Cort G250 HSS | Part 4

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Shielding Upgrades

The back of the pickguard has been covered completely with self-adhesive copper foil. Although this may seem like overkill, it gives me peace of mind. Moving on to the control cavity, two fresh coats of conductive paint have been applied. I've made doubly sure that every nook and cranny has been covered. After the first coat had dried, a strip of copper foil was installed, stretching from the control cavity wall, over the body; and into the middle pickup cavity. Only then was the second coat of paint applied. In this way, there should be adequate contact between the pickguard and control/pickup cavity shielding. A new brass ground lug and wire have also been installed. Now, we have a "Faraday Cage" of sorts.

Pickguard and Cavity Shielding Completed

New Brass Ground Lug

Hardware Matters

The two-point tremolo bridge was completely disassembled. Following this, the saddles, intonation screws, saddle height hex screws, and springs were given a good long soak in MultiLube. Meanwhile, the steel base plate, tremolo block and saddles were also cleaned and polished with Autosol. Finally, after a thorough beeswax lube job, the bridge was reassembled. I believe you'll agree that it looks a whole lot better now. And what of the stock tremolo claw and screws? Well, as these were beyond saving, they had to be replaced. Last but not least, the cruddy anodized black neck screws and bushings were also given the MultiLube spa treatment, along with the pickguard screws. This was followed by a good scrubbing, and while they don't look as good as new; they're fit enough to be reused.

Tremolo Bridge After Servicing

New Tremolo Claw and Screws

Revitalized Neck Screws and Bushings

Fretboard Conditioning

If you recall, the jatoba fretboard was chalky, dry and grungy. The frets themselves, meanwhile, were in dire need of cleaning and polishing. Lots of steel-wooling and Autosol soon got the frets up to snuff, but the fretboard was another matter. A good scrubbing with naphtha didn't do much, as all sorts of gunk was deeply embedded in the wood. So out came the razor blade, followed by lots of gentle scraping. This did the trick, but now there was a load of gunk-laden wood shavings to contend with. Once this had been blown off, the fretboard was lightly sanded to 1.2K, cleaned with naphtha, and conditioned with lemon oil.

Fretboard After Conditioning

Pickups

The pickups were given an upgrade, besides a thorough cleaning. Factory specs saw them fitted with mounting springs, all of which had begun to tarnish. For the bridge humbucker, two new mounting springs were installed, and these should last for a long time with proper care. As for the neck and middle single-coils, we decided to go all the way and install Fender-style latex pickup tubing. The positioning of the existing neck and middle pickups has also been changed. As the DCR of the middle pickup [5.20K] was much weaker than that of the neck pickup [7.03K], we decided to swap positions. The middle pickup [white and black leads] is now in the neck position, and neck [yellow and black leads]; in the middle. 

Latex Pickup Tubing and New Springs

Neck and Middle Pickups Switched

Electronics Upgrades

None of the factory installed components were retained. And so, the Alpha B500K mini volume pot, push-pull tone pot, Alpha 5P selector switch, and generic mono output jack were packed away in a sealed plastic bag for posterity. This made room for the upgrades, which included new wiring, two full-sized Alpha A500K pots, a Mallory 150M 0.022uF tone cap, Gotoh DM-50 pickup selector switch, and Switchcraft output jack. Kindly note that the push-pull tone pot has been replaced with an Alpha A500K pot. So there'll be no more pushing, pulling, or coil-splitting to worry about from now on.

Alpha Pots/Mallory Cap/Gotoh DM-50 Switch

Rewiring Completed

Switchcraft Output Jack

Switchcraft Jack Installed

The Home Stretch

With the electronics installed and rewiring completed, all that was left to do was reattach the neck, put on a fresh set of strings, and take care of setup. We used a set of PRS Classic 9-42s and set the tremolo to float with a gap of approximately 3/32" at the rear of the bridge. I would've liked to set it to Fender specs [1/8"], but the pivot posts were leaning forward slightly. I hope that reducing the gap by 1/32" will help the knife edges stay in place.

Ready for Setup

Conditioned Fretboard and PRS Strings

Gap of About 3/32 Inches