WORKPLACE PERKS

[brentrocks]

So I started this new remodel job today. The customer is a guitar player, mainly acoustic, but he was showing me his main axes and he pulls out this 1979 ES 347!

He goes on to say, "I never play this thing. I cant remember the last time I had the strings changed?"

I offered to do a string change and a complete setup, no charge, and you would have thought I had given him a million dollars...lol

So I took it home today and proceeded to dive into it.

The first thing I noticed was that it had a couple high frets...took care of that. Overall, it was just dirty...the fretboard was nasty. The tuners were so loose I could unscrew them by hand. Intonation was way off. So I cleaned her up, put a new set of 10s on it, and now it plays pretty darn good!

This guitar has a really dark tone....not sure if its the pickups, or the guitar itself....my guess is the pickups. Its pretty heavy too...8.5-9 lbs

Its a pretty cool guitar, overall.


IMG_0098 by brent HENDERSON, on Flickr

IMG_0099 by brent HENDERSON, on Flickr

IMG_0100 by brent HENDERSON, on Flickr

IMG_0103 by brent HENDERSON, on Flickr

IMG_0104 by brent HENDERSON, on Flickr

IMG_0105 by brent HENDERSON, on Flickr

IMG_0107 by brent HENDERSON, on Flickr

 

[Aceman]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

Dark sound might be T-Tops. Did you give it back to him with all of the original parts? Or are you going to make a low ball offer?

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

When I have a client's axe on the bench, one of the items on my checklist is checking to see if the tuners are tight. You'd really be surprised how many are not. Same with strap buttons.

Fine looking axe.

 

[brentrocks]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

Dark sound might be T-Tops. Did you give it back to him with all of the original parts? Or are you going to make a low ball offer?

Wow. Implying that I would steal parts off someone else’s guitar?

What a dick move

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

There was a local car dealership with that name

Dick Move Autos
Or some such

I'm not sure of the quality of the used cars
Just didn't chance it

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

That is quite lovely!

 

[Mincer]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

I always liked that model. I generally don't like gold hardware, but it looks great on that guitar.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

Many Gibsons of that era are ridiculously dark, to the point of being unusable for most things. It's usually stock 100K pots that are the culprits.

Dark sound might be T-Tops.

T-Tops are about the brightest humbuckers Gibson has ever made! See above. It's probably the pots. For some idiotic reason, Gibson used a lot of 100K pots in the later Norlin years.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

I had one of those until some years ago. The pups are really high wound and are called 'series VII pickups'. The switch on the lower horn split both pickups and gives a nice p90-like sound.

 

[jimilee]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

Wow, nicely done man. What was his reaction when you gave it back? I like helping people out like that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jeremy]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

Many Gibsons of that era are ridiculously dark, to the point of being unusable for most things. It's usually stock 100K pots that are the culprits.

T-Tops are about the brightest humbuckers Gibson has ever made! See above. It's probably the pots. For some idiotic reason, Gibson used a lot of 100K pots in the later Norlin years.

yep. t tops are consistently bright, shrill in the bridge on many guitars, and those 100k pots kill a lot of the high end. beautiful guitar though!

when did these series ii pups start showing up? im not familiar with em

 

[brentrocks]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

Wow, nicely done man. What was his reaction when you gave it back? I like helping people out like that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I haven’t taken it back to him yet. He said I could keep it and play it as long as I wanted to. LOL. Maybe I should get that in writing?. LOL

 

[OLDERBUDWISER]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

There was a local car dealership with that name

Dick Move Autos
Or some such

I'm not sure of the quality of the used cars
Just didn't chance it

My buddy Larry Dick owned a liquor store......

 

[Securb]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

My buddy Larry Dick owned a liquor store......

I kid you not this place is down the street from my Ex's. There is another place S&M Liquors a few towns over in Wakefield.

 

[JMP/HBE]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

Looks like could be Ebony FB.

 

[Aceman]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

T-Tops are about the brightest humbuckers Gibson has ever made! See above. It's probably the pots. For some idiotic reason, Gibson used a lot of 100K pots in the later Norlin years.

Yeah - Jazz are closest to T-Tops, but like many Gibson things, they don't always turn out how they are supposed to. Like 100k pots....uynless that was a typo. However - My belief that some T-Tops are dark could easily be because some guitars actually have 100k pots! 300k can be bad enough.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

I had one of those until some years ago. The pups are really high wound and are called 'series VII pickups'. The switch on the lower horn split both pickups and gives a nice p90-like sound.

I did some research on the series VII pickups: A very early (1977) creation of Bill Lawrence for High end Gibson guitars. They show a resistence at 12k and use Indox7 magnets. The bottom is expoxied like many of BLs pickups. The unique magnets gave the name. They are also used in the famous 25/50 Anni Les Pauls.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

Yeah - Jazz are closest to T-Tops, but like many Gibson things, they don't always turn out how they are supposed to. Like 100k pots....uynless that was a typo. However - My belief that some T-Tops are dark could easily be because some guitars actually have 100k pots! 300k can be bad enough.

Yes, I meant 100K. They are awful; they ruin any guitar they are in, IMO. My '83 Les Paul could not have been made to sound good/bright even if I had put Strat pickups in it. I finally started looking at the components for faults, and realized the pots were 100K. Did some research, and found out it was common, if not the norm for a good time. Put in "regular" Les Paul pots (i.e. 500K) and all was well. Sounded like the guitar was finally able to blow its nose.

 

[brentrocks]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

Are used to have a 1985 Les Paul Custom Silverburst that had Shaws in it with 100K pots and that was one of the best sounding combinations I have ever heard

 

[Coma]

Re: WORKPLACE PERKS

Wow, that thing looks near mint.