|
|
Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I’m considering a guitar project wondered if any of you have any thoughts. I have a mint Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor II jazz guitar that is beautifully built with good (looking) materials in the guitar construction itself, but with inexpensive pickups and other electronic components. I played it when it first arrived a few years ago, but it has pretty much hugged the wall ever since. To upgrade its personal usefulness to me, I’m thinking about having local luthier swap out the switch gear and pots for good quality components, exchange the pups for some high end P-90s like what you might find on a higher end US Hamer, then set up the action to my liking. This could make for an easy playing, good looking jazz guitar that would look and (hopefully) sound like guitars costing two to ten times its value. On the other hand, I could spend a few hundred dollars or more and end up with nothing more than the same good looking wall hanger only with better components. Think its worth the effort? Any suggestions or comments? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
October 2005
Posts: 4046
Location: Utah | Prof, I would tackle it the other way around. I'd have the action worked on first to see if you can get it to feel the way you like. If you can, then move on to the electronics, which I bet you could get to sound just like you want. If you put money into electronics first, only to find that the guitar structurally can't be made to fit you, it's all wasted money. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I agree with FlySig.
Get the action set up for your liking. If that can be done, the rest is a piece of cake.
In fact, what I would do, assuming you get it set up to your liking, is source the parts yourself.
Think of it as a course in guitar repair. I think it's good to do at least once because it helps you (or should I say me) understand how the electronics fit together. Install them yourself, and then when it comes time to do the soldering and final set-up, have the tech do it. If you're brave you can buy used parts off of ebay. Pots are cheap, 5.00 a piece new? P-90's I don't know. Let me recommend one fancy switch, a four way, neck, parallel both, bridge and series both. Also, make the bridge pick up hot, and the neck pup cool. I love this kind of set up.
In brooklyn, a first class soldering job (P-90's, the pots, wires etc) and a final set up would cost about $100.00. You can sell the parts you take out to help pay for the upgrade. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | I'd also check how the fret ends are. Sharp edges, lifting up? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Good advice. Up grading pickups, pots and all that really don't make that much difference. But if you really like playing the guitar then upgrading can make a big difference. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
September 2007
Posts: 153
Location: New Jersey, USA | While the upgrade is a nice idea, is it really necessary? The Epi is not a bad guitar at all.
Jazz archtop guitars can be some of the very easiest to set up. Action goes up and down with thumbwheels. Put on a set of TI Bebop strings (11's or 12's), lower the pickups since they're always too high from the factory in my opinion, and play through an appropriate amp. Pickup selector set to neck position... voila!
While the Epi electronics might not be the very best, in my experience they're nowhere close to being the weak link in a jazz player's signal chain (which is usually a short one).
What amp are you using? What strings are on the guitar? We corresponded privately on the jazz subject but I didn't receive a reply on what you ended up doing... (Maybe this is it!)
Best regards, |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10582
Location: NJ | i have made a ton of money buying upgraded guitars taking off the upgraded parts replaceing them with original parts and reselling the guitar and then the parts separately.
one man's upgrade is another's bastard. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Originally posted by alpep:
one man's upgrade is another's bastard. There's a Pamela Anderson joke in there somewhere. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | Thanks for the comments and advice. I'll look for a set of the TI Bebops and then mess with the action and intonation myself. For the jazz concert coming up, I'm using a '65 Fender Deluxe Reverb set clean on stage, with a signal going out to the house from my pedal board. I'm still monkeying around with some effects to find the best clean jazz tone possible. Noah loaned me a Mesa V-Twin pedal which is nice and fat on the clean channel, but an absolutle killer for blues and solo stuff, tones that I don't really need for this jazz stuff. The guitar I'll most likely use is an ES-335 CRSTD with the neck pup set to the single coil option. However, I'd still like to give this Epiphone a chance someday.
Roger, I never received your PM reply, so I sent you another to refresh the string. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
September 2007
Posts: 153
Location: New Jersey, USA | You'll find that in the jazz crowd, people generally choose NOT to monkey with effects! Makes life simpler and is actually the way get a traditional jazz tone.
Many people use modern solid state rigs from Acoustic Image, Evans, or Polytone with the occasional Fender tube amp in there (still a GREAT choice). Your 335 family guitar is fine. So is the Epi archtop.
The Thomastik Infeld strings you can get from JustStrings.com. Bebops are "jazz roundwounds" and I recommend them. They are always lower tension than other strings of the same gauge, so trust me here and get the 11's. Or, just get a set of D'Addario XL's (XL-115) which are much easier to find. The TI's, while expensive and truly excellent, last a long time - which helps to justify their cost.
When is the concert? Let us know how it goes! |
|
| |
Non O guitar project worth the effort?
