Yorgle

Speaking of ebony, all of the literature I've read about AlleyKats says they have rosewood fingerboards, but this one (made in Korea) is definitely ebony.

And here she is as of last night, already with a new ebony bridge and tailpiece...

I finally found an Alleykat in vintage burst on Reverb and pulled the trigger! Here she is unboxed getting to know my Wildkat.

Has anyone here pulled the trigger on a new Uptown Kat? If so, what are your thoughts on it? I'm not overly fond of the solid colors, but he lightness of an ES version (compared to the heaviness of my Wildkat) really tempts me. Had Epiphone included a vintage sunburst or other natural wood finish I'd definitely be moving uptown.

I doubt you are going to find anyone selling just the screws, but if they're as soft as you describe, you can probably straighten them by turning them in and out of a thick metric nut (or a few of them stacked if they're thin). I'd suggest that you also use a nail file or jeweler's file to slightly open up the slots on the bridge.

If you have any toddlers in the house, they like to stuff things into the f-holes.

Ideally, string height (action) should take into account your playing style- if you're a heavy strummin' rhythm sort of guy, or a finger-picker, then you want the action on the high side. If you're into note-by-note melodies halfway up the fingerboard and beyond, lower action is better. Don't be afraid to adjust the bridge height yourself- you can't really break anything. If you want a good starting point, put a capo on the first fret and raise/lower the bridge until you get 4/64ths inch (about the thickness of a quarter) at the 12th fret for the treble E string, and 5/64ths (just a wee-bit thicker than a quarter) for the low E (measuring from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of each string). If anything buzzes at those settings, then take it to a luthier. 99% of guitars should be able to handle those settings without buzzing.

The bridge actually looks a bit low- if that's where it's set for high action, then the neck angle must be off. The simplest fix here is to simply take out the spacer and sand it down a wee bit- probably only need to take off 1/16" to stop the buzzing. Don't worry about sanding it down too much, because you can always adjust the pickup upward.

Since acquiring my Wildkat several years ago, my LP custom (that I’ve had for over 20 years) hasn’t come out of its case. I can’t say I even miss humbuckers.

Beautiful!

I absolutely LOVE my Wildkat! It’s the perfect size for couch playing into the wee hours and sounds good even unplugged. $350 is a good price-if it’s in good shape, buy it. You won’t regret it. If the seller has a case for it, get that as well because it’s specific to these guitars (335 style cases are too big, Les Paul cases are too small).

Gently grind the sides of a 4.5 Allen wrench until it fits.

You have to use an x-acto blade to scrape some of the gold point out of the splines. Then they will slip on easily enough.

Try plucking the string and while it’s buzzing, touch various parts of the instrument. Loose parts can often sound just like fret buzz. The open D on my 2015 Wildkat used to buzz something fierce. Tightening the bridge pickup screws 1/8 turn fixed it.

There’s no easy way to fix that. The neck needs to be replaced, which means cutting the old neck out, gluing a new one in, and refinishing the instrument. You could try bending the neck slightly to open the crack and inject some glue. If it holds, great. If not, it would be cheaper to buy a new guitar.

Thank you. That should help me narrow my search. It seems there are lots of the cherry bursts out there, but to me they look way too clownish.

I've seen some Alleykats advertised as "sunbursts" and others as "cherry sunbursts" and it looks to me that the former are a darker, browner red than the latter. Are they, in fact, two different colors or is it just the way they look in photographs. The thing is, I'm about 90% of the way toward pulling the trigger on buying an Alleykat, but I really don't care for the clownburst look. I love the tobacco bursts, but they are all but non-existent in these parts, but I think I could live with the darker red-brown ones I've seen in pictures.

Not 100% sure, but I think the wildcats got the white badges. All of the special models got the unpainted versions.

Slip a 1/4" socket or wrench over the shaft. If it is a loose fit, you most likely have the metric pots.

When I changed the bridge on my Wildkat I increased the sting spacing slightly to accommodate my fat fingers. That obviously caused some of the strings to be off center in relation to the poles on the P90's (more so at the bridge). You know what- it made absolutely no difference in how the instrument sounded. What DOES affect the sound, however, is the height of each string above its corresponding pole.

...and smells better, too.

The electronics (I assume you mean wiring, pots, jack, etc) really don't have anything to do with it- feedback is the sound (i.e., waves of air) from your amp vibrating the body of the guitar, and that vibration then getting transmitted by the pickups to your amp to be re-amplified over and over. This happens more frequently with hollow body instruments because the pickups (mounted to a flexible top) can vibrate somewhat independent of the strings. About all you can do is move or turn further away from your amp, or stuff socks in the f-holes to make your instrument less resonant (which somewhat defeats the point of having a hollow body in the first place).

I hope you used tone epoxy - just kidding. Heel/neck mounted strap buttons are a bad idea on any guitar.

Well done. You made the right choice with the black pickguard on that Elitist- it's a gorgeous instrument!

Pickups rarely die. My bet is that the contacts on either the switch or pickup connectors are corroded. A shot of electrical contact cleaner on the switch and/or connectors should bring it back to life.