Well I've had "Raquel" in my possession for a few days now. ( yes that is her name ) she is old but still "Hot"
It is a bright and very resonate guitar, the neck is awesome. The electrics work very well, no scratchy pots, tone pots mute the tone easily. But it is a 55yr old guitar with what appears to be all original parts and of course I am obsessive compulsive about working on all my guitars....(if I spent more time playing then tinkering I would be a better player.....)
It struggles to stay in tune but I could never replace those beautiful Kolb tuners, so I pulled one off to find that they are completely loose inside.
The covers are riveted and the only way to get them apart is to grind the rivet off carefully. I thought about it for a while then said the heck with it and used a dremel to grind the rivets off from the back side of the tuner to get the cover off.....
My findings were the screw that secures the gear to the post had backed off and the "worm" gear supports are loose on the back plate and the back plate is slightly bent and it is causing the worm gear to pull away from the post gear.......
Anyhow I'm happy knowing I will be able to repair the tuners, I will post some pics of the process in the tech section if anyone cares to see.
Once that is done I believe I am going to reverse the polarity of the neck pup so it will be in phase with the bridge in the middle position.
-Eric