Can I save this £85 eBay guitar find?
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- Опубликовано: 4 сен 2023
- Well it was a bit of a nightmare purchase but we got it sorted in the end!
It wasn't a particularly difficult guitar to fix but it definitely wasn't "very good condition" like the eBay ad said!
I suppose what do you expect for £85?
Anyway, it was fun and thanks for being here 🙏
p.s. the coil split I wired in sucks so I'll be removing that...
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🤦🏻♂️
I lost my $60 🤦🏻♂️
A lot of the 70s MIJ Les Pauls had similar single coils in a HB case. Never seen one with the double bar magnet though. The original "bridge" looks more like a stopbar tailpiece to me.
Yeah stopbar tailpiece was the word I couldn't find in the video haha
As noted, popular on many offshore guitars.....single coil "hum buckers". They have a unique sound that may be useful.
That's exactly what it is. It isn't a bridge by any means.
This instrument is a wonder. From the half-arsed neck mounting and the weird fake humbucker to the margarine lid cavity cover with bacofoil shielding and the blu tack, every reveal in this video is a joy. You put more care and attention into this guitar than it ever received before. The final result looks great.
Nice work on re-using that old pickguard for a cover, too.
Thank you mate, I really enjoyed seeing it come back too life too 😁
The "baseball-"QC-sticker indicates it was made by Samick in Korea, probably in the early to mid eighties. Definitely one of their lower end models and yes, a lot of Korean and Japanese models used to come with fake humbuckers at the time.
I have an 1970s MIJ Les Paul copy with single coil pickups in humbucker covers. From what I've read, it wasn't unusual then. They sound ok, but not like an LP!
Thanks mate I had no idea and that gives me a nice indication on the date, appreciate it!
Haha awesome, I'll have to get this one working to try it out
Looks like it turned out pretty decent. I'm a big fan of single pickup guitars.
Thanks bud and yep me too
I had an LP copy that had two regular single coils under the humbucker covers. No extra magnets, no nothing. The guitar shop put in a pair of cheap used humbuckers, and even that was a huge improvement.
Awesome to hear 😊
Played an old Satellite Les Paul with the same thing. Even a £15 Artec humbucker will do the job.
That wasn't a bridge that was on the Harmony originally, it was a stopbar tailpiece that someone tried to use as a bridge.
Yeah that's exactly what I was trying to say in the video haha just forgot the word for stopbar
That neck pickup actually sounds good!
Cheers, I think so too
She lives to sing another day!...Nice work man👌👍
Hopefully last a few more years haha, thank you 😄
I absolutely love watching a neck come back to life!
Edit: Dang that neck pick up actually sounds good in the bridge position.
Thanks bud appreciate it!
Epoxy putty works great in holes that are stripped out like the bridge holes are here. You just knead the two epoxy putty parts together, spread it around the bridge inserts and insert them back into the body. If you leave it alone for a couple hours it'll be more solid than the wood. Easy peasy and stays solid.
Ahhhh I'm going to order some right now, thank you mate! Thankfully I had some resin that I was pouring for another project anyway haha
Didn't really think that a neck pickup would sound good on the bridge position but you sir surely proved me wrong. Great job, really enjoy watching you work! Super educational as well!
Thanks bud, sometimes they're the same thing but with different pole spacing especially in these cheap import or copy pickups! I generally find the positioning on the body to be more important! Thanks for being here bud 🙏
That doesn’t even look like a bridge. It looks like someone used a stop tail piece as a bridge
Yeah I think you're right!
Just brilliant. It was always a pretty guitar but now you've made it playable too, so cool. Appreciate your content dude!
Appreciate your comment and you being here 🙏
I love watching videos where the rescuer truly enjoys breathing life into old, dejected guitars. It turned out beautifully. Sounds fantastic!
Thank you mate, glad you liked it
Great video and awesome restoration! Humbucker sized p90s usually come in an appropriate 'one set of slugs centered' housing now, but for some reason they used to just slot them into one side of a standard chrome case - probably because the Japanese manufacturers lacked the machines to make the appropriate cases and weren't willing to make that investment.
great video dude
made a decent guitar out of a pig's ear
when companies originally put multiple pickups in guitars, if they were all the same type i am not sure they made "neck" or "bridge". Gibson made PAF/ P90, fender strats all just had single coils
using a neck pickup in the bridge is fairly normal. i once put a bridge JB in the neck of a tele. sounded mental
looking forward to next upload!
