Hofner parts

parts for Hofner guitars, custom scratch plates, treble booster

Project Guitar Parts from Alan Exley for Hofner guitar parts, vintage scratch plates, Eko, Watkins, Burford Effects pedals, Dr Zitz FX, Ampico, fuzzbox, RangeMaestro, boutique pedals and more

Updated 2023 loads more vintage parts added


Project Guitar Parts from Alan Exley - Home About Alan Exley and Project Guitar Parts Hofner guitar parts, vintage replacement scratch plates Burford Electronics, boutique pedals boutique effects, booster pedals, treble booster, fuzzbox Watkins, Eko and Other Parts, custom scratch plates, Watkins Rapier scratch plates, Eko guitar parts and scratch plates pickups and transducers for guitar modification and repairs how to order online from Project Guitar Parts Alan Exley - guitar gallery tips on guitar repair from Alan Exley

ABOUT US

ALL ENQUIRIES EMAIL: enquiries@projectguitarparts.co.uk

or telephone Alan on 07762 474964 between 10 am and 3 pm Monday to Friday

Project Guitar Parts: About Us

As a youth, I was always making modifications to my own guitars to make them more playable. I also, with a basic knowledge of electronics was making my own fuzz, overdrive and tremolo sound effects, so this saved me a few quid.

In the early 70s, I landed a job at John Birch Guitars (New road, Rubery), and although spending a lot of time refinishing, I learnt many skills on guitar and instrument repairs & instrument making, which was invaluable since there was little knowledge of this subject. We repaired and made guitars for Slade, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Mud, The Glitter band, and nearly all of the musicians from the Birmingham area, many more from London and, in fact all over the country.

In 2003 I started a website called Project Guitar Parts. The idea was to supply old and new parts for restorations of vintage guitars & basses, like Hofner, Watkins, Vox & other European makes of guitar.

In late 2004 until 2019, I started manufacturing boutique effects pedals under the brand Burford Electronics. I was making effects that had different parameters to other effects pedals currently on the market; the Solomaster, the UFO repeater tremolo, the robot ring modulator, the coral sitar pedal, and various fuzz boxes with adjustable bias and resonance. Then I brought out the Ampico FET preamps; which was a boost pedal with crystal clear characteristics similar to that of a valve. I also brought out a pedal called the Rangemaestro based on the rangemaster treble boost with an added midboost switch on it. [Billy F Gibbons of ZZ Top brought 4 of these.]



Rangemaestro

I still manufacture a few boutique pedals a year, but due to the saturation of the general pedal market & with that many imports from the far east, I don't think they have a huge sales potential anymore.

Over the last 3 years, I have been researching pickup designs and gathering a mass of information, I have built a couple of digital winding machines and started a pickup rewinding service and to rewind all the 50s/60s/70s pickups that have failed with time. The brands that I have worked on so far are Hofner, Framus, Klira, Fuma, Burns, Baldwin, Watkins, Wilson, Vox, Teisco, Guyatone and John Birch. [I rewound three galaxy pick ups for Chris Rea] and the usual USA pick ups.

I have also built a number of custom jigs to wind air coils and Varitone chokes.

In May 2017, I started jigging up for the making of repro Hofner style one pick ups [black bar type] as Hofner have discontinued them & by the end of October 2017 they should available; produced in house & made to order.


Update July 2020

When I was making the Burford range of pedals, a popular pedal was my Germanium preamps, Billy Gibbons out of ZZ Top bought four from me.

Something that I was really chuffed by, I noticed that Gardiner Houlgate, the guitar auctioneers were auctioning a lot of the legendary, late, Gary Moore’s guitars & gear and in the sale was one of my germanium preamps, the Burford sonic ranger pedal, which he used on stage & for studio work. As one of the world’s best guitarists it was quite a compliment that he used one of my pedals.

Update Sept 2015


I have recently, set up a Framus acoustic guitar & sold it for a friend of mine to the legendary Steve Gibbons. If you ever get chance to see him, what a charismatic showman.

