The other day I was replacing a pickup in my “Zombie-Caster” and noticed that several of the pickguard screws were spinning in their holes. Like many players, I change out pickups and pots from time to time. While this has many sonic benefits, it causes wear and tear on the guitar body. If screws are frequently removed and re-inserted, their threads can bore out the wood, enlarging the screw holes. Eventually the screws can become so loose they no longer secure the pickguard to the body.

Fortunately it’s easy to repair stripped screw holes. Although I’ll use a Strat and its top-mounted pickguard to illustrate the process, the essential technique works with any solidbody guitar. And with a little creativity, you can also adapt this doweling method to other types of screw-mounted hardware, such as pickup mounting rings, strap buttons, and truss rod covers.

Let’s take a look.

Note: This repair is intended for a “player” instrument—not a collectable, vintage guitar. The latter must be kept in original condition to maintain its value. Always consult a qualified luthier if you have a vintage axe that requires work.

Getting started. To fix stripped screw holes, you’ll need an electric drill with 3/16" and 5/64" bits, a medium tip Phillips head screwdriver, a flush cut saw, a small hammer, wood glue, and a 3/16" dowel rod made of poplar, basswood, or maple (Photo 1).

Once you’ve gathered your tools and materials, take the strings off your guitar and remove all the pickguard screws. On a Strat- or Tele-style guitar, you don’t need to unsolder anything—just gently turn the pickguard upside down and lay it on the body with the wires connected.

As you remove the screws, make note of which holes are stripped. If a pickguard screw feels snug as you turn it, then leave that hole alone.

The doweling concept. I often see a patched screw hole with a toothpick and some glue shoved into it. This temporary fix may get you through a few gigs, but it usually wears out quickly. The best way to permanently repair a stripped hole is to re-drill it and then fill it with a glued-in wooden dowel.

To ensure the repair will last, the key is to use a dowel that’s a bit larger than the original hole. It’s a simple, two-step operation: First drill the screw hole to a larger diameter, and then plug it with a solid piece of wood. Using a 3/16" wooden dowel creates a solid “sleeve” for the screw to thread into, and this will last just as long as the original body wood.

Drill, baby, drill. The next step is to drill out each stripped hole using a 3/16" drill bit. Measure the pickguard screw, and then make a mark on your bit that’s about 1/32" deeper than the length of the screw. I use a red Sharpie to indicate this depth (Photo 2), but alternatively you can use a slender strip of masking tape or a grease pencil. The idea here is to avoid drilling too deep a hole.

Tip: To drill a straight hole, watch your drill bit—it should stay perpendicular to the body.

Plugging the hole. Now it’s time to prep the dowel. From your dowel stock, carefully cut off a piece that will protrude about 1/4" from the hole you just drilled. You can measure the depth using a guitar string or skinny drill bit and then transfer that length to the dowel stock.

Before you insert the new dowel piece, fill the hole with wood glue. Keep a damp paper towel nearby to wipe up any drips or overflow. For this job, I like to use Titebond II because you can mix it 50/50 with water and it will still create a very strong bond. Here’s the advantage of diluting Titebond II: The thinner solution makes it easier to saturate the hole and dowel, and it absorbs deeper into the wood than if you were to use the thick formula straight from the bottle.

Tip: I mix a small bottle of Titebond II and water to keep around the shop for this type of project.

With a small hammer (preferably one with a nylon tip, like those used to install frets) lightly tap the dowel into the hole (Photo 3). Go easy—you don’t want to splinter the dowel or have the hammer slip off and ding your guitar.

Let the glue dry overnight. If you get impatient and start drilling your new hole before the glue is fully dry, you’ll have a mess and need to start all over again. (Hmm, does that sound like the voice of experience?)

Trimming the dowel piece. After you’ve let the glue dry overnight, it’s time to trim off the section of the dowel that’s sticking up from the hole. There are two tools that will work for this task—flush-cut dykes or a small flush-cut pull saw. I prefer the latter because although the dykes will work, you run the risk of crushing the dowel. A flush-cut saw is very flexible, which allows you to cut the dowel level with the body. To avoid scarring the exposed finish, keep the blade pointed toward the area that will be covered by the pickguard (Photo 4).

Drilling the new hole. Once the dowel is trimmed flush, put the pickguard in place and line it up with the screw holes. Install the screws into any holes that were not doweled.

