Cygnus Guitars

Cygnus Guitars Cygnus cares about your guitar.

If your pride and joy needs anything, from a new set of strings to a full setup, or customisation work, or even a whole new custom built guitar just get in touch

Long time readers may well recognise this SQUIER GUITARS by FENDER Jazz Bass. It’s a real beauty in gloss black. This fi...
14/06/2025

Long time readers may well recognise this SQUIER GUITARS by FENDER Jazz Bass. It’s a real beauty in gloss black. This first time I saw it, I was asked to wire up a faulty pickup. It came to me last time for a pretty complex wiring circuit, with stacked tone and volume and a series/parallel switch. After that, I replaced the pickups. The customer has decided to replace that with a single stacked volume for both pickups, keeping the series parallel switch and adding a TBX Tone Boost control.
Here’s what Fender has to say…

The Treble Bass Expander (TBX) is a stacked and detented 250K/1Meg potentiometer that expands your tonal palette. It functions as a standard tone control from 1 to 5, after which it decreases resistance, sending more bass, treble, presence and output to your amp. Mounting hardware and installation instructions included.

The customer has PROMISED me this is the last mod for this bass….

Happy new string day! Wait, is that just me? Always good to get a new batch of Newtone Strings . Ready for your guitar!...
14/06/2025

Happy new string day! Wait, is that just me? Always good to get a new batch of Newtone Strings . Ready for your guitar!
Newtone are a small company based in Matlock, Derbyshire making all their strings by hand. I’ve been using these for about 4 years now and they are my go-to, replacing over 40 years with D’Addario. No offence to them, they do make excellent strings. It’s just there’s something about Newtone Strings that makes them better in my opinion.
Contact me if you need some new strings on your guitar. I fit these as standard with a full service.

INNAFIELD will be on stage at Club Academy on Friday night this week. This is a huge deal for this up and coming band ...
02/06/2025

INNAFIELD will be on stage at Club Academy on Friday night this week. This is a huge deal for this up and coming band - their biggest support gig so far in their relatively short career.
And this comes a week after their debut single “Tell Me What’s On Your Mind” - out on all streaming platforms now!

https://music.apple.com/gb/album/tell-me-whats-on-your-mind-single/1816334313

Once again I have the privilege of supporting them with their guitars. This Fender belongs to Ed who wanted to get it serviced ahead of the big night. I’ve done a few tweaks here and there, polished the frets, fitted a fresh set of Newtone Strings, and cleaned the electrics. This guitar gets played a lot!
Who’s coming? You’ll see this and his white strat on stage!
Alan Entwistle Pickups - the P bass with your excellent PBXN pickups will also be there!

Another post, another guitar! This guitar was brought to me by the owner’s mum. The young girl who now owns this lov...
02/06/2025

Another post, another guitar! This guitar was brought to me by the owner’s mum. The young girl who now owns this lovely wants to learn how to play. It’s been unused for a while, so needed a full service and check up. I’ve carried out the usual fretboard clean, oil and checks on the frets, which have also been polished. I’ve fitted a set of light gauge D'Addario and Co. 10-50 acoustic strings which are a bit friendlier to younger hands. Hopefully this will encourage her to keep playing. So many beginner guitars get put to one side because they are a battle to play - guitar isn’t easy in the first place, so if it’s at least comfortable and easier to play chords, that should go a long way to becoming a life long passion (and probably the first of many in a growing collection - ask any guitar player’s partner!).

It’s like central here at the moment. Great to be so busy!! This lovely little thing is a Taylor Guitars in . A lov...
02/06/2025

It’s like central here at the moment. Great to be so busy!!
This lovely little thing is a Taylor Guitars in . A lovely little player with a big warm sound. This was brought to me with a fret buzz issue, driving the owner mad. She’s a beginner, who loves the guitar but that fret buzz is a ni**le she can’t get around! Taylor are known for their quality, but they do have to travel to get to the uk (ironic, as this is technically a travel guitar!) so, with wood and metal being different entities that react to temperature in different ways, and the fact that these guitars as good as they are (and I do mean, really good!) some minor issues in manufacture can happen. This was to do with final setup, with two slightly high frets that needed dressing and the neck relief needed a slight tweak on the old truss rod. I’ve also treated the fret board to a little Cygnus Guitars love and attention, giving it a polish with OOOO steel wool and some lemon oil to condition it (you can see the difference in the photos. All good now and back in the hands of the owner who is looking forward to her next guitar group session at on Wednesday.

Continuing the theme , here’s a lovely made by Ibanez Guitars. Clearly a 12 string model, this is one of many owned...
31/05/2025

Continuing the theme , here’s a lovely made by Ibanez Guitars. Clearly a 12 string model, this is one of many owned by my long term customer Aidan. He uses this on his holidays, as a knock-about six string. It came in with a fretting out issue which was taken care of with a full service. The neck was in quite a bit of back-bow, which means the strings were too near the frets, so a quick adjustment of the truss rod to provide some relief, followed by a good fretboard clean, oil and fret polish and its ready to rock around the barbecue once again!

