A brudda here on UU asked me to make his Epiphone Les Paul better. The Epi Les Paul is an inexpensive uke, that is pretty decent for the money. But, Epi to save a few bucks on this endevour took some short cuts that maybe they shouldn't have. So, can we make a decent cheap uke, a good cheap uke? Of course we can.. This is a brudda's uke, and he may or may not chime in here if he wishes to not be anonomous. That's his call. But, you can follow if you wish as I progress with this Epi Les Paul upgrade.
Epiphone didn't do themselves justice on these ukes. Are they worth the money? you bet. They are pretty cool, decent ukes for a single Bengie. But, Epi does make nice stuff, but they could have done a bit better with these ukes, but now that is my job. I didn't take pictures from the start, but did take some when I did mine a couple months ago of the neck reset. This one, was just the same. I finished up the neck reset to give it a bit more break, which also lowers the action a little bit. I gained a bit more volume and sustain with this "fix". Now, onto getting rid of those crappy nut and saddle they put on these things. The nuts these come with is pure crap. Looks like a cheap piece of plastic that should have been sucked up a vacume cleaner. Looks like Epi took them and jabbed them into a band saw to create the nests for the strings.. They didn't even bother to debur, or even clean off the plastic dust and scrap before they boxed it up. Epi, I'm a fan, but am ashamed of you for that. This uke deserves a bit better. I don't even try to clean these up. I simply knock em off to get sucked up by the vacume cleaner. I see a new hand diamond honed nut in this Epi's future. Those pics will come later.
But, for now, ops. The wife was vacuming, and sucked up the old epi crap saddle. Oh well, epi didn't even bother to smooth out the knit lines from the molding process, which will jack with your tone, not to mention damage, by cutting your strings eventially. Oh well. It's gone.. But cool, now you can see the cool under saddle pick up..
Now, a nice smooth, diamond honed saddle that replicates the old crap plastic one, but bone this time..
And taking the seat from the old crap saddle, is the new one.. But, this is just a trial fit into the bridge. I will remove this saddle again to true it up, clean it up, and take some off the bottom to lower the action a smidge more.
The new Aquilas that are going in the Epi are gonna thank me for this. Believe me.
Well, now back to that crazy nut.. stay tuned..
Epiphone didn't do themselves justice on these ukes. Are they worth the money? you bet. They are pretty cool, decent ukes for a single Bengie. But, Epi does make nice stuff, but they could have done a bit better with these ukes, but now that is my job. I didn't take pictures from the start, but did take some when I did mine a couple months ago of the neck reset. This one, was just the same. I finished up the neck reset to give it a bit more break, which also lowers the action a little bit. I gained a bit more volume and sustain with this "fix". Now, onto getting rid of those crappy nut and saddle they put on these things. The nuts these come with is pure crap. Looks like a cheap piece of plastic that should have been sucked up a vacume cleaner. Looks like Epi took them and jabbed them into a band saw to create the nests for the strings.. They didn't even bother to debur, or even clean off the plastic dust and scrap before they boxed it up. Epi, I'm a fan, but am ashamed of you for that. This uke deserves a bit better. I don't even try to clean these up. I simply knock em off to get sucked up by the vacume cleaner. I see a new hand diamond honed nut in this Epi's future. Those pics will come later.
But, for now, ops. The wife was vacuming, and sucked up the old epi crap saddle. Oh well, epi didn't even bother to smooth out the knit lines from the molding process, which will jack with your tone, not to mention damage, by cutting your strings eventially. Oh well. It's gone.. But cool, now you can see the cool under saddle pick up..
Now, a nice smooth, diamond honed saddle that replicates the old crap plastic one, but bone this time..
And taking the seat from the old crap saddle, is the new one.. But, this is just a trial fit into the bridge. I will remove this saddle again to true it up, clean it up, and take some off the bottom to lower the action a smidge more.
The new Aquilas that are going in the Epi are gonna thank me for this. Believe me.
Well, now back to that crazy nut.. stay tuned..