Aoresteen Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 A few years back I bought an Epiphone S-310 Custom. It had Fender noiseless pickups in it. http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/100080-ngd-epiphone-1994-s-310-custom/ I never did anything with the 310 Custom and it just sat. Last summer I started thinning the herd so I was going to sell it. The pick guard didn't look right so I dug deeper and pulled the pick guard and found a mess! The prior owned had hacked up the inside to get the Fender noiseless pickups to fit. No way could I sell it in this condition :( . The ash wood had also cracked at the bridge pivot studs. The vibrato arm would damage it further. All I could do is to epoxy it up. I would never trust this body with a whammy bar again. It needed to be a hard tail. I used the pickups on a 1999 Stagemaster. What to do with the 310 body? At the time I was listening to a lot of Chicago music. Terry Kath used a Telecaster with a humbucker in the neck. Maple neck. OK, let's do a Terry Kath inspired build. I had Pickguardian make a new white pick guard for it with a Telecaster bridge pickup and a humbucker neck. I filled 25 screw holes for the pick guard with hardwood tooth picks. It must have had 3 different pick guards on it. I used a GFS Telecaster bridge pickup and a Tone rider Alnico 2 humbucker. I added a Blackhawk sticker but decided not to add all the Pignose stickers that Terry had on his Tele. I blocked the tremolo and put a 6mm cap screw in the trem arm hole so no one would be tempted to try and use a trem arm with it. I also added a new truss rod cover that says S-310 rather than the original one that says Gibson. I had Brown's Guitar Mill add a bone nut and they discovered that the neck need some serious fret work. It now plays like butter. One fine TK Strat-O-Tele! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tweed2 Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 A few years back I bought an Epiphone S-310 Custom. It had Fender noiseless pickups in it. Love it! Terry would be proud. First two times I saw him, he was playing an SG, so I always connected that guitar to him. The last time I saw him, he was playing a tele (and a firebird), not the one in your pictures, but still natural. Wonder if that was before he "modded" it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aoresteen Posted January 12, 2019 Author Share Posted January 12, 2019 As far as I know Terry had only one Telecaster. If it is the same color then it is his pre-mods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aoresteen Posted January 13, 2019 Author Share Posted January 13, 2019 I was fortunate to have a couple of original S-300/S-310 pick guards on hand and I sent one to Pickguardian to use as a template. The new one they made fits perfectly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epistrat Posted January 14, 2019 Share Posted January 14, 2019 I was fortunate to have a couple of original S-300/S-310 pick guards on hand and I sent one to Pickguardian to use as a template. The new one they made fits perfectly. Pretty cool mods you did there, Aoresteen. My oldest guitar which I've had for over 25 years is an Epi S-310. Among a bunch of other mods, I got a 3-ply pickguard for it from Pickguards.us. You have to get those S-310 pickguards custom-made because they're slightly smaller than regular Strat pickguards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeman Posted January 15, 2019 Share Posted January 15, 2019 Love that blackhawks logo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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