Thanks John, I appreciate it 🙏 hopefully the next upload won't be such a long wait haha
Part of me would love to fit a badass style bridge and pop a humbucker sized P90 in that. It's giving me some 70s glam rock vibes (especially Mott The Hoople)
Oofff I can feel that
It's been my experience that, soon as you say "I don't want it to be a major project," that it will with absolute certainty become a major project. :D
I had to chuckle when I saw your reaction to the pickup. Flashback city! Way back in the early 80s one of my first guitars was a cheap Hondo LP copy. Those were the pickups it had - cheap single coils hidden in the humbucker covers. As a stopgap while I saved up for some new pickups, I took the two single coils and combined them to make a humbucker. It worked, but it sucked. :D
That wasn't even a wraparound bridge, it was just a plain old stop tailpiece. The HECK?
I've used Gibby spaced pickups on Telecasters and the slight string misalignment's never made any audible difference vs the same pickups in other guitars with the string spacing bang on, so I wouldn't worry about it.
Yeah I've done that 100 times too haha, also it was wild finding that pickup when I'd never seen anything like that before!
The stop piece tail as a bridge was funny too, I'm guessing someone has just thrown this together to try make it work for sale!
I just picked up a similar guitar after seeing your short about this one. Mine’s a bit different, but the same general design and even the same color, so I think they’re probably from the same manufacturer. No brand on the headstock, Made In Korea sticker on the neck as well as a torn off model number (W0.2??) and two of those single coil humbuckers. Interestingly, no pickup selector, just volume and tone for each pickup; just turn down the one you don’t want to use. Pretty sure it’s all original based on how the control cavity is routed. It has a front mounted control plate a bit like a 70s SG Deluxe rather than coming through the back and a wire channel under the pickguard.
It’s a bit shit, to be honest, but it’s lasted around 40 years by my estimate. It looks well used, if not well loved.
Thanks for the in-depth video. I’ll be fixing mine up soon as well and you’ve provided some great tips.
Thats the most bizarre pickup ive ever seen and ive been around
Me too lol
@Giant__Guitars great 😆
Damn it turned out really nice, loved the final result
Seeing ur reaction when you discovered the "single coil" was really funny lmaoo
Thanks and yeah thought I might as well leave that bit in haha
very cool looking guitar! glad you kept the original look and made minimal mods
Can you send it back?
Too late now...
In all of my years, I’ve never seen a pickup like that..
Mate, it’s up to you, but I never buy the bottom of the barrel, cheaply made guitars.
They’ll always come back to bite you in the ass.
Buy the best made for cheapest amount. Just how I do it.
Also, no matter what, always expect a seller to screw you over.
Not all will, but with that mind set,
you’ll be looking for the worst, if expect the worst , you’ll dig deeper and ask more questions..
Don’t be afraid ( I don’t think you are) to ask them for more pictures. Especially questionable areas... 👍🏻
You’ve done solid and respectable repairs. Good job 👏🏻
Thanks bud and yeah totally scraping the bottom when I bought this so I can't be too surprised but it was a fun adventure!
ahh the good old single coil in a humbucker case, a staple of cheap guitars from this time period, pure gold.
Haha I loved it
Great job! I’m especially glad you swapped the controls around so the jack was in the right place.
Thanks bud
A cousin of mine had that same model guitar in the late 70s, early 80s when he lived in Newry. I can confirm that that pickup is indeed factory. It was a fun guitar.
I recently got a Washburn semi hollow. The seller said frets were in great shape. I ended up recrowning and polishing them and fixing a loose bridge stud as well. Glad to see I didn’t have as many issues as you did.
Giveaway or not it seems like a fun one. Great vids.
Was that eBay as well haha? Hope you got yours all fixed up mate
@@Giant_Guitars mine was reverb. Luckily I know a bit of repair and maintenance stuff. Now I need to buff the finish since the scratching was more than advertised. Plays great and sounds good now though.
Using the box top as helping hands for the soldering was great! I will have to borrow that idea 💡
Haha good to know that helped someone, I just have that many small cardboard boxes lying around I always just push the pots into them! 😁
Loved seeing this come back to life. It would be a brilliant giveaway. Not worth much if you sold it, but a viewer would appreciate the work and effort put in to it.
Thanks bud 🙏
It came as quite a surprise to hear another Northern Irish person on RUclips! I feel like you don't hear people from around here too often.
