Guitar guys

[arcsine]

Bill
I did a digital mockup of the guitar before I built it with both a maple and an ebony neck. I went maple for purely aesthetic reasons. I also decided to not do the number for aesthetic reasons.

[Nostril Cheese]

Originally Posted by futuresoptions

Hey guys, I recently traded for a ESP guitar and I began to do my normal setup routine on it and noticed that I could not lower the bridge enough to set the action the way I like it without the strings hitting the first frets up near the neck. Normally, I would do a truss rod adjustment to correct this, but after looking at the guitar, I noticed that the neck did not seem to be installed correctly.

I took the neck off to see if there were any shims installed and there were none present. I have attached photos of the neck installed in the guitar. If you look at them you will see there is a gap between the fingerboard and the body of the guitar. I don't think this is normal. You can also see how it offsets the neck of the guitar. I am thinking that I will need to take the neck off the guitar. Sand it down till it fits flush and then shorten the neck screws a bit before I reinstall them. What do you think?

Get a pic of the bridge and the break angle. I want to see the overall height.

[Nostril Cheese]

here's a bass I just finished. Amber tinted nitro lacquer and a Warmoth neck.

[jwgn777]

Originally Posted by futuresoptions

Well, the two credit card shims worked great on the ESP, it is out of the way for now. Just need to do some light sanding and touch up to it tomorrow. For you guys that do repairs, what type of wood putty do you use for your repairs? The stuff I have does not take stain very well even though it says that it is stain-able. As you can see in my repairs of the Acoustic I was working on, it just didn't take the stain too well and I used an actual dark stain that I had. Still looks better than a big hole, but not by much. I will have to get another brand that will work better on natural finishes. All I need to do now is fill the area where the top had separated from the sides, sand and paint again.

I would have repaired that another way however being that you started try this. I don't know how compatible your materials are. Try mixing the stain in the putty than apply it.

[futuresoptions]

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

Get a pic of the bridge and the break angle. I want to see the overall height.

They're posted on the previous page. The neck is level now and I got the action down to where I want it, but the fretboard still has the same gap at the body.

[futuresoptions]

Originally Posted by jwgn777

I would have repaired that another way however being that you started try this. I don't know how compatible your materials are. Try mixing the stain in the putty than apply it.

Don't think that will work with the putty I chose to use. What brand would you recommend for natural finishes?

[jwgn777]

Originally Posted by futuresoptions

Don't think that will work with the putty I chose to use. What brand would you recommend for natural finishes?

Try a water base filler such as Timber mate or other. And alcohol base stain may work with this. I never try this but Steward Mac Donald has a color tone wood putty / filler that might be worth a try.

[slodave]

I use Trans Tint. Compatible with most fillers, putty, nitro....

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by futuresoptions

Hey Rick, I was thinking of sanding the lower part of the neck down, but I could just as well do the credit card shim job on the upper part of the neck. I will have to loosen the neck to see if pulling the top of the joint up will allow the bottom to go down any. If it doesn't, I will probably have to sand it down...

I would not sand that neck except just to remove the finish if that's how you like them. I've done plenty of shimming and it's always reversible. Start cutting/removing wood and there's no going back.

My newest Strat has a large recessed screw in the neck joint that you can adjust with an allen wrench through a hole in the neck plate and it acts like a shim if you need it. I had never seen such a thing before, but it's a cool idea.

My new EVH Wolfgang has a common problem for those guitars where the high E string is too close to the edge of the neck and pulls off too easily. I tried adjusting the neck screws and Floyd Rose nut last night and it's not making a difference. Not sure what to do here.

[futuresoptions]

Thanks for the suggestions guys will look to see what might be a good alternative. I looked further into the putty I was using and it was latex based and the stain oil based. The credit card shim seems to be working so will leave it like that for a while. I actually have gotten the action down on this guitar further than I have ever been able to do with any other guitar, with absolutely not buzzing on the frets. The only thing that I am not crazy about is the gap between the body and the fret board.

[futuresoptions]

Hey guys,

Made a Craigslist trade this evening... For a set of Gibson pickups. I was told that they came out of a 60's model 335. They are humbuckers and they have the following stamped on the bottom of them "pat no 2,737,842" so there is no stickers or Gibson name, just that stamped/etched into the bottom of the pickups. I tried to do a Google search on that and there seems to be a ton of different information about them. I figured you guys are smarter when it comes to these types of things than most so figured I would ask. The only thing that isn't original on them is the covers. I really wanted to know what you figure the value to be on them, but most of all I wanted to know what kind of sound that they would probably end up having...

