Just got through a complete overhaul / setup on #363/1000 Epiphone Ace Frehley "Budokan" Les Paul.
The bones were good and solid, but the original owner had never had it setup properly, never changed the strings and never really "looked after it" - and consequently it was never played. It also seems it was left at the mercy of the elements for some years.
The truss rod was ass-backwards, the frets looked like they were sitting in a salt bath, as was the nickel hardware - bridge and tailpiece. The Grovers (if you can really call them Grovers) were full of backlash and not even finger tight in the headstock.
The body however was almost new. the plastic saran wrap still on the pickguard, and the horrible excuse for wiring was all there, in tact, untouched.
It sat around for a week on the bench, while I stuffed about fixing the neck relief, then cleaning what was left of the hardware, to find it pointless. Lots of genuine Gibson parts were ordered. I then put my attention to the electronics. I discovered a true surprise.
This thing was loaded with NLA vintage spec DiMarzio PAF's and a Super Distortion.
I contacted DiMarzio tech with the serial numbers and descriptions and the response was "yep, haven't made those pickups for at least 15-plus years, there were a few left over that we sent to Gibson heritage. The pickups are similar in specification to the 36PAF, but it is not identical spec and yes the super distortion is also USA made.
I was happy. The pickups were worth more than what I paid for the whole thing.
Now, a fair few epi's cross my path, and from time to time one or two really blow me away. When I'd finished doing a complete overhaul on the wiring to vintage Les Paul custom spec, and new bridge/tailpiece hardware, fretted, levelled, polished and rplaced the tuners this thing just blew me away with the way it sounded and the way it felt.
I have a few LP's, and this epiphone was easily superior to many that I have played, including my favourite 79 wine red custom... It was impressive not only from a true 74 Les Paul look and feel, but the neck profile was bang-on and the volute was there - even the cherry burst was dead accurate. Obviously someone did spend a little time researching the original Budokan and this is a very accurate reissue.
The build quaity is more than impressive. I don't know what particular Comrade in the Red Workshop was responsible, but hats off to him or her.
So it seems to me that despite the original owners neglect, and (likely) stuffing around with the truss rod, and possibly leaving it out in the salt air for however long, I scored a fantastic instrument. It plays brilliantly, and those 3 humbuckers are magic when properly wired in the vintage style.
For a week's worth of patience and TLC, and a couple hundred bucks in genuine gibson parts, the guitar is easily worth 4 times what I paid. Not that I'll be selling it!
Oh, and I put some D'addario 11-50 chromes on the Blue Sparkle, and not liking the feel compared to the Thomastik's. But I can't get Thomastiks for a few weeks now, so I had to make do with what was available. But being unhappy with the tone from the chromes, I then pulled the blue sparkle down, it's suddenly got a scratchy lead circuit and the output jack is starting to irritate me....
So last night at about 1145pm I pulled it down after a few solid hours of slicing my fingers up on those strings...
it's currently getting a polish, full-on 1962 vintage wiring and 500K pots after I finished on the Budokan. I already have the McNelly 46/58's in it, so I'll probably do a treble bleed mod for the top circuit and change the tone cap value on the neck to 0.01 and I'm also now turning my eye to the RG and thinking about some circuit changes to that guitar as well since I put the burstbucker pros in it a while back.
Our old Harman Kardon receiver also decided to drop a channel, so that's on the bench too. A lot of electrolytics that need replacing (bulging). Not surprising since it gets a workout in a poorly ventilated cabinet, so that one is my fault for not doing somethign about it before it got to this.
Lots of stuff happening on my workbench, I'm running out of space.