So this was my birthday present from my wife about 18-20 years ago , a very sentimental one !
I started reading loads of forums about whether it is worth to upgrade a cheap guitar , and most people said "no" . You'd be better off buying new better one .
Well ... I thought differently and went ahead to do it.
The whole guitar hardware has been replaced apart from bridge plate , neck plate and ferrules .
Nut and saddles swapped for graphtech . Amazing upgrade to the tone , literally fell in love .
Pickups swapped for SD JB and Jazz . Pickup Frames are schaller ( had to alter holes positions on guitar body to install them ) .
Jack input swapped for pure tone multi contact in gold ( superb ! ) .
Electronic changes -
Dunlop pots
Jupiter capacitor 0.022
Hi end audio silver cable (in teflon insulation )and silver solder .
Done leveling , crowning and polishing myself .
This was my first attempt at doing such a complex job , but being precision engineer I had no doubts I can pull this off .
I would like to thank to all forum members , that contributed either selling some bits to me or sharing huge knowledge about guitars .
Comments
And the guitar itself sounds awesome with elixir 10-52 optiweb on ,Love the feel and sound !
Feedback
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
One of the things that makes this so worthwhile is that Yamaha's cheap guitars are slightly different from many others - they're actually made to virtually the same standard as their higher-range models, they just use cheaper finishing and hardware. The woods (especially the necks) and the machining are more or less identical.
The only thing I would change is to raise the bridge saddles so the screws aren't sticking up from the tops - at least for the four middle saddles - this will make it much more comfortable to play, and might improve the tone slightly as it will increase the break angle. In order not to raise the action you'll need to shim the neck - but it looks like it would need to be quite minimal, probably around business-card thickness.
"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
I never used hollow beam , but I'd imagine it wouldn't be that easy as this .
The notched straight edge is about 5mm thick and nicely deburred . It sits well and safely on a neck on its own so you can inspect properly any gaps .
The last little tool helped me to drill extra holes ( M6 schaller pin ) for locking tuners .
That worked effortlessly .