Japanese Tele electronics overhaul

You may remember this Tele from January ~ I finally convinced the owner to let me change the electronics under the control plate!  The original set was perfectly functional, but hearing the guitar a few live shows convinced me that there was more that the pickups had to offer.

These original components are made of rather thin metal.  The selector lever was prone to bending and with the contacts of the switch itself contained in a plastic casing, it has a tendency to become scratchy after regular use.

The volume and tone controls also required regular cleaning and often loosened off.  They thought enough to install a treble bleed capacitor on the volume pot, but to do that job properly also requires a resistor.  I also wanted to change the capacitor between the volume and tone to one that would smooth out the higher frequencies.

The new assembly ~ complete with treble bleed, and orange drop .22uf capacitor and a no-load tone pot which essentially bypasses the tone control and capacitor when on 10, making the pickups sound like they're wired straight to the jack!

A rather inexpensive upgrade for these guitars that pays dividends in tone!  Also a much more economical solution than replacing the pickups, which were made to original specs for this reissue series of Tele.  The original, chrome coated plastic control knobs were also replaced with a heavier nickel plated brass set, so the overall feel as well as the sound of these new components is of much better quality.

1997 Gibson Blueshawk

My apologies for the photo quality ~ had to use my phone for this one!
Here is a seldom seen gem from the Gibson catalogue.  These were part of the Nighthawk series of the late '90's that for some reason were discontinued, likely because they just weren't "Les Paul" enough for folks at the time.  Regardless, they are top quality instruments that sound incredible and can be had for a very reasonable price.  Apparently they are reissuing the design under the Epiphone brand.

This particular one is all stock and plays like a dream!  It's equipped with the Gibson Veritone 6-way switch that can be bypassed by pulling up on the push-pull tone knob.  The owner wanted that option reversed, so the Veritone is off when the tone knob is down.  It's also due for a set-up.

A push-pull tone knob (the component on the left of the pictured control cavity) is nothing more than a simple toggle switch attached to a potentiometer using a common shaft.  The requested mod required moving the brown wire coming off the Veritone switch (bottom component) from the bottom connectors of the push-pull toggle to the top connectors.  It took longer to warm-up the soldering iron!

1997 Fender California Series Strat

These guitars were made only for one year, with every part being produced in the U.S. as usual, then shipped to Mexico for assembly.  Note the "California Series" on the headstock.  This particular one is a fantastic player's Strat, so it needed a fret dress and some minor soldering repair.

The lacquer on the neck and fretboard is showing typical signs of wear, with blistering and chipping in the high traffic areas.  This certainly adds to the character of this guitar, proving many hours of play have been logged!

The owner complained of a problem with the jack cutting out.  Looking at the soldering on the jack showed why ~ two cold solder joints that had worked themselves loose.  I suspect at some point someone soldered the wires on while the jack plate was still attached.  This would cause too much heat to be drawn away from the contact points through the plate, meaning the connection wasn't made hot enough to meld with the solder.  You can see in both photos the result of a bad soldering job.  With the jack plate removed while the soldering gun heated up, this was a quick and easy fix.