Some progress with the Mockingbird

So, flushed with the success of setting up the RS8V I attacked the iffy Mockingbird. I slackened off the truss rod to give some relief then lowered the nut height a little. This time I attacked the nut shelf as it was more substantial than the RS8V and made of wood rather than weird plasticky stuff.

This has really helped and made it much more playable. I'll have to take a bit more off the nut height but I've decided the monkey metal tremolo really has to go. I'll order up a new one and do both at the same time.

With it approaching playable I went for the electrics. I ditched the neck P90 and Epiphone bridge then fitted a matched pair of Kent Armstrong 'rockers' I bought ages ago cheaply. I had written off the idea of using them in this as the bridge wasn't bought as F-spaced but when I actually measured it's actually pretty close to it. In my usual fashion I stuck in some push/pull pots and wired it for coil tap. Given some 4-wire pickups it's almost rude not to.

With it all back together it's a lot closer to what I wanted from the Mockingbird when I started modding it, but there's still a way to go.

Indie #23 - 'Shape' custom double-cut semi-hollow blue/white stripe

This is a sister to my very first Indie, only in a metallic blue with a white stripe similar to my Two tone.

It's sort of been bought to modify, I like the idea of one of these with a humbucker at the bridge and I've got a vintage handwound Kent Armstrong PAF+ which is made in a P90 size and style ready to go in.

If that doesn't work out I can probably find some other mini humbucker that'll fit nicely.

Epiphone #2 - 'Goth Explorer'

This definitely falls into the 'project' category. I bought this for a pittance from an enthusiastic Metallica fan who had painted some Pushead-esque stuff on it then lacquered over the top. There's even a Metallica logo on the headstock.

Which wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't made a godawful job of it. The painting is an ill-defined mess and the logo looks like it's been cut out of a magazine then stuck on. The lacquer is all thick, blobby and seems to have reacted with the original finish so it's bubbling up. It's even all over the scratchplate.

It came as a pile of bits so I stuck in some Kent Armstrong Super Distortion pickups I had kicking around and set it up. It plays quite nicely even if it does look like shite. I really ought to do something with it, but there's always another project to fiddle with.

Washburn #2 - 'KC90 V' natural

In modern times, Washburn have contracted out the bulk of their manufacture with only the 'custom shop' models being made in the USA. In the early 90s, the Chicago series were their standard superstrat offering and mostly made in Korea. Nowadays they're not in the slightest bit desirable so if you want a good quality cheap superstrat one of the KC models would be right at the top of my list. The electrics and pickups are even of a decent quality.

The two top models, the KC90 and KC100 were made in Japan. This was in the factory which made early 90s 'Professional' Jacksons, renowned for being made to giant-slaying levels of quality and playability. Unlike the Jacksons this isn't widely known so the KC90 can be had rather cheaply sometimes. I managed to pick this up for £90. The KC100 is similar but with a through rather than bolt-on neck and is quite uncommon.

So, the KC90 comes with good quality Japanese hardware, Washburn branded Gotoh machine heads, Washburn 600-S tremolo which is actually a Takeuchi TRS-101 and fantastic build quality. The neck on mine feels exactly like the one on my Jackson Rhoads EX Pro, which would have come from the same factory. It even has the same slightly too close together inlays at the 12th fret.

Last but not least you get genuine Seymour Duncan pickups. Mine came with a JBJ at the bridge and 'classic' single coil in the middle position. Originally the neck pickup would have been a Duncan too but somebody had replaced it with a cheapo Artec mini-humbucker at some point. The electrics were all scratchy too, but such is the peril of of 15+ year old guitars.

When I got this it had a badly chipped metallic blue finish on the body. So I stripped it back to the wood and did a Danish Oil finish. this was my first go at refinishing and it's not perfect but is adequate.

I also rewired it with a Kent Armstrong Motherbucker at the bridge and two Cool Rails in the other positions. I stole the Duncans from it for one of my EC29s.

If I see another one cheap I'll buy it. They're the perfect base for a 'superstrat project' as you're starting from something decent.

Washburn #1 - 'EC29 Challenger' in teal with squiggles

Nurse, fetch the spandex.

Back in the late 80s and early 90s there was a 'guitar war' going on. Metal was big in the US, shredding was cool and the guitar manufacturers were falling over themselves to make more and more over the top models with super thin flat wide necks, active pickups, locking tremolos and crazy finishes.

It was this arms race that brought us the Ibanez Universe and this piece of shredder madness, the Washburn EC29 Challenger.

The luthier Stephen Davies had perfected making a guitar with no heel to the neck whatsoever by supporting the neck with the upper section of the body. Once you've done this, you can just keep sticking frets on until you run out of room. This he patented as the "Stephen's Extended Cutaway". He teamed up with Washburn who licensed his design and the EC29 and EC36 were born.

At its time the spec. was insane, 29 frets on a through neck, Reflex active pickups, redesigned Floyd Rose style locking tremolo with a quick release nut and a variety of very rock finishes. It was priced suitably highly and without a high profile endorsement they didn't sell.

When it came down to it, nobody really knew what to do with the extra frets, reviewers were nonplussed by them and any discussion of the guitar focused on them.

When shredding fell out of favour the 7-string guitars found a market in nu-metal and death metal but nobody wanted the ECs. So Washburn stopped making them and they disappeared, with only the Nuno Bettencourt models using a bolt-on version of the Stephens Extended Cutaway.

Come 1992, I'd got a reasonable job and wanted a good guitar. I remembered the launch of the ECs and was thinking about buying either one of these or a Universe. This was mostly because both appeared in my local guitar shop, Monkey Business Music in Romford, for a reasonable price.

