Thread: Guitar Expert Needed

G'day redback,

Everything is fixable / replaceable. It might not be possible to get the exact original part for a Tempo, but they are generally interchangeable with the various equivalents available.

Is it possible to post actual pics of yours? With close ups of the areas in question? Quality doesn't matter as long as it's reasonably clear.

Where are you located? I may be able to
Put you in touch with someone to help. I have a long history of working in music stores so may have some useful contacts when it comes to getting things fixed / replaced.

Cheers

Wil.

I'll take a couple of pics and get them up ASAP

Good grief, bloody camera was flat so I had to take the photos off via a card reader, but we had to find it first

The pickup you can interchange with any really. Different ones for different tone, etc. The bridge might take some chasing down. Tuner knobs also are interchangeable.

Get some machine screws or better, some large grub screws that fit the front pick-up and screw them in. They are more cosmetic than functional in most guitars . Supposed to compensate for the different volume produced by the different thickness strings. You won't hear any difference. You need a spring to go on the tremolo arm to balance the tension of the tuned strings.
Also a bridge with, hopefully, moveable rollers but again don't worry too much about it.
Any good guitar shop should be able to order in a spring and a bridge that will suffice. $30 to $40 the lot I would have thought.
Cheers, Peter.

Cool.

Nice axe. :-)

That pickup looks a bit like the plastic cover has simply parted ways with the coil which has fallen in. Quick investigation is to unscrew the black plastic surround. Lift it off and the pickup should come with it. You'll be able to see what's going on with the pickup then. Do the same for the other one and you can compare how they mount, as the other one looks fine. Cheap pickups are easy to replace and will slot straight in (with some soldering) but the spacing between strings may non-standard. I'd try to get the original sorted before going down replacement paths.

Bridge as suggested is easily replaced. I'd suggest using the string spacing of the lower (bridge) pickup to guide you, as the may be some variation with a brand like Tempo.

Tremolo spring - try any spring, but might be quicker chasing a spare from a music shop. There's a bit of messing around to make sure the tremolo returns to the starting position well. If it doesn't then you'll find the guitar tuning drifts about when you use it.

Gotoh brand tuning heads are a good all rounder to replace the ones that aren't working / damaged. I would replace the lot. They come in packs of 6 ready to mount. There are often screws to consider in the reverse of the headstock. You may want to try and match the original holes exactly - or not care at all. You'll need to look at a few options. You can probably have a gander at "gotoh machine heads" on eBay and get a feel for what's there.

A bit more to it all than that, but start there and see how you go.

If you pull the pickup out for a look, chuck photos of both up here.

I think Peter's estimate may be achievable, but as you suggest these older Japanese guitars hold some value so you may want to do some closer investigation on what can be done to keep it pristine.

Thanks heaps guys, really appreciate it, I'll go down the original path first, I would really like to keep it's sound and looks, then see about other options, there's a good guitar shop in Sutherland that should be able to help me, I'll give him a call.

I'll let you know how it all goes.

A quick search and I found a Gotoh bridge and the spring that should fit, the bridge is not excact, but should be OK, I'm hoping the guitar shop should be able to help with the pickup internals if mine are missing, I found out that I can upgrade the electrics with Gibson 335 stuff and the tuning heads are available at the same store, prices are reasonable too.

http://www.realparts.com.au/

I think the ES335 used the PAF pickups so those shouldn't be hard to find, but I may be wrong