When it comes to acoustic pickup systems, our favorite ons are simple rigs that run directly out through an endpin jack – doubling as a strap button. These systems (like the K&K Pure Mini) sound great, but usually lack any controls for volume or EQ. Our feeling is that you don’t miss the EQ controls since you can conture bass and treble at the amplifier (or have it done for you by a sound guy in a club or concert setting.) But the one control that is nice to have at your side is volume and the Taylor V Cable is a great solution to that problem.

That’s a volume pot right there on a right-angle plug of a 10, 12, or 15 foot cable (longer lengths are available by special order.)  You can easily adjust your volume or turn it all the way down when switching guitars. They start at just $60; don’t require cutting a hole in the side of your guitar; and if you have multiple acoustic/electrics you only need to buy one! What a great solution. We should have thought of it ourselves, but Taylor and Rapco Horizon beat us to it. Big thumbs up on this great product.

You’ve got yourself a nice electric guitar that feels comfortable, looks great, but sounds… meh…  The thing to do is get some new pickups in there.  It’s an upgrade we love to do here, but we’re not big fans of those big mega-store brands. We prefer the workmanship, relationships, and above all superior results we’ve found with smaller pickup companies. But the price can admittedly get pretty steep. So what would you say to a USA-made, hand-wound pickup that doesn’t make you smash your kids’ piggy bank open? Check out our newest line of Porter Pickups!

Brian Porter & Co. make each pickup completely by hand. Why, well in Brian’s words,

We have no plans of ever changing the way our pickups are wound. Part of the reason for this is tradition – by making pickups how they used to be made, and part of it is the advantages it can offer the customer to have a pickup custom wound specifically for them, tailored to their styles and with the materials we believe will best achieve what they are looking for. We feel that our process of hand winding pickups results in a truly custom product, which also has our touch put into each pickup we make.

Anything made with that kind of dedication costs money, but you’ll find Porters to be priced right around the most popular big store brands.

But how do they sound, right? Well, here’s a PRS SE Santana. We installed a set of chrome-covered Porter Classic humbuckers and they sounded great. Compared to the stock pickups, which sounded rather dull and lifeless, the Porters sound very articulate, sparkly, and clear. They break up nicely, with smooth overdrive when you lean into them a bit, particularly through our tube Deluxe amp here at the shop. Big thumbs up.

We like to compare pickups to wine here. The store-bought stuff is fine; does the trick, and can be pleasing enough. But once you try the good stuff, you understand the difference. Trust us, Porter Pickups are good stuff. Check out their website and full line here. Give a call to see what we have in stock and if we don’t have it, we’ll get the ones you’re looking for.

This short-scale National Model 1122 Cosmopolitan has been in the owner’s family for a long time.  He remembers his dad playing it for the family when he was a kid. It had a few odd part replacements through the years and our mission was to find replacements that made it 1. playable again and 2. looking at least close to the way it used to. We should have taken some ‘before’ photos, but among the pieces we had to find were:

A Daka-Ware bakelite control knob…

…a bakelite ‘chicken head’ knob and 3 way rotary switch to replace a modern togle style switch that was installed at some point…

…a new set of Kluson no-line tuners to replace a funky replacement set…

…and finally, to repair the original non-functioning bridge pickup that uses a paper bobbin. Wow! Thanks to our friend Josh Gravelin for doing a great job rewinding a very unusual vintage pickup.

Once we put it all back together, it really sang out beautifully.  And it looks the way it did in dad’s hands years ago. This is one of those projects that demonstrates how personal musical instruments can be – they bring back memories in a way that lots of other possessions can’t. It’s always fun being part of a family reunion.

I’ve got a baseball behind my workbench signed by 1970’s Cubs outfielder Jose Cardinal (my favorite player as a kid.) I don’t play ball with it because I know that autograph would disappear quickly. Baseballs are cheap, so I play ball with another one.

This Schecter Synyster Custom was played onstage and autographed by the members of Avenged Sevenfold. The owner wanted to keep those autographs safe so he had two options: hang it on the wall and never play it OR have us finish over the top of the signatures to keep them protected. He wanted to play it, so we opted to spray a few clear coats of polyurethane over the top.

For the new paint to bond properly to the original finish, we need to scuff the surface with sandpaper – taking great care not to sand away the signatures. Before we can do that, we have to remove the pickups, bridge, and controls.

Next it heads into the spray booth for several coats of clear poly, followed by wet-sanding and buffing it to a high gloss Finally, we put it all back together with the Works setup.

