Bringing an 82 CS-250 back to life....
- Crusty
- Virtuoso
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- Joined: Sun 15 Jan 2006 04:52 PM
- Location: Absolute Stupidity, Missouri
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Bringing an 82 CS-250 back to life....
Snagged this on eBay as a husk (no pickups or pickup rings). All the other electronics were still there. This is what I started out with.
On the bench it went. Touched up the scratches and dings (not as many as you would think) and cleaned and polished the bridge and saddles. I bought some 15:1 covered gear (semi-closed) tuners for it but turns out in 40 years they manufacturers are now putting the mounting holes on the opposite corners. I went through pages and pages on Amazon and zip. I had a set of mini 15:1 sealed tuners with keystone buttons. I decided the keystones didn't look right for a Cardinal so I replaced them with a set identical to the originals I had bought for another project and never used. I didn't bother trying to fill and hide the original tuner holes, after all it is over 40 years old.
Some years ago I was a huge fan of the MMK45 pickups but not so much any more. I prefer the MMK53 now (think PE-R60). As there were no pickups with this I installed a set of Duncan Designed HB103s (Duncan Mayhem clones) I had sitting around and they sound GREAT. I'm not much of a fan of out of phase and the coil cut on the Cardinals cut the same coil in each pickup. I removed the original switches (keeping them intact) and added separate coil cuts for each pickup. The bridge I cut the north coil and neck the south so with both on coil cut mode I get that chimey frequency cancellation you would expect from say the 2nd and 4th pickup selector position you'd have on a Strat. I love how the Cardinals play. They almost play themselves. The neck is perfect and frets are almost 100%.
Here are the finished shots:
On the bench it went. Touched up the scratches and dings (not as many as you would think) and cleaned and polished the bridge and saddles. I bought some 15:1 covered gear (semi-closed) tuners for it but turns out in 40 years they manufacturers are now putting the mounting holes on the opposite corners. I went through pages and pages on Amazon and zip. I had a set of mini 15:1 sealed tuners with keystone buttons. I decided the keystones didn't look right for a Cardinal so I replaced them with a set identical to the originals I had bought for another project and never used. I didn't bother trying to fill and hide the original tuner holes, after all it is over 40 years old.
Some years ago I was a huge fan of the MMK45 pickups but not so much any more. I prefer the MMK53 now (think PE-R60). As there were no pickups with this I installed a set of Duncan Designed HB103s (Duncan Mayhem clones) I had sitting around and they sound GREAT. I'm not much of a fan of out of phase and the coil cut on the Cardinals cut the same coil in each pickup. I removed the original switches (keeping them intact) and added separate coil cuts for each pickup. The bridge I cut the north coil and neck the south so with both on coil cut mode I get that chimey frequency cancellation you would expect from say the 2nd and 4th pickup selector position you'd have on a Strat. I love how the Cardinals play. They almost play themselves. The neck is perfect and frets are almost 100%.
Here are the finished shots:
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- Virtuoso
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- Joined: Mon 19 Apr 2021 07:23 AM
Re: Bringing an 82 CS-250 back to life....
That looks great! How did you get the chrome to look so good?
My wife yes
My dog maybe
My Vantages never
My dog maybe
My Vantages never
- Barry
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Re: Bringing an 82 CS-250 back to life....
Shwe-e-e-t!
"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com
Re: Bringing an 82 CS-250 back to life....
Quality service since 3:00 last Tuesday
- Crusty
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Re: Bringing an 82 CS-250 back to life....
Nevr-Dull and elbow grease.Kmaxpe1500 wrote:That looks great! How did you get the chrome to look so good?
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- Virtuoso
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- Joined: Mon 19 Apr 2021 07:23 AM
Re: Bringing an 82 CS-250 back to life....
Crusty wrote:Nevr-Dull and elbow grease.Kmaxpe1500 wrote:That looks great! How did you get the chrome to look so good?
My wife yes
My dog maybe
My Vantages never
My dog maybe
My Vantages never
Re: Bringing an 82 CS-250 back to life....
Nice work on the CS !
On the chrome also.
On the chrome also.
MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!