I've probably posted about this guitar more times than I dare try and count up/remember! My troublesome Vintage Icon (v100).
So I've just given it its third set of machine heads in its 5 and a half years of life (a second set of Gotoh after the Wilkinsons broke)!
And I was just putting the bridge and tailpiece back on when I noticed some things
1) the bridge is rusty.
2) the tailpiece is rusty
3) the pickup covers are dirty as anything/slightly rusting.
What the heck? For a guitar of its age and for the amount I've actually played it in that time and that it's not been exposed to moisture etc... I've got other guitars that I've had for heaps longer and they still shine like the day I got them!
So my question would have to be: why? Did Wilkinson make the hardware purposely so that it would rust easily on the Icon models so that it'd fit in with the aged look better or is there some horrible defect or something that I did wrong?!
The QC is questionable. There's so many holes that are just drilled in at weird sizes and getting the thing back together in working order was no mean feat... and on top of that it's rusty?!
Comments
Ruining gotoh tuners is hard though... They are quality, and no cheap.
Wilkinson hardware is generally quite good, but with the odd dog. I had a gold tele bridge from Wilkinson and it was a cheaper one and yet it was solid, well made with decent plating and had nice saddles. So perhaps you've been unlucky.
Also, import hardware rusts as soon as the plating has gone. Look at any prs SE stop tail bridge. They're Bloomin awful!
Your life will improve when you realise it’s better to be alone than chase people who do not really care about you. Saying YES to happiness means learning to say NO to things and people that stress you out.
https://www.facebook.com/grahame.pollard.39/
The lower end one is the one I had - and I stick by it, it was decent, flat (unlike some tele bridges I'd seen...) and well made. However, I'd assume some of the quality control is iffy, so it's buyer beware.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message