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#290127 - 28/11/11 03:37 PM
Ibanez spruce up!
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Megi
Old Timer
Registered: 08/07/11
Posts: 1271
Loc: Lincolnshire
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My strat build has been on temporary hold - http://www.guitarbuild.co.uk have had to get their special CNC machine fixed after unexpected problems. Phil there tells me that they are back up and running now though, and he has picked out a very nice swamp ash blank for my strat body. So should be back on with that project soon - can't wait!
In the meantime, I have occupied myself with a bit of work on my Ibanez AH10 (Allan Holdsworth model) guitar. This has been much modded over the years - most recently with the addition of a neck PAF type humbucker, and a mad (actually quite nifty) wiring circuit to give, for each pickup, either coil individually, both coils series or both coils in parallel. Plus the neck pickup can be put out of phase with the bridge, and the pickups themselves can be combined in series or parallel. When you do the maths, there are 72 different combinations available. 
Anyway, I started to feel the guitar could do with some more modern sounding pickups - i.e. a bright, full-range kind of sound, versatile, but different from a vintage PAF style pickup. So I bought a set of Entwistle HDN neodymium magnet humbuckers on Ebay. Mr Entwistle is a nice chap by the way - I sent him an email asking about the pickups, and he replied almost immediately:
"Hi Graham,
Actually most people "assume" the HDN to be very much a "Metal" pickup because of it's very high output, but infact i use them for Blues and Jazz and it is their separation and definition that do it for me.
Also they really work well when split, so i would really consider this option when you install them!
All the best
Alan."
So into the guitar the Entwistles have gone - perhaps inevitably this has entailed doing all the wiring again, over several days - a bit of a nightmare as this guitar has no fewer than 8 mini-toggle switches. But I've got there today, so thought I'd post some pictures of the job since not a lot has been in the building section lately:
Daft I know to post pictures of wiring, but it took me ages and I'm stupidly proud of it. Checked with a multi-meter, and it all seems to be working!
This is the rest of the guitar, waiting to be re-united with the scratchplate assembley: 
I'm going to give the frets a gentle level and dress also, and have ordered a new jock socket (the old one was getting a bit dodgy) and tremolo arm (I broke the original years ago doing silly dive bombs - I was young and foolish!  ).
There you go folks, just in case anyone is interested! 
_________________________
Graham, jazz guitar nut!
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#290128 - 28/11/11 03:45 PM
Re: Ibanez spruce up!
[Re: Megi]
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Megi
Old Timer
Registered: 08/07/11
Posts: 1271
Loc: Lincolnshire
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By the way, if anyone is wondering why the bridge pickup has been put in the wrong way round - this is deliberate, I have done it this way so that when using both pickups coil-tapped, either the inner coils together, or the outer coils together, will be hum-cancelling. A friend has a very nice Musicman Axis Supersport guitar done like this, and you get two distinct and useful strat-ish sounds this way. So I thought I'd copy it!
Edited by Megi (28/11/11 04:24 PM)
_________________________
Graham, jazz guitar nut!
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#290141 - 28/11/11 08:53 PM
Re: Ibanez spruce up!
[Re: The Tiggs]
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Megi
Old Timer
Registered: 08/07/11
Posts: 1271
Loc: Lincolnshire
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What's the big fat resitor for?
_________________________
Graham, jazz guitar nut!
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#290159 - 29/11/11 09:24 AM
Re: Ibanez spruce up!
[Re: Jocko]
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Megi
Old Timer
Registered: 08/07/11
Posts: 1271
Loc: Lincolnshire
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Truth in that! Thanks for enlightening me Jocko.
_________________________
Graham, jazz guitar nut!
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#290175 - 29/11/11 09:39 PM
Re: Ibanez spruce up!
[Re: Megi]
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Megi
Old Timer
Registered: 08/07/11
Posts: 1271
Loc: Lincolnshire
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The spruce up continues, levelled the frets and re-crowned, plus a bit of almond oil for the fingerboard also. Should be able to get it set up very nicely now. New tremolo arm arrived today also, and fits very well (if anyone ever has a mid '80's Ibanez with a "Powerocker" trem unit, they take a "Lo Pro/Edge Pro" type arm). Planning to set the trem floating, with just a smidge of upward movement available. But it is nice to be getting this guitar back into tip top playing order.
Frets levelled, and partly through the crowning/polishing:
Nice shiny, level frets and fingerboard treated with almond oil:
Just out of interest, the guitar has a serial number J850004, which as I understand it may mean it was the 4th one made in 1985 (I didn't even notice this until several years after I bought it!): 
Edited by Megi (29/11/11 10:40 PM)
_________________________
Graham, jazz guitar nut!
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#290180 - 29/11/11 10:56 PM
Re: Ibanez spruce up!
[Re: Megi]
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Mark P
Professional Forumite!
Registered: 21/10/09
Posts: 455
Loc: Scotland
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