475 Deluxe rebuild questions

[maxdown]

Hi

I'm going to refurbish my old dinged up 475 which has been relegated to the dusty corner for many years after I stopped playing it live due to feeling a bit too old for a bright red pointy shedder.

It got played a lot from when I got it new in the mid eighties up to about 96 - by that stage the trem was pretty worn out .... the JT-590 zinc knife edges worn and several string saddles completely seized up along with intonation screws stripping etc. As of now the trem is completely done ..... saddles all rust and gunge and tried a few replacement saddles but the old tightening screws aren't quite right and rattle about in the new saddles .... so I think regretfully it's time to dump the 590 bridge and put in a decent steel based Floyd replacement.

I'm looking at the Schaller as an alternative - it seems to match the old dimensions of the 590 however on some sites the tech drawing shows the space between knife edges as 74.3 mm and now on the actual Schaller website their drawings show 74.5 mm. I'm getting the new Schaller from an ebay seller and not Schaller themselves - but would that extra .2 mm make a significant difference should the ebay sourced bridge be that dimension?

I also have visited Henrik Hjortnaes' very informative site and note that the Floyd Rose Pro is a possible alternative (albeit that it sits a little differently in the recess) - but the Schaller is a) cheaper and b) looks to be direct fit compared to the 590. Anyone agree/disagree with that?

Has anyone put shims under the saddle blocks of their Model 4/475s to increase the radius of the 12 inch bridge - thats one thing that slightly irked me on the 475 - the action was just a tad too high on the outer strings once up in the higher regions .... and lowering the bridge then choked the D & G strings ..... so if I shimmed up the other saddles to make something around a 16 inch radius it should help that?

Next things to replace would be the pots which are full of dirt and dust and literally crunch when I turn them - has anyone got the specs for the B50K (boost control) and A250K (tone) pots? The shaft size etc?

I've ordered in a new replica JE-1200 mid-boost/vol pot circuit which I'm waiting for delivery on - so that end is sorted should I need to replace the old one (a very strong possibility I'd say) ..... but even if the old one is ok I'm also upgrading an Adrian Smith SDX and will be putting a Model 4 set of pickups and JE-1200 into it - so the new JE-1200 boost won't go to waste.

Lastly - the locking nut on the 475 - R4 or R3?

[DonP]

The JT-590 is a Schaller. The Schaller branded is made of better metal. Both have steel knife edges, zinc wouldn't last a day.

Shim all you want. That's what shims are for. You might have shims in there now.

A 50K pot is 50K ohms; a 250K pot is 250K ohms. Shafts are metric and smaller than US pots. Do you have a ruler? They do make spray control cleaner that might be easier.

Your nut should be labeled on the underside when you take it off.

[maxdown]

Thanks Don

I thought the 590 had zinc baseplate and edges - but I see now the edges are steel and inset into the baseplate ... but the edges are reputedly lower quality steel/shorter lived than the OFR or Schaller branded .... well it's academic now really because the edges and posts are a mess, the saddle screw heads are stripping etc etc ..... I've ordered a new Schaller branded FR kit - not huge money from an ebay seller and a lot less hassle than trying to individually replace all the parts with Schaller after sales stuff. My own fault for not giving the guitar any love at all during it's 15 year retirement ..... so the old bridge is welded together with rust and god knows what else gunge and I've soaked the saddles in WD 40 for a month with periodic trying to get things to move and still 2 of them are welded at the hinges (low E and A saddles .... that side of the bridge is where I rest my sweaty mitt when picking so it's all rust and crap).

Definitely no shims were present ...... I've stripped the 590 right down to try and clean and unfreeze the saddles that were stuck ....... afraid I didn't give the guitar any love during its 15 year retirement so it's my own fault. The action was probably not helped by a tech altering the nut height many years ago when I asked him to do a set up ..... he was an old school sort of guy and I don't think he was up to speed on compound radius necks or FR trems and just treated the neck as if it was a 9.5 inch straight radius strat and then shouted at me that the nut was too high .... as if I'd built it in the first place

Yeah .... I measured one of the pots the other day ..... think they are 18mm shaft lengths - so ordered some in ...... but once the new bridge arrives I'll string it up and see if switch cleaner will cure any issues first before re-potting.

[DonP]

For shims you can either order official OFR shims, or, I think you can cut up feeler gauge strips.

The Schaller OFR will be a direct fit, so no hassles. An OFR would be a little trouble getting the intonation, but might work. Also the locking bolts on an OFR stick out the back too far. The Gotoh OFR is by far the most popular bridge these days should you want to upgrade.

[maxdown]

Wasn't aware the Gotoh was an option but already had ordered the Schaller in any case. It's now installed .... it's not quite a direct replacement ... or at least the one that arrived with me wasn't. The steel block was 'long and thin' ... too long for the 475 cavity .... so had to swap it with the old 590's 'short and fat' block. All good now .... I left the old posts in place after a clean up as the new Schaller posts come with shorter inserts and the posts are wrong thread to fit in the existing deeper inserts. I didn't want to risk pulling out the old inserts if I could get away with it. The existing post holes in the body would be much deeper than the new inserts so there'd be a risk of them sinking if the bridge took a knock on the top.

I've given it some serious diving and pulling and it stayed in tune very very well so I'm happy.

Just have the pain of setting intonation to do now!

Tried plugging it in obviously too ...... not so great news there ..... pots and 5 way are still in good shape but there's serious farting out going on ..... before I start changing mid-boost board and/or pickups and maim myself with the soldering iron I'm going to swap out the old jack socket on the guitar as it could just be bad contact there due to corrosion not giving the JE-1200 board good battery current.

The old boost pcb has been sitting for about 20 years without current - so it could be dead/dried out caps in there ... but have replacement/replica on hand if needed.

Onwards and upwards ...

[kamanda]

ordered the Schaller in any case. It's now installed .... it's not quite a direct replacement ... or at least the one that arrived with me wasn't. The steel block was 'long and thin' ... too long for the 475 cavity .... so had to swap it with the old 590's 'short and fat' block. All good now ....

It is a direct replacement, the block size is due to the fact you probably ordered the standard 42 when its needs 32 or 37:

We supply tremolo blocks in heights on 32, 37, and 42mm (standard 42mm). When ordering please specify the required block length and nut

[maxdown]

Got it from an ebay seller (brand new and cheaper) so no such factory options available to me It also came with a R3 nut but the R4 nut is still fine on the 475 so just used the screws and clamps from the new nut to spruce it up

[DonP]

Pulling the inserts out of the body could also mess up the paint bad. Good idea to leave it as-is.

[Black Shadow]

Make sure to post pics when you finish!

I've been playing my 475 since the early '90s and it is nowhere near worn out, so you must have really put some miles on her! I must say that it probably has my favorite bolt on neck of all time, and I love the fact that it has 22 frets for the best neck pickup tone. Just picked up a 2nd 475 about 2 years ago.