These signatures look exactly the way they did when the guitar arrived. But the owner won’t have to worry about playing it now that they’re sealed. Every guitar that has meaningful autographs should have this work done.

This late 60’s Les Paul Deluxe has had lots of work done to it over the years. Its original P90 or mini-humbucker pickups were removed and replaced with full size humbuckers, it has had mini toggle switches installed and removed, and its original gold top was refinished as a burgundy shaded burst. The current owner discovered that a hairline crack had appeared in the top, extending from below the tailpiece all the way into the neck pickup cavity. He asked us to repair the crack and refinish it to it’s original goldtop color.

These two small holes between the control knobs probably once housed coil tap, phase, or series/parallel switches.  They’ve been filled, but are still completely visible.

The body crack is barely visible – running through the tailpiece and bridge post holes and continuing all the way into the neck pickup cavity. To make the repair really look right, we knew we’d have to refinish the top. First, we completely strip away the old finish.

This close look at the pickup routs shows the original P90 routs, widened to fit full size humbuckers and (if you look closely) some remaining patches of the gold finish it once had. We opted to stay with the current humbucker pickup arrangement but to restore the gold finish. The one electronic alteration  we made was to wax-pot and cover the pickups.

Here’s a better look at the body crack after repair.

The refinish begins with sealer and white primer coats.

Then that distinctive Gibson gold-top. Here we peel away tape that kept the gold paint off the edge binding.

After amber top-coats and some light relic touches, it’s starting to look the part again.

Once the work is complete, there’s no evidence of the body crack or switch holes anymore. It’s just another great looking Gibson Les Paul Gold-top.

You’ll find a new page on our website starting today, titled “Guitar Recycling.” It marks the beginning of a new endeavor here at Chicago Fret Works. We’ll be accepting donated guitars, basses, or other musical equipment (in working or near-working condition please) for Chicago’s own Intonation Music Workshop. We’ll clean them up, restring them, and pass them on. When you think about it, every time you repair a guitar (or anything else,) you’re recycling and reusing.  But this is even more exciting; you can put your under- or un-used instrument back to work making music and help out some great kids at the same time.

To quote our own most recent blog post, guitars are meant to be played and enjoyed. And here’s another truth; not everyone can afford to take up our favorite past-time.  If you’ve got an instrument that you don’t use anymore, how about putting it back to use and donating it to the kids at

Intonation Music Workshop!

Click here for a nice video story about this project from Northwestern University/Medill News Service.

Here’s some of the guitars we’ve recycled and donated to IMW so far!

We have a love/hate relationship with Facebook around Chicago Fret Works. But one of the great things about the site is how it helps old friends reconnect. In this case, the two old friends are a 1978 Washburn Falcon and its original owner.  It’s one of those “I never should have sold that guitar” stories that actually has a happy ending.

The Falcon was one of Washburn’s best electric guitar models with a neck-through-body design and a very comfortable back contour that helps for playing notes up high on the fretboard.The owner of this guitar bought it new in 1978 (looking something like the one below,) but sold it a few years later -a move he came to regret. It wound up in the hands of a touring professional who traveled the world with it for many years.

Fast forward to 2010, and the age of online social networking. The two men found each other on Facebook and decided the guitar needed to be back in the hands of its original owner. It arrived in our shop with a new candy-apple red finish job,  missing some of its old parts,  and in need of some TLC. But there was no mistaking that it was the same guitar in the same original case!

We installed a set of Lollar Imperial humbuckers, a set of Graphtech string saver saddles, a Black Tusq nut, and put it all back together.

Note that previously mentioned back contour above, along with a custom made clear plexiglass cavity cover (a removable protective film makes it looks a little cloudy.) The owner wanted to be able to see the ‘guts’ of his guitar.

This old Falcon looks and sounds terrific, but the best part for us was helping reunite a player and his favorite guitar after so many years.

Somewhere along the line, this Tele was modded with a Bigsby and a wide-range humbucker. The current owner liked the guitar overall, but not the sound of the neck pickup. So we installed a Lollar Special T in the bridge position and a Lollar Imperial humbucker in the neck position. Because of the smaller size of the new neck pickup, we mounted it in a chrome pickup bezel and it looks great. I find it hard to look away from this orange soda/dreamsicle-looking guitar.

Hold on there! Refinish a vintage Gibson? In candy apple red?? There better be a darn good reason to do something like that… and there was.

