The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I think I’m done. I dont need anymore guitars. This new one brings it up to three, and I certainly cannot handle any more than that. Ive had 5 and it became problematic. Lol.



    After falling in love with Florentine Cutaways, specifically the ES-125TDC, I searched high and low for an affordable, yet built solidly, and has quality feel to it.


    The new 2019 Epiphone George Thorogood ES125 was a surprise, I was really thinking of buying it, but I have my hesitations, especially after having a Casino made in the Epiphone Factory in China, that has some issues I cannot get over with, I’m afraid that I might receive another guitar I will not be happy with. So I kept looking..


    This leaves me with plenty more choices, but some are even harder to find. The only things I want are 2 P90s, Florentine Cutaway, With/without Bigsby, must be made in Korea or Japan, both are which very hard to find. I’ve found a few new production guitars from Archtop Tribute made in Terada Factory, but it would require me to sell my telecasters to fund it, and I dont want to do that. I also found a vintage Es-125TDC in players grade condition, but it would also require selling of my guitars plus additional luthier fees for checking, maybe resetting of the neck, and other various issues that a vintage guitar has.. so I passed on it.. I also want it in the same exact shape of an ES-125TDC. Maybe a little variation of the cutaway but not too much.


    All the waiting and searching paid off. Finally I was able to track down one guitar in my list and in the color that I want. A Peerless Factory made 1996 Epiphone Sorrento








    The quality is very nice. If you’ve ever had the newer Gretsch Electromatic (5xxx) from Korea, it has the same quality feel to it. Solid and not flimsy. Good weight and The neck, even if it’s slim, feels stable. The nut width isnt as narrow as I was expecting it to be; making it a pleasant surprise as it is close to my vintage spec teles (42mm nut), so very little adjustment when switching between guitars.





    But there are tons to do. Since my luthier’s shop is closed, this will be my first even guitar that I will perform some minor fretwork. The frets are tarnished and I just need to remove that greeny stuff and polish it again without changing the fret level. I dont want to risk removing any fret material. I just want to enjoy playing it and do some bends without the scratchy feeling frets. Then setting this up with 11’s and tweaking the pickup, specifically the pole pieces to get that sweet spot!


    The nut looks good, and the fretboard feels nice! It doesnt feel like cheap rosewood. It actually feels like an old growth rosewood and it isnt even dry! Its dark chocolate looking and little streaks. Maybe put some wood conditioner after I’m done with the frets.














    Came in a good time before the really strict quarantine rules get implemented. I’ll have no problem staying at home with this one.




    Keep safe y’all.

  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    HNG day - those are nice instruments!

  4. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by TOMMO
    HNG day - those are nice instruments!
    thank you sir.

  5. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by dreamingJazz
    Peerless made 1996 Epiphone Sorrento

    Nice! Years ago that guitar got me started exploring ES-225s and 125TCs.


    Quote Originally Posted by dreamingJazz
    The frets are tarnished and I just need to remove that greeny stuff and polish it again without changing the fret level. I dont want to risk removing any fret material.

    Masking tape over the neck pickup. 0000 steel wool up and down the fretboard.
    Use more masking tape to pick up the steel wool particles, then remove the tape from the pickups. After that, lemon oil for the board. Finish up with 2 minutes of polishing with a dry t-shirt -- it leaves a soft gleam to the board.

    Quote Originally Posted by dreamingJazz
    Then setting this up with 11’s and tweaking the pickup, specifically the pole pieces to get that sweet spot!
    You'll see people bag on those pickups because they "don't sound like Beatles records." IMO their so-called faults -- hot, dark -- are perfect for jazz.

    Consider flipping the magnets and wires on one, so they hum-cancel in the middle position.

    One pickup on mine rattled a bit against the body. A shim cut from a non-corrugated cardboard box cured that.


    Play on!

  6. #5

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    That's a great looking Sorrento! I've always wanted one but never encountered one in the wild. Congratulations, and play it in good health!

  7. #6

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    Basically a single cut Casino with dot neck markers.

  8. #7

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    My first ever minor fret work polish..


    There are some fret wear on the first few frets, but nothing deep..


    The tarnish is so hard, scotch brite didnt work.. its not removing anything so had to use steel wool





    Before and after!










    then a little bit of Australian Orange Oil Wood conditioner






  9. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
    Basically a single cut Casino with dot neck markers.
    Yep.. thats it!

  10. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sam Sherry
    Nice! Years ago that guitar got me started exploring ES-225s and 125TCs.[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]


    Masking tape over the neck pickup. 0000 steel wool up and down the fretboard. [/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]Use more masking tape to pick up the steel wool particles, then remove the tape from the pickups. After that, lemon oil for the board. Finish up with 2 minutes of polishing with a dry t-shirt -- it leaves a soft gleam to the board.


    You'll see people bag on those pickups because they "don't sound like Beatles records." IMO their so-called faults -- hot, dark -- are perfect for jazz.

    Consider flipping the magnets and wires on one, so they hum-cancel in the middle position.

    One pickup on mine rattled a bit against the body. A shim cut from a non-corrugated cardboard box cured that.


    Play on!
    Just finished cleaning the frets!! will proceed setting it up in a bit! 11's will make this a nice raunchy jazz box

  11. #10

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    Initial set up done.. Still waiting for the neck to react/move to the higher tension of 11s.. So I didnt touch the truss rod at the moment..





