Russell Sault Guitar Services.

It has been a while since I did any work on this guitar. It came to me stripped, and I could not decide what type of finish to give it. After a few outlandish paint job ideas, I settled on a few coats of Nitrocellulose sanding sealer, then rubbed it down and finished it with finishing wax. The neck has now had its thickness reduced, frets have been dressed by Vic at Fret friend, and Iron gear Rolling Mill and Tonerider Rebel 90 pickups added. Just need to get it all wired up now 😊

Telecaster project sorted now. Finished it off with a set of Fender “super bullets”, proper telecaster strings 😊

Still working on my telecaster project guitar. I ended up re-lacquering the back of the neck & headstock with a bit of tinted nitro-cellulose to give it a slightly more vintage look. I had to do the back anyway, after thinning it out, so just ended up doing the headstock as well. Ready for reassembly now 😊

If you are building a pedalboard on a Pedaltrain, or similar Aluminium board, it is always a good idea to fit a handle or 2 to make the thing easier to move about on stage when you are setting up or packing down. I always fit the pedals first though 😊

Pedalboard built up today on a Pedaltrain Classic 2 board. Powered by T-Rex Fuel Tank

Popped a set of Seymour Duncan’s in this beautiful 1994 Patrick Eggle Berlin Standard today. JB in the bridge, Jazz in the neck. Truly lovely guitar. The new pickups really suit it as well😊

Project Telecaster now fully rewired, with an Iron Gear Steel Foundry pickup in the bridge, and a Switchcraft jack socket. Managed to salvage the pickup selector switch, and added an orange drop tone capacitor too. Dimarzio cliplock strap. I just have to finish the neck now 😊🎸🎼

Re-profiled the tele neck, and thinned it overall by 1mm. Cleaned up the headstock ready for a coat of clear lacquer

Did some more work on the Tele copy today. Installed “strings through body” bridge, and mounted neck pickup directly to the body, with copper washers as height spacers. Can’t do much about the size and shape of the hole cut in the body, but it will be covered when the scratch plate goes back on.

Sorted the RF screening. Next up is fitting a new bridge, and drilling the body for “through body” stringing.

Busy morning with the Dremel tool, but neck pickup cutout is now flat enough to take the screening tape 😊 took the opportunity to smooth out the other cavities, so I can screen the whole thing together.

The soldering is so bad that I actually don’t want to re-use the switch 🤮

I noticed that the hole "cut"/ hacked into the scratch plate looks a little small for the pickup, and the pickup is set below it. On checking inside, I find that is the only thing holding the pickup in the guitar! the pickup is just floating about with no mounting screws. 🙄 Then, after thinking that the hole in the scratch plate might have been cut with a knife & fork, I notice that the same knife & fork have been used to hack out the body to get the pickup in. Oh dear, some serious sorting out to do there. Watch this space 😊

Picked this Telecaster copy up for £60, largely because it has a Fender "full range" pickup in the neck position, and I liked the neck profile and super light body. Everything else looks a bit of a horror story, but how bad can it be, right? 🤔

Installed another TESI kill switch this morning. Brilliant kit, they are even supplied with 2 free picks. Only drawback is the 24mm hole that needs to be drilled in the guitar to get it in 😊🎸

Had a go at building a sustainer unit from an old humbucker this morning. I designed a PCB for the amplifier circuit using a circuit diagram from the very informative Facebook page “guitar sustainer project” run by Robert Michael Long. Still waiting for one component to arrive before I can test it. Fingers crossed 😊

Today the postman brought me a present from the Seymour Duncan custom shop in California. Parallel Axis Trembucker, in white! Thanks to Rosetti for ordering it in for me. I love the custom shop pickups, they are not cheap, but they are fantastic quality, and it is always nice to have something that little bit different on your guitar. Seymour Duncan stuff always sounds great, and if you are looking to upgrade the sound of your guitar, a new pickup (or 2 or 3) is the single biggest difference you can make.

Giving these Iron Gear pickups a go today. They have a really good reputation. So looking forward to hearing them through a loud amp 😊🤘🎸