Project - Pickups

Last night I bought a pair of Gretsch humbucker pickups from someone on Ebay. I was quite surprised I won the auction and at such a low cost too. I know the Electromatic is a Gretsch budget line but still these are from a GRETSCH guitar!

As I tweeted at the time this new acquisition has made my guitar project all the more interesting. Now we're moving deep into customisation territory waters and I for one am excited at the prospect. I mean the sound from a Gretsch is amazing and when combined with the punchy dynamic sounding pickup I have in the bridge (though I'm now tempted to rip that and have a pair of Gretsch's) as well as the hollow 335 shape body I'll be creating a very unique sound indeed.

I knew right from the off that this guitar project would definitely be a customisation job (unlike the Squier) as I had the neck problem as well as the bridge pickup having no cover over it and standing out a mile - though I suppose I could purchase one of these from Ebay the fact is it is not the original pickup. Other considerations include the brand name. Although this guitar is far more superior in build to the Squier Tele the name Grant isn't as recognisible as Fender or even it's budget line Squier therefore meaning that this guitar may be harder to sell when complete or may not command the price it is worth therefore would it even be worth replacing parts such as the 4 control knobs when I could just get another 2 that were similar to the remaining 2 just to finish the job off. Or is it even worth replacing the pickup switch knob which was melted by a stray soldering iron years ago? I mean it still does its job and is merely a cosmetic fix. Pretty pointless restoring an already functioning guitar when you'll probably get the same or similar price for it as it was. Like I said I knew what I was getting myself into.

With this in mind I've been looking at a replacement neck pickup for a while now as after plugging the Grant in the other month I liked the sound of the two humbuckers together (combined with the sound of the hollow body) but thought the neck pickup on its own sounded weak. Have to admit I wasn't searching as actively this last month due to other financial priorities but after sorting that out and making a few quid selling bits & bobs on Ebay I had a quick look and found myself watching the aforementioned Gretsch pair and a single Seymour Duncan humbucker. Last night with the Gretsch minutes away from finishing and the Seymour Duncan suddenly leaping in price (with still a day remaining) I decided to make a move. I was plesantly surprised to say the least that I got one decent humbucker at the price I paid nevermind two of them!

With the seller informing me that they will be posted the following morning I decided to prepare the Grant ready for their arrival. Cleaned up the no-nails as best as possible (as can be seen in the below post) and removed the neck pickup. Herein lies the next exciting instalment of this tale.

I was expecting the current neck pickup to be the original one (maybe it is?) but was shocked to find that instead of some cheapo no brand stock humbucker I found a Kent Armstrong! I have a pair of Kent Armstrong humbuckers in my Jim Reed PRS copy and they do an amazing job so to find one here is an exciting discovery (as it means I can probably sell it and make back some money I spent on the Gretsch pickups). My initial thoughts are that I bought and installed this years ago (when I replaced the bridge pickup), knowing that Kent armstrong pickups kick arse. Funny how I thought it sounded weak? I haven't tried it for several weeks though (since I first dug out the guitar) so am relying on memory. All I know is that I wasn't happy with the combination. Oh well this name on the rear of the pickup means I should be able to make a few quid off it rather than just binning it off.

For now though I'm just sitting tight waiting for the next exciting chapter of this project to unfold (ie arrival of the Gretsch's). As ever here's the pics, enjoy.

Project - Stiff Neck

To fix the neck alignment problem I took a drastic measure - glueing in the neck. Of course it would've been more cosmetically pleasing if I'd used some proper glue and not no-nails! That aside, a day or so in a vice to dry seems to have done wonders for it. It's now re-aligned and does not shift easily from side to side any more, in fact it doesn't shift anywhere as it's quite solid.

Today I took it out of the garage once more as I last night bought a new humbucker to replace the neck pickup and decided that I wanted to prepare it for the arrival. As I said above the glue has set and is quite solid it's just a shame I didn't use a better type of glue (what can I say cost plays a part as usual!) as I'm now left with a white strip around the neck. I have tried to clean this up as best as possible. Am also toying with the idea of painting over it with a similar red paint but I'm pretty wary that this will actually work (or at least not work as well I'd hope).

Job Centre tweet

Had to share this with anyone not following me on Twitter. Probably one of the funniest things (IMO) I've ever tweeted. Enjoy:

"Job centre still smells of sick, beginning to think it's an ambient scent designed to help the drunks feel welcome."

Pointless trying - Might as well be a doley for life!

Amongst a whole plethora of things that have annoyed me over the last day or so I guess the whole job situation is the one that's p'd me off the most.

Yesterday my brother got a job I'd applied for. Whilst this is great news for him it really irks me that they gave it to someone with absolutely no experience in the role and who lives 10 miles further away from the place than me. Saying that I was doomed right from the start as the stupid cow I sent my CV to replied to me using an incorrect spelling of my surname as a forename. She also asked a few questions, which I thought I answered pretty well but I was dismissed on the slightest remark I made in them ie mentioned something about wanting a job that was not stress inducing and she replied saying I'd be unsuitable as the OFFICE (not the actual position!) can sometimes be stressful.

Of course this is all neither here or there as it happened weeks ago, I guess it just acts to a prelude to more recent events and how I currently feel.

Last Monday I went for an interview. I thought it went really well, I had bags of experience and was well suited for the position. Today I found out I hadn't got it. Maybe someone better came along, maybe I'm doing something wrong I don't know (would help if the agency actually provided some form of feedback seeing as I requested it at least twice prior to this afternoon!). 

What's really annoying is that the last 2 interviews (and I haven't been on many since finishing uni last July) have been via agencies. I must be doing something seriously wrong but I just don't know what.

I've been to the local skills centre in town several times, so far they've been useless. Last week I booked myself in for this skills health check thing to tell me where my strengths lie and to suggest suitable jobs. I have to go back tomorrow morning to complete it. Have a good idea what it will say and to be honest I think it will be totally useless in helping me.

In my head at the mo I think I'm stuck in a place where I don't have enough experience to actually get one of the very few media lecturer jobs out there and for any other job I've got teacher labelled allover my CV and they won't touch me with a barge pole as I'm either over-qualified (what a stupid term!) or they think I'll disappear at the slightest hint of a teaching position - it's been over a year and the new term's started so they won't be anymore jobs now (apart from maternity cover) til next March; it's never going to happen!!!

Add to that the fact that at the mo I have no car due to it failing its MOT in style and I'm beginning to think what's the point?

Which leads me to the conclusion that I either start lieing on my CV/interviews or I just give up.


And to add insult to injury I have to go to the Job Centre again tomorrow morning and will no doubt get some jobsworth who will scrutinise and interrogate me to his/her full extent.