Harley Benton MB-20BK Electric Guitar Gets Some Help | Part 2

◀ Part 1

Conditioning the Fretboard

At the end of Part 1, I'd gotten the amaranth fretboard on this Harley Benton MB-20BK as clean as I could. Now it was time to condition it with some lemon oil. Here's the fretboard after the first application of this most wondrous elixir.

Amaranth Fretboard Conditioned With Lemon Oil

The Result After One Application

Matters of Shielding - It's a Wrap

You've already seen how the control and pickup cavities were shielded with conductive graphite paint. All well and good, and now it was time to ground the shielding in both pickup cavities to each other, and also to the control cavity shielding. To this end, three lengths of 22AWG stranded wire and two copper lugs were employed, as seen in the pic below. 

Shielding in Both Pickup Cavities Connected

Subsequent testing with an ohmmeter confirmed connectivity, much to my delight. For added insurance, I also laid down a strip of copper foil in the control cavity. This conductive strip would enhance connectivity between the chassis of the pots and switch, control cavity shielding, and also the back of the control cavity cover.

Checking Pickup Cavity Shielding Connectivity

Checking Pickup Cavity to Control Cavity Ground

Added Insurance - Copper Foil Strip

Wiring in Upgraded Components

With shielding work concluded, I could now wire in the Alpha A500K pots, Epiphone toggle switch, K73-16 0.022uF tone cap; and Switchcraft output jack socket. 22AWG unshielded stranded wire was used for chassis to chassis grounding, as well as the toggle switch hot to volume pot input connection. For the volume pot to output jack connection, however, I used a length of shielded coaxial cable.

Upgraded Components Wired In

Switchcraft Output Jack Wired In

Rewiring Concluded - Lots of Smudges

To the Finish Line

Shielding and rewiring left the gloss black body of this Harley Benton MB-20BK in quite a mess, with thumb prints and smudge marks all over the place. Another round of cleaning and polishing was definitely on the cards, and here is the MB-20BK body after my best efforts.

Body and Hardware After Polishing

After reattaching the neck to the body, this guitar was strung with a set of Dunlop DEN 10/46 strings, as per Amirul's request. Setup proceeded rather smoothly, save for a minor hiccup with regard to neck relief. Fret buzz made itself known from the first to third frets, especially on the D, A and Low E; indicating insufficient neck relief. Loosening the truss rod about a quarter turn solved this problem, thankfully. 

MB-20BK is Good to Go

Close-Up of the Amaranth Fretboard

Close-Up of the Headstock

Amirul Trying Out His Upgraded MB-20BK