Another day, another . This time it’s more of a Jumbo cutaway model. Big sound, great tone. This belongs to the custo...
31/05/2025

Another day, another . This time it’s more of a Jumbo cutaway model. Big sound, great tone. This belongs to the customer with the Patrick James Eggle Guitars Berlin and the Fender Baja . A full service and setup, with little taken off the bridge height shaving it down, making it more comfortable to play. The rest of the service includes al the usual Cygnus Guitars care; fretboard cleaned and oiled, frets checked for level then polished. A fresh set of strings and before you know it, time to hand back to the owner.
Newtone Strings
Alan Entwistle Pickups
Tanglewood Guitars

Fender guitars from time to time release a model that just hits the sweet spot. This I had recently is a model. It...
30/05/2025

Fender guitars from time to time release a model that just hits the sweet spot. This I had recently is a model. It’s been designed by their custom shop, and has a secret weapon! It’s got a 4 way switch and also a push/push S1 switch for extra tonal choices. These guitars are very highly sought after - . And doesn’t it look great in with a black pick guard?
This one came in with the Patrick James Eggle Guitars Berlin (see last post) for a service and set up. All part of a busy time recently for Cygnus Guitars! It also had some fret sprout issues, so I’ve taken care of that, along with a full service and setup. If you can find one, these are great giffing guitars! The extra switching gives you the pickups in series, almost like a humbucker (in position 4), and the S1 brings the neck pickup in when you need it in position 1. Made in Mexico, this guitar marked a real turning point in the quality of output from the factory. Cool!

Recently I had the privilege of working on this wonderful Patrick James Eggle Guitars model. What a guitar! For those ...
30/05/2025

Recently I had the privilege of working on this wonderful Patrick James Eggle Guitars model. What a guitar! For those who don’t know, Patrick Eggle has been making some of the finest guitars to come out of the UK for the past 30+ years. He’s the UK’s equivalent of the likes of , , etc. This guitar is very nicely appointed, with an all maple construction, gold hardware, locking tuners and a trem system that I’ve not seen before now. It’s an upgraded version of their brilliant VS system with an added locking feature. When he arm is in the ‘down’ position there’s a cam system that allows the end to lock into a socket on the back plate. When in the ‘up’ position, the cam lifts the arm out of the socket, freeing the trem for use. Clever stuff! The customer told me that his was clunking and going out of tune. After a little investigation, I adjusted the collar to allow the cam to lift the arm clear and voila - no clunking and tuning stability regained.
It’s also had a full service, setup, pots cleaned, frets polished etc. There was some fret sprout making the guitar uncomfortable to play, so I’ve also dressed the ends of the frets and rounded them off. A fresh set of Newtone Strings have been fitted as well. The customer is very happy to have his pride and joy back in tip top playing condition again.

I got 50 reactions and comments on my posts last week! Thanks everyone for your support! 🎉
23/05/2025

I got 50 reactions and comments on my posts last week! Thanks everyone for your support! 🎉

when I was young were like trying to wrestle with a longbow! You could drive a bus under the strings, making them diff...
23/05/2025

when I was young were like trying to wrestle with a longbow! You could drive a bus under the strings, making them difficult to play.
This on the other hand is a Gear4music came in with a snapped top E string. I have to say I lost count of the number of top E strings I snapped when I was learning. This belongs to a 14 year old learner. With lower cost guitars they come with ‘budget’ strings and are clearly made to a lower cost. Having said that, this very attractive guitar deserved a few tweaks to make it play better, and also encourage the young owner to stick with it. So many guitars are bought and because they’re not easy to play, get neglected!
Anyway - came in for a new string, left after having the sharp fret ends dressed, frets checked and polished, fretboard oiled, truss rod adjusted, reduce the shim under the bridge to improve the action and I also replaced a faulty tuner (with a spare I had in my spares box!). A set of light gauge phosphor bronze and it’s handed back to enjoy once again!

Hold the phone! I forgot to post this one! ( usu boy!) Recently I had this rather tasty Tanglewood Guitars electro aco...
20/05/2025

Hold the phone! I forgot to post this one! ( usu boy!) Recently I had this rather tasty Tanglewood Guitars electro acoustic. It’s a smaller bodied auditorium style acoustic made from very nice all solid woods all round! Check out that back joint! It sounds great but just needed a setup, so I’ve adjusted the truss rod checked the frets. Levelled a few up and down the neck (re-seated with the magic fret hammer!), then polished them, cleaned the fret board and applied lemon oil to condition. I’ve taken the nut down to make it a lot more playable. A quick polish with Ernie Ball instrument polish (lovely stuff and smells nice!) and a fresh set of Newtone Strings and voila - good to go for the summer. Thanks to Patrick, another happy repeat customer!

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