Yet Another Eart Corsair Mod Project

[Pine Cone]

I have wanted a tele style guitar for a while. After meeting up with some new-to-me local players I will have some new performance options later this fall and winter where a tele would be a good guitar choice for some of our songs.

I had been thinking about used Fender Squire project, but Chickee's project posts changed that.

Inspired by AGF enabler's Chickee and Steve DeRosa and helped by a sale at eartguitar.com I am part way through yet another Eart NK-C1 tele-style electric guitar upgrade project.

Eart has a sale on the Blue and Brown NK-C1's for $258.90 from their USA warehouse with free shipping. I ordered a brown one, and less than a week it arrived in a packing taped small cardboard box that looked like Chickee's. The packing is minimal, but it seems to work, there was no damage to the outside of the box and there was no damage to the guitar.

Like many folks have said, the neck is remarkably well made. I made a small adjustment to the neck's truss rod and the neck relief was good to go.

My mods were heavily influenced by Chickee's choices and other suggestions made by others in his two threads.

My modifications are mostly done, but it will take another few weeks before all my new parts arrive.

I have or will upgrade the following...

Roller string trees, new faux-tortoiseshell pick guard, Gotoh brass adjustable saddles, 920D Custom T4W 4-way tele wiring kit, and a pair of Bootstrap Extra Crispy pickups, and I will shield the back of the pick guard and bottom and sides of the pickup routes in the mahogany guitar body. Changed the strings to DR Pure Blues 10-46s.

I will wait on further changes until I play the guitar more. Waiting for the pickups and shielding to arrive.

So far I am impressed with the guitar.

Thanks to Steve DeRosa's suggestions my Bugera V5 amp should be here later this week.

[Mandobart]

Looks great! I keep thinking if I ever get back into electric I think I'll get a tele!

[Chickee]

Holy cow, that pickguard on the brown body makes it look so alive! You put an excellent build list together for that Corsair. If you thought it was good before, wait till you’re done. You will never put it down. Keep us informed of your progress. I would be interested to know what you think of the pickup swap. Thanks so much for posting. Your guitar looks killer, Pine Cone!
frank d.

[Pine Cone]

Pictures on the Eart and Amazon websites did not prepare me for the wierd mint green color of the stock Eart pick guard, so I quickly looked for a replacement. I wasn't sure the tortise shell would look right, but I am very pleased with the results.

[Chickee]

Originally Posted by Pine Cone

Pictures on the Eart and Amazon websites did not prepare me for the wierd mint green color of the stock Eart pick guard, so I quickly looked for a replacement. I wasn't sure the tortise shell would look right, but I am very pleased with the results.

How did you cut the slot in the pickguard for the truss rod rotary dial? In the picture it looks great.
frank d.

[Pine Cone]

Originally Posted by Chickee

How did you cut the slot in the pickguard for the truss rod rotary dial? In the picture it looks great.
frank d.

I was very old school. I used 4 pick guard screws to screw the old and new guards together and then used a fine 1/2" flat file to file the slot in the new guard. Took about 5 to 10 minutes including some cleanup work on the new guard after I removed the old one.

I have had problems cutting and shaping some plastics with power tools since sometimes they melt the plastic as they cut it. Back in the 1970s I had a job which gave a lot of experience with Formica and other plastic laminates.

[Pine Cone]

Still waiting on pickups and other parts...

I found this post on how the Bootstrap Extra Crispy pickups sound on a Fender American Pro tele. He plays Bridge, Middle and Neck switch positions with different riffs. Posted by Mellencaster on a Telecaster forum TDPRI.com

https://www.soundclick.com/music/son...ongID=14292957

From what I can tell, Bootstrap Palo Duro pickups have Alnico 5 magnets and try to mimic a 1951 Tele, Bootstrap Original Recipes are Palo Duro windings with Alnico 3 magnets, and Bootstrap Extra Crispy's are overwound Original Recipe's with Alinco 3s, and with windings similar to the Bootstrap Pretzels, (Fender Twisted Teles) which have Alnico 5s.

Mine should arrive in a few weeks...

As many have said, the waiting is the hardest part...

[Glennwillow]

Hi Pine Cone!

What a great looking Tele-style guitar and what a fun project! Good for you!

- Glenn

[Pine Cone]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Hi Pine Cone!

What a great looking Tele-style guitar and what a fun project! Good for you!

- Glenn

Thanks Glenn! After decades of mostly-strictly-acoustic playing I am having fun playing the Eart tele. I am really liking its neck. One of the things I am working on at the moment is playing up the neck more and electrics do make that easier compared with an acoustic guitar.

