1966 or '67 Gibson ES-125 TC

Greetings.
I knew this guitar was special the moment I saw it... a weirdly modded vintage Gibson hollowbody. The last three words of the sentence will make most guitar guys lick their chops. Anyway, this one made it onto the bench a while ago in the condition you see below: humbucker at the bridge, single coil (in humbucker sized mounting ring) at the neck, newer tuners and bridge. The best part about this one is that the original hardware was all still with the guitar. Tuners, bridge, case, and most importantly, those original P-90's. The main idea was to bring this back in to proper Gibson form (sound-wise) while making sure it will be reliable as a gigging instrument. Besides that, it just looks cool.

Any good student of Gibson hollowbodies is already throwing their hands up at this post screaming "You idiot you have the model number wrong!! That guitar with two pickups would be a TDC, not a TC you moron!" I say to that person "Don't be a dick, just hang on a minute..." You see that person is actually right, Gibson had a suffix at the end of the model number for these guitars and each letter stands for a different, optional feature...


T = Thinline (more like a 335 than a 175)
C = Cutaway (instead of full, acoustic guitar shape)
D = Dual pickups (instead of only a neck pickup)

This guitar is clearly stamped ES125TC inside the upper sound hole sooooo... the bridge pickup route, bridge volume and tone, and the 3-way switch are not original. There are two older P-90's in the case though... So lets get crackin'...

The existing pickups actually sounded really good and the setup suited this guitar well but, none-the-less they do not belong. I grabbed the trusty screwdriver and removed the neck pickup mount but wait... no screws at the bridge mount? What the... is that... hot glue? Yep. I dunno... I grabbed the X-Acto and began whittling away at the clear glue. I was very careful not to pull any of the finish away and to remove as much of the glue as possible. Once the pickups were both free I was able to see that the last modifier of this guitar was smart enough to splice the pickup leads in place so I did not have to remove the pots, input jack and ground wire. This would have taken four times as long had it not been for that.


With the strings off and the pickups out I could clean the body and hardware more easily. The tuners are newer and will probably be more reliable than the connected, three-on-a-side original tuners. I elected to keep them on the guitar. In the late 60's Gibson used ABR-1 style bridges with threaded posts on these guitars instead of the archtop style bridges of years past. I do not know why. Since the posts were replaced as well as the bridge, the original does not fit very well on the replacements. I elected to keep it off for the time being but it will eventually make its way back on this guitar. 

Always use protection.

Connections at mid-wire.

The pickups each have a slightly different color base-plate. The darker base-plate with the slotted mounting holes fit perfectly at the neck position so I assumed this was its original home. The other pickup had a lighter color base-plate and round mounting holes. It fit fine in the existing humbucker-sized rout at the bridge. The next step was to slap on the original chrome P-90 covers. Damn... the bridge cover is too tall and the strings almost make contact with it. In fact, the pole pieces nearly touch the strings... Time for pickup surgery...

What it should look like.

Pickup cover too tall

After removing the two phillips screws and the baseplate I am presented with the original spruce spacers. Gibson used various thicknesses of spruce to set the pickup height relative to the strings. Crude, but it works. In this situation, the proper height was achieved by removing the wood completely. The pickups would sound most balanced this way. When I went to re-assemble the pickup, the longer screws (without the spacer) now would not tighten down completely. The base-plate was rattling around and the bobbin was not secure. I have a hard-learned rule to never force a screw that does not want to move so I backed these out and had a beer to think it over. That's when the serendipity kicks in... I remember an old parts chest my grandpa gave me full of small metal things and old screws from the middle of the 20th century. It took all of two minutes to find two identical screws. I ground down the ends of these with a Dremel (something I would never do to vintage Gibson hardware) and they fit perfectly in the old pickup. Now the pickup will set correctly and the original screws and spruce spacers are safely tucked away with the other original parts.

Each original screw is on the left.

Now all that left is to wire it up, set it up and rock out like George Thorogood. And wow, that old Gibson sound is in there! Crank the amp and hold your ears... my wife had to leave... The guitar plays great, sound even better, and is ready to rock for another 40+ years. And all those original parts and pieces are still in the case pocket. Win, Win... Win.

Now does anyone know where I can find P-90 covers with arched bottoms?

Original Bridge.

Original Tuners.

 

Here she is today

Close Up

Joel's Tele-blaster

       Local musician, guitar geek extraordinaire, and tube amp connoisseur Joel D. asked me to help hot rod his MIM telecaster. When we first met up to discuss the project the guitar was pretty heavily played and was ready for a strip down and re-do. Joel wanted a fatter, more versatile tone, and a few other neat appointments and repairs to put this axe back front and center in his gig arsenal. Joel plays a variety of cover music and original tunes and wanted this tele to be a one stop shop if he needed it to be... and he wanted a humbucker in the bridge position. Rad.

