What did you do to your Epiphone today?

[Darkness]

Next time I restring this Special I'm going to sand the nut down just a bit. I didn't glue it just in case I need adjustments. I'll probably floss an old string through the slots as well and put a bit of graphite in there.

The action is slightly higher at the first fret than it used to be. In fact the action is higher up there than it is at the 17th fret, which feels weird. I could probably tweak the neck a bit, but I will play it as is for a while. I did have it hanging with no strings on for about a week, so maybe the neck will bow after a few days.

Overall I'm happy. Tuning the guitar is easier and I think it looks a lot nicer now.

 

[LP_SPC_1_P90]

Glad you found the equilibrium!! I wouldn't be discouraged - setting up a on a guitar with no neck angle adjustment and limited movement on the bridge has its own set of difficulties. Every thousandths can make a difference especially when balancing low string action and string buzz. I've had guitars where I can get the neck completely straight, frets completely level, dial-in all the right numbers, and the notes will still die out too quickly on some of the higher frets. Then after fidgeting for a day or two, and raising height/changing neck relief etc... I eventually find the sweet spot where it's just right and ends up being just a small amount off my starting numbers. ...and then there are those guitars that can get Petrucci-level low action out of the box with no buzzing.

I have my 95/5 % rule, the first 95 % of the set up comes easy as ballpark close for every aspect of hardware as adjusted, the other 5 % for fine tuning and micro-adjustments takes up the bulk of the effort & time and can be a mind numbing exercise of adjust, tune, noodle, detune, adjust, tune, noodle, repeat cycle. And then there's the normalization time that the guitar will take to settle in & adapt to a any tweak, even self heal for the abuse of screwing up the wrong adjustment that didn't work. I can see why so many go to have their guitar set up and come away like, what did this guy do, this still doesn't sound or feel right. That's the thing about the set up process, while my guitars are budget affordable instruments, once I'm done with a set up, the parts feel like they actually work well together and feel as close to a $ 2+K guitar for everything but the finish and differemce in the amount of wood used. The Epiphone Special felt like a cheaper & lousier Asian build, but after puttng in the blood sweat & tears, letting it settle, it feels like a slimmer version of a Gibson & it sounds that much closer too. I'm really a fan of Gibson Les Paul pure nickel, silk ball end 10's, they are phenomenal strings on a LP. I'm starting to wonder how well they would be on a Strat or Telecaster. I guess a waste ? Perhaps, due to a string thru body or Tremolo, even a top loader has no need or reason for silk wound ball ends. The Special I is a wrapover Lightning Bar. I can see where the silk wound is a chrome saver, while the string at the ball end wouldn't vibrate. Sorry for nerding out on string design. Until the Gibson LP strings, I only had noticed silk on Bass strings at the tuners.

 

[LP_SPC_1_P90]

Which is why the Jedi Method of setup always grates on me when people suggest it. You have to start from somewhere, so you know where you can go.

Now that you know what works and you've measured it, you can repeat the results on that guitar.

I think it's been almost 3+ years since I set up the LP Special. I bought it in 2019, then a year later I decided a pickguard & Bigsby B50/500 style Vibrato would be a good idea. That 1st set up really was a Bigsby conversion for location. I didn't bother to set it up immediately after purchasing it knowing the first string change was going to be a Bigsby conversion.

The Lightning bar works with a Chinese Bigsby, but go too far with the Vibrato arm and it's all over the place out of tune. So I decided a new set of strings and go back to being a LP Special is what I was going to do this time. I just don't do enough work on this guitar to be that familiar & the others are 6 individual saddle & bridge similar that I can isolate a problem string and adjust. When the high or low E is off with a Lightning bar, the other 6 strings are most likely wrong too. Of the 5 electric 6 strings, this was the Bigsby, an Affinity Strat with a Tremolo, This Special & the others Fixed bridge HT's . Even the Bass guitar & acoustic electric are Fixed bridge. I learned with the Affinity, that a solid trem block upgrade is the way to go from a cast zinc alloy trem block.

 

[Noodling Guitars]

I have my 95/5 % rule, the first 95 % of the set up comes easy as ballpark close for every aspect of hardware as adjusted, the other 5 % for fine tuning and micro-adjustments takes up the bulk of the effort & time and can be a mind numbing exercise of adjust, tune, noodle, detune, adjust, tune, noodle, repeat cycle. And then there's the normalization time that the guitar will take to settle in & adapt to a any tweak, even self heal for the abuse of screwing up the wrong adjustment that didn't work. I can see why so many go to have their guitar set up and come away like, what did this guy do, this still doesn't sound or feel right. That's the thing about the set up process, while my guitars are budget affordable instruments, once I'm done with a set up, the parts feel like they actually work well together and feel as close to a $ 2+K guitar for everything but the finish and differemce in the amount of wood used. The Epiphone Special felt like a cheaper & lousier Asian build, but after puttng in the blood sweat & tears, letting it settle, it feels like a slimmer version of a Gibson & it sounds that much closer too. I'm really a fan of Gibson Les Paul pure nickel, silk ball end 10's, they are phenomenal strings on a LP. I'm starting to wonder how well they would be on a Strat or Telecaster. I guess a waste ? Perhaps, due to a string thru body or Tremolo, even a top loader has no need or reason for silk wound ball ends. The Special I is a wrapover Lightning Bar. I can see where the silk wound is a chrome saver, while the string at the ball end wouldn't vibrate. Sorry for nerding out on string design. Until the Gibson LP strings, I only had noticed silk on Bass strings at the tuners.