Next, using the pickguard as a guide, make a pilot hole for your 5/64" drill bit by lightly tapping the dowel with a medium Phillips screwdriver (Photo 5). Its tip leaves an imprint in the dowel—perfect for centering your drill bit and keeping everything aligned correctly (Photo 6).

Okay, you know what comes next: Re-drill the new hole using a 5/64" drill bit. But before you hit the on switch, measure the screw and mark the bit, so you know how deep to drill (Photo 7). Typically this will be about 3/8".

After drilling out each new screw hole, install the remaining screws. If the tops of any screws are worn, replace them with new ones. On a worn screw, the metal can corrode and weaken over time, especially when the screw begins to rust. The last thing you need is to strip out the head, or worse yet, break it off orphaning the shaft inside the body. Pickguard screws are inexpensive, and you’ll save time, money, and aggravation by replacing them before they fail.

Jeorge Tripps OG overdrive enters the smaller-is-better sweepstakes.

Students at the O’Brien Guitars school bind their instruments following a more traditional European style of guitar making.

Finding the right school can be tough for any aspiring luthier. Here are some options to consider.

In my previous column, “So, You Want to Be a Luthier?”, I talked about the types of people attracted to lutherie training programs, some of the possibilities and options these individuals have at their disposal, and discussed both long-term and short-term training, either of which have their place for primary or supplemental training. But the question remains, what school should you choose for your lutherie training? And what might a school have to offer that would best suit your educational needs?

Here’s some good news: While the guitar itself is of European ancestry, since we are a guitar-crazy culture, many of the premier schools for fretted musical instrument making and repair are right here in the United States. In fact, many international students travel to the U.S. to learn here and typically comprise up to one third of our student body.

With all schools, there’s not one that will check every box and perfectly meet everyone’s criteria. Students have different learning styles and personalities that flourish in various types of training programs. For example, my school, the Galloup School of Guitar Building and Repair, focuses on hands-on training to make sure students leave with a premium amount of time physically building and converging with musical instruments. But for some, this type of training may not be as flexible as they would like. So, let’s look at some of the options available in the world of lutherie schools.

Short-term training is geared toward students who want to quickly advance their skills and resumé in a reasonable timeline. At Galloup, we do offer short-term training, but it primarily focuses on bread-and-butter skills and problems that are commonly encountered in guitar repair and restoration. Additionally, the Galloup School has been authorized by Taylor Guitars as a Silver and Silver Plus Level Warranty Certification training facility. However, Galloup does not offer short-term training for guitar making.

For those looking to build a guitar in a short amount of time, one of the most established short-term programs is the American School of Lutherie, operated by Charles Fox in Portland, Oregon. This is an incredibly well-balanced program focusing on the quality construction of a flattop steel-string and an electric guitar. Another great program is operated by Robert O’Brien in Parker, Colorado. O’Brien Guitars offers an all-hands-on-deck operation wherein students build a flattop instrument in roughly one week. For short-term archtop guitar training, Dale Unger at the Nazareth Guitar Institute does a great job. Students move through building 17" L5-style archtops to completion in the white (no finish applied) in one week. I’ve spoken to many students who’ve taken Dale’s class and they were more than happy with the experience. These are great options since they’re short and the training style is typically more personalized.

Long-term training, on the other hand, is a completely different situation, where classes can range from a few months in a private trade school to two years in an accredited college-based program. At Galloup, we offer long-term training that can extend to more than 2,000 training hours if a student wants to take all classes available. But although we are a licensed private trade school, we are a non-accredited program. So, as with all non-accredited programs, students must finance it themselves or secure a loan through a private lending institution.

Minnesota State College’s Guitar Repair and Building program in Red Wing, Minnesota—often called the “Red Wing school”—is a great example of a two-year, college-level course of study. Another medium to long-term option is the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix, Arizona. To my knowledge, it’s the longest-running lutherie program in the United States, and it has produced many fine luthiers over the years. Roberto-Venn offers an 880-clock-hour program that allows students to take part in more of the design elements of guitar making. With both Red Wing and the Roberto-Venn schools, their accredited backing makes it easier to secure financial aid for those in need of assistance.

There is no one right answer. It’s up to the individual to determine what school and curriculum best meets their needs and financial preferences. In fact, many students choose to attend multiple programs to fulfill their education requirements.