       First I stripped this guitar down to just the body and mapped out where the humbucker would fit at the bridge position. Then I routed the body, leaving as much wood as possible. We discussed screwing the pickup directly to the body and using a shorter bridge plate like the Fender G E Smith Tele. Compensated brass saddles seemed appropriate so the intonation would work and we would still have some vintage mojo. Mr. D is not a fan of the typical fender blade switch so I drilled in a gibson style toggle in the tele plate. This turned out even better than I had hoped and really works well. For that all-out rock tone I suggested a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker. Neck pickup stayed stock. The tone knob was re-wired as a coil roll-off knob so we can get humbucker and single coil tones (or anywhere in between) at the bridge position. Also filed and dressed the fret ends as they stuck out past the edge of the fretboard.String it up and set it up and I'm done.

I was really surprised at the range of tones you can get with this simple control setup. 2 knobs and a 3 way switch... its really quite cool. Joel was instantly smitten and has been using it live with his band, The Super Magic Robots. He was stoked. Check out his blog at http://weareastronauts.blogspot.com/ for some awesome guitarry stuff and if you are in St. Louis go see the Super Magic Robots... Joel kills it nightly...

After

Before

Routing the Pickup Cavity

Test Fit

Sprayed Black

Test Fit

Stripped threads at the top of the screw so adjustment would still be possible when screwed to the body.

   

70's (?) Les Paul Copy

       Next up is a cool (probably) 1970's Japanese copy of the famous Les Paul Custom. I've come across quite a few of these Japanese copies lately... They are all nearly identical guitars but were sold under different brand names... Electra, Ventura, Cortez, Conrad, etc... This particular example is sans-brand but it has some of the tell-tales of a far-east knockoff. The body is lots of pieces of solid wood laminated together with an arched plywood top. When you look in the pickup cavity there is actually a void space between the flat body and the arched top. I had an Electra come through last year with this exact same construction. The "arched" top is actually created by gluing a small piece of plywood to the flat body of the guitar at the center, directly under the bridge and tailpiece. The separate top plate is then pressed over this plywood and glued to the flat body at the perimeter. The small piece of plywood causes a bulge in the top plate, thus creating the arch. Another giveaway is the Maxon pickup in the neck position, which were in that same Electra and also in a Conrad doubleneck SG knockoff that I serviced a few months ago.

       The Overall condition of the guitar is dismal. This was another wall hanger that I picked up in the same lot as the Silvertone. The back cover plates, the tailpiece, the nut, the jack and jack plate are gone completely. I have not yet tested these electronics. The bridge pickup is not screwed down so it flopped out when I picked it up. I got a nice surprise though, a vintage Dimarzio PAF style humbucker has replaced the original. The body has lots of dings, cracks, dents scrapes, etc... Pretty much everything on this guitar is thrashed.
 
       I've got all the missing parts on order and will make a new nut out of black Corion. This one will also need new tuners as the originals are just worn out. The neck is bolted on and the screw heads are stripped. For some reason there is a roller bridge... weird. This one will get a complete disassemble, de-grease, clean down, re-wire, de-louse, and re-build. Everything is wrong with this so you can't mess it up!

This is my favorite type of project.
  

Silvertone Model 1413

       Lets kick it off with an oddball... An early 60's, single pickup Silvertone in less-than-desirable condition. Its coated in dust and grime and has been used as a wall decoration for the better part of the last 15 years.  The art-deco "cheese grater" graphics are still intact though. Plugged it in and got static. The volume control works and the buzz gets louder when I turn the tone control down. Tapped on the pickup and got nothing. I hope the electronics are salvageable, these have a real greasy slide tone. I haven't checked the pot resitance but the capacitor is rated at .1 mfd. which means this should really WOOF when the tone knob is backed down.

       Rosewood board with razor blade fret ends... they will need to be filed back and re-dressed. Not sure of the body and neck wood but the guitar is really light. 3 per side tuners, the G and D tuners are bent. The bridge cover hides a rosewood bridge with two flathead adjustment screws. These look like the old Tele saddle adjustment screws. The rosewood bridge reminds me of my Hagstrom I guitar from this same era. It also has a rosewood bridge but it has metal where the strings contact it. The 1413 bridge is just wood all the way. I'm sure this cuts some of the high end right away and adds to the greasy slide tone.

       The nut appears to be shimmed, the pickguard appears to be crudely cut, and the butt end strap button is flush with the body... I dunno. Three bolt neck and adjustable truss rod round out this description. More photos forthcoming when I get this on the bench.

       What am I gonna do? Clean everything, soak metal parts in naphtha, trim and dress frets, polish frets, un-bend the tuners, de-ox the pots, diagnose and repair electronic issues, maybe a new nut, string it, set it up and slam it through an old tube amp! Stay tuned...