NGD: SJM-ish Liquid
Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2023 1:01 pm
You know those guitars that arrive much nicer than described? This isn't one of those. This guitar has put up with some idiots and it needs therapy.
Call me strange, but I like 2 P90s instead of 3, and I do like a Jazzmaster/Jaguar style trem despite their quirks. And I like Liquids just because they're fun shaped offsets with great necks. So finally seeing an SJM type (thanks @tobijohn ) reasonably priced not too much beyond inflation-adjusted expectations, I shot a low offer, and it was accepted. It had been listed for 5 months, so I thought that was why there was no counter offer, just accepted what I thought was a pretty low number. The listing did show some dings and scrapes, so I knew it needed some work. For those issues mentioned, I thought it was an up-front seller, it was not.
Brown truck brought it here last night and it was warm enough to unpack right away. First thing - no trem arm, and the store didn't mention that in their listing. No, it's not expensive, but finding a good fitting one is a different issue. Luckily, I had a wrong-handed trem arm that does fit it, so that would suffice for a while (pictured above).
Looking it over, I see the worst stand rash I've ever seen. And I don't think this is a laquer finish, so I have to just assume the store's stand that held this guitar for at least 5 months was coated in something pretty toxic (black, and well infused on both sides of the headstock). Bad store. While I'm looking in that area, it gets worse.
I could tell from the listing pictures the nut was flipped righty and cut badly, but it's worse than that. Whoever did that obviously gouged the nut slot badly, because one end has a gaping hole, and the other end looks like it was filled with super glue and baking soda. For reference guys, if we abuse the fret board that badly, wood putty is a better choice whether store bought or home recipe. Sigh, moving on.
I start tuning it and noticed a few more things. The high E tuner has been replaced with something cartoonishly bigger than the others. Worse, the tuners are installed without any regard to straight lines. They are cockeyed enough to get in each others' way. Worse yet, the G tuner is pretty badly bound up and can barely be manipulated to work. Ok, so that's on the menu for later, it did tune up.
I plugged in to behold a loud grounding buzz that can't be quieted pressing the strings or bridge. I was done being surprised, or so I thought. I wasn't going to open it up last night to trace that, I just decided to further check out the guitar. I next discovered the trem doesn't operate at all. It's as if it is glued in position or locked. But the lock doesn't even engage, so something else was going on. I noticed someone replaced the roller bridge that would have come with the guitar with a TOM. Obviously they knew the trem was not working. Add that to the list.
The action was close enough to check out the neck, and I only found one bad spot. Only the 19th fret, and only on the G string, it was high. Finding that minimal an issue on the neck was a very good surprise. There's a lot of fret sprout, but that's something I kind of expect on inexpensive finds. So the filthy, abused, but well behaving neck tells me the rest is worth fixing.
With the ground noise and the trem not working, I decided I couldn't go any further just evaluating, I had to see what those problems were about. No spring adjustment on the trem made any difference, so I took it off for an inspection. Inside the cavity, its grounding wire was just hanging around attached to nothing, so I quickly determined that was the ground noise issue. But the trem itself didn't appear to have any problem. I put it back on, and it was working until I tensioned up the strings, then the trem was bound up. Frustrating.
I have a wrong-handed CV Jaguar trem in a parts bin, so I grabbed it for swapping in, because I knew it worked fine. It worked, until I tensioned the strings to tune, then it was bound up too. Ok, so this is obviously a problem with the trem cavity, not the hardware. I spent the next few hours measuring and what-iffing, and reducing screw holes, and modifying the cavity route. Bottom line, the screw holes were no longer as tight as they should be to keep the trem where it belongs, and string pressure made the big plate jam into the front of the cavity, binding it under tension. It went late, but I got the trem working last night, yay, and the ground buzz was tamed.
This morning I ordered it some new tuners and a roller bridge, and I cleaned the crud from the fretboard and oiled it. It actually looks good considering its dysfunctional history, but will never be a 10. I think I will fix everything I can on this guitar and like it for what it used to be. With some work, it can be a great player, and one configured the way I think Liquids should be. And so yes, @sabasgr68 , I guess this would be a Christmas guitar.
Brown truck brought it here last night and it was warm enough to unpack right away. First thing - no trem arm, and the store didn't mention that in their listing. No, it's not expensive, but finding a good fitting one is a different issue. Luckily, I had a wrong-handed trem arm that does fit it, so that would suffice for a while (pictured above).
Looking it over, I see the worst stand rash I've ever seen. And I don't think this is a laquer finish, so I have to just assume the store's stand that held this guitar for at least 5 months was coated in something pretty toxic (black, and well infused on both sides of the headstock). Bad store. While I'm looking in that area, it gets worse.
I start tuning it and noticed a few more things. The high E tuner has been replaced with something cartoonishly bigger than the others. Worse, the tuners are installed without any regard to straight lines. They are cockeyed enough to get in each others' way. Worse yet, the G tuner is pretty badly bound up and can barely be manipulated to work. Ok, so that's on the menu for later, it did tune up.
I plugged in to behold a loud grounding buzz that can't be quieted pressing the strings or bridge. I was done being surprised, or so I thought. I wasn't going to open it up last night to trace that, I just decided to further check out the guitar. I next discovered the trem doesn't operate at all. It's as if it is glued in position or locked. But the lock doesn't even engage, so something else was going on. I noticed someone replaced the roller bridge that would have come with the guitar with a TOM. Obviously they knew the trem was not working. Add that to the list.
The action was close enough to check out the neck, and I only found one bad spot. Only the 19th fret, and only on the G string, it was high. Finding that minimal an issue on the neck was a very good surprise. There's a lot of fret sprout, but that's something I kind of expect on inexpensive finds. So the filthy, abused, but well behaving neck tells me the rest is worth fixing.
With the ground noise and the trem not working, I decided I couldn't go any further just evaluating, I had to see what those problems were about. No spring adjustment on the trem made any difference, so I took it off for an inspection. Inside the cavity, its grounding wire was just hanging around attached to nothing, so I quickly determined that was the ground noise issue. But the trem itself didn't appear to have any problem. I put it back on, and it was working until I tensioned up the strings, then the trem was bound up. Frustrating.
I have a wrong-handed CV Jaguar trem in a parts bin, so I grabbed it for swapping in, because I knew it worked fine. It worked, until I tensioned the strings to tune, then it was bound up too. Ok, so this is obviously a problem with the trem cavity, not the hardware. I spent the next few hours measuring and what-iffing, and reducing screw holes, and modifying the cavity route. Bottom line, the screw holes were no longer as tight as they should be to keep the trem where it belongs, and string pressure made the big plate jam into the front of the cavity, binding it under tension. It went late, but I got the trem working last night, yay, and the ground buzz was tamed.
This morning I ordered it some new tuners and a roller bridge, and I cleaned the crud from the fretboard and oiled it. It actually looks good considering its dysfunctional history, but will never be a 10. I think I will fix everything I can on this guitar and like it for what it used to be. With some work, it can be a great player, and one configured the way I think Liquids should be. And so yes, @sabasgr68 , I guess this would be a Christmas guitar.
