RC Stromm LG-1 Solidbody

Kids today are so lucky! We never had a music room or bona fide music lessons in school back in the '60s and '70s. But I guess times have changed. This RC Stromm solidbody lives in the music room of a local primary school and them lucky kids get to play it. It was brought in recently by the school's music teacher, who asked for a string change, setup, fretboard reconditioning and nut work. Seems that the nut slots had been cut a little too narrow and deep at the factory, and thus were "pinching" the strings; if you know what I mean.

A closer examination revealed other issues which included a dry rosewood fretboard, excessively-high action; and insufficient neck pitch. After the old strings were removed, the frets were cleaned and polished; and the fretboard reconditioned with lemon oil. One thing I really like about this fretboard is the comfortable 14" radius and above-average fretwork on the medium-jumbo frets. No sharp fret ends here!

Following this, the neck itself was removed and a neck pocket shim added to increase neck pitch. After reattaching the neck, the guitar was strung with Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys (010-046); and then the really tricky nut work began. The nut slots were widened slightly and the top of the nut itself reprofiled so that about half of the wound strings were exposed. The truss rod was also gradually tightened over a day, and I'm glad that I finally managed to get the neck relatively straight; with a just a smidgen of relief.

Setting the saddles to match the fretboard radius and intonating them was relatively painless, thanks to the smooth-turning saddle height and intonation screws. Of course, the saddles had been prepped beforehand with my tried-and-trusted lube; Singer Machine Oil. 

I guess that's all for this post. Thank you for taking the time off your busy schedules to pay my humble blog a visit. Do drop by again real soon, by which time I should have more tales of my adventures in the world of guitar repair to share; and more pics for you to enjoy. Stay healthy, stay safe; and God bless you :)

ESP LTD M-10 Electric Guitar: Part Three

Quick Links: Part One | Part Two | Part Three

In Part One of this series, we identified the main issues that needed to be addressed whilst tackling this ESP LTD M-10 repair/restoration/upgrade job. Next, in Part Two, I proceeded to handle the various tasks involved in getting this guitar back into shape again; so to speak.

Since then, I've restrung the guitar with Ernie Ball Super Slinkys and given it a proper set up. Loosened the truss rod to give the fretboard a smidgen of relief; as it was as straight as an arrow even under string tension. The action was also unplayably high even with the bridge posts screwed all the way down. 

This problem was solved by inserting a shim in the neck pocket below the neck heel. For more information about modifying neck angle/pitch via shims, check out this enlightening Premier Guitar article by John LeVan.

You know, I've never really gotten into the specs of this ESP LTD M-10. So, here we go. Can't determine what material was used to construct the body; but it seems to be three pieces of solid wood. The bolt-on neck is definitely maple, and the fretboard; rosewood. 

The fretboard features a 22.5" scale, 12" radius (I measured), 22 nicely-dressed jumbo frets, dot inlays; and an attractive pearloid 12th fret inlay etched with the characters "M-10." The contoured and slanted neck/body bolt-on joint is less obtrusive than most; and makes playing the highest frets not at all uncomfortable.

Hardware is some kind of black-plated metal. I think ESP should have stuck to simple nickel or chrome-plated hardware. It's quite obvious that the black plating wears off and tarnishes easily; making cleanup extremely time-consuming. Meanwhile, stringing is through-body, and the bridge; a generic tune-o-matic clone. That would be just about all I've noted about the M-10.  

In this third and final installment, I'll share with you a couple pics of this rejuvenated M-10. I've also uploaded a YouTube video of owner Zinuun Tojid trying out his axe. Do give it a view. Thanks for dropping by, and hope to see you again real soon :)