Manchester Guitar Tech
Ozzy Lister – guitar and bass repair
Marty sent me some pictures of his Mexican Strat refinish that he’d done. Marty wrote:
“Thought I would share my before, during and after pix of my lefty strat. I must say the paint and advice was spot on – has a beautiful almost factory finish that I’m now reluctant to relic! Thanks again for the help and advice – couldn’t have done it without you.”
Marty bought just one can each of White Primer, Surf Green and Clear Gloss nitrocellulose lacquers, plus a tack cloth and some abrasive papers.
As you can see below, the transformation from Wine Red polyurethane to Surf Green nitrocellulose is perfect.
Surf Green Stratocaster old finish
Surf Green Stratocaster stripped
Surf Green Stratocaster primed
Surf Green Stratocaster finished
Following on from the “70s Bass Extravaganza” earlier this year I have two early 80s basses in for set up this week.
Gibson Grabber Bass
1982 Gibson Ripper Bass
The first is a lovely 1982 Gibson Grabber Bass. It was suffering from uneven frets and a rising tongue caused by some unwise heavy shimming of the neck with a Benson & Hedges cigarette packet.
I dressed the frets and also cut down the saddle height screws which even with the greater neck pitch were way too high and sharp, making palm muting a dangerous activity and rather painful!
The remarkable thing about this guitar (apart from the clever sliding pickup) is that it is one of the lightest basses I have ever played. It is solid maple of course and maple is normally a very dense wood but this bass is feather light.
Kramer XKB-10 Bass
Kramer XKB-10 Bass
The Kramer XK series was introduced in 1980 and discontinued the following year so this is a pretty rare bass.
It was suffering from a misaligned neck which was an easy fix.
Unfortunately aluminium-necked Kramers didn’t get an adjustable truss rod. Just about every bass I have seen has had a bowed neck and this one was no exception.
The DiMarzio humbucking pickup is naturally high-output and really pushes an amp.
As you’d expect, this bass is almost impossible to play when sitting down!
Telecaster style guitar with 3 TV Jones pickups
Here’s another recent build, again with a body from Phil at GuitarBuild.co.uk.
This time it’s a commission for a customer, using a supplied neck.
The pickups are from TV Jones, with two “Classics” in neck and bridge and a “Magnatron” in the middle position, selected by a 5-way switch. Each pickup has its own volume control with phase on a push/push pot and there is a master tone, plus a mini toggle switch that brings in the bridge pickup, for extra combinations. All in all, a lot of nice sounds to be had.
The bridge is the Jaguar/Jazzmaster type that rocks on pins so should allow the guitar to stay in tune when the Bigsby Vibrato is used.
The finish was achieved using my Clear Amber, Tobacco Brown and Black nitrocellulose lacquers. The black was only applied to the very edge, with a slight bleed over the front and back.