I'm not as well up on this stuff as some, so before starting I thought I'd ask in order to get it right. The motivation is twofold - it looks a bit shit gold plating wearing off and it could sound better too.
I'm going to change the pickups to either Classic 57s or Burstbuckers, in nickel or steel finish, not gold. If the guitar is trying to be a cut price 355, what bridge, tail piece and tuners should I use so that it is, kind of, period correct AND sounds as good as it could?
I'm also tempted by a set of Bare Knuckle Stormy Mondays - any other thoughts?
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Comments
In terms of bridge/tail piece, I believe the Aluminium Gotoh ones are pretty nice.
As for tuners, I quite like the Grover Rotomatics.
The pups? Bare knuckle Stormy Mondays
I'll probably stick with the bridge because it does have a nice growl to it, but I was hoping the neck could emulate a decent jazzy sound with the right tone settings.....but it doesn't
If you're really slow, methodical and gentle and you use PEEK polish creme (Silver and Blue tube) which is non abrasive and uses ammonia, you can take the gold off all the hardware and leave a beautiful nickel finish that will last a couple of years before it goes through to the copper, which also in it's own way then looks very cool and would look frankly stunning on a sunburst Sheraton. I found it easier to remove the slug screws from the pickups and refit them later, polished using the drill individually - drill-in-a-workmate.
All i'm saying is if you're planning on ripping the pickups out anyway, why not spend £5 in Halfords and maybe another £5 on some really good microfibre cloths and have a go at the gold finish yourself, without really removing anything. Ok yes, you do have to remove the things to get the edges but you don't have to re-solder stuff and once you've got the gold of it just screws back on.
I did this to an Epiphone Les Paul Custom and it looked great, just like expensive aged nickel and it took me an afternoon to do the whole guitar, strap buttons and all (in the drill arbor !)
After playing my upgraded Epi Les Paul for 20 years (yes I bought one cheap electric guitar and played only it for over 20 years, acoustics aside) I'd have sworn to you that I'd never go back to stock epi pickups but this Sheraton plays and resonates so well that it somehow makes up for their clanginess and overly high output.
if I can de-gold the funster then it opens the way get a nice les trem to match the rest of the hardware. It's not vintage correct or any thing but I think that these semi's are just crying out for a vibrato tailpiece of some kind. Then maaaybe some pups...
Polish, buff, inspect, go again if needed but only in small runs.
Gently and it will give you the old nickel look all over and get rid of all the gold.
Cotton buds help too.
Best of luck.
Some grear comments here - thanks.
My Sheraton II now has silver hardware and I love that look with the dark tobacco body.
Also replaced the stock pick ups for Stormy Mondays and they sound perfect (but it's not a 335 of any description).
I've got Stormy Mondays in a couple of guitars, they're great pick ups but they work brilliantly in the Sheraton.
And the tuners are now silver Sperzel locking tuners. You can change an entire set of strings off and on in 5 minutes.
Silversun Pickups -- "Lazy Eye" live
Silversun Pickups -- "Panic Switch" live