I hear my son playing his Tom Delonge Epiphone guitar without an amp in his room. I can't believe how much it sounds like the Aria Pro II XR-Series Electrics. I do not understand why the tone sounds like a Gibson ES-335 type guitar. There are no semi-hollow body or hollow body wings. It even has the Strat-like tremolo bridge.

It seems like this guitar should have that Strat sound, sort of a reverb-like sound coming from the echo of the springs. It sort of has that, but the overall sound is more like a Gibson. I guess I'd better re-measure the scales of both guitars to see if that has anything to do with it:

The Aria Pro II XR-Series Electrics scale is about 25.5 inches.
The Tom Delonge Epiphone scale measures a little more than 24.5 inches.

Any ideas?

I have hooked up the humbuckers and wired the guitar for coil tap as shown on the schematic. Now, instead of using the star grounding centering on the volume pot, I have it centering all together above the volume pot. (Of course, the volume pot case is connected to this bunch. I don't know why this wouldn't work just fine. Actually, I'm thinking it will work better!) I checked to ensure that no wire or component is touching anything it should not be and verified everything with my multi-meter several times. It should be ready to go.

In playing this guitar through a tiny Roland Micro-Cube, the coil tap works just like it is supposed to, and the selector switch changes the pickups exactly as planned. The tones sound great, partially because of the general harmonic response of the current set-up, and partially because of the wiring combined with these pickups. The coil tap out-of-phase single-coil sound I wanted is not coming through with a Fender Strat sound, but it is a single coil out-of-phase sound. On some settings, this guitar sounds exactly like an old Gibson with humbuckers playing through one of those first Fender amps. It even gives a little of the buzz (actually, a little too much buzz).

There is one significant drawback: There are actually no volume control and no full tone control. I'm thinking I must have made some mistake with the wiring. I'm going to need to study this for a while to figure out what happened.

The electronics on this Aria were set up for some sort of coil tap. Not ever having had this option before, I am eager to wire both pickups for coil tap. I want the guitar to have the two-single-coil out-of-phase sound that the Strats have as well as the sound of most two-humbucker Gibsons.

I looked up a schematic on the internet since I have no idea how to wire a coil tap. I found an easy-to-follow schematic on GuitarElectronics.com. The schematics on this website give enough information for a regular guy like me to understand their suggestions for where the components should fall in the wiring sequence.

I've been installing two old Jackson passive humbucking pickups on the Aria Pro II guitar. I had to tear out the shielding to fit them in and scrape/file away some wood. The Jackson pickups must be bigger than the Aria Pro II pickups; the meter indicated that they are about twice the number of ohms in spite of their age. I had to extend the wire; I've re-installed the Jackson pickups enough times to have cut a bunch off the ends. I didn't have four-conductor wire, so I made some with separate colors of single conductor wire plus one strand without insulation to conduct to the kitchen foil wrapping I gave it. I got heat-shrink tubing to wrap it all up. My homemade four-conductor wire was too thick for the existing wiring tunnels, so I had to enlarge those first. By the end of the session, I had threaded the homemade four-conductor wires into the control cavity awaiting hook-up.

Playing this guitar, I can already tell that I love it! The fretboard just feels good, although I don't know exactly why. With all the wood I removed from the cutaway, I can look down and see the complete fretboard just like I want for my dream guitar. All the harmonics and overtones sound out really well. The instrument sustains as well as any Gibson I've ever had (and I've had several over the years). The strings are still high on the nut, so I can't do the acrobatics I can do on some of the Strats. I don't know what I'd lose, if anything, if I lowered the strings. I wish there was some way I could measure these characteristics that I like.

A drawback I see right away is that the guitar tends to just slide right off my lap. I guess this is because it is actually being played upside down! If I put the body between my legs like a classical guitar, though, it's okay. Also, my elbow seems to change the volume pot, tone pot, and selector switch; I'll have to get used to that. The tremolo bar, if I get one that fits, will be on top rather than on bottom. I've installed five springs on the tremolo, which helps it to adjust the way I want. Right now, when I bend notes a whole step, the open "E" goes flat that same whole step. This could be greatly improved, I think, if I work on the set-up, but, once again, I'm a little afraid that I'd lose those beautiful harmonics and clear notes.

