Vintage Series era BLC-140 and BLJ-59V

[guitar hiro]

Recently received a couple of Bacchus Vintage Series era guitars

BLC-140 WH circa 1998 serial # range 1005**
This is my first BLC-140.
Specs are Mahogany body & neck with Ebony fingerboard.
This one has been a bit abused and dirty but nothing terrible; all of the bindings are fully intact.
The back had a few large stickers applied that I removed with a lot of Naphtha & elbow grease.
Clear coat has yellowed to what looks like a burned butter color which is actually pretty cool looking. Removing the pick guard revealed a 'tan line' on the body top where the clear coat aged.
Neck thickness was a very nice surprise as it is nearly 1mm thicker than several other Vintage Series era BLS examples in the 100*** serial range.
Arrived with an active EMG in the bridge position which I immediately removed and will be replacing with another gold covered VH-59 to return the guitar to 'stock' condition. Weight is dead on 9 lb. even.
Really glad I snagged this BLC-140 and for a nice price; a great introduction to the BLC-140 all 'hog & Ebony LP Customs.





Notice the original very bright white/WH color inside the bridge pickup route.
Gotta love that top carve too.




BLJ-59V BS circa 1996/1997 pre serial # example and no Live Road Model logo
This is my second BLJ-59V; my first being a serialized example in the 1009** range.
This one also has a thicker neck than was expected which is a great surprise.
Non original wrap tail, knobs, and nut on this one; otherwise it looks to be original.
Got this BLJ-59V for a great price and the Bacchus double cut Juniors are da bomb especially with the thicker neck!!!

Pictured here as it was shipped with non-original bridge and knobs



Will soon be installing a traditional style aluminum wrap tail and black knobs so, it will look like a stock BLJ-59V

 

[Puck Luck]

Nice scores!

 

[guitar hiro]

double cut Jr. has been a REAL surprise as it sounds (acoustically) like a Tele which is nothing like my previous BLJ-59V

every guitar surly has its' own voice and this DC Jr. certainly has been a curve ball with that Tele snap in spades

 

[p3kk1]

double cut Jr. has been a REAL surprise as it sounds (acoustically) like a Tele which is nothing like my previous BLJ-59V

every guitar surly has its' own voice and this DC Jr. certainly has been a curve ball with that Tele snap in spades

hey hey,

If you ever decide to sell some of your Bacchus, especially P90s equipped, please please please, hit me up! I've purchased last year a BLS-59 from Japan and I've been hooked. A great instrument. Pots are scratchy though and cleaning hasn't helped. I think they ought to be changed
btw, do you have any knowledge on the pickups VH-59? what magnet etc. I love out oh phase overdriven sound with an LP guitar and am thinking about either reversing the magnet in mine or swapping out the pickup. The only problem though is that I freaking love the in-between position as is, so maybe swapping out the pickup. Or just have it rewired, but I'm unsure whether that's advisable. What do you reckon?

 

[guitar hiro]

hey hey,

If you ever decide to sell some of your Bacchus, especially P90s equipped, please please please, hit me up! I've purchased last year a BLS-59 from Japan and I've been hooked. A great instrument. Pots are scratchy though and cleaning hasn't helped. I think they ought to be changed
btw, do you have any knowledge on the pickups VH-59? what magnet etc. I love out oh phase overdriven sound with an LP guitar and am thinking about either reversing the magnet in mine or swapping out the pickup. The only problem though is that I freaking love the in-between position as is, so maybe swapping out the pickup. Or just have it rewired, but I'm unsure whether that's advisable. What do you reckon?

I'm curious about your BLS; what serial # range is it?
I've owned a ton of Vintage Series guitars and never once had an issue with the pots. Some pots are marked NOBLE and then others are not but are typically very good quality. Your pots being scratchy even after cleaning has me baffled.
Sorry but I don't know what magnets are used in the VH-59 but they do have the characteristic Alnico (non ceramic) tonal response. If I had to guess I would guess Alnico 2 but again this is nothing more than a guess. I do have a multi meter but I have never used it on any of my VH-59 pups.
I typically don't change pickups in any of my guitars as I prefer to leave my guitars stock/original. Exceptions are made for guitars that come to me that don't have the original pickups when I receive the guitar.
Good luck with the pots in your BLS. I would try giving them one last shot of pot cleaner spray and see if that will do the trick before you replace them.

 

[p3kk1]

I'm curious about your BLS; what serial # range is it?
I've owned a ton of Vintage Series guitars and never once had an issue with the pots. Some pots are marked NOBLE and then others are not but are typically very good quality. Your pots being scratchy even after cleaning has me baffled.
Sorry but I don't know what magnets are used in the VH-59 but they do have the characteristic Alnico (non ceramic) tonal response. If I had to guess I would guess Alnico 2 but again this is nothing more than a guess. I do have a multi meter but I have never used it on any of my VH-59 pups.
I typically don't change pickups in any of my guitars as I prefer to leave my guitars stock/original. Exceptions are made for guitars that come to me that don't have the original pickups when I receive the guitar.
Good luck with the pots in your BLS. I would try giving them one last shot of pot cleaner spray and see if that will do the trick before you replace them.

I thought your username were familiar and indeed we have chatted a bit about my BLS-59. I've posted some photos of the internal routing and you were confused that it defers feom your BLSx I believe
I think I have NOBLE pots, because the top doesn't have any writing and the sides look awfully similar to the photos I'd found on the internet. I will definitely spray them again, since one of the pots started scratching again, even though it had stopped. The other one jad worked for for 2 days, and then it started again :/ I watched a video about pot scratch explaining the difference between dirty pot from broken. I think I have a broken one.
In regards to the pickups, yeah I tend to not want to change anything, just swap a magnet. Never had that in a guitar and would like to try it out
Oh, one thing I did change were the tone caps. Found locally some nice Russian PIOs with 0,022 in the bridge and 0.015 in the neck (k40y-9). Sounds awesome actually.
Anyways, this was the post with the photos

https://www.tokaiforum.com/threads/bacchus-blc-57-worth-it.27253/#post-206744

 

[p3kk1]

I'm curious about your BLS; what serial # range is it?
I've owned a ton of Vintage Series guitars and never once had an issue with the pots. Some pots are marked NOBLE and then others are not but are typically very good quality. Your pots being scratchy even after cleaning has me baffled.
Sorry but I don't know what magnets are used in the VH-59 but they do have the characteristic Alnico (non ceramic) tonal response. If I had to guess I would guess Alnico 2 but again this is nothing more than a guess. I do have a multi meter but I have never used it on any of my VH-59 pups.
I typically don't change pickups in any of my guitars as I prefer to leave my guitars stock/original. Exceptions are made for guitars that come to me that don't have the original pickups when I receive the guitar.
Good luck with the pots in your BLS. I would try giving them one last shot of pot cleaner spray and see if that will do the trick before you replace them.

I mean, I know how to solder and have swapped pickups and whole electronics on my strat, never burned or broken a pot. Maybe it was a blunder on my part. But it hadn't started right after swapping tone caps actually. Idk

 

[guitar hiro]

I looked at the pots in your BLS from the photos in your post #9 from the thread you linked.
Since there are no visible ink markings on the pot cans my guess is that they are most likely embossed NOBLE 15A500K on the sides of the cans.
Hopefully none of the pots are permanently damaged.