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Official ESP club

#703
Kamikaze3955 said:
If you are referring to the electronics covers on the back I once read on a forum about refinishing guitars to get a black garbage can a Walmart or someplace similar and use that to cut covers from. They are supposed to be the same thickness of material. YMMV
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Kamikaze3955, thank you for the suggestion. I have a black trash can I believe came from Walmart several years ago. It is 1/2 the thickness and is more vinyl and not as ridged. I believe I can find some pickguard blanks that should work. I will check Walmart also.
 
#705
Here is my ESP LTD B-5E with Mod's after buffing to a luster. I left the back of the neck satin finish as it came.

2 switches at bottom right are Pickup Series/Parallel and Split Coil.

Switch at the top right is EQ Preamp/Bypass which is a true bypass and turns battery off at the same time.

Lace Alumitone Soapbar passive pickups

Blue L.E.D. next to output jack (Superbright running at 1.5ma max. when in EQ Preamp mode and battery is above about 7.5-8 volts DC.)
The photo on the right is as it came stock and the one on the left after buffing to a luster and installing mods.
 

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#707
LoveThatBass said:
Here is my ESP LTD B-5E with Mod's after buffing to a luster. I left the back of the neck satin finish as it came.

2 switches at bottom right are Pickup Series/Parallel and Split Coil.

Switch at the top right is EQ Preamp/Bypass which is a true bypass and turns battery off at the same time.

Lace Alumitone Soapbar passive pickups

Blue L.E.D. next to output jack (Superbright running at 1.5ma max. when in EQ Preamp mode and battery is above about 7.5-8 volts DC.)
Click to expand...

I love the look of that brighter ebony, even if it is just the flash. I've been thinking about doing something similar with my F-5E, since the satin finish has started to rub off and turn glossy where I keep my hand. How much time did the buffing take?
 
#709
macrocheesium said:
I love the look of that brighter ebony, even if it is just the flash. I've been thinking about doing something similar with my F-5E, since the satin finish has started to rub off and turn glossy where I keep my hand. How much time did the buffing take?
Click to expand...

I took all hardware and electronics out. In retrospect I could have just undone the nuts and pushed the pots inside and put painters tape inside the cavity over the holes but you still need to remove the pickups or at least protect them in some manner.

As far as the buffing I just used the foam polishing pads made for a drill motor and extra fine Menzerna polishing compound bar from Stewmac. They have a video there of how to use these. It took about 4 times of Buffing, wiping off using micro fiber towel from Walmart. You could speed it up probably by first using a fine compound bar followed by the extra fine but from the time I started the buffing until I was satisfied was about an hour. Relatively easy really. When finished I applied Johnson's Paste wax (Carnauba wax), let dry to a haze and wiped it off using a clean microfiber cloth (really easy and works better than most guitar polishes). One last thought, I don't know how much it helped but I used Dr. Duck's Axe wax (not a wax at all) on the guitar's body, headstock and finger board. Except for the finger board I left this on overnight prior to doing the buffing. I provides a beautiful luster but is only temporary as about 30-40 percent will remain after wiping it off. I did this hoping it would make the process, once started polish quicker. I think it helped since I only used extra fine Menzerna. About 2 hours total but it is definitely worth the time. The Menzerna bar's are really huge and I barely put a dent in it. It will last "forever"LOL

I found both the #3410 and 3411 foam pads useful. The side of the #3410 seemed to quicken the work time but the flat side worked as a follow up. Believe it or not the foam pad actual did well on the inside of the horns. It squeezed right in and worked fast there. Hope this helps. It is really not as hard as I thought. I used it prior on my D-5 and it really worked well so I knew what the results would be on this B-5E but have to tell you it came out more stunning than I had hoped for.
Invalid Link Removed


One last item, Buffing did bring out the browns some
 
#710
LoveThatBass said:
I took all hardware and electronics out. In retrospect I could have just undone the nuts and pushed the pots inside and put painters tape inside the cavity over the holes but you still need to remove the pickups or at least protect them in some manner.

