Epiphone Wilshire 1967

[peeper]

I would eat that guitar up, I LOVE high-ish action. I have to dig in, and you are correct, the super low action thing is a pretty recent development. Like CB said, get the neck as flat as it will go, make sure your frets are level and well dressed, and you might be able to raise that bridge up a little bit. Or just raise it anyway and dig the killer tone!!!

But seriously, a competent tech will fix you right up if you hit a brick wall.

[cosmitron]

Thank you guys! Simply put I have 2 choices, bring it to a qualified guitar tech or just raise the action and live with it!

Meanwhile, I've recorded a mini song with the Wilshire and think it could be nice to share. :-

Wilshire's Ballad

[brad1]

If the neck has a decent underbow to it' date=' you might be able to adjust

the Truss Rod, enough to straighten the neck even more (without overbowing it)...and allow

for raising the strings (at the bridge) and still maintaining a decent (low) action. That would

allow the bridge to be higher, and therefore increase the angle to the tailpiece. Just a thought...

 

CB

 

[/quote']

 

I said the same thing about 10 posts before you.

[charlie brown]

Sorry, brad...I used the "Last post" thing, and hadn't read them all. My Bad!

 

CB

[cosmitron]

I said the same thing about 10 posts before you.

But you used different words.

(just kidding )

[cosmitron]

I've raised the strings while waiting, and I must admit I'm getting used to it.

Here's another soundclip:

Wilshire Boulevard

[crust]

I've raised the strings while waiting' date=' and I must admit I'm getting used to it.

Here's another soundclip:

[b']Wilshire Boulevard[/b]

 

wow, really nice

[peeper]

Hehehe, he see's the light!

[orac02]

Hi

I was thinking about this while walking my dogs in the forest this morning.

 

Firstly, in the tail piece there must be some thing that allows movement with the trem arm but

resist the strings rotating the whole thing round. This may not work if you manage to take the bar out

and fit it the other way up.

 

You can probably make it work but you are getting more difficult. I wonder does one/both of the pins stop

it rotating round?

 

Alternatively you could perhaps have a couple of mm milled of the bottom of the tail piece that

would have the desired effect.

 

Or you could inset it, into the top of the guitar, then again maybe not !!

 

Steve

[matthewk]

My suggestion: grind down the underside of the two mounts, where they go onto the body, by about 1mm. It will make a huge difference to the angle, and it will be invisible.

[cosmitron]

Hi

I was thinking about this while walking my dogs in the forest this morning.

 

Firstly' date=' in the tail piece there must be some thing that allows movement with the trem arm but

resist the strings rotating the whole thing round. This may not work if you manage to take the bar out

and fit it the other way up.

 

You can probably make it work but you are getting more difficult. I wonder does one/both of the pins stop

it rotating round?

 

Alternatively you could perhaps have a couple of mm milled of the bottom of the tail piece that

would have the desired effect.

 

Or you could inset it, into the top of the guitar, then again maybe not !!

 

Steve

[/quote']

Thanks for walking your dogs out Steve!

Honestly, I don't mind if the rotating stopbar is fixed! I'm not playing it, though I'd like any of the mods to be reversible.

But you're right about that something that must occurs some resistance.

 

My suggestion: grind down the underside of the two mounts' date=' where they go onto the body, by about 1mm. It will make a huge difference to the angle, and it will be invisible.[/quote']

I think I don't understand your suggestion.

[cosmitron]

Finally got an answer from Mr DAGUET.

 

It is nearly impossible to flip the swivel bar... without losing the system for good. For the record, the cylindrical bar that pass through the swivel stop tail and the whole fixed part also acts as a spring. And btw, removing the 2 pins means killing them definitely, because it's probably too old and oxidized.

He suggests to drill notches in the stop tail at the opposite side instead of flipping it, or, live with it. :-

[peeper]

Ouch! That would mean molesting a very clean vintage instrument. I would hold off on that for the moment.

You have pretty clean pics, the guitar looks brand new. No pitting of the chrome, I can clearly see clean threads in a couple shots, did he see this in person? Judging by what I see here, someone with the right skill set could dismantle that thing without breaking anything.

 

- My Grandfather built telescopes and cameras and complex mechanical movements. He modified everything he owned pretty much. It was wondrous to watch him as a kid, in his workshop, which was a room off the side of the house piled to the ceiling with boxes of gears and lenses and grinding compounds and pitch dripped all over the place, ancient photographs on the few patches of wall still visible. That box of fossils they gathered on some exotic far away trip to god knows where, I used to go through them and imagine what the lives of those living things were like so very long ago. I pondered if they would be as fascinated by all these wonders in my Grandfathers room as I was?

I like to think that maybe some of him has been passed down in me, but sadly what has has been distilled. The man was a genius at everything he did, be it grinding a mirror for the largest privately owned telescope at the time, or capturing the perfect moment in a photograph, then going into his darkroom (opposite side of the house from his workshop) and emerging a few hours later with the perfect print. It has been a motivating factor in my life, trying to hold my own works to his high standards. Not that he would ever have imposed them upon me, for he was also the kindest soul the world had ever known, but because I knew... well an unspeakable thing about it. I can't describe it now, but it is a wonderful thing to strive for.

Sorry for the rant, but you wanna talk about DIY??? Read this!

 

The 201 Inch Telescope

 

And here's a pencil sketch of the finished telescope. I think it's at Agnes Scott College now, but I'm not sure.

 

Featured At Agnes Scott

 

The Sketch

 

On a guitar like this it would be better to possible remove some parts and put them aside, then fabricate new ones to suit your needs. It might be a little bit pricey, but not as much as the hit you'll take on a very fine collector quality piece.

