1. Dotting the i's.
2. Action on Epiphone.
3. Are my machine heads slipping?
4. Fret dress
5. Fitting a tremelo to a hardtail
6. My Epiphone makes a pinging sound
7. EBO short scale Bass
8. Epiphone Les Paul which I can get the action down fairly except the top E string chokes
9. Gibson EBO
10. Coil tapping
11. Rewiring an Epiphone LP
    

Q: I have an epiphone guitar but the body is a fender body, the neck, which is epiphone, is a kramer neck according to my buddy. 

My problem is that the bottom 3 strings make a pinging sound, it started very slightly but now makes the sound constantly and is very annoying. 

I used to put my pick in between them for storage is this the cause of the problem and how do i fix it.......

Thanx Mat.


A: Dear Mat

Your problem sounds annoying but probably not serious. Keeping your pick in your strings is not likely to be your problem unless you never ever change your strings, just about everybody does this!.......

The most likely problem is the neck drying out. This usually takes two or three years, the fix is quite simple!

Check your truss adjustment…as follows;- 

Fret the first string at the first fret and the last fret with the other hand, there should be a slight gap between the string and the middle frets showing a slight bending or 'hollowing' of the neck, the gap should be about the thickness of thin card or thick paper.

If there is no gap, the truss rod needs slackening 'anti-clockwise' until a gap appears.

If however there is a large gap the truss needs to be tightened 'clockwise' a quarter of a turn at a time until the correct gap appears.the guitar should be tuned to 'pitch' while doing this......

Good luck ..CHRIS.

Q: I have a Fender Telecaster that could do with a fret-dress. I have managed to set the action pretty low, but if I go any further the strings are choking on the first 3 frets. When you sight down the fingerboard they do look to be slightly proud compared to the rest.
Could you suggest a Luthier in the Manchester area that is good at this type of work?

Regards, Stuart Bunyan, Manchester


A: Hi Stuart, it seems you need a fret skim; the easiest way to do this is through any of the larger music shops that usually have a pet luthier. It is possible to do it yourself but you'd need a fair amount of tackle. If you want to do it there is an Article on how to do this job in this months "Guitar&Bass" (February 2006)
Best of luck…

Chris

Q: Just got your details from Manchester Beat and wondered if you could help. I have owned a Gibson Les Paul Custom since 1972 and believed it was a year old when I purchased it.

The Gibson logo on the headstock does not have the i dotted. Ddo you know the reason why they stopped dotting then went back to it?

Best Regards,
John Prendergast, National Service Manager


A: Hi John

The short answer is No. I've seen a couple of Gibbo's without the dots but as far as I know, these were accidental. I had a '63 SG with the dot missing but this got lost during a re-spray.

l'll ask around and if I find out anything I'll put it on the site.

Chris

Q: Hi Chris, I can't get the action on my Epiphone Les Paul guitar anywhere near a "low action" when I lower the bridge the strings just choke,especially when I bend them.

This is quite a new guitar and I dont think there is anything wrong with the frets.    

Phil Harris, Sheffield.

A: Try adjusting the truss rod , If you fret the first string at the first and lastfret there should be just a very small gap between the string and the middle fret . Then adjust the action.

Chris

Q. I can't keep my guitar in tune, I think the machine heads are slipping. My guitar is a Fender Strat about ten years old .I've tried "pulling" the strings "in" and this helps a bit.. but after a short time the guitar goes out of tune again, especially if I use the trem.

Jon Wickes, Rochdale.


A: Machine heads almost never slip!. Sometimes strings can slip on the machine head if there are too few or too many windings on them. The string should go around the machine head about three times, and then through the hole, maybe four times on the Thin strings, and then bend the string sharply after the hole.
Your problem however, might be the strings catching in the NUT… this is the most common fault with tuning problems! If you can hear clicking or pinging as you are tuning up, it's the NUT. Some people say put graphite in the grooves this can work sometimes. I recommend Grease…Good old fashioned axle grease, it never fails!!!
                                                                        
Chris

Q. Hi Chris, I have a problem! I have just bought myself a Schecter c-1 classic. It has everything I want in a guitar bar one thing, a tremolo! Since getting a Strat I can't live without one. Now, I have spoken to a few people about putting a tremolo on this guitar, and they seem to advise against it saying either, "you'd have to rout the front and back of the guitar to fit one and this would detract from the tone and sustain" or "you can't fit that trem (Kahler or Wilkinson) beacuse your guitar is an archtop"

I was just wondering whether you think it's a good idea, or would it just cause problems?

Many thanks
Declan Cullinan


A: Hi Declan

This is a can of worms probably best left alone!. What your friends tell you is basically true, most trem's need quite a lot of routing to the body and this will RADICALLY change the sound and feel of the guitar.

