Mercury II trem bushings

With the damage to the body at the trem studs on my two Mercury IIs, I need a solution that's going to hold things in place.

This 'lockdown bar' from AxesRus should do the trick but as you can see the bushes are much larger than the Takeuchi ones. There's about 2mm in it.

This means I'm going to have to drill the bodies which I'm not so keen on, but currently they're scrap anyway. It occurred to me that I could also put some small screws in the bottom of the bushes so they screw down into the body there, but the heads would need to be just the right size.

Washburn #7 - 'NX3 Nextar' natural

This is what happens when you hang around the Washburn forum too much.

Washburn have been making the Nuno Bettencourt signature models since 1990. Which is a long time for a signature association when the guitar itself is pretty much unique to the artist rather than just one of the companies normal models with some artist-specific bling. All those units shifted must mean something and it's not like Nuno is a hugely popular figure either.

The Nuno models tick a lot of my boxes as they're well specified twin humbucker superstrats that use the "Stephen's Extended Cutaway" neck joint found on my EC29s. The problem is that I really don't like the reverse headstock and have no interest in Nuno at all. Also, the majority of models are US made so out of my price range. There is the N2 which is very common but this is a budget N4 lookalike model with conventional neck joint.

There were a few 'import' models made with a decent spec. in the shape of the N3, N24 and N61. The N3 was rapidly discontinued, I suspect it cannibalised sales of the very similar US N4 models. The N61 messes the formula up with a scratchplate and single coils and I've never seen an N24 for sale in the UK. Even so these still have the reverse headstock and Nuno association which put me off them.

What I wasn't aware of until I hung around on the forum was that Washburn filed the serial numbers off the Nuno design, turned the headstock the right way up, fitted a tone control (omitted on Nunos) and push/pull coil tap then released this as the Korean made 'Nextar' or NX3.

So that's all the bits that appeal from the Nuno guitars minus all the things that don't. One came up on eBay at a sane price and I bought it.

It's in very good nick, plays nicely and the stock Washburn pickups which get a bit of a slagging at times seem pretty good to me. I really like the very plain satin finish and direct mounted pickups. The body is a 3-piece affair but joined very subtly so it looks almost like a one piece.

It's my first guitar with the Buzz Feiten Tuning System (tm). I am very sceptical about this as I don't like proprietary patented stuff like this that locks you into going to an 'authorised dealer' for servicing/setup. However you can find how to intonate the guitar according to BFTS on the Internet if you look for it. I can't say I noticed the BFTS making it sound any sweeter than I expected.

More on this when I come to do some setup work on it.

A fit of overenthusiasm

I bought two Washburn Mercury IIs off eBay that have faults. The trem studs have crushed the wood and shifted forward on the treble side.

Ostensibly I've bought these to rob for spares but the satin finish one is quite nice, if I can save it I will.

Having quickly stripped one I can see what's happened, the body has cracked and a small piece separated from it between the stud and pickup cavity. My half formed plan before seeing this was to fit larger diameter bushes but this won't really work. AxesRUs do a 'trem lockdown' that screws into the body which I may try, they're only a fiver.

Washburn #6 - 'KC90 V' transparent gold

So nice I bought another one.

Definitely a hidden gem these, where else can you get what is effectively an early 90s Japanese made Jackson fitted with real Seymour Duncans in great condition for under £150. The nicely aged JBJ pickup would sell for about £40 on its own.

The electrics on this one were a dry jointed badly earthed disaster and the owner had fitted an 'Iron Gear' bridge pickup. As he supplied the original JBJ an afternoons fiddling got it nicely sorted though. Still need to go back and replace the jack socket as it's a bit loose but it's 100% playable.

There's a little fret wear but nothing terrible.

Indie #21 - 'IJ1' trans orange

OMFG a Bigsby.

A friend bought this a while back as he wanted a 'Rockabilly' guitar, whatever that means. We messed around with it and changed the look a little but when it came down to it this is essentially a single-cutaway 335. The arrival of the Gretsch Tim Armstrong signature model ignited his lust so I've bought this from him to fill out another gap in my Indie collection.

First thing I did was remove the dice knobs and pinup stickers as they're not really what I want and put it back to standard.

Like I said it's essentially a 335 copy and even has the same pickups as my Indie Two-tone so it's only really the Bigsby that makes it stand out from that.

The roller bridge has made the Bigsby usable without totally taking the guitar out of tune but it's still pretty alien to me, much like vintage style strat bridges.

Indie #20 - 'Custom Shop L shape'

This is another example of Indies 2008 'Custom Shop' output, this time the 'L shape' which is their Les Paul style.

There were only 16 made to the following spec...

Body: Solid Mahogany
Body Top: Solid Maple with Tiger Maple Cap Body
Binding: Natural Wood
Neck: Solid Mahogany, Heeless Cutaway, Smooth Satin Wood Finish
Neck Binding: Natural
Neck Construction: Set neck, Heeless cutaway, Smooth Satin Wood Finish
Fingerboard: A-grade ebony
Fingerboard: Inlay Tree of Life Abalone
Headstock: Binding Natural
Machine Heads: Grover tuner
Top Nut: Graphite
Bridge: Deluxe Tune-O-Matic
Hardware: Deluxe Nickel Chrome
Pickups: DV8 Humbuckers - High Output Indie Alnico Electrics 2 volume, 2 tone, 3-way toggle switch, Mini Switches for Active/Passive and Coil Tap
Truss Rod: 2-way dual action
Scale Length/Frets: 628mm(24.7")/22 frets
Finish: Satin Blue Burst Custom

It's essentially similar to the rest of the Indie output but with small tweaks, active pre-amp and nice detailing.

It's almost eleven pounds of shoulder destroying mahogany monster in a very nice satin finish. I got it for a very good price but sadly it's missing the original Indie case. I'll see if I can find one or perhaps steal the one from my Designer Union Jack.

Now if I can pick up one of the 2008 'Custom shop' IPRs I'll have full the set. :-)

Problems with the 80s Washburn headstock design

Since getting my second 80s Washburn I've noticed an issue with the 80s 'pointy' headstock design.

Most of the models with this don't seem to bother with string trees and this means that top E runs just outside the silhouette of the headstock, almost Parker style. I don't like the way this looks but it also has a practical problem if you've got a locking nut.

Unless you're very careful about fitting the locking clamps snugly while the top E string is slack the clamp cuts the string when you tighten it. This can also happen if you undo the clamp more than is necessary if you want to use the machine heads later.

This is because the shape of the headstock means the top E and B strings naturally pull up and sideways out of the locking nut. This is clearly visible in the second photo. If you get the string to tension then put the clamp on it puts it under extra tension and cuts it.

Granted you always have to be reasonably careful with locking nuts but I've had a succession of guitars with them and it's only these 80s Washburns that are this bad for it so far. Even my Dean from Hell, which has a stupid string angle out of the nut is fine. I don't get this with my original EC29 as it has an unconventional cam operated locking nut and also a pattern of screws which serve as string trees.

Another vaguely annoying thing is that the string clamps are ~12x11mm when most generic ones are ~12x12mm, making it a pain to get replacements without filing them down. Which I'm going to have to do for my RR2V which came without any.