New combo here (pics)

[dagogo]

The combo from guitar center came yesterday.
It's in pretty good shape, better than I thought really.
It plays ok, not great. The action is high and I can hear the B string fretting out (high fret) around the 9th fret, the frets are hopefully ok but it obviously needs new strings and a setup with a truss rod adjustment which I haven't gotten to yet. There is also a bad buzz on the G string from somewhere around the bridge.

The bridge pickup doesn't work at all when selected by itself, however the middle position does work 75% of the time, (I can hear both pickups working versus only the neck) so maybe this is just a bad switch?

The guitar is pretty loud acoustically which is nice. The vibrato is also totally sweet, i love it.

The thing that seems strangest to me is the neck. It's weird because it seems brand new. I can not find a mark anywhere on it (the back of it). The clear coating looks like it was done last week. Frankly, it feels so new that it has me suspecting that it might not be original, yet the fingerboard and nut appear to be older. I would be interested in your opinions on this.

You can see the number H0605 stamped into the fingerboard and it also appears on the inside label. I read about pulling up the pickguard to check the pot codes...is this something I should do to help date more accurately? Also, there is a long number hand-engraved on the end of the bottom of the vibrato...it 50X-XX-XXX9. I wonder what this means? (EDIT: SSN?)

[Mr. Bill]

Really nice score there! I always loved the look of the Combos.

The switch is either dirty or has been bent out of shape, but it should be fixable without problem. If you lightly tap the pole screws with a small screwdriver you will be able to tell for sure that the pickups are both working or not.

The number that is etched into the tailpiece is a former owner's social security number. I don't know if they are still around, but you might want to edit out the number from your post.

The only way to tell if the neck has been refinished would be to blacklight the guitar. That will show if it has been oversprayed or not.

[FritzCat]

On my guitar the date was stamped on both the neck pocket and the neck, if you feel like unbolting the neck.

[MOSDAN]

Great looking guitar you have there. Yeah- I agree, the switch fix should not be hard to do. Just the fact that the middle position gives you both pick ups shows contact is not being made for the one pickup. A little bend of the proper contact arm of the switch should do it. It also would not hurt to clean the switch contact points and the pots with some deoxit while you have access to the switch and pots. On the neck it sounds like somebody may have masked off the fretboard and refinished the neck some time in the past. As long as they did a good job it should not affect the guitar. Congrats on the new member to your family! Its a beautiful guitar.

[MWaldorf]

That's a beaut! I wouldn't rush to consider the neck a refinish - I've seen some others with really clean looking necks, and the body on this one looks pretty clean too.

As everyone said, the switch is the likely culprit for your bridge pickup cutting out.

[dagogo]

The good: yes, the switch was the culprit! Just for kicks I unscrewed it and screwed it back in and now bridge pup works and I can't get it to fail.
The bad: the tone pot is extremely difficult to turn and inoperative. Volume works and turns normally but crackles.

Like I said the action was really high, I tried to adjust the trust rod but couldn't get my socket around the bolt so I'll take it to my guy tomorrow to make sure it's ok. The neck looks like it could use a little less relief. Then I simply lowered bridge height, wow what a difference, it already plays 90% better. I was able to play normally and little or no fret issues or buzzing. Boy, the bridge was jacked way up. It always surprises me that G.C. will get a guitar like this and do absolutely nothing to it before they sell it.

Thanks for the tip on the black-light...maybe I will try and do that tomorrow but I do agree, considering the overall good condition maybe it just wasn't played all that much. It did come in (i believe) the original case, red interior w/exterior alligator ends.

[Mr. Bill]

Get a can of Deoxit if you don't already have one and it will take care of the crackly pot. The frozen one can be fixed with first an application of wd-40 followed by a cleaning with deoxit.

There are two spots that will freeze up in a pot. One is the shaft where it feeds through the mounting bushing and the other is in the back between the back of the metal cover and inside wiper element. Start by pulling off the knob and spray a little wd-40 on the shaft where it meets the threaded bushing. Work the oil in the best you can and see if the shaft will start to turn. If that doesn't work, then spray a little oil into the opening of the pot. Try and get the oil all over the inside of the pot. Keep working the shaft to see if it will start to turn.

The worst case will require you to take the back of the pot off to get the parts separated and moving again. This will only need to be done in rare cases.

Hope this helps.

[dagogo]

An update...I ended up returning this guitar to guitar center. I would have had to sell my AVRI Jazzmaster to keep it and I could not bring myself to make that decision.

I know I only had a few days with it but in the end, the size is what was really throwing me...the way the neck seemed to have extend so far to the left felt a little awkward to me and overall it just seemed a little too big. I did like it, but not at that price, and couldn't really envision it being my main guitar.

I did blacklight it Friday and couldn't see any greenish hue from the neck at all. As it happens, a guitar tech was walking out of G.C. when I was returning it at the front counter and stopped to check it out. He seemed doubtful of the neck finish being original, and with all of the the light in G.C. was able to find a tape line at the bottom of the headstock in about 10 seconds...just a subtle difference in sheens but after he pointed it out it was easy to see. The neck had been sprayed.

Bottom line is while I wouldn't mind owning a combo this one was too much $. Also I'd probably rather have a smaller solid body so I think I will look around for a japanese model or a hallmark. I'd like to thank everyone for their input on the combo though...this was a good learning experience.

[Veenture]

dagogo, thank you also for sharing your experience with us. It has been very educational. It's one thing falling in love with a guitar but another when you use your head. You're satisfied with your decision and that's what counts

[vibramute]

Congrats...I'm extremely jealous!