HNOGD!!!

wolsnah

Happy new offset guitar day to me, well, yesterday really. I've been on the hunt for a humbucker filled Jaguar as a bit of a project to possibly refinish and play with the electrics. Whilst continually hunting for something that suited I came across this Levinson Blade JM-L. I'll admit, I knew next to nothing of Levinson guitars, but after a bit of research the pickup config possibilities piqued my interest and I now have one of these rare offset Japanese built beasts in my possession.



With it being a 30 year old guitar I was under no disillusions that it might need a bit of TLC. The list of jobs to tackle first are:

• Fit backplate cover (ordered)
• Replace missing plate screws (ordered)
• Repair/replace broken middle pickup cover (split on one side). Not sure whether to keep same colour style or switch all out for black (or other?)
• Straighten/replace tone push/pull pot which is bent
• Boost circuit doesn't currently work so need to investigate where that's failing, could just be the same push/pull pot. Bent shaft could easily equal shock damage requiring replacement. Yet to strip down and test. Circuit board and components look like they could do with a bit of a clean at least too.
• Trim pots on boost circuit may need replacing. One has a mangled plastic screw head which is likely beyond being usable

That'll certainly give me a bit of play fun stripping it down, troubleshooting what's amiss and replacing with new to get it back to full functionality again. The middle frets are quite worn compared to the upper and lower, but there's no buzz, deadening or bad notes, so a bit of life left in them yet, certainly enough for how much I play these days.

The bridge is interesting, it's flush mounted yet can be pulled up or down through some clever engineering trickery.

I'm happy with this rare beast though. Fingers crossed once I get through an epic list of other jobs (including building a workbench where I can at least then do a lot of the work) I should have it back to its former glory.

So, pickup covers...keep them cream/off white (anybody know of a suitable colour match I could buy) or go black to match the fretboard? I don't think it warrants any day-glo colours, which was my original plan for a standard Jag including the guitar finish. I like this tobacco burst style too much to want to mess with it.

There's also a 5-6mm ding on the body surface just below the bridge. I thought about seeing if I could steam it back out although never done that before so don't know if that's doable through the finish, but also think that will take away from its life and history so think i will just leave it with its few battle scars.

danishbacon

So cool! I like the original cream covers. What’s the tone like?

Dan_Halen

Looks really nice. Got a lovely mix of classic and modern going on. Sort of like a Charvel Strat but in offset world. Congrats!

wolsnah

Pretty good albeit me only having half or so of them. I was sold on the versatility after watching this good video explaining the options:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti1q3yVLFNY

Tone demos start around 5:50