Washburn #10 - 'WI66 Pro-E'

I quite like the WI64 so have been looking at other Idols on eBay as there are several different flavours. The WI64 is a 'thin, flat top' and the most common of the 'thick, carved top' models is probably the Indonesian made WI45 nowadays. A few have come and gone but never quite cheap enough for a gamble.

I've also seen a few of these for sale but didn't think I'd get one at the sort of price I'm happy to pay as the WI66 Pro-E was near the top of the old Korean made range. You get a mahogany body with set neck, flamed maple top, three ply binding, ebony fretboard, the classic 'very metal' EMG 81/85 combo, all black hardware (inc. 18:1 Grovers) and a single large abalone cross inlay. Pretty much the 'metal Idol' without resorting to the Floyd Rose and pointy headstock of the WI50V. I wish it had no inlay at all as the cross is a bit hackneyed but beggars can't be choosers.

This one was dead cheap because it's slightly beaten up with dings and scratches all over it but most importantly a small piece chipped out of the fretboard. There's a picture of this on here and the crescent shaped mark makes me think it was done by being hit with a tube of some kind.

This may look terrible but you can barely feel it while playing. Likewise, despite all the finish marks none of them have actually chipped it. Korean Idols must be pretty tough. So I paid about £20 over what a pair of EMGs fetches secondhand for a really decent rock guitar.

It was absolutely minging when I got it, the general lack of care shown apparently also included never ever cleaning the fretboard. No matter, I always clean up a secondhand guitar when I get it unless it really is spotless.

If I can think of any way to fill the fretboard that won't look terrible and wear away instantly I may have a go but to be honest it doesn't need doing. It could easily end up looking worse than it does right now too.

Indie #25 - 'Visual DCE'

My first acoustic. Well it's an electro-acoustic but you know what I mean.

I've previously never had any enthusiasm for an acoustic but decided I really ought to own one at some point. It's the cheapest in Indies range, but nonetheless is nicely put together and plays well.

Easy win #4 & #5

My G2V and RS8V had annoying rattly tremolo arms courtesy of the grub screws which tighten down on the nylon bush they run past being missing. So, I bought a bunch of M4 grub screws off eBay and fitted them.

After this I messed around with the tremolo on my gold KC90. The tension spring, which is in the bottom of the sustain block, was too tight so you couldn't actually get the arm to screw in. I had thought the jack socket was dodgy but it seems not.

While I was doing this I tweaked the truss rod of the RS8V again and set the intonation on all three. The RS8V keeps needing redoing as I keep altering the neck relief and action while I don't think I've ever done the other two since I got them.

That's some more little niggles dealt with. I was reminded again that the G2V is nicer than its paltry RRP and plywood body would suggest but that it's badly let down by shoddy pickups. At some point getting a three ply scratchplate made up to replace the grotty original and fitting some decent pickups may happen but I'll leave it for now.

Easy win #3

My old RS530 was never going to get played with a crappy jack socket, so it's been replaced with a decent Switchcraft one I had knocking about.

There should now be no excuse for me not to play this more often.

Easy win #1 & #2

So if I'm going to polish off any of my massive project list I need some 'easy wins'. First up was the RS8V.

Today I swapped out the tremolo studs for a pair taken from one of the MG440s. Which I really should have done the other day when I had the tremolo off. Putting them in with a tiny amount of grease on the threads made adjusting the height a breeze and the unchewed posts have made the tremolo more stable.

Also, somebody had at some point removed a tool holder from the back of the headstock leaving nasty holes. I happened to have one that fitted right kicking around so I popped that on.

While I was there I gave the truss rod another quick tweak, the relief is slowly getting towards what I think it should be. However I can already tell I am going to end up lowering the action at the nut slightly. As I get the action otherwise sorted the high nut is really starting to stand out. I don't fancy attacking the nut shelf with sandpaper. This is doubly so as the nut rests on the neck rather than a shelf on the fretboard. So I can see me having to hunt about for a lower nut.

I reckon this is going to be a fantastic fast playing rock guitar if I ever get it set up right.

Project review

Looking at the Mockingbird again has made me think I need to review my various projects.

• Mockinbird - plays like shite and that's not in a good way
• Goth Explorer - plays OK, looks like shite, not fully wired up, kind of redundant now I got my DT350X back
• RR2V - plays nicely, tremolo fucked, no locking clamps for nut, looks like shite
• MG440TPL - essentially done, but has crackly pots and an uncertain destiny
• MG440PWS - need to lower tremolo by taking a router to it
• Black RS530 - dodgy jack socket
• Marine Burst RS530 - frets badly worn, but plays OK. Just.
• Rhoads Ex Pro - plays fantastically, looks like shite. May stay like this as it's genuinely 'reliced'
• RS8V - needs more setup
• Red EC29 - need to redo the scratchplate
• Trans gold KC90 - dodgy jack socket
• Headless thing - plays like shite
• Shape custom semi-hollow - plan to fit a bridge humbucker but otherwise perfect

I really mustn't acquire any more 'project' guitars. There are undoubtedly a few more gratuitous pickup swaps on the cards too beyond the semi-hollow. I fancy a neck P90 in the IJ1 for a start and I've a Seymour Duncan Jazz/JB combo sitting in a box aching to go into something. That's it I'm not allowed to speculatively buy any 'cheap' pickups either. Unless I really need them for something specific of course. :-)

Most of these are something I can see me making progress on. However the MG440s are in limbo as once fixed they've got bugger all resale value and my only interest in them is the messing around with them. I really should just break them down and 'part them out' to use an Americanism but I can't bring myself to do it.

The neck from the MG440TPL would look nice on a more standard strat body but I reckon the combination of wide heel and 24 frets would make it a serious hack and slash job to fit. You'd probably need to start with a hardtail body too as the bridge is going to move a tad unless you move the neck pickup back a bit to cater for the 24 frets. All in all a lot quicker to just buy a matching neck and body if I wanted a trad-ish looking strat with a maple board and locking trem.

Whatever happens I've got something to do on the coming winter evenings.

Your mission, should you accept it...

...is to try and make this Mockingbird play nicely.

One of my first noughties acquisitions, this has never played well. I got it in a scruffy state, changed the hardware, messed around with several flavours of pickups and so on but it has never been nice to play. In fact it's always been a bit nasty.

So today I ripped out the pickups that were in there. The bridge pot I used last time I swapped things around was iffy so I simply wired up the original BC Rich bridge pickup straight to the jack socket. This way I will not be at all distracted by dicking around with the electrics and can just concentrate on working out what it is that makes it nasty.

A very quick look shows the following.

• Almost no (if any) relief in the neck
• A quite high action at the nut

These could easily be conspiring to result in the current state of it. The cheap-ass tremolo (literally the cheapest I could buy so I could see what a gold one looked like on the guitar) is something to think about swapping but to be honest it works OK.