Epiphone Allen Woody £250 Sth Cumbria

[Sambrook]

I've had great fun and satisfaction out of this instrument. It is much modified, as you'll see, and it took me a couple of years to get it to just where I wanted it. I've really enjoyed having it, but have moved on in my mind, so happy to pass it to someone else.

 

Specs:

30" scale

Semi hollow 

38mm nut width

Mahogany body and neck

Maple top

Bound fingerboard, not sure what wood (likely rosewood), 20 frets.

 

Modifications: (loads!)

Tuners - Wilkinson gold Y tuners

Neck - I don't like shiny, so I took the neck back to bare wood, then danish oiled it. It feels fantastic, very tactile. I'm not good at fine finishing, so the points where I left off sanding are obvious (see pictures)

Body - same as above, don't like shiny. Back and sides have just had the shine taken off, but I went to town on the top - took all the finish off, then danish oil. It's a matte finish that allows the wood pattern to present well. Again,  see pics for a couple of bits where I went too hard...

Tailpiece - I wanted to use a long scale set of TI flats, so fitted the tailpiece. This has worked very well, with a couple of unexpected benefits - the usual 3 point bridge 'problems' have been bypassed. Also there is a pleasing natural saturation to the tone. It's very much a blues bass.

Pickups - as you can see, I've replaced the 2 mini humbuckers with 3 matching AliExpress specials. I really like the Thundertron vibes, and they sound excellent.

Controls - wired the pickups to master vol/tone and a 5 way selector. I don't like positions 2 and 4, but each pickup on it's own sounds great - real plummy warmth from the neck, P vibes from the middle, and just a tighter P sound from the bridge.

 

So there we are. I think it looks splendid, you might disagree. I believe the current examples have 42mm necks, so this one might appeal to those who prefer a jazz neck...

 

Very happy to answer questions, or take any good natured abuse...