UnsungHeroGuitars
Fractal Fanatic
I bagged a 2003 Korean made Les Paul Gold Top Classic from ebay a week and a half ago. I used to have an Epiphone Gold Top '56 reissue with P90 soap bar pick ups, but that was sold years ago in favour of a 'do it all' Variax 700. The Variax has long since gone too, but I really liked that Gold Top and I've often kept an eye on ebay to see if any bargains drift by.
This one popped up and looked good. The guy said he got it in 2003, played and gigged it for a couple years and it's sat in the case ever since - I can well believe that too! It came with a hard case and I was pleased as punch to win it and despite it being a cheap, second hand guitar, I was properly excited to get it!
Rather than take loads of guitars on stage, I prefer an all rounder, so something which has piezo is important to me. I looked into the piezo bridge options and pretty much everyone who has done such an install has done so with an on-board preamp and battery box etc, but I was curious to know whether a designated 'Acoustic' patch on the Axe FX could handle the necessary EQ and sound shaping duties and negate the need to faff about with batteries and stuff… sure enough, a quick enquiry with a UK company called Axesrus confirmed that I could do it! In fact, the guy that runs it, Craig, was hugely enthusiastic and most helpful - top fella and great service all round :encouragement:
He suggested that a 'push / push' pot in place of one of the existing tone controls would be a good way to switch between the piezo and magnetic pick-ups and that pot would also double as a master tone control for all the various pick ups, thus leaving 3 volume controls for each magnetic pick-up and the bridge respectively. I was hugely impressed with his input as that would save any need for additional switches etc and leave things looking completely stock.
The bridge itself was a bit tricky to install because even though the Arch Top Piezo Bridge is designed as a straight replacement for these guitars, my Korean is slightly different geometrically to the Chinese made versions which came after. The bridge slotted onto the existing bridge posts onto my bandmate's Chinese LP with no drama whatsoever, but on my Gold Top, the posts were about 1mm closer together and even with the adjusters wound right in, the action at the 12th fret was about 3mm - way too high!
So I had to get creative. I thought about countersinking the bridge post mounting bushes, but extracting them from the body would be awkward and the chances of drilling them out a little deeper without even minor chipping to the paint finish would have been practically zero... so instead I ground the adjusting thumbwheel on the treble side post completely off and simply used a thin washer to get the desired action height. That gave me a couple millimetres of extra travel and I doubt anyone will ever notice that it's not there as the end result is just great.
Anyhow, here's the piccys!
As it arrived:
Nice dusty bits suggesting it had indeed been sat around a while:
Opening up:
A few random marks, dirt and scuffs around the place, but I could tell there was a good guitar under there:
Surface corrosion on the frets:
A mucky headstock:
Lots of surface scratches and cobwebbing on the back:
Ah ha, the scratch plate was sat in the case compartment:
This one popped up and looked good. The guy said he got it in 2003, played and gigged it for a couple years and it's sat in the case ever since - I can well believe that too! It came with a hard case and I was pleased as punch to win it and despite it being a cheap, second hand guitar, I was properly excited to get it!
Rather than take loads of guitars on stage, I prefer an all rounder, so something which has piezo is important to me. I looked into the piezo bridge options and pretty much everyone who has done such an install has done so with an on-board preamp and battery box etc, but I was curious to know whether a designated 'Acoustic' patch on the Axe FX could handle the necessary EQ and sound shaping duties and negate the need to faff about with batteries and stuff… sure enough, a quick enquiry with a UK company called Axesrus confirmed that I could do it! In fact, the guy that runs it, Craig, was hugely enthusiastic and most helpful - top fella and great service all round :encouragement:
He suggested that a 'push / push' pot in place of one of the existing tone controls would be a good way to switch between the piezo and magnetic pick-ups and that pot would also double as a master tone control for all the various pick ups, thus leaving 3 volume controls for each magnetic pick-up and the bridge respectively. I was hugely impressed with his input as that would save any need for additional switches etc and leave things looking completely stock.
The bridge itself was a bit tricky to install because even though the Arch Top Piezo Bridge is designed as a straight replacement for these guitars, my Korean is slightly different geometrically to the Chinese made versions which came after. The bridge slotted onto the existing bridge posts onto my bandmate's Chinese LP with no drama whatsoever, but on my Gold Top, the posts were about 1mm closer together and even with the adjusters wound right in, the action at the 12th fret was about 3mm - way too high!
So I had to get creative. I thought about countersinking the bridge post mounting bushes, but extracting them from the body would be awkward and the chances of drilling them out a little deeper without even minor chipping to the paint finish would have been practically zero... so instead I ground the adjusting thumbwheel on the treble side post completely off and simply used a thin washer to get the desired action height. That gave me a couple millimetres of extra travel and I doubt anyone will ever notice that it's not there as the end result is just great.
Anyhow, here's the piccys!
As it arrived:
Nice dusty bits suggesting it had indeed been sat around a while:
Opening up:
A few random marks, dirt and scuffs around the place, but I could tell there was a good guitar under there:
Surface corrosion on the frets:
A mucky headstock:
Lots of surface scratches and cobwebbing on the back:
Ah ha, the scratch plate was sat in the case compartment:
