Guitar BlueprintingThe Dr. Vintage Blueprinting service is a unique service available to the discerning owner. This service involves a personalized, hands-on tuning and refinement of the key elements that actually effect your guitar's tone and playability. Your instrument is fine-tuned to your personal playing style and needs. You'll get the best possible tone and flexibility from your instrument. My clients include owners of top-shelf vintage guitars, including late-1950s Gibson Les Paul Sunbursts and ES3x5s, and the classic Fenders, who also own modern reissues and replicas of these great old guitars. These owners want their late-model guitars to have a vintage sound and a sonic 'feel' to the controls that mimics that of their highly-valued old classics, without spending exorbitant amounts of money on old 1950s controls and pickups. These can easily cost more than the original purchase price of the guitar they would be installed in! But this service isn't just for vintage guitar owners - most of my clients are guitarists who simply want their modern instrument to be the best it can be. The process begins with the guitar being shipped to the Dr. Vintage shop (or, if the travel isn't outrageous, Dr. Vintage travels to the guitar). I take time to play the guitar acoustically and through all of my assortment of vintage and modern amplifiers, or through the owner's amplifiers, if I'm performing the work at the owner's location. This gives me a personal 'read' on the guitar's inherent sonic qualities. I follow that with an extensive verbal interview with the owner, discussing every aspect of their playing style, how and when they use the controls, which pickup combinations they use the most, etc. Then I roll up my sleeves and get to work. No off-the-rack 'kit of parts' is used in this process. The Dr. Vintage process uses my special Dr. Vintage pots, of course. I carefully select the exact pots that will produce the best results for the owner. Likewise, tone caps are individually selected for the owner's tastes. I have a large assortment of cap values and construction materials to select from, and quite often, the guitar ends up with what would normally be considered non-standard cap values. Sometimes an owner will want a special wiring configuration, such as out-of-phase capability or other non-standard wiring. These are also accommodated. Depending on the owner's requirements, I'll replace the pickups with the specific pickups that the customer requests. Naturally, I'll recommend one of my Rick Norman Pickups sets, but one of the unmatched benefits of me having the guitar in my hands is that I can custom-wind a set of pickups specifically for the customer's instrument. Naturally, if the customer has have a favorite pickup brand they wish to provide, those will be installed as the customer wishes. After the electronics are overhauled, I spend a good deal of time playing the guitar and fine-tuning the pickup heights and pole piece adjustments to get the best possible sound - it's the icing on the cake. An available extension of the Dr. Vintage treatment includes a detailed set-up of the instrument, if the owner wishes. This includes the standard items such as neck adjustment, hand-polishing of the frets, nut and bridge saddle slotting, intonation and action height. The prices for the Dr. Vintage Blueprinting service is commensurate with the total services performed. Please contact me directly to discuss. |
