Project tune-up.

Yamaha Pacifica

We found two of Nick's old guitars in the loft and so I thought I would renovate them.

When he was at school, Nick had a band called First Aid Boy and I was his "guitar tech". He used to treat his electric guitars like a true punk, swinging them about and knocking things over. Some of them were made of chip-board and didn't last long but his Yamaha Pacifica was made of solid wood and so the body took everything he (literally) threw at it.

We abandoned the tremolo arm quite early on as it put the guitar badly out of tune but the electrical components were another story. I soon learned to strip it down and get the soldering iron out, so the first thing I looked at was the wiring under the scratch plate. I laid all the components out and cleaned everything, checked the connections, polished the scratch board and re-assembled it. Then I fitted it out with Ernie Ball's hybrid slinky strings, tuned it up, plugged it in and......all I got was a sound like a spitting bonfire. It was really loud, even with the volume turned off.

To get back to the electrics you have to slacken the strings right off and wiggle the assembly free. I did this and then switched on again, tapping every component until I stopped the crackle. The problem was the jack socket. I had re-soldered it so often that it was a mess and I think the insulation had gone. A new part only costs about £3.00 and when you see one, you'll know why. They are really basic things.

Acoustic folk guitar.

I think that the biggest flaw in the design of electric guitars lies in the jack plug and socket. You have this strong two inch pin that goes into a flimsy little socket. If you step on the lead or pull too hard on it the jack exerts a lot of force on the socket. If the socket doesn't fail, the wire pulls out of the plug. That's why bands need a bag full of spare leads.

Anyway, it's fixed now and it sounds awesome! There is no hum at all. I bet Nick wants it back. The Pacifica makes a good starter guitar or a back-up for gigging.

The other guitar is a steel-stringed acoustic with a flute-shaped fibre glass back, like an Ovation, but much cheaper. All it really needed was a good clean up, especially the frets so I bought some nice Martin strings to go with it. It sounds pretty good with a plectrum but a bit dead if you finger pick, unless you plug it in. Fortunately it has a built in pre-amp with an equaliser, but the jack socket had gone. Actually, it had just come loose and fallen inside so I had to fish around in the body to get it and then buy a nut to hold it on. Another £2.00 well spent.

So now I have two decent guitars. All I have to do is learn to play them.