Fixing Up My Fender Prodigy

[Allistah]

Hello everyone..

I have a Fender Prodigy. It plays fine but there are four things that I don't like about it that I would like to fix.

1) The pick guard is black. I want a white pearl one. What is a good place to get a replacement? What should I expect to pay?

2) The audio cable jack plugs straight into the guitar and when you have it plugged in it sticks straight out. Can I mod this somehow so it plugs in at an angle like a Strat? Has anyone done this before? I'm a pretty handy with tools and not afraid to tackle something like this. Any idea where I would begin on this one?

3) The original saddles on the bridge have these little allen screws that stick up and tear my palm up when I'm palm muting. I tend to not play the guitar long because of this. Do I just need to buy new saddles? (The bridge is locked down btw, it's not floating)

4) The back side neck seems really grippy on my hands/fingers. How can I make it so that my hand slides up and down the neck easily? My ESP Signature guitar doesn't have this problem. I'm guessing I can just clean it with something that will restore this characteristic.

If I could get pointed in the right direction on these things, I sure would appreciate it. :-)

Thanks!

-Allistah

[Ryan D]

1) I don't know what the Prodigy pickguards look like, but Warmoth makes custom pickguards in pretty much any color/texture for really cheap. I got the black pearloid pickguard in this picture for only $28, and it reached my house in less than 3 days.

2) You'd have to rout a small cavity and drill a hole to do that. It's do-able, but might be a bit hard.

3) If the problem is with the bridge, then yes, new saddles, maybe even a new bridge would solve your problem.

4) I'm guessing that this is an old guitar. A re-finish might be in order. An easy one to do might be tung oil, actually. I'm waiting on my tung oil neck to arrive (this week!!) and I hear that it's a delicate yet amazingly smooth finish. You can buy the stuff for $15 at your local hardware store (usually) and it takes a very short time to finish it. You'd probably want to look into other options too, though. Satin, gloss, whatever floats your yacht.

[marksound]

I had a Prodigy a few years ago. The guard is sort of stratish, but not quite. You can have one made at Pickguardian, Jeannie, and probably a hundred other places online that I can't remember. Expect to pay $30 minimum. I had a plain black replacement made by a local guy for about $35.

You could always make one yourself. It's not that difficult if you have basic tools and lots of patience. There is a lot of info in this forum (search) and here's a couple of DIY pictorial examples. click1 click2

[Allistah]

I'm ok with buying a pick guard..

What I'll do is take everything apart and buy the new plug and then practice on the pick guard that I already have to see if I can make it work first. If I can get the strat style plug to work on it then I'll make those changes to my new one.

I'll try some of that other stuff on the neck to see if it takes care of that grip problem.

One more thing.. Would it just be easier to buy a new bridge for it that won't tear up my hand or try and find the right saddles for the one that is on there? I've never done anything like this before so I'm pretty un-educated about what I should do on this one. It doesn't have to be fancy, I just want it to be fixed (non-floating) and smooth so when I palm mute it doesn't tear my hand up from the screws or other parts sticking up/out of it. I also don't want a piece of crap either..

Thanks,

-Allistah

Edited May 9, 2008 by Allistah

[Mickguard]

There's no need to change the jack. Just get a cable with an angled jack. I use one all the time --has the added advantage of keeping the cable close to the body and lets you pointing the cable upward (to wrap through your strap). It really doesn't seem worth it to change the jack, just for that. In fact, I prefer an angled plug and flat jack to a strat jack.

For the pickguard --buying a pickguard blank will cost you pretty close to what buying a custom guard will, really. And then you'd still have to do the work yourself, which is less fun then you think. Since you have the original, you'll be able to make a tracing of it (or photocopy it) and get a perfect fit.

The bridge thing is more important, since it's preventing you from playing the guitar. Chances are Graph-tech makes a set of saddles that will retrofit the guitar just fine. Their posts tend to be a bit shorter than others I've seen.

You can also try to find new saddle screws. Or just cut down the existing screws.