I'm working on my new range of treble boosters, which will be out within the next 3 weeks & they will be using Mullard nos OC44s & OC71s with an addition option of AC128 if preferred, watch this space for the picture coming soon ; these are the same modified circuit that I built & sold to Billy F Gibbons of ZZ Top in mid October 2008.




April 2015

We have put a new page up, called vintage guitar parts; used & new old stock. We have lots of new & used parts for European vintage guitars, we don't have everything, but we are worth a try.


2nd April 2015: Made another fuzz pedal for Nalle Colt, out of the up & coming band Vintage Trouble and he is well chuffed see picture...



June 2012

A lot of things have happened since my last update, including, the manufacture of four Rangemaestro treble boost pedals [you will see these on the site], which were made in mid October 2008 for Billy F Gibbons of ZZ Top, these were shipped to Houston, Texas, in late October. Billy even sent me a Christmas card in Dec 2008, which will remain in the Family archive. Also, I made a reactor fuzz for Nalle Colt [lead guitarist of Vintage Trouble]. There are some pedal demos on you tube, just type in Alan Exley & it'll go straight to them.

There will be some new products added on the next website update [which will be actioned shortly]; we will be doing all of the Hofner colorama pick guards, Hofner 182 colorama bass scratch plates, all the Watkins Rapier plates in black & in white. We will be doing repro Bulgin style knobs, these were the typical cream ones with the gold dome top, as fitted on early Watkins Rapiers, Broadway, Guyatone guitars, some Fenton Weill guitars, Selmer amps; these were also fitted on record players, hi fi & radios in the 60's. Also, we will be doing some other repro knobs, like the Burns Tri Sonic, Eko Sparkle guitar knobs [witches hat type with sparkle tops] & Vox Clubman replacement knobs. We are also doing the varitone choke, which comes with wiring instructions & capacitor value suggestions & as much information as I can give with this; bear in mind this is only the choke, switch & capacitors are not supplied with this product.

Please note there will be no new pedals, as yet, some new electronic devices are being worked on for possibly release in about a year's time.

On the next website update [to be actioned shortly] there will be more of my prototype vintage style amplifiers [see photo below] these are low wattage, they sound great & loud. They are a retro style statement & they run off pound shop batteries which last a considerable length of time. Now that's value for money in this day & age! Any questions, please contact Alan on 07762 474964 between 10 am and 3 pm Monday to Friday

All the best

Alan


April 2007

This month the web site has been redesigned and updated.


There are many new products on the site including some classic guitars for sale. There is also another review in the May edition of Guitarist (hits the shops in mid April). A sample sound file for my Techno lo fi pedal, which is a fuzzbox with two powerful voicing filters, will be on the Guitarist CD.

A new feature on the web site is Alan' Hot Tips, where you can find some tips and quick fixes for the guitarist. This section will be updated on a regular basis and eventually I'll have a manual with 30 years of guitar tech and music experience repairing and working on guitars and equipment for Robert Plant, Bert Jansch, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, The Darkness and many more top names.
This month also sees the launch of the Ampico range of booster pedals.

Cheers, Alan

ALL ENQUIRIES EMAIL:

Burford FX for fuzzbox, booster pedals, treble boosters ALL ENQUIRIES EMAIL: enquiries@projectguitarparts.co.uk

or telephone Alan on 07762 474964 between 10 am and 3 pm Monday to Friday

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Project Guitar Parts from Alan Exley - Home About Alan Exley and Project Guitar Parts Hofner guitar parts, vintage replacement scratch plates
Burford Electronics, boutique pedals boutique effects, booster pedals, treble booster, fuzzbox Watkins, Eko and Other Parts, custom scratch plates, Watkins Rapier scratch plates, Eko guitar parts and scratch plates pickups and transducers for guitar modification and repairs how to order online from Project Guitar Parts Alan Exley - guitar gallery tips on guitar repair from Alan Exley

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