The Guitar Magazine – September 2019

T

he first part of this Flying V upgrade

project ended with the body ready

for spraying and the post holes

plugged. But before donning the

breathing mask, there are a few things

I need to do. The first is to refret the

guitar using wire that’s close to 1959 spec.

Original frets on a 1958 Flying V would

have been thinner, but the gauge chosen

by our guitar’s owner is still a lot skinnier

than Epiphone’s jumbo wire.

What follows is a very straightforward

fret installation, followed by end dressing,

levelling, then crowning and polishing.

I decide to string the guitar up and test it,

but in order to do so, I first have to locate

and drill the bridge post holes. I jack the

bridge up on some wood blocks to

approximate the correct action and

the strings are brought up to pitch.

Prior to starting this project, I noticed

that some of the saddles were adjusted

to their extremes in order to set the

intonation, so by slightly altering the

position of the post holes, I’m able to

establish a better starting position for the

bridge. I use a tiny drop of Super Glue to

fix the old nut temporarily, then put the

tuners back on.

After stringing up and tuning to concert

pitch, I experiment with bridge positioning.

The bass side stays much the same, but

I move the treble side very slightly towards

the neck. Once I’m happy, I select a

brad-point drill bit that’s exactly the

same diameter as the post holes in the

bridge. The holes hold the bit square and

by lightly tapping the top, the brad point

marks the centre for the new post holes

in the dowel plugs I glued into the body

last time.

Ideally, you should use a drill press to

make the holes, because the posts need to

be square to the body. To tap the thread,

I put one thumbwheel on the post, followed

by a washer, then a nut.

As the nut tightens against the washer,

the post itself turns and works its way into

the body. With both inserted, I perform

a quick setup and notice a slight increase

in sustain and a fuller-sounding midrange

compared to the factory configuration.

The final tasks before spraying include

veneering the front of the headstock – using

0.4mm maple here rather than holly – and

installing a bone nut to replace Epiphone’s

plastic part. Allparts UK (allparts.uk.com)

sells a drop-in bone nut specifically for

Epiphones, which makes the job a lot

quicker and easier than usual.

The respray is very straightforward

because I was able to preserve the base coat.

All the lacquer comes from Manchester

Guitar Tech (manchesterguitartech.co.uk)

and I begin with cellulose sanding sealer.

This is sprayed on thick, flatted back and

sprayed again. The second coat of sanding

sealer is flatted back; I spray the headstock

black before emptying three tins of clear

gloss. After a few weeks, I wet sand, polish

and buff and the fun stuff can finally begin.

GET CRACKING

The brief for this guitar is a fairly heavy

relic and, having enjoyed using a blade to

DO IT YOURSELF

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