possible "basket case" incoming!

[jeffmarshall67]

This is heading my way, as I am a lover of the short lived Climax. Lots of things the photos point out, from the dings and slight neck crack that is common with these, to some strong wear. If the body is as rough as shown I may just hot rod it wirh a good grabber orange paint job and some nice pickups. If it's not too bad I will get it playing great and leave it be. Hope it doesn't end up being stock in my parts stash!

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 1331940409

[Elwood]

Coool,
It would look wild with a bright orange .
Doesn't look that bad as it is now , nice score !

elwood

[sam]

Jeff,
I was on the edge for this but backed out at the end, glad a fellow GLDP'r got it. Let us know if it is a pleasant surprise or an addition to yer parts drawer. I bet it is a diamond in the rough.

[jeffmarshall67]

Hope so too! The only other Climax that pops up regularily is one I actually owned. He wants way too much for it and relists it over and over.

[Fumble fingers]

sweet Jeff !! .... I had it on my "watch" list too ...... all though I'm just kicking tires at the moment

[jeffmarshall67]

it showed today, and seems really solid. Great frets, a straight neck, a lot less dinged up than it looked in the auction, that nice neck they had on these.

The things not so good. Missing a nut block/screw, A gouge on the end of the fingerboard where it must have fallen on something (just the rosewood, not the neck). The wood was just pushed in, I think I can have my guy steam it back out. Either way it doesn't affect playing and will eventually get fixed with a fret job. The absolute worst setup ever on a Floyd I've seen....can't wait to get it set up correctly.

I'm on the fence about hot rodding it, am gonna get it all set up right and see how it does. I do like to swap the 1 meg pots with 500k as Gabe suggested ages ago, since it's reversible and really makes a difference.

the Climaxes have the kind of wide "U" shaped neck that remind me of a jackson, and G&L got it right on these.

Pics to follow, am gonna tear into it tomorrow night probably

[sam]

Sounds like a very salvageable Climax to me. Those necks are pretty sweet, especially for that type of guitar. Post pics and keep on with updates

[Zippy]

Jeff,

Nice find. That guitar looks you can breath life into her absolutely. Good idea on the pots as Gabe is typically correct. Floyd's give a lot of people trouble on set up but they're really not difficult. Just a lot of time.

Good for you.

Have some fun today

[jeffmarshall67]

finally sat down today and ripped the climax apart and put it back together. Really got it to play nice, has a great wide neck and is more than broken in. Whoever owned it must have let it fall back into anything they could find! Beat but in a really good way, and a little silver paint will fix that one spot next to the bridge that keeps bugging me. First G&L I've ever had that has a matching neck and body date exactly. I have a fine tuner and trem arm coming, and I'm sure will come along the right case for it one of these days.

I still may hot rod it with a paint job and some nice pickups I have, since I'm slowly becoming the Climax hoarder I didn't intend to be and have several in better shape. Or I might leave it as is, it's a fine piece of played G&L history. The weird gouge on the bass side of the third fret area is actually the rosewood pushed in, but when playing it I don't feel it at all. I'm sure a little rosewood dust and superglue would fix it, but I'm fine with it's "pedigree" since it doesn't appear when playing. Anyone know what the "1001" signifies after the word Silver?

here are a few pics, and a link to the full album of pics I shot:

http://s138.photobucket.com/user/jeffma ... limax%20xl

[gitman001]

Cool Climax Jeff!

Great score

Scott

[Zippy]

Jeff,

Very nice. Is the string lock by the nut good and stable and holding well? I've had some people who went to slightly bigger allen screws with theirs due to the locks instability.

Zip

[jeffmarshall67]

So far so good, zippy. Thr middle nut block seems s tad bit smaller than thebother two. Ni ebayed a set if 3 withbscrews and will use those if nna they fit.

[jeffmarshall67]

so after really going through the Climax, I realized that the Floyd and the neck were about the only things that didn't need work on this beast. Both pots were so cruddy that one actually fell apart when I took them out (looks like someone had tried to glue it back together?). The wiring was all covered in a layer of rust and even the pickups were crusty. The bridge pickup has some kind of issue inside of it, a short of some kind that is fixed by a "Fonzie" tap from a screwdriver. I have a feeling at one point this thing had been dunked in a swimming pool or a flooded basement. The neck screws even were rusty, but in my G&L parts box I had those. So it's a bit more of a basket case than first thought. I dug around, and while I got my buddy Ray to paint it I wired a new harness without those 1 meg pots and found a good set of Seymour JB/Alnico Pro humbuckers I've had kicking around. I'm usually a G&L purist, and last year debated long and hard about even changing the size of fretwire on my 86 ASAT when it got refretted.....but for this one I'm just going all out. Believe it or not, he got the colors and the vibe I asked for. Definely wanted a very 1985 looking thing, and it should sound perfect once I get it together. I doubt anyone's seen a paint job like this, or would want to again!

[darwinohm]

Jeff, nice project! Looking forward seeing it when it is done.--Darwin

[Zippy]

I like it! I'm normally against changing stuff on older G&L's, but I'm wrong. A friend of mine wanted to paint his 90's Strat. At the pub, go figure, I told him he should paint it vanilla and orange so it looked like a Dreamsicle. I was just being a butthead, but he really did it. It looks awesome!! Stay tuned when I'm totally wrong again next week.

Ziippy

[jeffmarshall67]

I agree Zippy, I normally wouldn't touch an older G&L but this one was different. I have several Climaxes already, and haven't altered any of them. I've always wanted to do so with one, since the weak links in these are the pickups and wiring/pots. The ones with single coils are just crappy sounding, and are totally unbalanced with the humbuckers they are paired with. Almost always have to just play the humbucking positions on them. This particular guitar has the flattest "Jackson-like" neck I've ever seen on a G&L, it got an extremely heavy handed carve the day it was made.

This one was an Ebay find and very cheap, and I didn't expect much more from it when I found it but couldn't pass up the price. The neck and frets turned out very good, and once I got it together it plays really great. I'm not a fan of the relic look, but this was way beyond that. Ever know one of those guys that just left his guitar leaning on an amp, up against a milk crate or on the floor after practice? Or the guy you see riding his bike down the street with the guitar around his back without even a gig bag? This guitar belonged to that guy! Not playing wear, more like wear caused by neglect and laziness. Add to that a slight neck pocket crack I was able to make stable and that the wiring had possibly been underwater (bad pickup, pots rusted and coming apart, exposed wire rusting, of course the barrel jack was shot) and I just decided to do it. I'm still kind of viewing it as a parts guitar that has been upgraded than anything else.

Hopefully I'll get to finish putting the tremelo on it today and setting it up during the big Seahawks game today, I wired it all up the other night but the paint seemed like it needed a day or two more to get set up before I wrestle the floyd.

[jeffmarshall67]

[yowhatsshakin]

Nice looks Jeff! Great!

[jeffmarshall67]

Ray is in edmonds Jos, and has done work for emerald city and others. Usually not wacky like this. He just did a lake placid blue strat that looked perfect

[darwinohm]

I like it! -- Darwin