another john birch rebuild

[WezV]

some of you may remember this one
http://forum.musicradar.com/showthre...ght=john+birch

well that is now one of my main guitars. still with its old dimarzios.

but another john birch has found its way to me. this one is a much earlier and rare john birch - its also a massively flawed design. and its just been swimming in the recent Hoboken floods. Possibly the first or second V built by john birch, and it shows its design flaws

unfortunately this one isn't mine and i cant keep the pickups for my JB les paul

anyway, after its recent swim the lacquer has started to come away and the fretboard is lifting, pots are very scratchy but everything is still working

it needs serious surgery. but we are going a different way. essentially i will build a new guitar exactly to john birch specs, but with more sensible design decisions to solve some of its flaws. the hardware will then all be transferred over

reasons for going for a whole new build rather than restoring the existing one:


1)set the neck further into the body. this is the main issue really, it will put more space between the pickups for greater tonal variation and will improve ergonomics a hell of a lot

2) increase neck angle, far too low at the moment.

3) go for a wider neck, its currently 39mm at the nut





other benefits for me. I was never quite sure mine was wired correctly, i can now compare one with its original wiring to see - they are very odd. also, the pickups have to come out for a while, so i may as well test them in mine. It will allow me to see if its worth me searching out an original set for it, not found any so far and i like mine as it is. but the fact i was waiting to find some originals stopped me ever completely finishing mine

[ICBM]

I don't want to be unnecessarily harsh, by why exactly is John Birch so highly regarded? All I've seen of his work indicates that he needlessly butchered a lot of good guitars in ways that didn't actually improve them (even given that they weren't actually valuable vintage ones at the time), the ones he built from scratch are indeed often massively flawed design-wise, clumsy in operation and sometimes playability, occasionally not that well built - and he was apparently difficult to deal with...

His guitars always struck me as being a bit like Shergolds, but less original and more complicated. Very typically "British" electric guitars, which is almost always not a good thing .

[WezV]

the good ones are very good. the bad ones are very very bad, the modded gibson ones are often criminally bad

my JB LP really is one of my favourite guitars. its 24 fret, all access neck and a 25.5" scale. the access and extra frets mean nothing to me. but the scale length suits me better and its damn comfy.

also i like it because it goes against my usual tonal views. It solid maple though and through but sounds wonderfully balanced.

i also like it because of the british guitar building history attached to it.


most of his guitars are not massively flawed designs. They are good designs with basic woods and idiosyncratic electrics.

this V clearly is a flawed design, but he never made very many v's at all and they all have very different neck joins. he has 2 in the 1977 catalogue and both are quite different to each other and this one

http://vintage.catalogs.free.fr/johnbirch.pdf

[chillidoggy]

In defence of John birch, he did once wind some awesomely good P90's for my SG. I mean, stunning. Didn't know a lot of his guitars were not as good as thay should have been, though.

[Guitarmonkey]

this V clearly is a flawed design, but he never made very many v's at all and they all have very different neck joins. he has 2 in the 1977 catalogue and both are quite different to each other and this one

http://vintage.catalogs.free.fr/johnbirch.pdf

Thanks for posting that, it's a while since I've seen the John Birch catalogue. I used to have a copy at the time.

[Adolfhipster]

Wouldn't piss on a birch if they were on fire, guy just ruined good guitars

[WezV]

the catalogue is great - worth reading the blurb at the start, gives you a real feel for john birch's arrogance.

the worst fault is he thought he always knew best, which led to some proper bad cases of guitar butchery... but he did at least put his name on anything he touched

here is an example of the things he would do as upgrades
http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/vint...ul-custom.html

[TheGuitarWeasel]

I have had quite a few 'British' guitars (though I belive all of them were actually marked 'Made in England' which would of course prejudice anybody living on the dark side of Hadrian's wall ) mostly John Diggins and Shergold. For those who know the history of English guitar making Diggins was John Birch's senior builder and created some great instruments ... John Entwhistle being particularly fond of JD basses. Aesthetic design was never a strong point of these home grown brands: much as I loved my 12 string Shergold electric ... if anyone had praised its styling I'd have given their guide dog a biscuit. In general English guitars were well built ... but the information, techniques and materials were simply not there for the early guys. John Birch built wonderful pickups ... in the dark days before Larry DiMarzio ... and supplied the Glam Rock and Proto Metal era with some fine tools (okay, and some stinkers).

[WezV]

John Birch built wonderful pickups ...

....that can survive a few days in a salt water flood unharmed. quite relieved about that

[Guitarmonkey]

here is an example of the things he would do as upgrades
http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/vint...ul-custom.html

Oh dear.

The last of his upgrades that came through my hands escaped with only a brass nut and a JB transfer on the back of the headstock.

I have seen a brace of Gretsches that were refinished by JB in his trademark green and purple burst though which was a nasty experience.