You can by the way get a Khaler trem for a bellied guitar, these need a hole two inches square (aprox.) and ¾"deep. The best option Declan should you wish to proceed might be a Bigsby. Its easy to fit and uses your own bridge, also it can be removed without too much trauma to the guitar (three small holes), though its not a "dive bombing" trem!.

DON'T forget an Earth wire! Good Luck

Chris

Q: Hi Chris

I have an Epiphone EBO short scale Bass. I have added a Mini Humbucker ( as on the EB3 ) which gives a much better tone.

The E string buzzes and rattles on the first fret ( F ) if I set the string height to a comfortable position.

This noise gets lesser as the action is set higher, but is then an effort to play near the top of the neck.

The neck appears straight with no bows or curves.

The other strings sound ok in the first fret position, and the E sounds fine when played open, or in any other position.

Can you kindly advise.

Harold

A: A very strange problem here... unless someone has been messing around with your guitar!

If the E. string plays ok unfretted it sounds like the FIRST fret is too low. The only way around this is either a new first fret, or the whole fingerboard being stoned ... a professional job. 

Two things you can try yourself.

Jack up the groove in the nut i.e a sliver of paper or card under the string at the nut, also make sure there is a slight bend in the neck by fretting the first fret and the last fret there should be a slight gap between the string and the middle frets. Adjust the truss rod to get this right, tighten to bend neck back. Loosen to give more bend forward the gap should be about half to one mm. on bass E string.

Good luck, CHRIS.

Q: Hi Chris

I have an Epiphone Les Paul which I can get the action down fairly except the top E string chokes when fretted on the ninth and tenth fret (there is no ring to the string). This is without bending the string. All the other strings are fine on these frets. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated

thanks

Laurence

A: Dear Lawrence

First you need to set up the guitar properly, adjust the truss rod, so that when you fret the first fret and the last fret - use the first string in this case - there should be a gap of about a quarter of a mm. between the string and the middle fret.

Lie the guitar down on a table supporting the middle of the neck slightly use one finger of one hand to fret the first fret and little finger of right hand to press string down on to last fret and see what gap you have in the
middle.Loosen truss rod ANtiCLOCKWISE to give you more bend, or vice versa.

IF PROBLEM PERSISTS you need a fret skim a pro job! Good luck.

Chris

Q: I want to get a nice, thin, chorusy, jangly sound without getting a strat or suchlike. 

I have a Les Paul with burstbuckers, which I use for heavy stuff and a Wolfgang QT, which I don't really want to get rid of because I like the trem and it is stunning, however, that also has two humbuckers.

Is it possible to re-wire the pickups on the Wolfgang to obtain a coil tapping facility?  Where could I go for it?  How much would it cost?  In what ways would such a conversion affect the guitar?

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Tristan Jackson, Brighouse, West Yorkshire

Dear Tristan

Yes it is fairly straightforward to coil tap your humbuckers but first a couple of tricky jobs.

Firstly remove pickups from guitar, then carefully, remove chrome cover.They are usually soldered on either side, if you dont have quite a hot soldering iron, this is difficult but if you are lucky if you put a smallish screwdriver between cover and baseplate and twist it usually breaks the solder.

Once inside you will find two coils, coil1. connects to output/hot and to coil2..coil2. connects to screen and coil1. Where coil 1. connects to coil 2. (this connection is usually tucked down between the coils, just pull it out) this is the bit we're looking for,connect a wire to these two joined wires and out of the pickup this is your "split"wire .re tape connections re-assemble picup/s and re-fit.

Now to split your pickup you connect "split"wire to screen/earth through a switch. Splitting pickups will give you a much cleaner trebblier sound more like a fender great for chords etc. 

Also you might want to use a piece of screened wire for your split wire and earth the screen to keep noise to a minimum...

BEST OF LUCK CHRIS.

Q: I hope you can help me, I am installing new pickups & rewiring my Epi Les Paul, however I am having a lot of difficulty in feeding 5 screened cabled into the control cavity. Does all of the cable have to be screened or can I use something thinner? The original wiring had no screen at all.

Thanks,

Tony McGeary.

A: Dear Tony,

Yes you do have to use screened leads, both from your pickups and toggle switch.There is nothing much you can do about the pickup wires but you could get thinner screened leads to and from the switch.These wires carry no current so you can use the thinnest screened cable you can find, you might even be able to get all three wires in one screen which would save you room.

If you have any trouble getting thin wire you can mail order some from Gordon Smith Guitars but postage makes this an expensive option!!.....Don't forget the earth wire from the bridge.

Good Luck CHRIS.