'TGS special' - junk shop refurb

[JohnH]

Recently picked up this excellent specimen from our local junk/recycling warehouse, Tiny's Green Shed. The neck was bowed so far back that the strings were touching every fret, and when I got the neck straight it turned out the previous owner had filed the nut slots down so far that the strings rest on the first fret anyway. I found some heavier gauge strings so they sit up on top of the nut, but even with super high action there is fret buzzing all over the place.

The pickups, screws, jack (...basically every metal component) is rusted or oxidised. And there was some... art.

Knobs are gunky as f***, and super hard to turn. Basically, it's a project lol.

Still not quite sure what the plan with this is, apart from clean it up. I used some toothpaste and a wet-wipe and scrubbed the sharpie art off. Next up I'll tackle the giant yellow sticker. New nut and set up obviously, but all new electronics are probably necessary.

[Simon Barden]

Interesting little project. Probably best to get it playing properly first, and then decide on how well it plays as to how much more you spend on it.

Is it a known brand?

[Sonic Mountain]

Oh, that yellow sticker will be an utter bugger to get off. Lots of solvent and patience. I agree with Simon, see how nice you can make it play before you do anything cosmetic. I kinda like it, it has history, now its your turn to add to that.

Edit: Already answered the question in the first post ..duh....

[JohnH]

Yeah, that’s kind of what I thought too - I figured it’s at least good practice for nut filing, fret levelling, etc

It’s a Jordin (I think I spelled that right). I don’t know anything about them, and google wasn’t much help.

[JB RETRO]

Yep I think that this is a practice your skills guitar. Building practice !

[Marcel]

Yeah, that’s kind of what I thought too - I figured it’s at least good practice for nut filing, fret levelling, etc

It’s a Jordin (I think I spelled that right). I don’t know anything about them, and google wasn’t much help.

Practice on any cheap 'don't care' axe is always more successful than on your latest and greatest kit build or name brand axe. When the "maybe I shouldn't have done that" moment does come it is far less painful...

[JohnH]

Yep I think that this is a practice your skills guitar. Building practice !

Ha ha ha, yep

Practice on any cheap 'don't care' axe is always more successful than on your latest and greatest kit build or name brand axe. When the "maybe I shouldn't have done that" moment does come it is far less painful...

100% - I’m definitely not going to lose any sleep if it ends up back at the recycling depot lol

[JohnH]

I've only ever set-up a few instruments before, and they were all acoustic with bridges quite different from this. Just double checking the order I should do things. Current plan is:

- Get neck straight
- Level and dress frets
- Install new nut
- then... do some research about how to set-up the tremolo lol

Is this ok? Or do I need to do anything to the bridge before I get to the neck/nut?

I'll try to get the sticker off this week, and maybe try to get something from Jaycar to see if I can get the pots to turn more easily (any suggestions for what to use?)

[Simon Barden]

A luthier friend of mine always takes all the components of a bridge apart and soaks them in WD40 for a day before putting them all back together. I'm never quite sure where you'd get all that liquid WD40 from, or quite what it would do, but certainly getting some light lubricant on the screw threads can only help.

Also worth taking the trem block off the bridge and making sure that its top surface is as flat as can be so that there's the maximum contact area between it and the bridge plate.

[JohnH]

Thanks Simon, that's good to know. I also don't know where one would acquire such volumes of WD-40, but I'm sure I can find a suitable replacement.

Do you reckon it's worth trying to clean all the rust crud off the bridge? It's pretty crappy - the little hex screws for adjusting the string heights are all at least partly stripped, and it's missing the tremolo arm (I'm not sure what that's actually called), so I was kind of leaning towards buying a cheap replacement.