An accessibly priced gateway to a high-gain playground.

Killer sounds in a reasonably priced package. Huge gain range.

Begs for more footswitching options.

EVH 5150 Iconic Series 40W 1x12 Combo evhgear.com

The late Eddie Van Halen spent much of his early career in search of what’s now known as the “brown sound.” Years after cracking the code, he helped bottle various versions of the recipe into the 5150 line of amps. Various iterations of these amps are now studio and stage staples, and are often used in heavy genres that transcend Van Halen’s vision.

These amps have never been cheap. But the new EVH 5150 Iconic Series models offer a much more affordable take on 5150 designs and are offered in two versions: a 40W 1x12 combo that retails for a very reasonable $899 and an 80W head version at $999. For this review, we look at the 2-channel combo.

The 5150 Iconic Combo is powered by two 6L6 power tubes, two ECC83 preamp tubes, and a specially designed 40-watt Celestion speaker, all of which are encased in a closed-back MDF cabinet for tighter, heavier bass response. Closed-back combos are slightly unusual as they are costlier to manufacture and tube cooling can be a concern. Most dedicated EVH tone chasers will probably be happy for the audible effects of the closed-back configuration, though.

The combo has a sparse, utilitarian vibe. Apart from a 5150 logo on the top left corner of the cabinet and an EVH logo affixed to the bottom right corner of the grille, there’s little to distinguish it. The controls are hidden away on the top panel. Here you’ll find gain and volume knobs for each channel, and shared controls for EQ (low, mid, high), boost, reverb, resonance, and presence. There’s also a noise gate control exclusively for channel 2. There are three mini buttons: one for channel switching and the other two for the additional presets for each of the channels.

The rear panel is home to a XLR output (with speaker emulation), a power amp mute switch, a preamp out jack, a power level switch (which lets you choose between 40W or 10W), and an effects loop. The cool thing about this loop is that you can use the return jack to bypass the preamp while the boost, reverb, resonance, and power level remain functional.

While the 5150 Iconic is a 2-channel amp, each channel has its own switchable low-/high-gain mode, effectively giving you four different gain profiles. Channel 1 has a push button for selecting between clean and overdrive. The channel 2 mini-button, meanwhile, engages the ultra-hot “burn” voicing.

The overdrive preset of channel 1 is essentially a crunch channel, sort of like the blue channel of the 5150 III, but with slightly more gain. Even with the gain at 2, the overdrive preset is pretty distorted. Bumping the gain to just 4.5 yields tones closer to distortion than overdrive.

Channel 1’s overdrive mode ranges deep into high-gain realms and could easily be used as a “lead” channel. Channel 2, however, is comparatively hellacious. With gain at just 2 you’ll get output roughly equivalent to channel 1’s overdrive channel with the gain at 8. With channel 2’s gain up to 7, I was well into extreme modern metal territory. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Channel 2’s burn mode adds even more heat and saturation, yielding ridiculous amounts of sustain. Single notes seemed to last forever, even without finger vibrato. At times it felt like an EBow at work.

With this much over-the-top gain available, it was a smart move for EVH to include a noise gate on the 5150 Iconic. The gate is helpful, but it has its limits. Even with the gate threshold at maximum, a fair bit of hum and amp noise persists at the most beastly levels.

If there were a way to footswitch between channel 1’s clean and overdrive sounds, the 5150 Iconic would essentially become a 3-channel amp, with clean, crunch, and lead sounds. But that would likely make the Iconic much more expensive.

In lieu of a footswitchable third channel, though, the boost function, which is footswitchable and adds up to 10 dB of volume, is one way to MacGyver a faux 3-channel setup. I got a pretty workable template using these three settings:

If only there were a way to get a footswitchable setup with four sounds to include the burn preset!

James Brown, the legendary amp designer who worked closely with Eddie Van Halen to create the original Peavey 5150 amp, was recruited by EVH in 2019 to become a principal analog engineer. He was tasked with masterminding the 5150 Iconic series. And it’s safe to say Brown succeeded.

The resulting 5150 Iconic Series 40W 1x12 is a unique amp. It can easily do the Van Halen thing. But it’s also insanely versatile and capable of sounds from clean to ultra-high gain to the most extreme molten metal. It’s also just a great all-around amp. And it’s easy to imagine the 5150 Iconic becoming ubiquitous in the manner of a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe for the heavy-music set.