Happy New Year 2011!




To celebrate, I beveled the frets (top photo) and dressed the fretboard (bottom photo) on this guitar. The fret-wire is sharp, and I cut my hand on one of the frets. I tried to re-nip the fret ends before beveling and then used my longest fret file to bevel the ends. After the beveling was complete, I started dressing the frets with the fret files. I'd made a 9-inch fret file to use, but, not satisfied with its progress, I switched to the longer fret levelers. My research indicated that one person who worked in a factory installing frets said that the workers used levelers that were long enough that the tool never left the fretboard. That seemed to work better for me, too.

Last night was the second session of fret installation. Today I'll just be finishing up. One fret seems to have been cut too short; it easily extends across the fretboard, but doesn't stick out as far as the other frets. I could replace it...or I could just leave it and see how it works out.

I decided to replace the frets because they are just too low. Some are as high as 0.046 inch, but many are down to less than 0.033 inch. I want higher frets, so I intend to do a total refret. Over the weekend, I prepped the guitar neck. To remove the old frets, I first wet the fretboard with water and then used a little heater from an auto upholstery repair kit to heat each fret. [The heater plugs into a/c and has a little round flat tip.] When I could hear the water on the fretboard sizzle from the heat, I would move the heater further up the fret.


When the entire fret had been heated, I carefully used homemade fret pullers (ground-down nippers - see photo below) and gently pulled the fret up a little at a time. This seemed to work well while causing the least amount of damage to the fretboard. [In the past - when I yanked the frets out like teeth - they left big, horrible gaps that looked like the scars on Frankenstein's forehead.]


Now it is time to install the new frets on this bound bolt-on guitar neck. I re-bend the fret-wire. This time bending the wire is easier because the entire radius is about 15-16 inches and does not change. I cut the fret-wire as close to the exact size as I can. Although bending the wire is easier, installing the frets will be harder because of the binding. To go over the binding, I cut little notches in the ends of the fret-wire. Then I use heated hide glue made from dried Behlen Hide Glue. I ordered the Behlen Hide Glue from Stewart MacDonald, got a basting syringe from Wal-Mart, and bought a little glue pot from a local hobby store. I think the glue pot was intended for heating glue sticks to adhere flower arrangements. I mix the hide glue with water and heat to about 145 degrees F, then draw the glue up into the syringe and lay it down in the fret slots. The glue process is time-consuming because the little glue pot has no thermostat, and I have to be constantly unplugging the pot and then plugging it back in to keep the glue at the correct heat setting. It does work, however, and I can mix the glue differently according to whether I want to fill in or allow it to seep further down into the fret slots.

I replaced the two broken tuners with the individual tuners I ordered from Stewart-MacDonald and filled in the old tuner screw-holes that were visible. I had searched all the local music stores for individual tuners and collected all the used or broken ones they would sell or give me. I quickly discovered that the tuners I needed were "R" tuners and that all of the ones I had collected were "L" tuners. Apparently, when facing the guitar with the guitar headstock up, the tuners sticking out on the right side are "R" tuners, and tuners sticking out on the left side are "L" tuners. Turns out I needed "R" tuners, and all I had were "L" tuners. Funny...none of the music stores could order individual "R" or "L" tuners for me. I guess they must not get their stock from Stew-Mac.

After replacing the tuners, I strung and set up the guitar. Then I played it for several hours. Except for the frets being too low, it plays great and seems really solid in spite of all the wood I removed at the beginning. If this had been the first guitar I worked on instead of the fifth, I probably would have taken much more wood off the cutaways of the other guitars based on the success of this experience.

This weekend I am concentrating on the guitar's nut. I was worried that the strings wouldn't stay on the nut: The Aria Pro II headstock angles sharply to one side. In modifying the guitar from left-handed to right-handed, I changed the string placement so that the low E string is now where the high E string was before. Sure enough, when I put the old nut on, the lower strings wouldn't stay and just popped off the nut.

