What to do with my guitar?

Jonathangus

So, this is my guitar.  I bought it, as you see it, about twenty years ago.  Since getting back into playing though, I've come to realise that it's more an assemblage of some decent parts which don't quite come together as a whole.

The neck: Mighty Mite, with a nice touch of birdseye and a lovely satin finish.  The frets are pretty tiny, though, and I'd prefer them a bit bigger as I find bends can slip away from me.

The body: from a Charvel ST Custom.  Lovely two-piece ash in perfect nick apart from a couple of small dings behind the bridge.  Nowt much wrong with the pickups either: a couple of Quarter Pounders and (so I was told) a Custom Custom at the bridge.  (EDIT: having taken the guard off, the sticker denotes it as a Custom.)

Here's where it starts to go wrong: The pickguard is a standard Strat one, which has been rather inexpertly hacked about around the wider-than-standard Charvel trem.  The bridge pickup is also the wrong spacing, as you can see.  Both of these are probably largely cosmetic, I admit, but they're annoying.  Also, I'm not really a fan of the black-on-sunburst; I'd prefer a white guard (or possibly a pearloid one, as would have been on it originally).  Would like the volume control a bit further from the bridge, too.

The main issue: Charvel neck pockets are wider than Fender ones (didn't know that back then), and the neck doesn't fit the body.  The low E is closer to the side of the neck than the high E.

A bit out of focus this one - but that's a 1.0 mm pick in there, to give an idea of the gap.

Finally, I think the overall setup isn't great.  Pretty sure the nut is too high (capo-ed at the 2nd squeezes everything way sharp) and there seems to be a lot of fretbuzz on the low E, even though I don't think the action's overly low).

So, as I see it, I have a couple of options.

Option A: get the neck re-fretted and find another body which the neck fits.  Would be able to use a standard HSS pickguard.  Be a shame to junk the body, though.

Option B: Find a Charvel neck and get a custom pickguard made.  Trouble is, it seems non-Floyd Charvel necks are rare as hen's teeth, and I'd probably need a template for the guard from somewhere.

Would appreciate your thoughts.

ICBM

Option C: Get the neck refretted, get a custom pickguard made, have a wooden shim glued into the neck pocket to make it a good fit, replace the bridge pickup with an F-spaced one and have it set up properly.

Sorting out all this is no difficulty for a good luthier.

If you look carefully at the picture of the neck pocket you can see that the alignment problem is because the neck is angled too far over towards the bass side - the gap tapers towards the outer end. An equal thickness shim all the way along the bass side of the pocket will push the headstock towards the treble side, relatively - the strings will then be centred on the neck. You could even make the shim the full height of the pocket and do some finish touch-up along the top, if you want to make it nearly invisible.

PhilKing

Also, the pickguard is causing some of the mis-alignment, as the neck is hard against it and then goes off.  

fandango

First world problems? The off-centre string-pickup issue is one of the things that picked my wick with the Rees RockSolid guitar I had, but sold at the beginning of the year.

ICBM's suggestion sounds a good solution, but do you see enough value in the guitar to warrant it? You need to be committed to the guitar and convinced you are going to get the mileage out of it.

Or you might want to pass it on and "invest" in something that's been properly manufactured in the first instance. Depends on your circumstances.

Sassafras

Lovely wood grain on that, nice burst finish too.

Jonathangus

Sassafras said:

Lovely wood grain on that, nice burst finish too.

Yes, I think so too.  That's the thing - the body, neck and pickups are all good.  I'm just not sure they all belong on the same guitar.

I'd also already considered Option D, where D = A + B, and I end up with two guitars.

fandango said:

ICBM's suggestion sounds a good solution, but do you see enough value in the guitar to warrant it? You need to be committed to the guitar and convinced you are going to get the mileage out of it.

Or you might want to pass it on and "invest" in something that's been properly manufactured in the first instance. Depends on your circumstances.

ICBM's suggestion is, unsurprisingly, a good one - and not one I'd considered.  But you also make a good point - thinking about it, I've only ever spent any significant time with this one, and my old Squier Strat.  I doubt I've ever spent more than ten minutes playing anything else.  Possibly I need to look for a 'complete' guitar as you suggest, and find out a bit more about what works for me.

