I bought this Wildkat new in 2003 and while it is one of the best playing guitars I own, the sound has been somewhat... lacking. Stock, this guitar sounded like mud. Between the home pickup covers on the p90s and the wiring harness with nearly 3 meters of wire, it was the darkest guitar I've ever owned. I swapped the covers for plastic ones, which helped a bit, redid the wiring harness, which helped a lot and even tried a set of Lindy Fralin P90s, which sounded great, but it still wasn't what I wanted, sonically. earlier the summer, I decided to try one last thing before selling it- I ordered a set of Gretsch Black Top Filtertrons from Reverb and damned if that almost didn't do the trick! It was still a tad dark, but I figured a set of 1 meg pots would solve that pretty handily. While I had it apart, I decided to freshen up the finish with some glitter. I redid the harness again, this time using low capacitance shielded cable instead of the Gavitt braided wire that I'd used before, along with a quartet of CTS 1Meg pots, with a treble bleed circuit on the master volume. I also gave it a light relic for a little swagger. The photos don't do it justice.
Custom Relic Epiphone Wildkat
- Lost In Autumn
- PAT. # 2.972.923
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- Unicorn Warrior
- PAT. # 2.972.923
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- Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 5:58 pm
- Location: Kentucky, USA
Re: Custom Relic Epiphone Wildkat
Excellent job on that finish! What was your process?
Also, I’m glad you got the electronics sorted. Your patience with this guitar seemed to have paid off.
Now you have a truly unique Epiphone. Probably the coolest one of this model in existence
Also, I’m glad you got the electronics sorted. Your patience with this guitar seemed to have paid off.
Now you have a truly unique Epiphone. Probably the coolest one of this model in existence
- Lost In Autumn
- PAT. # 2.972.923
- Posts: 886
- Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2020 3:01 am
- Location: Philadelphia
- Contact:
Re: Custom Relic Epiphone Wildkat
Thanks! I scuffed the original finish with 320 grit, then sprayed the glitter coat. I followed that with 16 coats of Crystalac Brite Tone instrument finish. I relic’d it with a sander, then sprayed 3 more coats of clear, then leveled sanded to 10,000 grit, followed by buffing and polishing.Unicorn Warrior wrote: ↑Tue Nov 23, 2021 5:12 amExcellent job on that finish! What was your process?
Also, I’m glad you got the electronics sorted. Your patience with this guitar seemed to have paid off.
Now you have a truly unique Epiphone. Probably the coolest one of this model in existence
I’ve chronicled much of the process on Instagram at @sparklemotionguitars