Anothet awesome project to see! You inspired me to do my own wee upgrade to a strat clone i got for £20. Stuck £130ish worth of upgrades in to it and now it plays lovely! Only thing left is some fretwork :)
That's awesome to hear! I bet it's a beast now. Thanks bud 🙏
It’s everything I love in a guitar, cool, quirky, inexpensive….. love it, good job.
Thanks bud, appreciate it
Recently discovered this channel. Love your process and this certainly my type of guitar.
Thank you bud 🙏
Videos like these are great, I always learn something from them :D
Thanks bud
Cool 'little' project, pity it turned into a bit of a mission but it's turned out pretty good considering. Ebay descriptions... what can you say, but have always like LPJ-type guitars and you've rescued this one, (nice to hear some early Metallica too!).
Me too, I love the single cut single pickup design so I couldn't resist this one. I thought early Metallica might be appropriate haha
Awesome man. Wow. Yeah keep this one. Love the work you are doing
Thanks mate 🙂
New pickup looks really great with the one-piece brige
Thanks bud I think so too!
The bridge has been swapped with a tail piece. To me maybe trick of the camera but those frets look super biggie extra large jumbo😮. Fairly famous youtuber. Scar my guitar opened a glarey humbucker and found just a single coil. He had never seen that before 😮. The lightening bolt bridge is no more than mock saddles of a bridge allows for better intonation I'm sure you know.
Nice project mate. Just goes to show without spending much money but with a healthy dose of common sense a cute cheap old guitar can live again. I bet your fret job is better than it was new. I do have to mention though, that old masking tape is notorious for sticking like sh1t to a blanket so I wouldn't bet much on that stuff coming off the body without finish damage in many year's time!
You could have filled those low nut slots with bone dust and CA glue, or Baking soda and CA glue. It's a legit technique 🙂
Cheers dude, I didn't even think about that I will have to try it out 😁
That wasn't a bridge. It was part of a Tune o Matic tail piece. That's why there were no groves for the strings.
Guitar renovation for the people.❤
😁😃
I think it's a really great guitar by construction, but it failed on fabrication stage. I like guitars with just a single pickup, it's pretty simple and clear. Moreover, I prefer not to use any potentiometer in a circuit - just pickup, Killswitch and jack, and all of them connected by coaxial wire. Simple construction almost saying you: "There is no place for my mistakes, all faults would be yours!"
Well, they say you cant polish a turd, but I think you actually got away with it!! 😯
Thank you very much mate
Harmony actually started putting single coil gold foils in a humbucker sized case on their old guitars when they still made them in house in the USA. They would come on their "deluxe" models. Kind of neat to see it on one of the Harmony branded imports. The plywood guitars are not the highest end guitars but are better than most people given them credit for. I have a Hondo plywood Les Paul and it is a decent guitar.
I have an old Supro from the 60s that has a pickup like that.
nice job! Just a small suggestion: in the resin (epoxy or poly) if you put half of the weight of marble powder or even sodium bicarbonate, it becomes even stronger. Also, with epoxy, 7 days of curing will make it hard as a rock :)
Great video. Resurrecting a guitar from the dead is a lot of fun, and very rewarding, thaks for sharing.
@Giant__Guitars fantastic, how do I get in touch?
That's a spam account bud
Thank you bud 🙏
Ah, I see. Oh well, maybe next time!
@@mileswatkinson8135 sorry bud, pain those scam accounts on RUclips
Hi from Canada!
Just picked up a Epiphone LP JR. I'm going to redo.
Great video!
Welcome bud and thank you
What an adventure of a build, and what a strange original pickup!
Total adventure and I loved it
Looks killer, sounds great. Good job. Definitely a keeper.
Cheers bud
Thank you for bringing a basket-case guitar back to life. It has turned out really well
This is the first of your videos that I have watched. May I complement you on your video "style" - speaking enough to explain clearly what you are doing, but not waffling on more than you need to.
Got to go now - I'm off to look at some of your previous work!
This so called basket case was a super simple restoration job. I have seen and repaired far worse.
Thank you Paul, I always fear that I waffle too much so this is nice to hear!
It was simple yes!
I'm not even a big fan of LP type guitars but that one looks so slick in that beautiful red.
Well thanks, glad you like it bud 🙏
Tip.
if your nut slots are cut too low you can fill them up with baking soda, drench that with a little super glue and cut the slots to the right height. Rock solid.
Ahhhh nice one I will definitely try this out thank you mate
I know a guy who collects the dust when he cuts a nut. If he needs to build up a nut that is cut too low, he mixes the dust with superglue to use in the slots.