As far as the buffing I just used the foam polishing pads made for a drill motor and extra fine Menzerna polishing compound bar from Stewmac. They have a video there of how to use these. It took about 4 times of Buffing, wiping off using micro fiber towel from Walmart. You could speed it up probably by first using a fine compound bar followed by the extra fine but from the time I started the buffing until I was satisfied was about an hour. Relatively easy really. When finished I applied Johnson's Paste wax (Carnauba wax), let dry to a haze and wiped it off using a clean microfiber cloth (really easy and works better than most guitar polishes). One last thought, I don't know how much it helped but I used Dr. Duck's Axe wax (not a wax at all) on the guitar's body, headstock and finger board. Except for the finger board I left this on overnight prior to doing the buffing. I provides a beautiful luster but is only temporary as about 30-40 percent will remain after wiping it off. I did this hoping it would make the process, once started polish quicker. I think it helped since I only used extra fine Menzerna. About 2 hours total but it is definitely worth the time. The Menzerna bar's are really huge and I barely put a dent in it. It will last "forever"LOL

I found both the #3410 and 3411 foam pads useful. The side of the #3410 seemed to quicken the work time but the flat side worked as a follow up. Believe it or not the foam pad actual did well on the inside of the horns. It squeezed right in and worked fast there. Hope this helps. It is really not as hard as I thought. I used it prior on my D-5 and it really worked well so I knew what the results would be on this B-5E but have to tell you it came out more stunning than I had hoped for.
Invalid Link Removed


One last item, Buffing did bring out the browns some
Click to expand...

I might give that a shot. Thanks!
 
#711
I've been really loving my time spent with my new ESP LTD 205 fretless. I brought my SVT home today and really put in some quality time on it - love its unique fretless sound and how great it sound for a $420 (Cnd, eh?) bass. Thanks to Jaconot's post regarding the wear of roundwounds on the neck. I checked it out midway today and sure enough. there was some major scoring going on on the rosewood fretboard. I'd ordered some D'Addarios as he suggested (black nylon tapewound) and not only do they look cool, sound awesome, and will save wear on the neck, they'll also save wear on my fingers as they feel silky smooth, my fingers just seem to glide over them. Recommend these strings for this bass. Probably a pretty good alternative for anyone considering flats as well. A definite plus on a fretless, anyway.
 
#712
bachlover said:
I've been really loving my time spent with my new ESP LTD 205 fretless. I brought my SVT home today and really put in some quality time on it - love its unique fretless sound and how great it sound for a $420 (Cnd, eh?) bass. Thanks to Jaconot's post regarding the wear of roundwounds on the neck. I checked it out midway today and sure enough. there was some major scoring going on on the rosewood fretboard. I'd ordered some D'Addarios as he suggested (black nylon tapewound) and not only do they look cool, sound awesome, and will save wear on the neck, they'll also save wear on my fingers as they feel silky smooth, my fingers just seem to glide over them. Recommend these strings for this bass. Probably a pretty good alternative for anyone considering flats as well. A definite plus on a fretless, anyway.
Click to expand...

Nice! Any photo's?
 
#715
I forgot to mention that the Lace Alumitone pickups are about is loud in passive mode as they are when using the Pre-amp. Just no tone control in passive mode. Has a very good tone even so and I can eq with the amp so not a big deal.

If you check my previous post by scrolling up on this page you will see I put a photo on it showing how the Guitar (flat looking finish) looked when I got it and the other photo depicting how it looks after buffing and mods.
 
#716
Got my Surveyor-4 in.

Very easy setup. I rolled the fretboard edges, leveled a couple (3) very slightly high frets and was able to set it up with very low action.

The tone of the EMG MM-TW (Musicman) is pretty similar, like a Musicman, when split or using the whole pickup, just higher output and a little more grit with both coils. So not as good a J straight tone, but still very usable, especially with the EQ.

The EMG 35P-4 sounds like an P pickup and I like that a whole bunch. I do have a volume drop when blending the two pickups, but it's easy enough to bump the volume a touch.

I've raised the MM-TW to balance the input with the 35P-4 and this works fine.

Neck is narrow, Geddy Lee-like, but thick enough that it's not too small for me.

Finish is good and the weight isn't bad at all. This will easily cover a P or MM and sounds good with both pickups blended as well.

Lots of good tones, would be really good for anyone in a cover band having to bring a lot of different sounds and not wanting to bring a lot of gear. I think it's a very useful tool, and a great buy.

Bob
 

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