I have been doing a lot of work clearing out the garage early in the mornings about three times a week instead of working on guitars much. I will have to post a pic of the garage after I am done with the clearing and again when I get the workshop set up. I also have been doing work on guitar amps, mostly speaker swaps and changing out filter capacitors. The last couple days I have taken a break from that and spent some time with a Epiphone Les Paul Junior. That is the one I got from either Goodwill or the Salvation Army, can't remember which.
It was in fairly good shape compared to some I have picked up. I did change out the electronics with quality components. Upgraded tuners, nut, and bridge. Also took out the humbucker that was in it. In my mind a Junior needs a P90, which it now has. Guitar Fetish, where I get a lot of my pickups, makes a nice old school P90 in humbucker format. So I did not have to do any router work on the body. The fingerboard had some strange gray/green stuff in the pores. Some isopropyl alcohol, a toothbrush, and LOTS of elbow grease finally cleaned that out. There were also a LOT of rockers all along the frets, so it got a level, crown, and polish. Finished putting it all back together and stringing it up last night. My experience on these entry level guitars has been that the fret work, or lack thereof, is the main issue with them.
This morning I grabbed the Memphis bass neck I started working on a while back and hammered some new frets in. I will get around to nipping the ends, leveling the frets and then crown and polish in the next day or two (hopefully). This neck has some really nice wood in the fretboard.
It was in fairly good shape compared to some I have picked up. I did change out the electronics with quality components. Upgraded tuners, nut, and bridge. Also took out the humbucker that was in it. In my mind a Junior needs a P90, which it now has. Guitar Fetish, where I get a lot of my pickups, makes a nice old school P90 in humbucker format. So I did not have to do any router work on the body. The fingerboard had some strange gray/green stuff in the pores. Some isopropyl alcohol, a toothbrush, and LOTS of elbow grease finally cleaned that out. There were also a LOT of rockers all along the frets, so it got a level, crown, and polish. Finished putting it all back together and stringing it up last night. My experience on these entry level guitars has been that the fret work, or lack thereof, is the main issue with them.
This morning I grabbed the Memphis bass neck I started working on a while back and hammered some new frets in. I will get around to nipping the ends, leveling the frets and then crown and polish in the next day or two (hopefully). This neck has some really nice wood in the fretboard.
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