Classing up a Washburn WI-64 Headstock

Several years ago, I bought a Washburn WI-64 in transparent red. Although it is the most comfortable guitar I have ever held, and I love the design, I didn't like much else about it.

Almost new—all stock except the new knobs for the SG look

The first thing I did was replace the knobs with SG style knobs. Then I stripped the paint, which took a very long time. This was before I had kids—I can't imagine spending that amount of time on a single guitar ever again. After coating it with some tung oil, I was glad I did it. It's a nice looking guitar. Except the headstock, which I will come to.

I replaced the stock pickups with GFS pickups (bleh on the pickups and GFS's customer service). After trying Dimarzio Super Distortions, I settled on Seymour Duncan Distortion pickups and loved those. I stayed with the original wiring for a while, but eventually replaced the pots and rewired the VCC setup as a traditional set up (two volume, two tone). I wanted a single coil option, so I put in a coil tap switch, which is wired to both pickups. I could have gone with push-pull pots, but I had the DPST switch on hand, and I am not a big fan of push-pull pots unless there is a reason that the guitar shouldn't be drilled.

After refinishing, still with the Dimarzio Super Distortions

After adding the coil tap switch

I did not do all of this at once. I poked away at it here and there over several months. When it was done, I loved it. It felt, played and sounded great. But the headstock always bugged me. Not so much the shape, which I could take or leave, but the cheap logo:

The original headstock

These are $500 guitars new (I paid $350 for this one), but the logo design and quality always seemed more at home in the $200 and under category. I often wondered if I could peel off the template, but never had the guts to try until recently.

It ended up being a very quick job. I removed all of the hardware on the headstock and placed a scrap cloth on the face of the template. I accidentally used a rag with an iron-on on it, leaving gunk on the template, visible below. No harm done this time, fortunately.

 I set the iron to cotton (hot) and ironed cloth, moving it slowly back and forth. I removed the iron and tried the edge with a scraper and was just able to get it under the template. I applied some more heat and was able to slide the scraper the rest of the way to the nut. Another NOTE: the template is wedged under the nut just a little bit, so don't pry the template up. Rather, when you get the scraper most of the way to the nut, gently pull the template away from the nut, as parallel to the headstock as possible.

Applying heat to the cloth on the headstock face

After enough heat was applied, I was able to get the scraper under the template

The template is pretty sturdy. I wasn't sure if it would melt, but it did not at all. The only thing the iron did was warm up the glue underneath, enough to get the scraper under it.

I was relieved to see that there was no glue residue or any other gunk on the wood. It actually looked quite good even before sanding it. Here are the first few steps:

Before, hardware removed, template removed.

I sanded it a bit, then coated it with the same tung oil I used on the rest of the guitar, and I think it looks great. In fact, having no cheap logo on it somehow makes the headstock shape a bit more pleasing to the eye. Here is the headstock with the hardware back in. The whole process took about 45 minutes, and considering the cheap look of the original logo, it was worth it.

Refinished headstock

The Bill M Mod Kit Saved my Blues Jr.

I was looking for a Blues Jr to mod and the cheapest one I found was $300 and it was already sold. The rest were $400 or more. Then I saw a Hot Rod Deluxe for $300, so I bought it because it was so cheap and I figured I could mod that. But it was way too loud to play at home and there weren’t too many interesting-sounding or necessary mods to do to it.

I put an ad on craigslist offering to trade it for a Blues Jr and someone responded. So now I have my Blues Jr.

It needed work. The input jack desperately needed to be replaced. The plastic threads were completely stripped and it wiggled a lot when you inserted or removed the cord. The footswitch input has the same problem (I haven't fixed that yet).

It sounded harsh and trebly. Ice picky, even. The highs were way too loud and the bass response was lacking. It was worthless for playing through. However, I wanted to learn more about the Blues Jr, so it was not worthless in that regard.

To fix these things, I ordered Bill M’s cream board mod for the Blues Jr. (first mod listed on his Mod Kits and Services page. My previous Blues Jr. was a 1995 green board, which sounded much better to me (especially after doing a couple of Bill M's mods to it, particularly the reverb fix). 

The first thing I did, even before removing the board is the Twin Stack mod (see Bill M's detailed instructions). I jumpered the two left lugs of the Mid control. It worked, but still not a fan of the sound. Even with the bass turned way up, it’s much too trebly and harsh.

This amp already had three new 22uF 450V caps, which must have been replaced as part of the repair that was done. R47 had previously burned out, leaving a substantial scorch mark on the PCB. It was replaced with a higher wattage resistor and placed away from the board an inch or so, presumably to keep it cooler. The 100uF  filter cap is still original, but that will be replaced with the Bill M mod. 