The idea of a 7-string intimidated me slightly so I bought the EC29. What all the discussion of these missed at the time was that the ECs are simply fantastic guitars and there's no obligation whatsoever to use those extra frets.

The build quality of these is about the best Japan has to offer. Which in reality is about as good as you'll get anywhere beyond something individually handmade for you. The Reflex pickups were astounding and the tremolo rock solid.

The SEC means that when playing the usual questions about upper fret access become moot. There is just simply neck and more neck until you're trying to play well above about the 24th, which frankly you won't bother with. It's almost disconcerting as you lose the heel as a 'landmark'. The neck isn't quite as flat and wide as you'd expect either and it's a much more versatile guitar than the looks would suggest.

I played this heavily for years until I took my long break. When I came back the active circuit seemed to have failed where the wires went into it and as it's all potted there was nothing I could do about this. So I rewired it using some Kent Armstrongs, a Cool Rail at the neck, which is more like the middle position and a Motherbucker at the bridge.

This has resurrected it but it's not as nice sounding as it was. I have a plan to put Seymour Duncan Blackouts in it soon. This should be a good contrast to the passive Duncans in my other EC29.

Indie #9 - 'Standard 2000' Natural

If I have a 'go to guitar' then this is it. Well unless I'm playing at being a thrash metal shredder when it's one of my EC29s. That is why this guitar is pictured at the top of my blog.

This was another secondhand purchase as a job lot with an Indie IT-30 amp. These had not been brilliantly cared for. The guitar had one odd machine head where the button from the original had been smashed off and one of the studs for the tailpiece had been pushed into the body damaging the lacquer on the top around it. It took me a while to notice the second fault and I suspect the seller didn't even know it had happened. There was a matching ding in the head of the bridge stud so it'd probably had quite a smack. Other than these two faults it had very minor play wear, almost like these had been done in a single incident perhaps during shipping or storage. The seller had recently moved house so maybe it was the removal men.

The machine head was easily solved as I discovered the generic 'tulip' machine heads sold by CH guitars on eBay were in fact identical to the ones used by Indie. Lots of the Korean guitar hardware sold by them (and AxesRUs) is identical to that used on Indie guitars, which was very useful to find out for my various modding projects.

The spec. is the usual good Indie stuff...

Body: Solid mahogany
Body Top: None
Body Binding: Single cream
Neck: Hard maple
Neck Binding: Single cream
Neck Construction: Set neck
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Fingerboard Inlay: Crown inlay
Headstock Binding: Single cream
Head Machine: Indie diecast tuner
Top Nut: Graphite
Bridge: Tune-o-matic with stop tail
Hardware: Chrome
Pickups: 2 humbucker/Indie standard
Electrics: 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way toggle
Truss Rod: 2-way dual action
Scale Length/Frets: 628mm(24.7")/22 frets
Finish: Natural


...with this being a slightly modern take on the classic single cutaway Les Paul shape. It has Indies tidier later headstock design and their very nicely redesigned heel joint and cutaway. The curve of the upper bout follows through the heel and down to the cutaway. This makes for very good upper fret access and a slightly more distinctive design.

The simple mahogany body with natural finish looks great. In some ways I prefer this understated look to the more bling models. Nevertheless I thought the chrome hardware and pickups looked a bit anemic set against this and decided to undertake a little modding project.

Since discovering the wonder of P90s with my first Indie I'd been lusting after a Gibson BFG, which is a bare basic unfinished Les Paul with a P90 at the neck. As this was a very understated natural finish guitar I thought it would be interesting to do an Indie take on this.

I'd acquired a couple of Kent Armstrong humbucker sized P90s cheaply so already had something for the neck position for this project. I also had a vintage handwound Kent Armstrong PAF+ from the 80s which I wanted to make use of. This is a featureless epoxy potted lump with metal terminals protruding from it, quite unlike most pickups bar those used in the Dan Armstrong plexiglass guitars of the 70s.

The P90s had gold covers so I acquired a set of gold Les Paul hardware, swapped everything out, plonked the pickups in and wired it up. The result is a fantastically versatile reworking of the Les Paul formula. The neck P90 is creamy and the handwound bridge simply lovely. I wired it for coil tap and phase reversal with push-pull pots so you can get a load of different sounds for it. Being an Indie it plays beautifully, obviously.

I christened the result the 'BFI', being an obvious play on 'BFG' which I like because it's also an abbreviation many people I know use for 'brute force and ignorance'.

It stayed like this for some months but I was still unhappy with how it looked, I wanted more contrast between the body and the hardware. So I bought a set of black hardware and picked up a secondhand GFS Dream 90 for the neck position.

When I first swapped the hardware I left the chrome bridge & tail bushes in the body as the mismatch with the gold hardware didn't stand out too much. This time it was going to show so I built myself a basic puller using a block of wood, some nuts, bolts, and washers and a bit of old inner tube to stop it marking the body. I was very worried about getting the studs out but it proved pretty easy. The stud you can see removed in the photo is the one that had been pushed into the finish. As you can see the damage is very minor.

To tap the new ones in I screwed a bolt into them and placed a wooden block on top then gently used a deadblow hammer. This meant I wasn't damaging the finish as it went in. Having carefully lined up the splines on the new bushes with the path the old ones had cut they were a perfect fit and not loose at all.

I then put the original chrome machine heads back on as that felt the right way to go. Black machine heads in a black faced headstock didn't feel like it would be in keeping with the contrast between body and hardware I was creating elsewhere.

With the replacement pickup wired in and all the hardware fitted I also put some completely plain black knobs on in the place of the speed knobs to complete the 'minimal' look I was aiming for. I think it now looks as stunning as it sounds, all I've got to do is persuade Indie to do this as a production model with a soapbar P90 at the neck. :-)