ESP LTD M-10 Electric Guitar: Part Two

Quick Links: Part One | Part Two | Part Three

In the previous post, we took a long, hard look at this ESP LTD M-10. Yes, there was lots that needed to be done, and in this post; I'll show you exactly what I did. The very first step was putting 0000 steel wool, 3M Flexible Polishing Papers and Autosol Metal Polish to work. Of course, there was also lots of elbow grease involved.

The most challenging task was separating the frozen bridge stud from its bushing. I'm glad to report that alternately heating the bushing with a mini-blowtorch and "shock cooling" in water finally did the trick. Thorough scrubbing with a steel-bristled brush got rid of any corrosion and caked-on gunk, and after a good lubing; everything was fine and dandy.

The pickups? Yes, they were actually Belcats in disguise. On the plus side, the pickup and control cavities were adequately shielded with conductive shielding paint. However, as I've noticed on other ESP LTDs; grounding tabs were missing. That being the case, I wired in new ground tabs terminating in the control cavity wall; with a jumper cable soldered to the back of a pot. Also added a piece of conductive self-adhesive copper tape to ensure good contact with the foil shield on the back of the control cavity cover.

New electronics comprised new Alpha A500K pots, a 3-way switch, 0.022uF poly film cap; and Neutrik/Rean NYS229 output jack. I've tested the electronics sans neck and strings, and everything seems to be working well. Got a set of Ernie Ball Super Slinkys (009-042) at the ready for the next step; which should be restring and setup. But that will have to wait until tomorrow, at least. Till then, stay home, stay safe, wear a mask; and avoid crowded places.

Custom Neck-Through Tele Rehab: Part Three

Quick Links:    Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

Well, let's see here. I've already refinished this Tele in Tru-Oil and installed the electronics. Now it's time to string it up and do a proper setup for maximum playability. Easier said than done, huh?

The maple fretboard's already as straight as an arrow, so I reckon there won't be much truss rod tweaking needed. So on goes the Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys, I tune up, and then realize the first issue: excessively-high action at the nut. Boy, are you going to have problems fretting barre chords such as F or Bb major!

In case you're wondering just how I determine nut action, it's pretty simple. With the guitar tuned to pitch, press any string at the 3rd fret and eyeball the distance between the bottom of that string and the top of the first fret. There should only be a tiny gap, a hair's width; one might say. I know there are more scientific ways to measure the gap using feeler gauges and what not; but eyeballing it works just fine for me. If there's just a tiny sliver of light shining through; you'll be good to go.

Anyway, out come the fret and torch nozzle files; and away we go. Now I've lowered the nut action to where I like it, the strings are sitting way too deep in their slots. And then there's the fact that this bone nut is really gnarly and needs a face lift. A nut reprofile job should kill these two birds with one stone, methinks.

I start by filing the top of the nut down to where about half the diameter of the wound strings are visible, and then do a cleanup and polish with successively finer grits of 3M Flexible Polishing Papers. I really like these polishing papers as they're flexible, durable; and offer a degree of control you won't get with regular sandpaper.

So now the nut's been taken care of. The fretboard's still relatively flat with the strings tuned up; and there's only the tiniest bit of relief in the 7th to 9th fret area. Nice, but fretting any string at the 21st and 22nd frets produces the same note. This means that the 22nd fret is way too high -- when you fret a note at the 21st fret, it's actually fretting at the 22nd!

The solution is to do a really minor fret dress on just the 22nd fret to lower it. I do just that; problem solved. Of course there's lots of fine sanding and polishing to do after lowering the fret height; but that's life. I've finally got the action and intonation just right, so I'm calling it a day on this job. Here's a YouTube video of yours truly trying out this Tele straight into my Fender Champion 40, no effects; no nuthin.