I considered the standby switches, but they seem to be unecessary, especially for how often I play. If I gigged regularly, I would have bought that as well. For the price and the ease of installation, it seems like a good investment.

I replaced the original GT EL84 power tubes, which were 10 years old or so, with a matched set of JJ EL84s for $30. I had some EHX 12AY7, 12AT7 tubes on hand, so I replaced V3 with the 12AY7 and V1 with 12AT7. The amp doesn't break up as quick, which suits me. The overdrive sounds okay, but still harsh.

Bill M's parts arrived pretty quickly. He has a notice on his website that it could take one to three weeks. I expected the worst, but was very pleasantly surprised. 

After removing the board (slow and steady wins the race here—see Bill M's instructions), I replaced the input jack and the Mid and Bass caps. Since I had the board out, I also redid the Twin Stack mod by placing a jumper on the solder side of the board. I didn't need to—having it on the component side of the board bugged me a little bit for some reason. Then I replaced a couple of other caps and jumpered another.

I replaced the 100uF filter cap and noticed that the three other 22uF filter caps were a mess. Well, I had noticed it before, but the mess that the previous repair left behind was really bugging me at this point. They used radial caps instead of axial and then flung hot glue on it. It looked awful (pic below), so I ordered three axial caps as well (from ebay, because I was in a real rush this time). 

There is also a big jumper installed behind the big resistor (previous repair job—pic below). It works, so I figure it's best not to mess with it.

I installed the bias trimpot. The drill bit was smaller than my drill would hold, so I used the smallest bit I had to start the hole, then finished with the bit included in the mod kit, rotating it with my fingers. Not perfect, but it worked out, fortunately.

I installed a small cap on R30 (reduces phase inverter oscillation—see Bill M's description). 

Finally, the 22uF caps came, and I installed them with no problems. 

I put everything back together, biased it per BillM’s instructions. Pretty easy, and I think it looks much better:

Here are the voltage readings on the power tubes, before and after the mod:

Tube Pin	JJ EL84 Before Mods	JJ EL84 After Mods
2 (Grid 1)	-10.5 V	-12.97 V
7 (Plate)	322 V	329 V
9 (Grid 2)	288 V	308 V

With a voltage drop of 2.4 V, I came up with 7.9-ish watts idle dissipation per tube, which will keep the tubes much cooler.

I put the back cover on and tried it. It sounds great. Bill M's mods turned what was to me an unusable amp into one that I now quite enjoy playing through. And a great thing about his mods is that he explains them. You don't just follow instructions and replace parts—he explains why you're replacing the parts. Thank you Bill M! 

MXR Phase 90 Mod

About twenty years ago, I was lucky enough to buy a 1970s MXR "Script Logo" Phase 90 for $20. They sell for up to $200 now, so I was pretty lucky. Unfortunately, I sold it before I ever used ebay, and didn't get much for it.

I have often wished I didn't sell it, so I finally purchased an newer (2002) MXR Phase 90 pedal a few months ago. I could not believe how bad it sounded. The waveforms were sharp -- unlike the creamy smooth original -- and the sound was dirty. To fix this, I bought a mod kit from Vodkamods.com. While I was waiting for the kit to arrive, I found the only modifications I needed (see the link below).

I removed the circuit board, clipped two capacitors (C11 and C12) and one resistor (R28). I also adjusted the trim pot to taste (The trim pot is just above the speed pot in the photo below). To do this, I had to remove the silicon plug holding it in place, and turned the pot a very little bit as I played the guitar through the pedal. When it sounded smooth and creamy, I stopped and marked it. They say to mark it before you make your adjustments, but if it sounds awful, why would you want to remember that setting?

Here's a photo from http://www.erikhansen.net/?page_id=31


I made a mistake with this mod, though. I should have clipped one component, played, clipped another, played, etc. to see what effect each had on the sound. Instead, I just clipped them all. I lucked out, though, because it sounds great. Also, if I were to do it again, I would remove the components with a desoldering braid instead of clipping them. Especially R28, which was tricky to get at.

Regardless, It sounds great, and if you're nervous about making the mod, don't be. The improvement was tremendous. What you should be nervous about, though, is dismantling and reassembling the pedal. I have read accounts of DIYers breaking the pedal by forcing something. With such compact pedals, there is not a lot of wiggle room. If something doesn't fit when you're reassembling, do not force it.

Now, back to Vodkamods: I didn't use anything in the kit. They seem like a good company, with good customer service, etc. I just didn't need any of the mods that were in the kit. The instructions were not well written, but when I e-mailed them a question, and they responded right away, so I would buy from them again.