From the Home of Tone bench
An awesome Ferrari Yellow Super Strat for Ryan!
This was a wicked project to be part of. A great Home of Tone supporter, Ryan, mentioned he had a project in mind quite some time ago, making use of an old Mighty Mite maple neck he had for years, along with a HH super strat body he picked up for a good deal from Guitar Build. After some discussion over time, specs were decided on and parts were compiled, body was painted and it was time for me to get stuck into assembly for him.
I won't go into lots of detail of each step of the assembly, as I've covered a lot of the same kinds of things a number of times on the blog via other partscaster builds. But I'll share the photos nonetheless.
Very much an EVH inspired build, featuring some wicked parts, some of which I was lucky enough to supply as well as install, such as numerous Gotoh hardware items, the Vega-Trem bridge, Tesi Switch kill switch button and all of the wiring.
I won't go into lots of detail of each step of the assembly, as I've covered a lot of the same kinds of things a number of times on the blog via other partscaster builds. But I'll share the photos nonetheless.
Very much an EVH inspired build, featuring some wicked parts, some of which I was lucky enough to supply as well as install, such as numerous Gotoh hardware items, the Vega-Trem bridge, Tesi Switch kill switch button and all of the wiring.
Nick's custom Telecaster Deluxe!
This was the first job on the bench after a brief summer break with the family last month, Nick’s lovely Telecaster Deluxe. It came in for a setup, rewire, installation of new pickguard and to smooth the back of the neck. Nick asked me to rewire it for two reasons, resolve some niggling faults but also make it more suitable for his playing preferences. After going over some options we decided to move the toggle switch out of the way of the strumming area down to the pots instead. He complained of accidentally knocking the toggle switch in it's standard position, and wanted to take that hassle out of his gigging! He plays long sets in bands as well as his own solo wedding work so his guitars need to be reliable. So in moving the toggle out of the way and down to the main pots area, we needed to change to a master tone whilst still keeping the two volume pots. This way you can still do the cool Tele Deluxe kill switch effect by rolling one off etc.
A unique mod to an already versatile PJ bass
This was an interesting project to be part of. Repeat customer, Will, had added this Fender Player Plus MIM PJ bass 2nd hand to his collection and had started to make it his own, flatwounds, thumb-rest etc, but had found an area he wanted to improve upon.
Chris' Les Paul project
This has been a lovely project to be a part of for it's owner Chris. He fairly recently took ownership of this '90s Gibson Les Paul Standard burst, but it was rather sorry for itself. A too low cut top nut, insanely low action and 8 gauge strings left the playing experience, to put it bluntly, awful. Chris had decided it was worth saving though, and I agree, as even through those issues you could tell it was a resonant example. He had purchased a Faber tune-o-matic and a pair of 'Wizz' un-potted PAF humbuckers for it. So I was set with the task of fitting the pickups, installing one of my Signature Series 50s style wiring kits (pots section only), re-wiring the original switch and jack with some Gavitt 22awg traditional braided 2 conductor wire, removing the plastic top nut and replacing with an in house made unbleached bone nut and then setting it up on Stringjoy Broadway pure nickel 10 gauge strings. All went really well and I'm blown away by the results, it plays beautifully and is one of the most resonant LPs I've played in a long time. Here's some pics of the progress and the final beauty shots.
