Westfield Les Paul

[SpondonBassed]

I've got my housemate's grandson's Les Paul copy to repair.  He's fifteen.

He dropped it and broke off the key from a machine head.  I have a contact at Foulds of Derby who sometimes lets me go through his box of odds and sods.  I'll check with him in the next day or two but I wanted to ask here for pointers in case I need to get a new replacement elsewhere.  I've looked up Westfield guitars, a Scottish company, and it seems to have gone out of business in 2013.

The other thing is for me to ask what strings to look for.  I don't play myself but I'd like to get some light tension strings for the lad and I need recommendations for makes and gauges.

TIA

[BigRedX]

Thos machine heads look like typical unbranded far-eastern Schaller/Gotoh copies with tulip heads. You should be able find something suitable either from one of the guitar parts web sites or eBay.

As for strings you can't go far wrong with a D'Addario XL .010 - .046 set for standard light gauge.

Edited January 24, 2018 by BigRedX

[Cato]

I got some DR pure blues strings the other day.

I got the 10 gauge which are very nice, but they also do a 09 gauge.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/DR-Strings-Blues-Nickel-46/dp/B0009G00KA

Price with postage is £7.44

By the way this is not the seller I bought my set from, mine were at least a tenner.

These might well be perfectly legit, I've cheap DR strings off Amazon before that were completely legit, but I'm slightly nervous recommending suppliers I haven't personally tried.

Edited January 25, 2018 by Cato

[SpondonBassed]

Thanks @Cato.

Of the two standard gauge sets, 10 and 9 thou, which would you recommend for a fifteen y/o who is more used to playing nylon uke strings?

[SpondonBassed]

3L+3R FA-03 Chrome Tuning Pegs Machine Head Tuners for Gibson Guitar replacement: Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments

Vanson VN-04 Chrome Tulip Tuners / Machine Heads, Right Handed 6 in-line for Epiphone Les Paul, SG ES, Acoustic etc. (Right Handed, Chrome): Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments

These appear to be a close match but at the price I might buy a set rather than replace one and find it is slightly different.

These state a 15:1 ratio.  If anyone's used either of the sellers or their products before let me have your thoughts please?

Edited January 25, 2018 by SpondonBassed

[OldG]

10's on a les paul will feel like 9's on a fender.. i find that I need 10's to get any chance of chords without them squirming around too much due to the lower tension.

[Cato]

3 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

Thanks @Cato.

Of the two standard gauge sets, 10 and 9 thou, which would you recommend for a fifteen y/o who is more used to playing nylon uke strings?

It depends what he wants to do.

If he wants to do a lot soloing then the lighter the gauge the easier it is to bend the strings.

The downside is, the lighter the string the easier it is accidently bend some or all of them out of tune when playing chords, especially certain barre chords.

I also feel that the lighter string gauges lack a certain punch, although that might be in my head.

All things considered I'd probably say 10s would probably have more advantages than negatives for someone just starting out.

Edited January 25, 2018 by Cato

[SpondonBassed]

Given that he's not done a lot with the guitar since it was dropped a couple of years ago I've decided to go with 9s.

I spoke with my mate Feritt at Foulds in Derby. After we'd talked through the merits of 8s, 9s and 10s he sold me a set of machine heads for around £15 and some strings for £5.  The machine heads are of a good standard he says because he's used them before.

We reckoned it would be better to go with the light strings and make it as easy for the lad as possible.  The set shown has a spare top e.  Not a bad thing since the 0.009" is the most likely to break.

Whenever we asked him about getting the guitar fixed he would go quiet about it.  I have a feeling he got a severe telling off from his dad about it and has been reluctant to go near it since.  Today is his fifteenth birthday so it's time we got it fixed for him so he can have a proper go and if it isn't for him, he's got a good guitar to sell and put the money towards some of his sports activities.

 

The old tulip machine heads are packed up in the pack from the new heads and will do for spares.  The lad's granddad Jack says he might have them for a uke build.  The new ones pop in nice and snug after I clean out the holes with a 10mm auger bit.  It turned out that the older heads had a slight taper down from 10mm and there was a bit of crap in there from paint prep at build.

 

9 to 42s with a spare 9 thrown in

 

• Replaced full set of machine heads
• Full restring
• Polished frets
• Cleaned fretboard with lemon oil
• Checked wiring (good)
• Tightened nuts at each pot as one was quite loose and the others finger tight only
• Cleaned, polished and buffed entire instrument

It sounds great and that's just through my bass rig.  A light refurbish for £20, not bad.

[SpondonBassed]

I will check the tuning again today after a play-in.  In my head I sound like Jimmy Page but at the same time I can clear a whole room in under ten seconds.

I want to re-check the intonation with the new strings.  The tuner is showing that a couple of strings don't have the same pitch for the harmonic as the note at the twelfth fret.  The saddles are in a straight line.  It looks to me as if the last set-up was to make the saddles line up nicely at a slant to the bridge for cosmetic reasons rather than for accurate intonation.