Anyway, thanks, gents - that's been useful.

Funkfingers

Jonathangus said:
The pickguard is a standard Strat one, which has been rather inexpertly hacked about around the wider-than-standard Charvel trem. 

In your position, I would disguise the ugly, hand-botched pickguard modification by removing more plastic. Trace the outline of the entire vibrato recess. Dress away the plastic to the same outline as the recess. The guitar will end up looking a bit G&L Legacy but, at least, you will have proper access to the threaded inserts for the pivot studs. With this task completed, the modified B/W/B 'guard becomes a template for the bespoke one that you eventually order.

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

In your position, I would disguise the ugly, hand-botched pickguard modification by removing more plastic. Trace the outline of the entire vibrato recess. Dress away the plastic to the same outline as the recess. The guitar will end up looking a bit G&L Legacy but, at least, you will have proper access to the threaded inserts for the pivot studs. With this task completed, the modified B/W/B 'guard becomes a template for the bespoke one that you eventually order.

That's a very good plan.

Jonathangus

ICBM said:

Funkfingers said:

In your position, I would disguise the ugly, hand-botched pickguard modification by removing more plastic. Trace the outline of the entire vibrato recess. Dress away the plastic to the same outline as the recess. The guitar will end up looking a bit G&L Legacy but, at least, you will have proper access to the threaded inserts for the pivot studs. With this task completed, the modified B/W/B 'guard becomes a template for the bespoke one that you eventually order.

That's a very good plan.

Cheers - I might try that.  What's the best way to cut it (bearing in mind I don't have things like routers)?  Something like a coping saw?

NPP

Cutting into the pickguard was the first thing that came to my mind as well. I would attack it with the sanding drum on a Dremel, on a low-speed setting - no idea whether it would work though so don't do it before others have chipped in! 

Nice guitar by the way, it looks like it's worth the effort to make it work.

ICBM

A coping saw and some files to smooth out the edges should work. Looking at the pic, a couple of bits of the damage may just show outside the new outline, but I would probably leave them if you're going to use it as a template for a new one later, rather than make the recess too big.

usedtobe

That's a nice looking guitar. Got to be worth a bit of effort, I reckon..!

amarok1971

Ive got a feeling that you 'really' dont love it, no matter what you do to it your feelings wont change. i would make it good and pass it on tbh

randella

Looking at the way the strings don't align with the polepieces in the bridge pickup, I'm guessing that the Charvel bridge has wider-than-usual string spacing as well as just being 'wider', backed up by the fact the neck pocket has clearly been cut for a neck that's wider at the heel than the probably Fender-spec Mighty Mite neck.  You can get F-spaced (as in 'F' for Floyd Rose) pickups if the two E strings are noticeably too quiet.  This is probably also exaggerating the problem with the strings being close to the edge of the fretboard.

I'm with @ICBM on this, I think it can all be sorted.

Jonathangus

So, a little update...

Firstly, thanks for all your comments, folks.  I'm definitly going to have it looked at to get it properly set up and playable in the first instance, then maybe look at the cosmetic side (pickup spacing and scratchplate).  Even through the little Orange practice amp I've been putting it through, it has to be said those Duncans do sound rather good!

But, the idea of finding something which had been built right in the first place was not lost on me, so courtesy of the nice Mr St_Hubbins of this parish, I am now the daddy of my very first Gibson. 

Funkfingers

Jonathangus said:

Have you tried the bleedin' obvious remedy?

1) Slacken the strings
2) Remove all of the pickguard screws.
3) Partially slacken the neck fastening screws
4) Pull the neck into correct alignment
5) Retighten the neck fastening screws
6) See how well the pickguard screw holes align with the drilled holes in the body
7) If necessary, dress away some pickguard plastic to get a correct fit around the neck pocket.

Rikki_Sixx

That body is really something else! I'd do whatever I could do save that, even if it meant selling the neck and getting a more appropriate one. Even getting one made, though that would be pretty pricey! 

bazxkr

Rikki_Sixx said:

That body is really something else! I'd do whatever I could do save that, even if it meant selling the neck and getting a more appropriate one. Even getting one made, though that would be pretty pricey! 

Agreed, the grain on that body is gorgeous.