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I had a customer ask me to take a look at this electric guitar an "amp guy" did some work on. (if you couldn't tell by the size of cap he installed 😆) Seymour Duncan hsh pickup configuration. Is there any good or logical reason one would put the north start, finish and the south finish all on the same lug of a switch? The guitar plays but has more buzz on the hb settings than the single coil. I know how to rewire it to be more... traditi…

Just sharing some info to procrastinate my nth attempt at getting this thing together. and some venting. If you get one of these in with electronic issues, estimate high. Customer brought in a Gretsch Rally in pieces that he picked up from the last repairman (who died), and just wants it to play. Minor binding repair and a weirdly-angled zero fret were relatively easy to deal with. The dead electronics are the main problem.…

Hi - I’m purely a hobbyist, learning to rewire a stack of thrift shop guitars that I’ve rescued. Today’s project is an old TEISCO student model and the pickups have three wires. Green is grounded to the base. Red and black both wrapped against the coil. I know what to do with the ground and with one hot wire. What do I do with the second hot wire (red or black)? Thanks for helping a newcomer.

Hi, thanks for this great resource. This is my first post here. I work on my own instruments and have little experience with advanced repairs. Recently I acquired a ca. 78 Sigma DR28H. I bought it because it sounded great and came with a pickup installed. I wanted something for open mics and gigging. With light strumming it sounded fine but I found some buzzing when I took it to a jam. I made a nut and saddle , adjusted the truss…

Hello all, got a problem in a telecaster I rewired that has me in a twist. The basics: friend has a 2001 US Standard telecaster (left handed not that it matters). He bought it used and says it was quiet initially. A few years back he grabbed the pickups out of it and moved them to a new tele body with a torrefied maple neck he preferred. Recently he upgraded the new build with a Lollar CC tele set, and asked me to reinstall the original…

I didn’t recognize the pickups. Any idea who made them? Trying to nail down the color codes Images

I recently picked up a used custom guitar that the seller said he bought in Vietnam Nam many years ago. I bought it as a wall hanger due to the wonderful Mother of Pearl work, especially on the back. It was very apparent that the top on this instrument was sunken at least 3/8 of an inch, as the weird bridge setup was heightened to the max and there was barely any action height. Once I took it apart and removed the foam inside, I was…

Hello estimable friends, A very long-term friend of mine left us on Christmas Eve after a long illness. His sister tasked me with evaluating, restoring, and selling his stuff. Today I'm preparing to restore a 2008 Longhorn GOM to its original EMGs. Pulling out the humbuckers I see a Pearly Gates and… what looks like an original short-magnet PAF. Correct shape brass screws for the bobbins, UV light confirms sticker and tape, tooling mark…

I have an old epiphone archtop on my bench that I am struggling to get the neck off of. I think it's a 50's Zephyr (non cutaway, single NY pickup in neck position). Anyone have any experience with these? Is the neck not a dovetail joint? I'm no stranger to neck resets but this is putting up a fight as if it's been epoxied in place.

So, like an idiot, I got well into the installation of an Anthem pickup system when I realized that the soundhole braces on this guitar are effing Lincoln Logs. They're easily a quarter inch thick (and feel like basswood). Because the Anthem preamp is designed to straddle the soundhole brace, I can't fit it as-is. Anybody got any experience with this? OPTIONS THE CLIENT WOULD NEVER GO FOR (and wouldn't thrill me either): 1. Replace the bra…

Hello! I have an Ovation CP-100 pickup. Its unsoldered and I can't seem to get the pickup to work again. There wasn't a spacer either. Which doesn't make sense because if the hot is soldered to the copper strip and the ground to the housing channel, it would just ground out. Any experience getting these back together? Said pickup: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CP100--ovation-cp-100-thinline-pickup-cream -Mike

I have a customer with a 2018 Gibson SG special with mini-humbuckers who is complaining about the pickups being too hot (distorting their amp too easily). I took resistance readings and, to my surprise, the readings are very high. The neck humbucker (see photo) reads over 16kohm and the bridge reads 23kohm. From the specs I've seen, mini-hums more typically come in around 6-7kohms. Has anyone seen this with Gibson mini-hbs that appear t…

We install a lot of LR Baggs pickups, but nobody has ever gotten more excited about their new pickup than Andy Wood. If you don't know Andy, watch this fun video.

Hey all, I have a client who wants a fishman soundhole pickup and a k&k mini wired to a volume pot on a Martin 000. Both pickups are pre-wired to their dedicated output jack, so I know some splicing has to be done. I wanted to reach out and see if anyone has any tips or tricks on how to make this smooth sailing?