RR-Ramblers
Well-Known Member
A little rambling here about the things we love, namely Epiphones.
In a round about way I started doing some Epiphone rebuilds and restorations, mainly Les Paul Special I's & II's plus a few Les Paul Juniors. What started it was a new Epiphone EJ 200SCE acoustic electric guitar. Truth be known I'd rather buy a nice used guitar but took a flyer on the EJ 200SCE Jumbo based on two of the bands I was in at the time (remember those days?). It is a decent guitar, my friend has a Taylor that plays like a dream, but I got it new and am liking it more but perhaps not totally sold on it but for now does me well.
Anyway the EJ 200SCE for a new Epiphone had some issues I went ahead and tweaked myself. One was a serious design flaw in the bridge pins. On the 'moustache' bridge the holes for the bridge pins are counter sunk into the bridge, so the heads of the bridge pins were below the surface of the bridge. So getting the plastic bridge pins out was impossible, no guitar tool could get them out & to change strings basically needle nose pliers to remove them, chewing them up pretty bad. Got some nice bone bridge pins from a cat in Georgia and they work very well. Not totally sold on the "Shadow Electronics" Nanomag & Nanoflex pickups, had some issues with a dead amplified high E string. Ended up putting in a Graphtech black Tusq nut & black Tusq saddle and that seems to help a lot. It is my understanding Epiphone now puts Fishman pickups in the acoustic electrics.
From there my wife's dad had an acoustic guitar with no strings or tuning keys sitting in their rec room as long as I have been going there over 25 years. Amusingly it had "Martin" hand painted in white paint on the headstock - their last name is Martin and I know they had no idea what a Martin guitar really is. I asked about it and said I would restore it (after never restoring a guitar in my life). It was a DIY classical guitar kit from Mexico from 1969 and my wife's dad gave my the bag of parts and strings. Got the wet newspaper stain off the top, sanded off the "Martin" (sorry dad, let me explain) lightly stained it and a few light coats of shellac. The tuning keys were so old the teeth broke off so a set from eBay & a Grover 'dobro' nut and used the old saddle from the EJ 200SCE and a decent dobro to be had.
This was all before the lockdown so I got sucked into eBay buying Telecaster bodies, necks and parts for some new builds. But the Epiphone parts and crappy Juniors & LP Specials were always intriguing so I started buying and refurbishing old Epiphones that sat around un-played getting corroded hardware. Personally I like to fix and build things and honestly get saddened by guitars that are not taken care of. One Les Paul Special I came as a box of parts that after painstakingly repairing a crack in the neck pocket cutaway (and successfully matching the vintage cherry satin finish, not an easy task. In fact repairing and matching the polyurethane finish on the body of a beat-up Epi is among the toughest things to do well).
And here is a little eBay revelation - low end Epiphone and other guitars are worth more in parts than a fully intact guitar; Epiphone Les Paul Jr. neck, $75. Body, $60-$90, tuners/pickups/bridges all parted out for decent $. Fully intact Les Paul Jr. $99-$150....but there is a caveat; shipping a whole guitar is $35-$75, the parted out pieces ship for a fraction of that regardless if buyer or seller pays for shipping.
Thanks for hanging in there through all this rambling, there is a touching Epiphone tale in here somewhere, says the windbag - a hybrid 2009/2017 Les Paul Special II 'Franken-Phone' (or is that a 'Phranken-Phone'?)
2009 LP Sp II body, burgundy
2017 LP Sp II neck, blueberry
Humbuckers BLACK- ALNICO SUPREME PAF HUMBUCKERS
Black Tune-o-matic bridge & Stopbar Tailpiece
CTS USA 500k pots
knobs USA 24 Spline
Capacitor - Paper in Oil .047uf Russian NOS
.......yes only a modder could love her, but yet she plays sweet....especially through Fender Blues Jr. amp....
In a round about way I started doing some Epiphone rebuilds and restorations, mainly Les Paul Special I's & II's plus a few Les Paul Juniors. What started it was a new Epiphone EJ 200SCE acoustic electric guitar. Truth be known I'd rather buy a nice used guitar but took a flyer on the EJ 200SCE Jumbo based on two of the bands I was in at the time (remember those days?). It is a decent guitar, my friend has a Taylor that plays like a dream, but I got it new and am liking it more but perhaps not totally sold on it but for now does me well.
Anyway the EJ 200SCE for a new Epiphone had some issues I went ahead and tweaked myself. One was a serious design flaw in the bridge pins. On the 'moustache' bridge the holes for the bridge pins are counter sunk into the bridge, so the heads of the bridge pins were below the surface of the bridge. So getting the plastic bridge pins out was impossible, no guitar tool could get them out & to change strings basically needle nose pliers to remove them, chewing them up pretty bad. Got some nice bone bridge pins from a cat in Georgia and they work very well. Not totally sold on the "Shadow Electronics" Nanomag & Nanoflex pickups, had some issues with a dead amplified high E string. Ended up putting in a Graphtech black Tusq nut & black Tusq saddle and that seems to help a lot. It is my understanding Epiphone now puts Fishman pickups in the acoustic electrics.
From there my wife's dad had an acoustic guitar with no strings or tuning keys sitting in their rec room as long as I have been going there over 25 years. Amusingly it had "Martin" hand painted in white paint on the headstock - their last name is Martin and I know they had no idea what a Martin guitar really is. I asked about it and said I would restore it (after never restoring a guitar in my life). It was a DIY classical guitar kit from Mexico from 1969 and my wife's dad gave my the bag of parts and strings. Got the wet newspaper stain off the top, sanded off the "Martin" (sorry dad, let me explain) lightly stained it and a few light coats of shellac. The tuning keys were so old the teeth broke off so a set from eBay & a Grover 'dobro' nut and used the old saddle from the EJ 200SCE and a decent dobro to be had.
This was all before the lockdown so I got sucked into eBay buying Telecaster bodies, necks and parts for some new builds. But the Epiphone parts and crappy Juniors & LP Specials were always intriguing so I started buying and refurbishing old Epiphones that sat around un-played getting corroded hardware. Personally I like to fix and build things and honestly get saddened by guitars that are not taken care of. One Les Paul Special I came as a box of parts that after painstakingly repairing a crack in the neck pocket cutaway (and successfully matching the vintage cherry satin finish, not an easy task. In fact repairing and matching the polyurethane finish on the body of a beat-up Epi is among the toughest things to do well).
And here is a little eBay revelation - low end Epiphone and other guitars are worth more in parts than a fully intact guitar; Epiphone Les Paul Jr. neck, $75. Body, $60-$90, tuners/pickups/bridges all parted out for decent $. Fully intact Les Paul Jr. $99-$150....but there is a caveat; shipping a whole guitar is $35-$75, the parted out pieces ship for a fraction of that regardless if buyer or seller pays for shipping.
Thanks for hanging in there through all this rambling, there is a touching Epiphone tale in here somewhere, says the windbag - a hybrid 2009/2017 Les Paul Special II 'Franken-Phone' (or is that a 'Phranken-Phone'?)
2009 LP Sp II body, burgundy
2017 LP Sp II neck, blueberry
Humbuckers BLACK- ALNICO SUPREME PAF HUMBUCKERS
Black Tune-o-matic bridge & Stopbar Tailpiece
CTS USA 500k pots
knobs USA 24 Spline
Capacitor - Paper in Oil .047uf Russian NOS
.......yes only a modder could love her, but yet she plays sweet....especially through Fender Blues Jr. amp....
Last edited:
Nice work on the Franken-phone.