I just wish the remaining parts would arrive, but that should happen by the end of the month.

[Pine Cone]

I finally got my copper shielding tape after the post office lost my first shipment. My Eart project has moved forward. Still waiting on my new Bootstrap Extra Crispy pickups, but most of the other upgrades are complete.

The 4-way switch is deeper than the original 3-way, so I used a wood carving gouge to cut down the switch route cavity to fit the new switch depth. See pictures below. The new cutout is about 1 inch long, 3/4 inch wide a about 1/4 inch deep at its deepest. Since the switch base is round my cutout is rounded as as well.

New 920D Custom 4-way controls DYI kit upgrades have been made. I replaced the control mounting plate, the pots and capacitor, knobs, input jack and pickup selection switch. The 4-way switch has the original three positions (neck, neck & bridge parallel, and bridge) and adds a neck & bridge series option. The kit has high quality parts. The new control plate is thicker than the original Eart plate and accommodates the slightly longer throw of the 4-way switch. The kit does require wire cutting and soldering. I didn't look at the wiring diagram close enough and missed soldering one wire between two of the terminals on the new switch which gave me a mystery problem. The bridge-only switch position worked but the other positions did not. After pondering the problem last night I guessed that I had not wired the switch correctly, so I downloaded three different 4-way switch diagrams and looked over my switch soldering and found the missing connection.

I started this project using a cheap Harbor Freight soldering iron which turned out to be a mistake. The iron over-heated and wasn't as good as the ones I used 50+ years ago when I did a lot of hobby soldering (including assembling a HeathKit guitar amp in the late 1960s) and soldering controls at one of my first jobs. I have replaced the Harbor Frieght iron with an inexpensive Weller. Well worth the extra money. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000AS28UC...roduct_details

I ended up using 2-inch wide copper tape with a conductive adhesive backing to shield the back of the pick guard and the sides and bottoms of the routed pickup cavities. The foil is very easy to install. It comes on a roll with a paper backing covering the adhesive. I cut short 8" pieces for the pick guard, then placed the foil paper-side up with the pick guard over it and traced the pick guard edges and cutouts on to the paper backing. I then used scissors to cut the foil to shape. For the pickup routes I cut 4-to-6-inch pieces of foil, and for the sides cut the foil in half making 1" by 4" pieces. You need to overlap all the foil pieces so you get a good shield. I finished the neck pickup shielding yesterday, and will do the bridge once the new pickups arrive. I will not shield the switch route. I agree with some internet advice I saw that trying to shield the switch cavity causes more problems than it solves.

Should get the new pickups by late October or early November.

I really like the guitar so far. Great value for the price.

[Chickee]

Pine Cone
You are really doing justice to that hot rod! Really nicely done. I can’t wait to see the finished product when all the electrics are in.

frank d.

[Pine Cone]

Originally Posted by Chickee

Pine Cone
I can’t wait to see the finished product when all the electrics are in.

frank d.

Neither can I. Thanks to your earlier posts I think I will end up with a great guitar. In any case, so far so good...

[jricc]

Looks great Pine Cone!
I admire you handy types (including frank d here)

[Pine Cone]

The project is pretty much finished as of today. New Bootstrap Extra Pickups are installed, pickup cavities and pickguard shielded with copper tape, 920D Custom 4-way switch & pot kit installed, put a pick case and D'Adarrio tuner on the back of the headstock, and today my AGF sponsor Italia Leather's strap arrived.

The guitar looks and plays great. I love the new pickups and switch upgrades. As a novice electric player my playing isn't great, but I recorded the guitar to show how it sounds with the different switch positions and tone knob settings. Recorded with a Tascam DR-03 in front of my Bugera V5 tube amp set at a fairly clean setting.

Here are 3 files showing off the pickups and 4-way switch. I now have the standard 3 pickup combos (Neck, parallel Neck & Bridge, Bridge) and a new series Neck & Bridge position.


The next 2 files vary both the pickup switch position and the tone controls (full clockwise, middle, full counterclockwise) for Neck/Neck & Bridge parallel, Bridge, Neck & Bridge serial




Would I do it all over again? Absolutely! It has been a fun project and I like the end result. I should be playing it in public at shows in January 2023...

[Chickee]

I am very happy to see, and hear, your completed project, PineCone! What a solid, good looking T style hot rod. You have more custom touches in that guitar than pieces costing four times the price! Im interested in the wiring and pickup swap. A very special work horse for your upcoming gigging future. What an exciting new year to look forward to!
All the best,
frank d.