[cosmitron]

Ouch! That would mean molesting a very clean vintage instrument. I would hold off on that for the moment.

...

 

On a guitar like this it would be better to possible remove some parts and put them aside' date=' then fabricate new ones to suit your needs. It might be a little bit pricey, but not as much as the hit you'll take on a very fine collector quality piece.[/quote']

 

This is a nice story, plus I completely agree. I can't make it drill. I can't.

But I'm no genius.

So I've finally bought a Schaller roller bridge. It's an ugly choice (compared to that old stock abr1), but I've been told it holds the strings in place much better.

I'll give it a try. ;)

[cosmitron]

I'm unearthing the topic but...

...I've received the Schaller roller bridge.. and its installation needs to drill the beautiful weather checked body.

So I'm looking for another solution.

What if I bought something like this?

[wilwood]

hi guys. i just bought one of these guitars the exact same model in fact and was doing some research on them for this same problem. from the infomation i've gathered you can flip the tremolo but this results in it becoming unfunctional. every way to fix the problem that i can see all require you to modify/damage either the guitar or the tremolo. so its more a question of if you hade $3000 of your hard earned cash in hand and was looking at a mint condition wilshire, and your all ready to buy it when the owner tells you he modified the tremolo in one of these ways which one would you still hand over the money for? personally id go for the milling a few millimeters off of the bottom of the tailpiece as to the average person wouldnt ever notice but still fixes the problem. i know its drastick and alot can go wrong but when its all said and done youve fixed the problem and just about no ones the wiser.

 

well thats my two cents anyway

[cosmitron]

I'd say that's a good alternative.

I've tried to use a tailpiece but the Wilshire body is TOO thin and the string tension is too high.

As soon as I'll have some time to spend I'll bring it to a guitar doctor, or a jeweler for the milling Fix.

Meanwhile, I get use to it - high action - though the High E string keeps popping when I'm getting rude.

Here's a little clip, featuring the wilshire plugged in a Cornford Roadhouse 30 (Apartment Master Volume Level).

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]

[Suicidehummer]

I might be missing something but why can't you just put the strings through stop-tailpiece-style?

 

To show what I mean, look at these pics...

 

Stop Tailpiece wrapped around backwards:

 

Stop tailpiece normal:

 

Can't you just do the opposite?

[cosmitron]

Because it means: DRILLING a 43 years old guitar that hasn't been modded yet. I'd like to find a no-harm solution :-

 

Post#5 : how the epiphone Tremotone works

[Suicidehummer]

I didn't say to put in a stop tailpiece, READ WHAT I SAID!

[cosmitron]

And please read the 2 first pages.

Page 1, post 5. Again.

You'll understand the strings don't pass through the stop tailpiece, but around it.

[Vic Flick]

Finally got an answer from Mr DAGUET.

 

It is nearly impossible to flip the swivel bar... without losing the system for good. For the record' date=' the cylindrical bar that pass through the swivel stop tail and the whole fixed part also acts as a spring. And btw, removing the 2 pins means killing them definitely, because it's probably too old and oxidized.

He suggests to drill notches in the stop tail at the opposite side instead of flipping it, or, live with it. ;)[/quote']

 

I thought about this, and I figured out a solution - a tension bar like they use on Bigsbys. I drew a white line on one of your pictures to show you what I'm thinking:

 

 

The strings would pass under the bar and thereby increasing the angle to the bridge. I was thinking a piece of a Fender trem arm would work pretty good.

 

The problem is how you would mount it. I know you don't want to alter the original unit, but this is what I would do - a small hole on each side of the unit and just slide the bar in. It would probably look better than turning the swivel bar upside down, plus you would keep it fully functional. In fact, I would say that it's less of a modification than flipping the swivel bar.

 

Maybe a good tech could come up with an alternative method to mount the bar, maybe using the front screw to secure some hind of mount to hold the bar. But a tension bar will do it for you.

 

Musikron, any thoughts???

 

Good luck Cosmo

 

PS - Have you heard of a French / German performer named MATTHIAS STURM???

[peeper]

Thats too funny! I just came up with a very similar solution and then I read your post JM! Great minds think alike. What do YOU think of THIS? Maybe we should keep this private to help protect out future patent rights.

I'm cluless as to how you did your neat little graphic, so use your imagination here.

It's basically the same premise as your solution, only rig the tension bar to a REPLACEMENT TOM or Roller bridge. It will take a little grunt work, but will leave the guitar totally unaltered and be 100% reversible, just put the old bridge back on the same posts. Imagine a TOM with drag bars coming off the back, holding the tension bar floating above the top between the trem and bridge.

 

And might I add TOTALLY REVERSIBLE.;) :)

[cosmitron]

Thank you guys for taking some time to think about this little problem. :-

 

Jerrymac> Honestly, after some bigsby study, I thought of something just like that too.

There's an empty room at the bottom of the tremotone fixed base, and I thought I just might add an "omega" bar*. I've finally left the idea because I can not figure out how to find such a device. What you suggest is a little different and sounds pretty neat.

PS>I never heard of MATTHIAS STURM, but I'm listening to his myspace songs right now, and it's excellent! for some reason it reminds me of a Dutch band called Daryll Ann.

 

Musikron> I think I don't understand your solution! (lack of imagination? ) - But I swear I want to! (I'm always very sensible to the TOTALLY REVERSIBLE side of your suggestion)

Could you explain it differently - so a french guy that learnt english with comics books and google could understand?

[peeper]

OK, let me bust out some old school graphics, gimmie a minute.