Guitar Rebuild Workshop

Project# 2 *UPDATED*

A pickup upgrade on my Dean guitar that I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve posted pictures here.

The bridge pickup (blue circle) on this guitar is what shall be replaced this month. Also, as you can see this guitar needs some cleaning as well.

This pickup is what will replace the old Zebra pickup that came with this guitar when I purchased it.

First things first we take the strings off and take a look at where this guitar needs cleaning.

This lemon oil will be used to clean off the dirt and grime on the rosewood fretboard.

Doesn’t take much just a few dabs on a dry cloth and work your way up and down the fretboard.

See how shiny it looks now. Next were going to clean of the body with a micro-fiber cloth and water.

This is what it’s like after a cleaning removing dust and fingerprints.

This is the back side of my guitar. The two panels will be removed.

Here you can see the two back panels removed showing guts of the guitar.

Here is the main panel showing the neck pickup control wires (red), the bridge control pickup wires (blue) and tone control wires (grey). We will disconnect the blue wires with a solder gun after removing the pickup screws on the other side.

Here is the old bridge pickup removed.

Here is the New Humbucker Pickup kit.

According to the wire diagram, we need to connect the silver, green and black wires to the bridge volume pot.

Here’s the new pickup wires. The red and white wires are put together and taped off and the silver and green wires will solder on the bridge pot.

Here is the pickup wire fed through the body out the back of the guitar.

Wires are soldered and ready to rock!!!.

And here we have it complete.

Here it is again. Well add some strings and test it out.

*UPDATE*

Replaced old knobs with chrome knobs off Amazon.

And here is a better picture complete.

Project# 1

My first guitar that was heavily used back in the 80’s. I’ve posted pictures here.

Series-A-before-photo

This guitar hasn’t seen the light of day in many years.

This is what my guitar currently looks like after years of abuse and mistreatment

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As you can see this needs a lot of customization.

Dry fit pickups, wires and controls.

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I will be cutting and shaping this pickguard material once I receive my new bridge

This is pickguard material that i ordered off Amazon.

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As you can see the pickguard has 3 layers pressed together adding a kind of Oreo cookie effect. Hopefully I can find a bevel cutter to use this effect.

3 ply pickguard material edge.

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Here is the new bridge.

This is the bridge I ordered which will be measured and mounted so we can move forward. I will add more photos as we go.

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Bridge mounted to guitar body.

Mounted the bridge now here’s where the fun begins…

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Clear plastic template.

Traced and cut out a plastic template for the pickguard.

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I traced and cut out a wood template using the clear plastic template. It’s not perfect but we can make adjustments before cutting the actual pickguard. I used a Jigsaw to make the cut.

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It Fits! I will use this wood template to cut the finally pickguard.

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Cut out the pickguard material using a jigsaw, hacksaw and dremel using the wood template I made as a guide. Looks pretty rough right now but I will be detailing for the next task using light sandpaper to smooth out any rough edges

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Here’s the Bridge Pickup fitted into the Bridge. These are Fender TexMex Telecaster Pickup’s “…that can go from clean to mean and everything in-between”.

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Used a Dremel to drill out the Pickguard Neck Pickup hole. Just needs a little file action to smooth things out.

control_panel_template

This paper cutout will be used as a template to cut a hole for the Control Panel.

control_panel

We will trace the Template with a marker and later cut into the Guitars pickguard and body so we can fit the Pre wired Control Panel. We will use a Jigsaw.

Control_Panel_Cutout

Used a combination of Jigsaw and chisel to cut out the location for the Control Panel.

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The Control Panel fits yay!

Dryfit_Components

Here is everything up till now. Used tape to hold parts in place temporarily. Next were going to drill holes into pickguard to add screws instead of tape. Also need to order an input panel for a guitar cable.

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This came in the mail today.

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Input Panel is complete.

Guitar_Ground_wire

This small black wire is the ground wire feeding through under the bridge. This wire helps eliminate unwanted noise or buzzing sounds.

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Just need to put some strings on and adjust the action and intonation.