge. I'm happy to say that two few weeks of of humidifying, dehumidifying, and judicious clamping got the soundboard sufficiently flat again (I checked with a spirit level).

That having been taken care of, it was time to reglue the bridge with Titebond III Ultimate Wood Glue. A dry test run was carried out with suitable cauls and clamps so I would know exactly what to do before any glue was applied. As it turned out, I needed four StewMac Soundhole Clamps for the job.

I dispensed with the original tiny plastic bridge locating pins since they were terribly bent out of shape. Instead, I used two old bridge pins to ensure the bridge was properly aligned and positioned.The clamps stayed on until the glue squeeze-out turned brown, indicating that the Titebond III had dried and cured completely.

Once the clamps were off, it was time to clean up dried glue squeeze-out and any residue. There was also the extremely tedious task of cleaning dried glue from twelve bridge pin holes, as well as three holes for the ES2 pickup sensors. The repaired areas were then waxed with Birchwood Casey Gun Stock Wax, and gently buffed.

I also treated the bridge to some Dunlop Formula 65 Fretboard Ultimate Lemon Oil as it was looking kind of dry and thirsty. The fretboard was cleaned and rejuvenated with the same magic oil; and the frets polished to a high lustre. As per the owner's instructions, this Taylor 150e was strung to pitch with a set of Elixir 11152 Nanoweb Lights. I also sanded the bottom of the saddle a tad to reduce the action at the bridge slightly.

2008 Daphne Blue Squier Deluxe Stratocaster Upgrade

I'd seen this delightful Indonesian 2008 Daphne Blue Squier Deluxe Stratocaster brand-new in the hands of its very first owner many years ago. I also remember being blown away by the superb fit and finish, playability and totally stratalicious tones it was capable of. Since then it had changed hands a couple times; finally landing at my doorstep in none too good condition. The current owner is a gigging musician, and wanted it upgraded for live use. But first, let's take a look at some specifications:

Neck: Maple/C-shaped profile/satin finish
Fretboard: Maple/25.5" scale/9.5" radius/22 medium frets
Pickups: Three Duncan Designed™ SC101 single-coils
Electronics: Master volume/two tones/five-way switching
Hardware: Two-point synchronized tremolo bridge with block saddles
Noteworthy: Parchment pickguard and aged white control knobs

Cosmetics-wise, the aged white knobs and naturally-aged parchment pickguard were absolutely fine. We did, however, replace the stock "Duncan Designed" pickup covers with StewMac aged white ones. The three SC101 pickups are unique in that the coils are copper-tape shielded and grounded to reduce noise. A cool touch indeed, methinks.

Meanwhile, the control cavity components weren't anything to write home about, and to make matters worse; someone had messed around with the wiring at some point in time. Thus said, I was asked to gut the innards and put in new Alpha A250K pots, a K73-16 0.022uF cap, and NYS229 output jack socket. Gavitt wire was used for this rewiring job. The Strat was strung with 10s, given a final setup; and delivered to the owner.

YouTube Video: Demo by Aduka Sariat

References
Squier Guitars Serial Number Decoder
Music Makers Web