Members jrcorp Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Ordered a black Peavey Predator from a GC in Mass on Monday for $99.50, and tonight it came in. I managed to break a string before I've taken pictures, so that's going to wait. Going by the wiki article on Peavey guitars, it's a '95... black, aged white pickguard, maple board. Everything is in "okay" shape - the body has some dings and scrapes etc., the jack is loose, one of the pickup bottoms has a mounting hole stripped out, and the trem arm along with a tone knob are missing. Some of that comes as no surprise, but the pickup is a bummer. The biggest downers for me are the tuners and the way the neck seems aligned. I'm not sure what the problem is, but the whole guitar is setup in a way that the fretboard extends way more off the low E side than the high E. This is so pronounced and in an angled way, so that the low E gets almost too much fret while the high E gets awfully close to being off the higher frets. I've sat and stared at it, flipped it around every which way, but I think that's the way it was made, and nothing on its own seems angled wrong. It was almost a deal breaker when I first fooled around, but at this point for the price I'll hold onto it. Before I even played it, I had to try and figure out the fretboard issue, so I took the neck off and then put it back. Then I tuned up, which took longer than it should, and played around for a bit. I noticed pretty quickly how flat the fretboard is... 12" must be way flatter than I'm used to, but I'm not going to return it for that either. The neck seems straight and there's little fretwear, but there is some buzzing. I'm assuming whoever owned it never set it up right - the saddles seem set in a strange way, and the neck tilt screw is sunk into the body in a way that looks like nobody used it. Once again the neck came off so I could more easily remove the pickguard, and I used a bolt and nut from a bag I bought a long time ago to remedy the stripped pickup. When I went to bolt the neck on again, I managed to get the strings twisted enough that the high E broke. Whoops... looked like a fresh set, too. Not worth stringing it as I want to take it all apart and clean it up first, plus I don't have a full set handy... so for tonight it'll sit as is while I shop for upgrades. I think I'll be shopping at Guitarpartsresource.com for most of the parts, as they seem to have a good variety of parts and good prices. I've bought a wiring kit for a Tele from them before, which saved me a few bucks and the further stress of shopping around for everything I wanted separately. A kit will run me $30, and I might pick up a 3-ply parch/black/parch 8-hole pickguard and a set of parchment parts for another $25. Add in what I will have paid for a set of SD Antiquities I was planning on using for whatever Strat I have, and I'll be up to at LEAST $200 in parts on a $100 guitar... All that's left to figure out for now are the tuners and bridge, and maybe I'll buy a cheap string tree. I'm looking at Wilkinson bridges with the "5+1" mounting holes - there's the WVP6 with a modern style and the block saddles, or the WV6SB with vintage style and bent saddles. Choosing tuners is more difficult, as there aren't any aftermarket models that will line up. As much as I dig the vintage vibe, I would be happier putting practicality and feel before looks. Does anyone have tips for bridges or tuners here? Should be a fun project guitar... I don't really need to fix anything, but I bought the pickups on a whim and wanted a budget Strat to try them in. I'll sell a few things to fund the upgrades, and hopefully I'll end up with an okay first Strat that's still relatively cheap. Sorry for the lack of pictures... will edit some in with a bump ASAP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members harold heckuba Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 That neck angle problem would be a deal breaker for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members omni Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 where is teh pics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaleH Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 Has it got a medal or plastic neck plate? I had one that had a plastic plate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bob411 Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 If it's from GC, you can return it to your local GC, if you have one, and roll the dice on another one. If you can get the neck sorted out, and are ready to start upgrading... I kept the stock trem, and replaced the saddles, with stainless steel ones, and the sustain block, with a brass one from Guitar Fetish. The made in Mexico block's holes match perfect. HNGD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jrcorp Posted February 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 If it's from GC, you can return it to your local GC, if you have one, and roll the dice on another one.If you can get the neck sorted out, and are ready to start upgrading... I kept the stock trem, and replaced the saddles, with stainless steel ones, and the sustain block, with a brass one from Guitar Fetish. The made in Mexico block's holes match perfect.HNGD Good to know on the local GC, I may do that. I'll try to get some pictures up today. I'm curious if anyone's ever had a similar issue with the neck angle, I wonder how common it is on cheaper guitars or how many of this model came out this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brian Krashpad Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 No probs w/the neck on mine, fwiw. I've left mine dead stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vintage clubber Posted February 3, 2012 Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 I haven't seen any issues with the neck on mine either... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jrcorp Posted February 3, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 3, 2012 I'll be taking pictures ASAP, just a pretty tight schedule through the weekend. Bad timing, and with that broken string I need to either buy a new set or throw a B on there for now 'til I can get to GC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.