Or powdered graphite from pencil leads with CA to repair black nuts. You can even choose the hardness you want like 3H 4H etc, it's slippery too.
A shim from disgarded cracked bone or Tusq saddles can be glued on the bottom of the otherwise good bone nut that's too short for new higher frets.
I bought my first solid guitar in 1975 - a Japanese SG copy. It was dirt cheap and had single coils in "humbucker" bodies. Not a good buy but finances were hard in those days.
The fake humbucker is very common on the the bottom of the range Japanese guitars of the 70s
Good to know Chris thank you mate, I just never saw that before this guitar
I have an old Supro Sahara from the 60s with a pickup just like this. Sounds cool actually.
That old bridge is definitely just the stop piece of a tune-o-matic bridge setup
I guess it was haha
That's really cool looking!
Factory pickup. Alot of old Japanese guitars had single coil pickups that looked like humbuckers
That's cool, I had no idea before this guitar haha
I think you saved that guitar. 1970's Harmony, even repaired like you did is worth more now. The resin trick for the stud posts is nice to know.. Others I've seen drill out bigger, plug with the dowel & then redrill. My fear was the resin would be too hard to get the screw posts back in. Which is what I thought it would still require at least some drill out, dowel plug & redrill. Then there's the ground wire that probably needed to be redrilled ?
Thanks bud and yeah you need to redrill the ground wire too if you fill but that's not a big job, I cut it from the video just
There are bridges of that style that you can actually intonate... Quad and badass both come to mind. They'll always tilt a little because of tolerances when you screw in and there's no tail piece to counterpull But you can eliminate that with locking studs.
Loads of guitars in the sixties and seventies had single coils in humbucer cases my saxon Les Paul copy being one lol some of them made from drinks cans 🤣🤣🤣🤣 such fun and games!
i love old harmonies i have had a few none as pretty as that. i love the lp junior vibe, it looks great. get white button tuners and it would be beautiful.
Great job man!
Thank you! Cheers!
I have a 1985 Hondo II “Les Paul” that had pickups like that! Singles in a humbucker casing! I was just as baffled when I took them out!
I have a Columbus MIJ Les Paul copy most 1970s are factory made with single coils , I also have a SG copy as well same make I bought them knew in 1976 from Jack Evans in Lisburn, both have exact pickups the les paul has gig'd all over Ireland with a friend who played with some of the top showband in the 70's and 80's , he liked the single coil sound,
god i love the look of this guitar, we cant get stuff like this in NZ. great job man!
Cheers bud, yeah it looks great 😃
A lot of asian manufacturers put single coils in a humbucker casing in the 70's. It was all about the look as in "Never mind the quality feel the width."
Haha 😂 makes sense I suppose
Enjoyed the strip down ..learned a lot too ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks bud glad you enjoyed it
This one came out amazingly man. I love your channel more and more because it's simple and no bs, good stuff only.
Thanks bud I appreciate that
very nice job, your videos are super relaxing
Thank you mate I appreciate that
this is such a nice guitar imo! i wish i could get something like this for such a good price and fix it up myself.
The deals are out there bud 🙏
Cool guitar ! Nice job .
Nice little hobby guitar. I have my own Black Guitar Project going, so I'm watching lots of this type video. Cheers! Like your work. Subbing your channel.
Thank you mate, good luck with your project too 🙂
I've seen that on cheap Chinese guitars. A single coil in a humbucker case. LOL I would bet it was put in there by someone as a replacement. This isn't an expensive guitar, but you made it playable. I'm sure there is someone that would love to have it.
First time I came across it was here haha good to know it's not the only one though
This knob placement is better!
I reckon this modified to a double cut, symmetrical to the lower horn like a kirt hammet esp, would be cool
Oh interesting idea mate
Havin a great day dude
Epiphone used Humbucker sized single coil pickups in the 70s, on the popular EA250 and others. Nothing wrong with them. so did a few others like National , Supro, etc.
I had those in a Hondo Les Paul.
Without taking them apart you can tell by tapping on the “polepiece screws”.
You get sound over them and nowhere else.
Ah ok cool thanks dude
2:31 my dad used to say “famous last words” fairly frequently.
looks pretty good. kind of curious what that silly fake-bucker it came with sounded like...
Me too haha it doesn't work. I'll try fix it!
