Now, for a few initial observations.
She sounds unbelievable. Very thick and husky, yet mellow and powerful. Like a beautiful woman who smokes too much. She's almost as loud unplugged as she is plugged in. I've got some new flat wound medium gauge jazz strings I'll put on her this weekend.
The problems are all related to the modifications made by the previous owner. First, the volume knobs extend above the strings, and are placed right where I like to play the strings, which means my fingers keep running into them.
Second, the owner originally installed the pickup with just a volume knob, but then later decided he need both volume and tone. So he had a larger pick guard made and installed the tone pot. He was kind enough to send the original pick guard and you can see the difference.
The problem is the new pick guard is thicker than the original, and since it extends farther, it rises to the point that the pick guard is almost parallel to the strings. Hopefully you can see it in this picture.
I appreciate the fact that he had enough sense not to start drilling holes in this beautiful guitar. But I can't help but feel there is a better solution. In a worst case scenario I could just take her back to a straight acoustic, or go back to the original pick guard and just leave out the volume and tone pot. No more then I play amped, it really wouldn't be a problem. Or I could try to figure out a creative way to move the controls without doing anything stupid like drilling holes in her.
I figure I need to just play her and get a feel for her before making any decisions, but if any of my fellow fretters have a few ideas, I'd love to here them.
Bottom line, she is worth every penny I paid for her AND I may still get to do a few mods.:bravo:
