JacksonMIA
Lemur-buckerologist
Well, lets see. I bought the guitar on New Years Eve, so I've had seven full months to do this. I'm not doing too bad. :smack:
Anyway, I bought the guitar from a local pawn shop for $50. It was hideous; faded white paint, stickers all over, strings that had never been changed, and a home-modified strap with spikes like a dog collar. Normally I would have dismissed the guitar without a second glance, but the neck caught my eye. It had a beautiful-patterned maple neck, and upon playing it I discovered that even with the old strings it played remarkably well.
Would you have bought this guitar?
So I took it home thinking, "this neck is worth a couple hundred dollars, so why not give the rest of it a shot." I was originally considering buying a body kit from Warmoth, but I figured this might be a better start. I plugged it into Luke's Vibro-Champ to see how it sounded. It seriously needed new strings, but considering that, it didn't sound too bad - about what I expected from an old, abused American guitar. I'm a humbucker man, so I knew before I heard it that the pickups would have to be changed, but they would have been alright if I wanted single coils and didn't want to spend any money. I've heard people do a lot more with a lot less.
After sticker removal.
The next step was stripping the stickers and paint. The stickers peeled off the neck with no problems (whew!!!) and it cleaned up quite nicely. Upon stripping the body, I found that the guitar was actually built from six pieces of wood: four main sections and two veneers. I'm still not certain what type of wood it is, but I was told by a local guitar store owner who used to deal in Predators before they went overseas that it is alder. Despite the piecing together, it looks really good. The grains are very well defined - something that leads me to believe it may not be alder. Nevertheless, I cleaned it up and shot it with some clear polyurethane.
I thought I had some pictures before I put any hardware on. Oh well.
I decided to go with all black hardware. The neck plate and truss rod plate were black and the nut was graphite, but everything else had to be replaced. My friends (including Luke - Thanks again) pitched in and bought me planet waves tuners for my birthday, and I purchased the other parts and a new black pickguard for about $200. Next came the pickups: a Cool Rails for the neck (upon Luke's recommendation that a HR might be too bassy in the neck), a Hot Rails for the middle, and a Custom Custom for the bridge. I also got a mini toggle from Radio Shack to split the CC.
I got it all assembled and soldered together, plugged it in, and voila...It worked! First try. I checked the split bridge position for noise (I didn't shield it beyond the factory shielding on the pickups and pickguard), and I found there was not a serious noise problem. At low levels, it is impercieveable. I took it to another guitar store and had the intonation and everything set up professionally. I "knew" how to do it, but I wanted to make sure it was done correctly the first time. I'll be doing it myself from now on.
I've commented on the pups in several threads, and they're pretty common, so I'll wait on a pup review for now.
Anyway, I bought the guitar from a local pawn shop for $50. It was hideous; faded white paint, stickers all over, strings that had never been changed, and a home-modified strap with spikes like a dog collar. Normally I would have dismissed the guitar without a second glance, but the neck caught my eye. It had a beautiful-patterned maple neck, and upon playing it I discovered that even with the old strings it played remarkably well.
Would you have bought this guitar?
So I took it home thinking, "this neck is worth a couple hundred dollars, so why not give the rest of it a shot." I was originally considering buying a body kit from Warmoth, but I figured this might be a better start. I plugged it into Luke's Vibro-Champ to see how it sounded. It seriously needed new strings, but considering that, it didn't sound too bad - about what I expected from an old, abused American guitar. I'm a humbucker man, so I knew before I heard it that the pickups would have to be changed, but they would have been alright if I wanted single coils and didn't want to spend any money. I've heard people do a lot more with a lot less.
After sticker removal.
The next step was stripping the stickers and paint. The stickers peeled off the neck with no problems (whew!!!) and it cleaned up quite nicely. Upon stripping the body, I found that the guitar was actually built from six pieces of wood: four main sections and two veneers. I'm still not certain what type of wood it is, but I was told by a local guitar store owner who used to deal in Predators before they went overseas that it is alder. Despite the piecing together, it looks really good. The grains are very well defined - something that leads me to believe it may not be alder. Nevertheless, I cleaned it up and shot it with some clear polyurethane.
I thought I had some pictures before I put any hardware on. Oh well.
I decided to go with all black hardware. The neck plate and truss rod plate were black and the nut was graphite, but everything else had to be replaced. My friends (including Luke - Thanks again) pitched in and bought me planet waves tuners for my birthday, and I purchased the other parts and a new black pickguard for about $200. Next came the pickups: a Cool Rails for the neck (upon Luke's recommendation that a HR might be too bassy in the neck), a Hot Rails for the middle, and a Custom Custom for the bridge. I also got a mini toggle from Radio Shack to split the CC.
I got it all assembled and soldered together, plugged it in, and voila...It worked! First try. I checked the split bridge position for noise (I didn't shield it beyond the factory shielding on the pickups and pickguard), and I found there was not a serious noise problem. At low levels, it is impercieveable. I took it to another guitar store and had the intonation and everything set up professionally. I "knew" how to do it, but I wanted to make sure it was done correctly the first time. I'll be doing it myself from now on.
I've commented on the pups in several threads, and they're pretty common, so I'll wait on a pup review for now.
That's a good looking guitar dude!
.