    Feels pretty good under the fingers.. as expected, narrow string spacing.. I think I'll let my luthier tweak that to Fender-ish specs.. My telecasters' frets have been professionally levelled, and I was able to set it up in the same action as my Telecasters.. pretty amazing and no fret buzz!


    although I'm concerned about the height of the frets.. Frets 1,2,3 and 4 have varying degrees of fret wear/indentation.. Im sure it has not been touched at all, so hopefully there's enough height left when my luthier levels it.








    I also reversed that G string-saddle.. ALL 24.75 scale guitars I have encountered that has this stock bridge is problematic with 11 gauge strings.. and this is always my solution.. I'm planning to replace this bridge with a Gotoh that has an extended range.. OR probably take out the studs, fill it with a dowel and run with a floating bridge ala ES-125TDC.. not sure yet on what to decide on, but definitely gonna replace the hardware with better ones.. those tuners arent nice!





    Anyway, very happy how it all turned out.. This is definitely what I have been looking for in an affordable price, with decent quality and solidly built hollowbody with P90s and Florentine Cutaway!



  12. #11

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    I'm generally a Venetian guy all the way, but this is one of the few examples of pointiness I actually like. And I much prefer this headstock to the short vintage reissue ones. I think sorrentoes are super underrated.

    I have an mij casino, and as such, I'm also in the "shim your p90s" camp.

  13. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by feet
    I'm generally a Venetian guy all the way, but this is one of the few examples of pointiness I actually like. And I much prefer this headstock to the short vintage reissue ones. I think sorrentoes are super underrated.

    I have an mij casino, and as such, I'm also in the "shim your p90s" camp.
    i actually hate pointy cutaways. Believe me. But I saw a vintage ES-125TDC, and I fell in love.

    i actually love the cutaways of Gretsch Hollowbodies. Especially on a White Falcon.

    also, how would you know what thickness for the shims? my neck and bridge is well balanced in volume. I actually just want to change the chrome pickup covers to plastic black ones. They sound pretty good to me.

    not sure if getting it closer to the strings would sound good like TV Jones Filtertrons. How does yours sound?

  14. #13

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    All of my guitars have either very bulbous cutaways or none at all. It's almost like I'd rather have no upper fret access than an ugly ass guitar

    At any rate, I don't have an exact answer for you, but I'll tell you how I went about it.

    When I first got the casino, I thought the pick ups were ass. The neck was sort of plain, but the bridge was trash. In the search for replacements, I found out about shims. Since that was cheaper, and I already had Gibsons installed, I thought I'd give it a shot.

    I ran a test with a mouse pad. I cut it up, and wedged some under there, and they both instantly sounded better (to my ear). Since I wasn't patient or handy enough to fashion the mouse pad into nice looking shims myself, I shopped around until I found lollar offering some.

    They weren't cheap for what they are, especially after shipping, but five or six slivers of varying heights of plastic cut to fit the p90s arrived. I left it to my tech because I had other things done to it. It came back with the skinniest shim under the neck, and two stacked under the bridge. And sounding great. The best way I can explain it is that they never ended up in the dumpster they were headed to.

    So if you're curious, you can find out with a mouse pad, a screwdriver, scissors and a few minutes. Just stuff a bit under there and see if you prefer that. I did.

  15. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by feet
    All of my guitars have either very bulbous cutaways or none at all. It's almost like I'd rather have no upper fret access than an ugly ass guitar

    At any rate, I don't have an exact answer for you, but I'll tell you how I went about it.

    When I first got the casino, I thought the pick ups were ass. The neck was sort of plain, but the bridge was trash. In the search for replacements, I found out about shims. Since that was cheaper, and I already had Gibsons installed, I thought I'd give it a shot.

    I ran a test with a mouse pad. I cut it up, and wedged some under there, and they both instantly sounded better (to my ear). Since I wasn't patient or handy enough to fashion the mouse pad into nice looking shims myself, I shopped around until I found lollar offering some.

    They weren't cheap for what they are, especially after shipping, but five or six slivers of varying heights of plastic cut to fit the p90s arrived. I left it to my tech because I had other things done to it. It came back with the skinniest shim under the neck, and two stacked under the bridge. And sounding great. The best way I can explain it is that they never ended up in the dumpster they were headed to.

    So if you're curious, you can find out with a mouse pad, a screwdriver, scissors and a few minutes. Just stuff a bit under there and see if you prefer that. I did.
    thanks for a very detailed experience!

    i’m a Telecaster addict first. And I play them exclusively. And I only like early 60s spec telecasters, with rosewood boards and vintage radius and frets, and most especially double bindings.

    here’s my no.1 and my second no.1 LOL
    [/url]Untitled by D Y, on Flickr

    My love for P90s started from a tele equipped with two P90s and My fascination with hollowbody archtops and P90s started with a Casino. But it wasnt a nice experience as the guitar has some quality issues and build flaws.

    the tele is a partscaster that I assembled and put a solid rosewood neck on.

    [/url]Untitled by D Y, on Flickr

    and i can understand trying to balance and getting the sweet spot of the pickups by adjusting height and pole pieces and this is where I arrived at given the soapbars were adjustable

    [/url]Untitled by D Y, on Flickr

    pretty close but any closer is too much and I adjusted the pole pieces to bring out some clarity across all strings.

    And thats what I did with the Sorrento for now. Im liking it, but I didnt want to mod it without the real test, which is using it in a gig. But we are living in a weird time so i cant test it for real. Lol

    But I’ll order some shims and i guess id let my luthier work on mine too, since I’m ordering his own P90s.

    Whats your Casino? Matsumoku or Terada?