It was in a crappy old gigbag in an attic for over 20 years and he asked me to get it playable again and it's almost back into working condition. I've had the neck pickup rewound because it wasn't working, restrung it (the neck held just fine) and replaced some of the foam under the pickups because they couldn't move anymore. I've also cleaned the mute of its old, completely dried old foam and am planning to replace that as well.
There are two issues still to be solved:
-The ground wire from the neck pickup will not stick to the ground plate under the switch plate. I'm going to have to ask a specialist to solder that: somehow either my soldering iron doesn't get hot enough (really? at 450 degrees centigrade?) or I have to sand the ground plate a little bit and use solder flux.
-The original bridge is gone. I have considered getting a Staytrem for it, but that doesn't fit with the original mute, I've checked that with the guys at Staytrem. A Mastery bridge is also cool but doesn't look good on this vintage instrument ánd I'm doubting if that will fit with the mute. There is a cheap AllParts Mustang bridge currently on it which kind of does the trick but is also the wrong radius (9.5 vs 7.25).
So my biggest question is: where to get a proper bridge? All the modern versions of the VI have a different radius...
