Chris of Arabia
Desert RATT
Once upon a time (not too many weeks ago), you saw this...
It played nicely enough for the price, but the bridge was crap (string slots the depth of the Grand Canyon), and it had that rather tacky 'aged' effect on all the metal parts. Well I had ideas...
In recent weeks, it's been an almost permanent resident on the bench awaiting a few new bits. Said bits arrived a couple of weeks back and have steadily been fitted and adjusted. It's worth pointing out that a guitar of such low cost manufacture in no way justifies what has been done to it, or the time and expense incurred in the process - hence the title, but it was fun. I've never tried taking the components and wiring our of a semi-acoustic before, or more to the point getting them back in. Succeed I have though and so far, the results are good. Without more ado then, here are a list of what's been worked on and replaced:
It now looks like this
Looks better huh?
So, job's a good 'un... Actually, it may be cheap, but it does actually play rather nicely. I still think I may need to tinker with dialling the pickup height in, but so far it sounds pretty good.
It played nicely enough for the price, but the bridge was crap (string slots the depth of the Grand Canyon), and it had that rather tacky 'aged' effect on all the metal parts. Well I had ideas...
In recent weeks, it's been an almost permanent resident on the bench awaiting a few new bits. Said bits arrived a couple of weeks back and have steadily been fitted and adjusted. It's worth pointing out that a guitar of such low cost manufacture in no way justifies what has been done to it, or the time and expense incurred in the process - hence the title, but it was fun. I've never tried taking the components and wiring our of a semi-acoustic before, or more to the point getting them back in. Succeed I have though and so far, the results are good. Without more ado then, here are a list of what's been worked on and replaced:
- Pickups replaced with Seymour Duncan 'Seth Lovers'
- New wiring harness installed using CTS pots and Orange Drop caps
- Bridge and tailpiece replaced with new nickel plated components (still not too sure about the bridge, but the tailpiece is a nice Gotoh job)
- Tuners replaced with Grover 18:1 ratio jobs
- Cheap plastic nut replaced with a pre-slotted bone one
- Strap buttons replaced with larger PRS style chrome buttons (they didn't have nickel, but it's near enough)
- Fingerboard cleaned and frets polished
- New D'Addario 10-46 strings & a complete set-up
It now looks like this
Looks better huh?
So, job's a good 'un... Actually, it may be cheap, but it does actually play rather nicely. I still think I may need to tinker with dialling the pickup height in, but so far it sounds pretty good.