Great work! It never occurred to me before that neck and bridge pickups could have distance differences. Sounds good with gain/distortion, how is it with the cleans?
Cleans aren't bad I just couldn't get a tone I like for the video but most of my stuff I play is crunchy or distorted anyway haha
That "bridge" is actually only a tailpiece...
I love how the manufacturer finished the sides in such a way that shows off the beautiful plywood grain!
While I was hoping to hear what that original pickup sounded like, something tells me it would be a disappointment. Replacing it was a good idea.
Haha yes I know 😅
And yeah the original didn't work unfortunately 😕
"very good condition" strikes again
Love it haha, I'll use it on everything I sell now
I have an old 80s Mann Les Paul (post lawsuit era) that has a pickup just like that, overwhelmingly noisey, never seen them in the wild before, weird lil things
Greetings from Belgium. Thanks and congrats for your video. Perhaps it was already asked before, but would you be so kind to tell me what kind of glue you have been using ? I might be in the situation of repairing one of my guitars with the same process. Cheers.
I would rock the fuck out of that little red piece of shit. Great job fixing it up and making it rad as hell. Cheap guitars like that can be really inspiring when they're playable.
That's exactly what it is too 🤣 thanks bud 🙏
My first electric guitar was a MIJ Les Paul Custom that had the same pickups; single coils with humbucker covers.
this channel is criminally underrated this dude is awesome
Wow, you've made my day mate thanks
For £85 the seller should've just been honest 🙄. Great job as always looks cool 👍. Is there anywhere specific you go to sell these guitars on? Be well 🙏.
Very true and I probably still would have bought it lol just not have been so disappointed! Mostly eBay or reverb but I'm giving away more than I sell these days lol
We tip if any tight to screw screws rub the screw on candle wax will be easier to remove as well
Looks like a candidate for a neck bedding job . The neck pocket looks a bit scruffy and it would benefit the old girl by setting the neck in sawdust reinforced resin to improve stability . This is done by applying sellotape to the heel of the neck and masking off the body where you dont want resin . Set the neck angle by gluing in a shim . On strat types I use 1° up to 3° on a Gibson. Mix 2 part epoxy with wood dust to bulk it and apply to pocket , refit neck using waxed screws and allow to set . Remove neck , remove sellotape and clean up pocket . Refit neck to precise fitting neck pocket . Enjoy set neck type sustain forever .
Typical pickup for lower cost Les Paul copies like Eros etc ., they actually sound quite good . Very unusual to see a single humbucker type single on a LP Junior style. Higher quality versions like Greco , Tokai Matsumoto stuff had excellent hunbuckers .
Wow thanks mate this is some great info here I think I might try this exact thing! Cheers
I can’t help it. “You could fit your head in there! 😂😂😂😂❤
😅😅😅
I had a cheap 1970's Japanese Columbus SG, the pickups were single coil in a humbucker casing.
Columbus etc during the 70s did single coil pickups in humbucker casings on those black LP copies. I strangely liked mine as the punkist thing ever; like a telecaster gone to the gym.
Nice I didn't know this, I will try to fix it and maybe use it in something else!
Think about masking tape, it's slow drying adhesive. It does eventually dry and it'd be near impossible to get off. If that's left on there for like ten years, you might as well have just super glued it.
Good to know lol I had no idea
Wrap around bridges are a no go in cheapo guitars made from plywood or actual but soft (cheap) wood like poplar, agathis, paulownia or even basswood. Studs getting pulled or squashing the wood around them is just a matter of when, not if. Wouldn't happen on any modern tune o matic knock off cause half of the tension goes into pushing the bridge in and the tailpiece is set up much lower, so there's less of a lever.
Makes total sense! Thanks for sharing bud 🙏
What did the original pickup sound like before removing it? Sometimes crappy pickups have an "interesting" tone...
It didn't work unfortunately, I'm trying to fix it haha
Truth!
Original 1954 les Paul's had the same bridge, just a wraparound at an angle.
Good to know!
I see you doing a number of these with the same configuration - a single humbucker at the bridge position. What is it good for (as opposed to a single-coil pickup at the neck position)? What pros does it give to the sound? For what kind of styles/songs/sections is it good for?
I'm a simple man who likes simple things that's the jist of it haha. Really for me it's the style, I just can't get enough of the style AND I don't play nearly enough or anywhere close to professionally whereby multiple pickups would make any difference in my life.
I also love multi pickup guitars but I prefer single ones. There's good arguements for both and I'll agree with most on both sides.