When the strings are settled it's tweaky-tweak time.

Thanks for the helpful replies.  I appreciate the suggestions for 10 thou string sets and I reckon that's okay if you've broken-in your finger tips.  He'll learn to make his own string choices later if he gets off the ground with it and I will pass on the advice from here.

[OldG]

That looks fantastic! Get him playing some power chords through an overdriven amp and you'll have him hooked... Easy cheezy like rhythm parts for Anarchy in the UK,Teenage Kicks and Sin City to get him going - play along to help out too, if you can.

[SpondonBassed]

31 minutes ago, OldG said:

That looks fantastic! Get him playing some power chords through an overdriven amp and you'll have him hooked... Easy cheezy like rhythm parts for Anarchy in the UK,Teenage Kicks and Sin City to get him going - play along to help out too, if you can.

We've been talking about jamming bass and uke on a number we both know - Another Brick in the Wall pt2.

He has a friend of  his own age who plays bass with him on that among others.  We think it is a good place to start the ball rolling when we see him next.  He's like most teenagers, very hard to pin down because he is into everything.

I must set up my old Fostex x15 with some new drive belts and a spruce-up all around now that I've got most of my stuff in the same room after years of storage here and there.  We might multi-track him on uke and guitar.  The old TR606 will serve as a metronome.

I will take your suggestions for suitable tunes for novice guitar.  Thank you.

Edited January 26, 2018 by SpondonBassed

[OldG]

forgot to mention.. with light strings the nut has to be spot on - or there will be zero chance of staying in tune at the lower frets. The following method has served me well for years...

1) fret string a the 3rd fret

2) tap string onto the top of the first fret (the wire itself), you will almost certainly feel the string move ( too much clearance) before you hear a metallic click.

3) very carefully lower nut slot (keeping the break angle) until you feel no movement but you still hear a click as you tap (any further is to far and will fret buzz). Err on the side of caution here until confident.

4) repeat until all strings are at optimum.

[SpondonBassed]

5 minutes ago, OldG said:

forgot to mention.. with light strings the nut has to be spot on - or there will be zero chance of staying in tune at the lower frets. The following method has served me well for years...

1) fret string a the 3rd fret

2) tap string onto the top of the first fret (the wire itself), you will almost certainly feel the string move ( too much clearance) before you hear a metallic click.

3) very carefully lower nut slot (keeping the break angle) until you feel no movement but you still hear a click as you tap (any further is to far and will fret buzz). Err on the side of caution here until confident.

4) repeat until all strings are at optimum.

Thanks yet again.  I'll add that to the check-list for later today.

[leftybassman392]

Probably a bit late now, but...

I'd also recommend trying him out with 10's.  As has been said they'll feel like 9's would on a Fender because of the shorter scale length (243/4" v. 251/2"), and the extra mass in the strings should give a slightly fuller tone. Marginal, but worth a go at some point before he gets too used to the 9's.

[SpondonBassed]

2 hours ago, leftybassman392 said:

Probably a bit late now, but...

I'd also recommend trying him out with 10's.  As has been said they'll feel like 9's would on a Fender because of the shorter scale length (243/4" v. 251/2"), and the extra mass in the strings should give a slightly fuller tone. Marginal, but worth a go at some point before he gets too used to the 9's.

I'm pretty sure it was a set of tens he had on before.

They were getting badly tarnished and the first string was missing so without digging out my micrometer I am not sure.  I am interested to see what he thinks of the nines by comparison to the old set regardless.  Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

As the suggestions have consistently been for tens I am quite prepared to replace the string set accordingly once the lad has tried them out and decided for himself that he preferred the older strings.

[leftybassman392]

No worries. 9's on a Les Paul feel a bit weedy IME is all.

[SpondonBassed]

I set the intonation for the new strings yesterday.

Two strings needed minor adjustment.  My fat fingers aren't sensitive enough to sound tuneful with guitar strings, especially finer strings like these but I was still getting a sweeter sound with chords above the twelfth.

I didn't touch the nut.  @OldG's advice sounds fine.  I just don't want to cut the nut until the lad has tried these strings.  He might want to go back to the 10s.  In either case, I will keep that in mind for further down the line.

His granddad has bought him a stand.  He had a wall hanger at the old house but I think that was partly why he dropped the instrument in the first place.  It was too much of a stretch for him when he was little.

If nothing else comes of this refurb, it's got his granddad talking about having a another go on his 3/4 classical guitar so I am glad I made the effort.

[OldG]

5 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

 

I didn't touch the nut.  @OldG's advice sounds fine.  I just don't want to cut the nut until the lad has tried these strings.  He might want to go back to the 10s.  In either case, I will keep that in mind for further down the line.

 

That's the beauty of this..  works for any string gauge you want to put on ( the bottom of the slot and string is a constant) - I set up basses like this too .