I didn't even know they made those types of strings! Just google'd and reading up on those now.

At the end of the day, materials have a cost, but a lot of that $2k also goes to manpower/labor costs - and for a lot of enthusiasts that like tinkering with Epis and other import brands, we're essentially expending our own time to make up for the things that weren't done in an overseas factory! Once that work is put in, the gap closes significantly.

 

[Darkness]

@LP_SPC_1_P90 I've never seen the setup process described better. Right down to the acclimation phase, or to me the "got it all perfect and 3 days later it's not". I've gotten into the habit of ignoring minor buzzes when I set up and checking for them again after a week, more often than not they leave on their own.

 

[LP_SPC_1_P90]

@LP_SPC_1_P90 I've never seen the setup process described better. Right down to the acclimation phase, or to me the "got it all perfect and 3 days later it's not". I've gotten into the habit of ignoring minor buzzes when I set up and checking for them again after a week, more often than not they leave on their own.

They definitely move with humidity changes. Last night I noticed frost on the roof shingles this AM, I simply couldn't begin to guess how the universe affected my best efforts while I was sleeping ? I should go & check it though out of curiosity, try to figure out what to expect next winter. A hurricane going by in FL is a fun day to see what happens for pressure & humidity changes. My HVAC is pretty good for keeping the house 45-55% RH. But there are days that the weather is too much for that HVAC system. Anyway, by late afternoon this front should be changing enough for temperature alone that the guitar will subtly move back towards what it was. I noticed that about the winter cold fronts, the strings detune like the air pressure in the tires of a car do. And it never was more than 24-72 hours that the weather was back to what it is more often than not. It's probably out of tune across the set of strings by the same cents off is what I expect at the very least.

What I end up doing is setting one up to where I can detect a very light hint of buzz creeping into a worst offender string when it's laying flat, but the buzz disappears when the guitar is in playing position. Amazing how gravity & magnetic pull for proximity that is invisible to any of us can buzz & then disappear just by orienting the guitar from flat to playing position. It's like proximity hum for a guitar & amp that isn't humbucker for noise cancelling.

 

[3bolt79]

I finished setting up my two new Epi 1959 Les Pauls.

 

[LCH]

I put a TonePros stop tailpiece and one of their T3BT-N bridges on my 2022 Es-335
They both fit like a glove and made an improvement in tone and sustain. Probably upgrade the tuners as well. Not sure about the pups… only had the guitar a couple of weeks and so far I like them for the limited amount of time I have had to check them out.
Guess I will wait a while before I make up my mind.

Put on a set of Kulson SD90SLN tuners today and found a used set of Gibson 490’s
….here we go

 

[LP_SPC_1_P90]

I didn't even know they made those types of strings! Just google'd and reading up on those now.

Local Music store had 3 sets in their clearance bin marked down to $ 6.99, rolled the dice to test the theory that an Epiphone would sound like a Gibson with a set of Gibson strings on it myth. But I did find a set of Les Paul "studio" quality strings. If they are available in the future for affordable, I'll get them. I have one set left of the 3. The 1st set I used when I installed the Bigsby Vibrato contraption. The 2nd set just went on. Musician;s Friend has their brand of 10-46's and I jumped on the 5 pack of those (on back order though) for $ 11.45, $ 12.25 delivered when they finally do ship. I have the Musician's Gear 09-42's for my Monoprice Telecasters, they seem to be fine for those guitars. The thing about the MG 10's being on back order, I'm guaranteed to get freshly made MG strings.

Next time I restring this Special I'm going to sand the nut down just a bit.

I use a .58 mm Alice Guitar pick as the 1st fret feeler gauge for my nut slots & string action at the 1st fret. If that guitar pick lifts the string & holds between the fret & string, I know the nut slots don't need to be filed. I saw an Elixir Luthier (John Carruthers) video for a set up, .454 mm or .018 inches is the spec he used for a LP TOM style guitar. The Alice pick is almost right there for that spec as a feeler gauge. I do have feeler gauges too. The business card thickness for the nut for the 1st fret also works.

