RotcanX

Note that the American-made guitar has a two-screw TRC. The Korean one has the usual three-screw TRC.

Basically, it's one of the 2005 'Guitar of the Month' models, so, yes, it's definitely an LE.

Nice work. Should look great in black.

You can check the offerings at www.stewmac.com but that is the old-style Samick bridge which may not be compatible with true tune-o-matic units. You may find that you have to re-do the inserts that the posts screw in to (i.e. pull the existing inserts, fill the holes with dowels and re-drill for new inserts) in order to get a proper TOM bridge to fit.

It was only a Broadcaster for about a year. They changed it to Telecaster in 1951. Which meant you got a lot of 1951 'Nocasters' while they waited for the new decals to be made.

Masonite is sawdust and glue. Note that some early Telecasters were made of pine.

Nothing new about making guitars from composite materials. Ampeg did that way back in the seventies. I owned a couple of these at various times back in the late seventies/early eighties... Plexiglas body ('lucite'); 24-fret neck (the bolts are under the pickguard, amazing uper fret access), and one interchangeable pickup (there were seven different styles you could buy). Volume, tone, and a switch that shorted the tone cap for full bass in position one, did nothing in the middle, and overrode the volume control in the third position.

No, I'm afraid I can't agree with that. I've posted full information on this previously. In a nutshell, these woods are from completely unrelated species and they are only considered as 'mahoganies' from a trade definition point of view; as far as the lumber industry is concerned they're not even close. Anyone who has marginal experience with the genuine mahoganies can tell at a glance that these woods are not related and are similar to mahogany in only the barest superficial sense. The quarter grain, for example, is completely different and completely lacks the delicate figuring of genuine mahogany.

Gibson uses Honduras mahogany pretty much exclusively. They wouldn't be caught dead using the Indonesian stuff.

No, fake one-dollar bills is right. As opposed to twenties where you get some return on your investment.

Unfortunately that won't help at all. It's far too easy to generate a legitimate serial number for an Epiphone and I don't believe Epiphone keeps detailed records as to which models have which serials... all they can tell you is that the number is legit even though the guitar might not be. No, it's a little more difficult than that.

I think I see what you're getting at. Now that's what I call thinking outside the box. Excellent.

True, I can think of another way but this way is the best of the two. Fell free to post an alternate schematic for discussion... mwuah huah huah huah huahhhhhhh...

Well I agree it's not the ideal set-up; technically it'd be better if the input was grounded when in the 'kill' mode but no, there shouldn't be that much noise, since the pickup is isolated; pots don't really create much signal; it'll be no worse than that alternate wiring method used to get individual volume control on a Les Paul. Worst case, just dial the volume down and that'll short the output jack.

Enough suspense. Here's the circuit: In the middle position, the second (tapped) coil is shorted out. The humbucking position breaks this short. The kill position isolates the pickup. ...and I have no idea what Layboomo is talking about.

Yes, it can be done, and you end up with humbucking, tapped, killed. Cool idea; let me know if you have trouble figuring out how it's wired.

Yeah just be glad it's not Armstrong Whitworth size. You should be looking for a 4mm Hex key. Best is to get a long T-handle version.

Mid 2004.

Funny thing. On one end you get the acceptance of a bolt neck as a valid alternative to a set neck... then on the other extreme you get the debate over whether a short tenon neck on a Les Paul is crap or not. Yeah... basically we've come to accept the bolt-on as a legitimate alternative to a set neck... mostly because Fender got away with it. No-one is about to suggest that Fender guitars are crap because of their bolt-on necks and in actuality when Fender makes set neck versions of their guitars they don't sell all that well. There's a tradition here and nobody is going to change it at this stage of the game, regardless of what is best--quality does not even enter into the discussion. Similarly, Leo very cleverly did away with angled headstocks for a very simple reason: by doing so he could make necks more easily and more cheaply. However he found out that these necks didn't quite work properly and in typical engineer fashion he came up with a stopgap solution: string trees. Of course the trees cause tuning problems and Fender has been dicking around with these Rube Goldberg devices ever since: one tree; two trees; roller trees; cast trees; and now even staggered machine heads, all trying to make a bad design work. The plus side of course is that the flat neck is less prone to breakage although the material also has a lot to do with this. It is interesting to note the saga of the Fender Coronados... in 1966 or so Fender started producing hollow body guitars with DeArmond pickups in an attempt to penetrate the jazz market and get some of those ES-335 sales. They even went so far as to offer them with "Wildwood" finishes which were achieved by injecting dyes into growing trees... well, it WAS the sixties so yeah, groovy. Anyway, they of course built them with a Fenderish six-on-a-side headstock and a bolt neck... which was suicide. No player was interested in a non set neck hollowbody guitar and the line tanked. Even today they're not worth much. On another note, when I first noticed Epiphone clones appearing in the stores back in the late eighties, they all had bolt necks and as such I pretty much dismissed them out of hand. It wasn't until I came across a set neck Samick Les Paul in 1995 or so that I took notice of what Epi was doing... in fact I ended up buying that guitar the same day. I think it's a given that Epi sales would not be anywhere near as good as they are today if they had stuck with bolt-neck guitars. I leave you with one question to ponder: what do you think would happen to Gibson sales if they suddenly switched to a bolt neck on the Les Paul?

Well... it's kind of impossible to make an SG properly with a bolt neck. The main advantage to a set neck, as it's called, is that you get rid of that clunky block on the body that the neck is bolted to, so that you end up with better access to the upper frets. Sonically, well, some will say that the best way to do it is with a neck through body construction, then a set neck, then a bolt-on; however if a bolt neck is fitted nice and tight and smooth it works about as well as a set neck. Disadvantage? Well it's a lot more dificult to work on and a real PITA to refinish a set neck guitar. Fender went with bolt necks not so much for any sonic advantage but basically as an engineering compromise to simplify the construction process and to make maintenance easier... if a guitar got damaged in construction at least you could salvage part of it.