The last piece of the puzzle

WezV

I have an old abused John birch i have been rebuilding for quite a few years now.   It had lost its original pickups but thanks to @philking i was able to remedy that... but i have never been able to find a set of  pickup rings


I have just had some 3D printed, which is my first attempt at anything like that, so I was quite relieved when the pickups actually fit




corner radius wasn't quite right, but i can live with that

here are some pics from the last decade... significant damage and razor sharp lacquer cracks


a black refin, the cracks went together well but were never clean enough to keep a burst


and some rings cut from scratchplate material - too thin but did okay for a while

WezV

didn;t realise when i ordered something in black plastic it would be white inside with only a black outer layer.

Anyway, i have shaped the bottoms to fit the carve (didn't fancy trying to 3D model that) and i have added the countersinks for the mounting screws, which i would have 3D modelled if i knew  they would be white inside.   Bit its all good, they need some  kind of finishing anyway, so i will probably spray black instead of clear

its all good, they fit nicely.   



I was tempted to go with white, like this one

richardhomer

The shop I got my first electric guitar from (Neild & Hardy in Stockport - sadly it burned down) used to stock John Birch - that guitar has really brought back some memories.

As ever, awesome work!

TTony

So, just let me check.

You built a brand new guitar.  And relic'd it.

You found an old relic.  And made it look brand new.

blobb

Who takes the pickups out of a JB?

Really nice resto, have you sussed the wiring out? Although saying that, they were all different and made no logical sense so whatever you do it will be authentic.

Love to see a vid of it in action when you get it finished. Had a JB1 on my bucket list for a long time.

WezV

TTony said:

So, just let me check.

You built a brand new guitar.  And relic'd it.

You found an old relic.  And made it look brand new.

That about sums it up

WezV

blobb said:

Who takes the pickups out of a JB?

Really nice resto, have you sussed the wiring out? Although saying that, they were all different and made no logical sense so whatever you do it will be authentic.

Love to see a vid of it in action when you get it finished. Had a JB1 on my bucket list for a long time.

The pickups were swapped for dimarzios and actually sounded really great in this.  I assume it was all done when quite new as the dimarzios were early square footed ones and showed similar wear to the guitar.   otherwise i would just assume it was pillaged for some magnums, which fetch more money out of the guitars than in


i took plenty of notes on the wiring, but was then told it was not standard by John Carling (iirc).   

I am not bothered about the stereo stuff and have decided to upgrade to new parts.   It will be standard LP with the master volume.   the mini switch will give out of phase.   I will probably put a varitone in the spare hole

Sporky

How's the 3D printed stuff? I've been concerned about the robustness.

WezV

its a lot stronger than a normal pickup ring and the black outer layer seems to be very hardwearing.

reshaping the bottom was interesting.  it sanded fairly well on the drum sander if you keep moving... if it gets too hot it will melt quite suddenly, but very localised.  i guess that is what you want from a 3D print medium

i wasn't sure what to expect... but at less than a tenner per ring it was worth a go, even if it just got me close enough to make a mold and cast some

Sporky

That sounds worthy of further investigation.

tampaxboo

I usually hate LPs, especially sunburst ones (too boring nicotiney-browny dadrock looking) but that's a supercool one to begin with (Birch's magic touches raise it to lushness) and you've actually made it even cooler with the refinish and details.
pickups too yellow-aged for me (i'm brutally fickle) but otherwise it's one of the coolest LPs i've seen this year. i'm giving you an A. well done.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/uPIAAOSw0QFXB7g4/s-l300.jpg

WezV

so far so good.   I have given the rings a couple of coats of lacquer and buffed them out.  If i was after perfection i would coat in a finishing epoxy first, but I would rather not have them looking too perfect

neck pickup needs a bit of adjustment to sit better

blobb

I could look at that all day long. . . . . . . .

PhilKing

The pickups and wiring loom were in a John Birch Flying V that didn't make it through hurricane Sandy.  The glue all separated and the guitar was in a right state.  I had 15 other guitars that did manage to survive, including an original Thunderbird 4 and Firebird 3.  My 60's 335 got water stains where it had been drilled to mount a stop tailpiece, but they were all OK otherwise.

The Flying V never felt right (it was very neck heavy and didn't have much spacing between the pickups, all due to JB wanting to put 24 frets off of the body), so it was either build a new body or scrap it.  I decided to scrap it and put the JB bridge on my Wez JB SG and let Wez have the pickups and wiring loom (amazingly it was all working).

WezV

found a couple of pics of it.  It really was a silly design




what you can't see it hose pics is the large hand chiselled swimming pool route for the pickups, or the separation of badly warped fretboard post flood.

I imagine it was from the same period as this SG



They did later make a small number of V's with a more usable layout

Paul_C

Not enough knobs !