I went around town, canvassing the local music stores for a bar-type string retainer. I thought I might have to replace the nut with a locking nut so the strings would stay on it. In the end, though, I decided to use a bone high nut blank that I found; then I cut the slots with high sides for the lower strings to keep them in place. This worked, and the strings now stay on the nut just fine. I still haven't lowered the strings to the levels that I will want eventually, so the action is currently high.

This weekend I changed the location of the jack plate so that the cord end won't be located on top and press on the center of my chest when the guitar is in playing position. I used a long drill bit and then reamed out the rest. It seemed to take hours.

Next I replaced the missing bridge parts: saddles, claw, springs, etc. I readjusted the saddles to match the new radius. This is a full floating tremolo, so I checked the seating of the stud bushings and used thin superglue to re-seat one of them.

I've copied a simple lizard shape from a national logo, modifying the outline to match this guitar, and have started painting it on the guitar body. The lizard tail curls along the bottom of the guitar, which makes the general guitar shape look really long. I remember that very bright white is a color that shows up well from a dark stage, especially if the bright white is surrounded by a dark color, so I'm filling in the lizard shape with a Testors model very bright white acrylic lacquer right over the black nitro-cellulose lacquer background. Later, I'll make some black markings inside the lizard outline. This is a very simple design -- no artistic awards here! I'm intentionally making the edges of the lizard fuzzy and the surface bumpy, streaked, and brushed to give as much of a three-dimensional effect as possible.

I started the process of spray-painting the guitar body, first using Castin'Craft Opaque Pigment black mixed with nitro-cellulose lacquer. On this spray setting, with the pressure at about 50 psi, the paint came out in a mist so fine I could hardly see it. I had to touch the areas I'd just sprayed to be sure that they had actually been covered.

Next, I mixed some PearlEx Pigments MacroPearl fine sparkle powder in with the lacquer and sprayed that onto the guitar body. The result is a surface that looks amazingly like Aunt Mozelle's grey Formica kitchen countertop. Interesting...

Today I briefly sanded the entire guitar body, then put two coats of sealer on with light sanding between. After sanding, the surface is supposed to look dull. Any shiny parts tell me that the surface has a dip. I drop-fill the dips.

Today was Extreme Body Modification Day. I cut a lot of wood off the body of this now former left-handed guitar. What was the top is now the bottom. There is about an inch of wood left on the underside to help stabilize the neck. The neck attachment plate reads "Accurate Bolt-On System." Well, it used to be...

I've rounded off my cuts as best I can. The wood is rough. It has layers and looks like plywood. I used wood filler on the cut areas and sealed them several times with shellac. Afterward, I sanded and sealed some more.

The fifth guitar that I'm working on is an old Aria Pro II XR-Series Electric. Although the pawn shop guy was hoppin' up and down to get rid of this nightmare -- a left-handed guitar with no strings, pickups literally falling off -- he still wouldn't give it away.

Once I tried playing left-handed. I thought it would be handy since I would be able to lie in bed and play guitar without hitting my wife in the head with the headstock. It didn't work out so well, though, so I'll be making this Aria into a right-handed guitar.

I think this will be an interesting guitar to work on because I get to cut a lot of wood away from the neck and see if the neck stays on or pops off from string pressure. I plan to leave a little wood on as long as I can get my hand around it. The body shape is sort of a Strat-shredder type. I'm no artist, but I intend to paint a giant lizard on the body with the lizard tail curling around underneath the neck.

Another positive about this guitar is that the radius is already 15-16 inches overall. I don't want to compound this neck. The neck is bound, and this will be the first neck I've worked with that is bound.

I start by cleaning the guitar and removing the stickers, put the pickup pieces in my pickup box, and dissemble the guitar. The body finish is probably polyurethane, but I plan to just lay nitro-cellulose over it anyway. Maybe I'll put Bull's Eye SealCoat down first for a barrier.

I can't imagine how much DNA has been left behind on this old guitar from all the guitar players it has obviously endured in the past. It looks like a guitar that's been around for a long, long time -- I think internet information is that it was made in the 1970's.

The fretboard doesn't look like it has been refretted (at least not by a beginner like me), but the frets have definitely been dressed a couple of times, as they are squared off on their top edges.