Complete and Still Work to Do

(Nice and clean-looking)

Last weekend I finished the soldering and tucked everything in nicely, only I was getting a weird crackle and cut out when the cable plugged into the output jack was moved. Tried to tighten down the jack a bit and ... POP! Something snapped and sound went dead.

(Wiring after troubles fixed, you can tell I've been in there...)

So this weekend unscrewed the wiring harness and found I pulled both the positive and ground wired out from the output jack, probably by rotating the innards whilst tightening. Ha, I also somehow soldered the positive leads to the tone POT to the wrong connection. Problems with working past your bedtime on a school night when there is a big test the next day. (Not really, but I did have a shit-ton of work to do.)

(Def mutant guitar, folks will wonder.)

Here is the almost final setup. After I got the wiring done and strings on, discovered the action's almost double what it should be. Playable, especially up towards the nut, but less so as you progress down to the higher frets. The Schaller roller-bridge I added is really a Gibson-style, where the stock bridge was much lower. The answer I found is to shim a little neck-angle at the heal of the neck ($37 from StewMac on Amazon). I also have a lighter set of strings coming in and some replacements posts from Schaller for my locking tuners (the inner post are of 2 sizes: 1 screw all the way to the top, 2nd only about 1/3 of the way for larger string and didn't grasp my D string. Schaller immediately shipped me the longer posts.) I should have things working perfect in a couple weeks.

(Closeup of the knob and switch board)

I did have a chance to set the pickups and everything sounds terrific, even the vintage stock Epiphone mid-PUP. I still enjoy the Fralin neck and bridge pickups together best. Daughter Resident Evil stopped by for a visit and wailed away, so much so I promised her the instrument after my demise (ha, I had already recently in the past few years gifted her brother my vintage 80s Yamaha SSC-500, and Resident Evil doesn't have a guit with a Bigsby).