The action is slightly higher at the first fret than it used to be. In fact the action is higher up there than it is at the 17th fret, which feels weird. I could probably tweak the neck a bit, but I will play it as is for a while. I did have it hanging with no strings on for about a week, so maybe the neck will bow after a few days.

Getting the Truss Rod right and neck flat is an approach that I try to get to that point from the start, you can always loosen the truss rod to add more relief instead of tightening it to reduce relief.

 

[Darkness]

 

[Charles Carter]

Played it for hours!

 

[Darkness]

Waiting...
Waiting...
Waiting...
Waiting...

-Jim Morrison

 

[Noodling Guitars]

Waiting...
Waiting...
Waiting...
Waiting...

-Jim Morrison

View attachment 20731

What model?? I'm guessing not a LP with those tuners??

 

[Darkness]

What model?? I'm guessing not a LP with those tuners??

Not an LP this time, and not a color most people like. I like the tuners quite a bit too.

 

[Raiyn]

Not an LP this time, and not a color most people like. I like the tuners quite a bit too.

So army green then?

 

[Darkness]

So army green then?

Very close.

I've been eyeballing these for months. The stars came into alignment when
A) I had the spare money
B) I saw on where the two slabs are not drastically different.
C) The turners were not crooked or anything else kind of weird that would grab my attention
D) I could no longer fight the GAS

Should be here next Tuesday. I also like that strange shadowing on the neck.

 

[Equalphone]

I spent a little time taking care of two things I didn't like about my LP Special. I replaced the plastic nut with a bone nut, this is the first really successful nut replacement I've done. I also replaced the playful original tuners with much firmer Epiphone Deluxe ones. Then I removed my neck pickup to compress the foam behind them and lower the neck pickup quite a bit, and restrung it with the same Mexican Lottery strings I used on two other guitars. Everything went well except the strings. Since this guitar uses a wrapping bridge, the strings have too long of a twisted section following the little rings, so it misaligns the strings a bit. I bent them as much as I could but it isn't perfect. I will replace these in the near future but for now it's okay. When I do restring it I will mess with the bridge pickup a bit, it is a little angled I think from crooked screws. For now, I'll play it.

There are two ways to deal with the twisted end wrap problem. One is to cut the ball ends off the old strings and slide them down on the new strings. The extra spacing will take up enough of the end wrap to fix it.

The other is just to buy strings with less wrap. I used to recall which sets had shorter wrap. I'm fairly certain GHS Boomers are short wrapped and I think EB's are long. But I'd need to check them to be sure. I can if you care and don't already know.

 

[Equalphone]

I have my 95/5 % rule, the first 95 % of the set up comes easy as ballpark close for every aspect of hardware as adjusted, the other 5 % for fine tuning and micro-adjustments takes up the bulk of the effort & time and can be a mind numbing exercise of adjust, tune, noodle, detune, adjust, tune, noodle, repeat cycle. And then there's the normalization time that the guitar will take to settle in & adapt to a any tweak, even self heal for the abuse of screwing up the wrong adjustment that didn't work. I can see why so many go to have their guitar set up and come away like, what did this guy do, this still doesn't sound or feel right. That's the thing about the set up process, while my guitars are budget affordable instruments, once I'm done with a set up, the parts feel like they actually work well together and feel as close to a $ 2+K guitar for everything but the finish and differemce in the amount of wood used. The Epiphone Special felt like a cheaper & lousier Asian build, but after puttng in the blood sweat & tears, letting it settle, it feels like a slimmer version of a Gibson & it sounds that much closer too. I'm really a fan of Gibson Les Paul pure nickel, silk ball end 10's, they are phenomenal strings on a LP. I'm starting to wonder how well they would be on a Strat or Telecaster. I guess a waste ? Perhaps, due to a string thru body or Tremolo, even a top loader has no need or reason for silk wound ball ends. The Special I is a wrapover Lightning Bar. I can see where the silk wound is a chrome saver, while the string at the ball end wouldn't vibrate. Sorry for nerding out on string design. Until the Gibson LP strings, I only had noticed silk on Bass strings at the tuners.

This.

You can get it really close, but then you have to play it in to find out. Small adjustments to fine tune to where it's as close to perfection as you can get it over a few days or a week of playing in. Then one day you pick it up and it's off a little - the relief has shifted some minute about. A little adjustment and you're back in the perfection groove.

But that's the difference between "set up" and "Oh my, I love playing this guitar".

 

[Noodling Guitars]

D) I could no longer fight the GAS

lol this

Don't see that color often, but it looks quite attractive!

 

[Darkness]

lol this

Don't see that color often, but it looks quite attractive!

I think it is, green is a very polarizing color. I think I will swap the knobs for all black hats, but other than that I like everything about this one. I haven't seen this color in person yet and most online photos have bad lighting. I'm pretty excited for it.