As mentioned in previous posts, the guitar repairman’s rule of thumb with vintage instruments is to leave it in as close to original condition as possible while still maintaining its playability. In the case of this 1960’s Gibson ES-355TDC, a couple of previous repairs have left it far from its original condition. When it arrived, the most obvious change was that it had been painted white years earlier and that white finish was flaking off in big chunks. A little closer look revealed a headstock repair the likes of which we’ve never seen. Throw in some long ago water damage, cracks in the body, and stains in the wood and the vintage value of the guitar is pretty well gone. You may as well paint it blue; or as the owner of this guitar decided, candy apple red.

Our original plan with this guitar was to strip off the old white paint and restore it to as close to original condition as possible – meaning refinish it in its original translucent cherry red color. But once the flaking paint was off, we saw that the headstock had been entirely rebuilt, with the new headstock made, curiously enough, out of plywood. There were also a great number of cracks in the surface layer of the laminated body. These cracks were likely the result of extensive water damage and could be the reason it was originally refinished.

The body cracks and flaws would be visible through any transparent color. We know because we tried it, even darkening the red color to try to hide the cracks. It just didn’t look very good.

So the owner called an audible and told us he’d just as soon have us paint it something flashier – candy apple red and while we were at it, could we add binding to the F holes. It was an unexpected color request, particularly since Gibsons were rarely finished in candy apple red, but one we felt was not out of line given the condition of the guitar. He loves the way this guitar plays and decided he wanted to love the way it looked too.

We began the new work by gluing white binding to the inside of the F holes. This guitar didn’t have binding , but plenty of other old Gibsons do, so it didn’t look out of place. It’s tricky and sticky work that takes time and patience.

Once the binding is in place we can sand the F hole areas level. Next we add a coat of white primer/sealer…

…and a couple coats of the sparkly candy apple red.

Before spraying clear top coats, Dan has to clean the red paint off the body binding and the black paint off the headstock and Gibson logo.

Next it’s time to top the finish with clear nitrocellulose lacquer. To get the finish smooth and glassy in appearance, Dan has to wet sand the clear top coats up to 1200 grit sandpaper before buffing out the whole guitar (hence the hazy appearance in this shot.)

Before final buffing, Steve carefully threads all the electronics back into place. On a hollow body guitar like this there is no easily accessed control cavity (like the back of  a Les Paul) or pick guard (like a Stratocaster) on which to mount the pots and jack. They have to be pulled through the pickup hole using fingers, dental floss, surgical tubing, or all of the above. It’s kind of like building a ship in a bottle.

Then, once the pieces are back in place, Dan buffs out the entire guitar.

Finally, we install  the hardware and a new pick guard to replace the crumbling and decaying original one you saw in the first picture. A fresh set of strings and this red rocket is ready to roar.

Oh, yea, and Dan refretted this guitar too. He worked so fast I couldn’t get pictures of him working! We’ll cover that subject in a future Workbench post.

A good customer of ours recently purchased this Gibson ES345, a beautiful and rare guitar, but one that just wasn’t sounding right. When it came to us, there was so much scratching and static that it was difficult to tell which or how many components worked. He also wanted to convert the stereo output jack to mono. Wired in stereo, each pickup is wired to one side and a typical guitar cable would only allow us to hear one of those. You either use a stereo splitting cable, sending each pickup’s signal to a different amp input, or you change a single wire at the jack and convert it to mono like most guitars. That’s easier said than done in this case however.

Most of the time, when changing even a single solder point on a hollow body guitar, we need to extract the entire wiring scheme through the bridge pickup hole. This takes time and patience, but does allow us to get a good look at components that probably haven’t been handled since the guitar was assembled in the mid ’60s. You can see the protective cans that encase the control pots and how the pots themselves are preserved – looking like brand new ones.

The pickups checked out and worked perfectly. What didn’t age so well, however was the wiring itself. Gibson has always used a single insuated conductor wire with a metal braid as a shield. Over the past 40-some years, the inner wire’s insulation has dried and crumbled. This allows the inner hot wire to rub against the grounded braid, shorting the signal completely in some cases.

There were so many areas where this happened that we had to bite the bullet and replace all of the connecting wires in this guitar. We used modern wire that looks the same as the old stuff. Of course this means one less original element to this guitar, diminishing it’s value a bit, but this guitar was purchased to be played and the crumbling old wire had to go. Then it all goes back through the pickup cavity and into place. Sort of like building a ship in a bottle.

With a new bar for the Vibrola tailpiece, and the guitar polished & set up, it looks and sounds great. There’s just something about those early Gibson humbuckers… Very nice.