TheFretShack

I don't see what's confusing about anything I wrote. But if leading off with "moral" is confusing enough to discount my content leading up to it, probably a poor word choice on my part. I will eventually delete "moral" from the last graph so that it is not mistaken as a capsule summary for what I wrote leading up to the graph.

Also, I did not say only buy from storefronts. If you re-visit that paragraph, you will see my advice on what to look for regarding private sellers.

Speaking of advice ... while much of what I wrote should be common sense for any buyer or seller on any online platform ... everything I have written in this entire thread is my own two cents. Your own mileage and experiences and opinions on these platforms may - and should - vary.

I'm getting great rates for UPS and USPS via pirateship.com. I can't speak highly enough about Pirate Ship as a third-party shipping intermediary. They actually caught an overestimate on my part by a few ounces on a parcel I sent and refunded me a little postage!

Reverb: They also typically side with buyers over sellers in a toss-up scenario, but they have third-party moderators who are good about looking at both sides objectively and making the proper decision.

I bought a $1700 guitar on Reverb a few months ago and after the seller exhibited very shady delays and responses why regarding shipping the instrument, I reported it and requested Reverb's mods review our messaging history and timelines. Reverb cancelled the transaction immediately - like within an hour - refunded my money within one day, thanked me for reporting the seller and banished his Reverb presence.

Be aware, however, that the fees to sell have creeped up since they became a leader in gear transactions. They are currently at 5% commission on the total sale amount (including shipping, which is skyrocketing in recent times) and a payment processing fee of 3.19% + $0.49.

You can move the pickups and harness from the MIA to the MIJ without issues. You can move just the pickups, but I'd recommend moving the entire assembly in that the MIA should have better CTS pots.

90s MIJ Fujigen will have either Maxon pots (not bad but not as good as CTS) or Alpha pots (good all the way on or all the way off but not a lot of function or "colors" from 2 to 9).

Dave Wintz's obit in Vintage Guitar Magazine

Met Dave in the early 1990s, when I was just a player with a dream one day of being in the instrument repairing and building business. Dave and I remained good friends until his death.

I owned one of the first Robin Revival guitars (their take on a Texas blues S-style) and was very familiar with not only the entire line, but the factory and processes and Dave's mentality on every aspect of guitar building. He gave me priceless tips on creating and using an effective HVLP spray booth for polys and nitros without spending a ton of money. We were NEVER competitors, we were comrades.

"Robin" was in fact a spinoff on Rockin' Robin Guitars in Houston, the retail outlet. They started with MIJ guitars ghost-built for them by Tokai (and they were KILLER). After they established themselves beyond fly by night, they built a state of the art CAD/CNC factory.

Dave had a primo, absolutely enviable, tonewood collection for the Texas builds. He used to come to south Louisiana once a year to source lightweight swamp ash direct from the northern Atchafalaya Basin. He'd always put in a call and invite me to join him. I was always too busy with my day job. I truly regret not taking him up on those scavenger hunts now that he's gone.

Robin's existence berthed their in-house Rio Grande Pickups. Truth be told, Rio made a bigger wave in its market than Robin in its market. Rio's still around. So is Robin but I have no clue to what depth or scope - I lost interest when Dave passed.

Dave was not married and without any heir apparent or any real play for Robin's future when he passed in 2022. Robin had already gone belly up, Dave had a fretted repair shop in the former factory. After his death, the facility sat dormant and in limbo because his landlord had yet to be made whole, at least that's what I was told by a mutual friend who doubled as an insider.

The current owner of Rio Grande and Robin was an amp maker when Dave's "estate" was settled. I heard they obtained all the factory's assets, from machinery to IP and the Rio Grande and Robin trademarks, via a sheriff's auction but that's hearsay on my part.

An insider was ready to put my name in the hat to acquire Rio Grande and the entirety of its assets, but I opted to stick with Carondelet's plan and trajectory. As much as I would have loved to continue Dave's legacy, he was 100 percent supportive of what I was doing with my own pickup company and had he still been alive, he would have told me to not ride his coattails and to make my own. So glad I did.

Thanks for reminding me of Dave and Robin, fond memories, and he's greatly missed by many of us. Rest in power, my friend.

Here's that Robin Revival I owned. Sorry for the lame photos from a later owner, I have no photos from when I owned it. I got it direct from Dave shortly after it was built. Only about two dozen Revivals were made, of which only two units were "shell pink." No clue who had the other one.

One is a device called a String Butler which replaces the truss rod cover and acts as a roller string tree making sure each string is going straight into the nut slot.

