2020 Epiphone Les Paul Muse - Part 3

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9 Hardware Servicing

As most of the hardware on this 2020 Epiphone Les Paul Muse is either dusty, tarnished, cruddy or grimy, major servicing is in order. Metallic hardware will be disassembled, cleaned, polished, and lubed where necessary. Plastic hardware, meanwhile, should be looking much better after a good clean and polish.

Hardware Disassembled for Servicing

Pickups and Toggle Switch Unplugged

Tuning Machines After Servicing

Bridge and Tailpiece After Servicing

Humbucker Covers Cleaned and Polished

Smaller Components After Servicing

10 Fretboard and Frets

I've checked the frets after straightening the neck, and they're nice and level. They're badly tarnished, though, and this will be dealt with accordingly. As for the Indian Laurel fretboard, it looks like it's never been cleaned. Embedded grime and crud is evident on the fretboard surface, inlays, and binding.

Cleaning and Polishing the Frets

Cleaning the Fretboard

Conditioning the Fretboard

11 Electronics

Initial checks indicated that while both humbuckers were functioning normally, all was not well with the toggle switch, bridge tone control, and output jack. The toggle switch made loud clunky noises, the bridge tone control did not do anything, and the output jack was really crackly. After servicing all connections and components with electrical contact cleaner, the bridge tone control and output jack are functioning as they should. The toggle switch, however, is still too noisy, and needs to be replaced.

The Faulty Toggle Switch

Replacement Toggle Switch

Faulty Switch Desoldered - 1

Faulty Switch Desoldered - 2

Replacement Switch Wired In - 1

Replacement Switch Wired In - 2