[Rick Lee]

This sounds crazy, but listen to Van Halen I and I'm pretty sure that was an old ES-335 humbucker in Eddie's beater partscaster that became his Frankenstrat. In fact, he played an ES-335 back in the early days, but the other guys told him it really didn't fit the image.

I still get upset when I think about the ES-335 I traded even for my Soldano SLO 100. I considered it an untradeable guitar. FWIW, the pickups were not as hot as those in my Les Paul. They were the perfect balance of tame and clean when you wanted it and could really come alive when you hit the overdrive channel. If you are interested in some hotter Seymour Duncans or a few pedals, I would love to trade.

[stuartj]

Originally Posted by futuresoptions

Hey guys,

Made a Craigslist trade this evening... For a set of Gibson pickups. I was told that they came out of a 60's model 335. They are humbuckers and they have the following stamped on the bottom of them "pat no 2,737,842" so there is no stickers or Gibson name, just that stamped/etched into the bottom of the pickups. I tried to do a Google search on that and there seems to be a ton of different information about them. I figured you guys are smarter when it comes to these types of things than most so figured I would ask. The only thing that isn't original on them is the covers. I really wanted to know what you figure the value to be on them, but most of all I wanted to know what kind of sound that they would probably end up having...

That's the number associated with Gibson 'PAF' Humbuckers (although the actual patent number is different, oddly). You might have some real 60s PAFs (score) or you might have clones or fakes. The corksniffers care.

If they are PAFs or PAF clones they will be relatively low output humbuckers, quite articulate and probably very nice.

[slodave]

I'm pretty sure PAF humbuckers had a PAF sticker only, at least according to The Beauty of the Burst. There would not be a patent number yet.

EDIT: The patent numbers appeared in '62.

[stuartj]

Originally Posted by slodave

I'm pretty sure PAF humbuckers had a PAF sticker only, at least according to The Beauty of the Burst. There would not be a patent number yet.

EDIT: The patent numbers appeared in '62.

Yes, I believe youre correct. Theyre just commonly referred to (incorrectly) as PAFs .

Good write up here:Gibson PAF Humbuckers Pickups Patent Applied For Pickups M69 M-69 pickup rings - Vintage Guitars Info

[futuresoptions]

Well, each of them came in a Gibson 57 classic clear plastic box and the gentleman I got them from was playing a beautiful red 63 335 for me. Here are pics of the pickups. I believe he kept the original covers for his 335 and put the gold 57 classics covers on these. I traded a pellet rifle for them. You think I did okay?

Only the one is stamped "PAT NO 2,737842" the other seems to be ink stamped "Pat Pend" or "PAT SEND" and underneath that "NO----faded 99" he wroted in blue in Red and then something else I can't make out. FWIW, the 63' 335 was beautiful red with white binding with a Bugsby tremolo. Looked like it just came off the showroom floor. Really nice guy.

Which one of these would you use for the bridge and which one would be used in the neck?

[slodave]

I hate to say it, but I think you were taken.

There are no early humbuckers that have a stamped patent number. The original PAF's had a sticker "Patent Applied For", after Gibson received the number they changed the sticker to read "Patent No. xxxxxxxxx".

[futuresoptions]

Originally Posted by slodave

I hate to say it, but I think you were taken.

There are no early humbuckers that have a stamped patent number. The original PAF's had a sticker "Patent Applied For", after Gibson received the number they changed the sticker to read "Patent No. xxxxxxxxx".

Well, I hope not, I have seen some Gibson pickups that have the Pat no xxxxxx stamped engraved like the top picture, I couldn't find one like the lower that looked liked a inked stamped version. All the others had the stickers like you mention...

[slodave]

Wolfe thinks the stamped pup is a '75 or later. Trying to get him to chime in.

Sorry, Bill. I have never seen an early humbucker with a stamped number. Gibson didn't do that until later.

[futuresoptions]

Wait a minute, I googled ink stamped gibson pickups and I found one called a Tim Shaw version and it is showing a double 99 in the number like mine but I can't make out the rest... let me go look into it further...