Gimmicky overkill IMHO, a properly slotted and lubricated nut is the best fix.

A couple of other devices are out there meant to reduce the immense break angle of the Bigsby B50 vibrato. One hooks over the back bar (eliminating the hook string attachment rods) and essentially making it a string through. The other device (BiggsFixx) replaces and elevates the center bar thus reducing the massive amount of tension the B50 creates.

Based not on my experience with Bigsbys but instead with the OEM vibrato units on JMs and Jaguars ... fine tuning the break angle could definitely help alongside that roller bridge. Lube the rollers too!

- I'm also reading a wound G string set helps. Locking tuners, etc.

A wound G's outer wrap wire will create more friction than a plain G so stop reading that author's suggestions.
Locking tuners are great if you don't know how to properly string up or stretch them out in the first place. I recommend learning the latter and THEN investing in locking tuners if you are still having problems.

This is going to turn into a war of wills for me. I love the tone and playability of this guitar and am not going to take no for answer.

Roller bridge (with lubed rollers), decreased bridge break angle, properly cut and lubed nut, good quality tuners, properly strung, properly stretched out.
Use the Bigsby only for subtle vibrato as it was DESIGNED and INTENDED to be used, absolutely no dive bombs, yank ups or aggressive wiggle stickery that is best served by a Floyd or its equivalent.
And you will STILL have periodic tuning problems with a Bigsby. But all of the above will help tremendously!

Considering you're blocking the bridge to make the guitar a hardtail, a locking nut is not necessary. Again, I strongly recommend the Graph Tech part I linked if you are working with or around an existing Floyd nut shelf. If your guitar didn't have a Floyd nut shelf, if it was a conventional nut with a string lock behind it, you need a conventional nut, not the Graph Tech part.

Good luck keeping ANY Bigsby in tune consistently. They look so, so cool, but they function lackluster at best compared to so many other vibrato units. NO ONE specs a Bigsby for performance - they spec one because it looks so badass.

The roller bridge definitely helps. Whether your nut is bone, graphite, TUSQ, whatever, it must be slotted perfectly to minimize friction. A little Chap Stick in the nut slots (lip balm is cheap, readily available and works just as good as graphite or gimmicky nut sauces) would also be advisable. You also need to string the guitar properly and stretch the strings out properly for best results.

Carvins are good guitars. For so, so many pre-Kiesel, pre-internet years they were a factory-direct catalog exclusive company that bought a lot of ads in guitar magazines to sell the brand. Great for guys who wanted a lot of bang for not a lot of money - their sans-retail-markup guitars back then cost approximately half of what a comp would cost in a brick and mortar storefront. Horrid for resale, however, in that they were priced cheap to begin with. Because of that pricing recipe, plus the absence of high profile well known artists on their roster (the masses will say "Allan who?"), Carvin never really commanded insane prices on the used or vintage market. Again, good for potential value-minded buyers like yourself.

Worth noting ... Carvin historically has loved figured exotic woods, ebony fingerboards and rock maple neck-thru or set-neck construction, which all combines as a recipe for instruments that are bright acoustically. Considering their factory OEM pickups tend to be lackluster at best, be ready to spend a little extra on that upgrade, which will enable you to tailor the plugged in sounds to taste.

Martin binding separation is a too common problem - most bound Nazareth guitars will suffer from this at some point in life. Caused by a combination of their binding material of choice shrinking over time and their adhesive of choice simultaneously failing over time. Why they refuse to address and correct their shortcoming is beyond senseless.

We (unfortunately) have hundreds of reps fixing this specific issue with Nazareth builds. Go to thefretshack.com to get the phone number with the 917 area code. Call Patrick Welborn at that number. He will set your appointment and have your guitar in the cue within days.

The MVP bang-for-the-buck MIM Tele upgrade ... if you find the treble icy, pull the modern six-steel-saddles bridge and replace it with a vintage style - and warmer yet still plenty bright sounding - three-brass-barrel bridge. The market's best value performer is a Gotoh replacement that has their intonation-friendly compensated brass barrel saddles.





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Before you consider pickup upgrades, make sure the control plate is CTS potentiometers. If not, I am a big fan of Mojotone's vintage taper 250K short shaft pots for Strats and Teles. You will pay a little more for the "MOJO" stamped pots, but they have a sweeter wiper sweep, a tighter spec tolerance, even the turning friction is perfect, not too stiff, not too loose. Available at mojotone.com and via Sweetwater and Musician's Friend.