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5 May 2009 - Professional guitarist and recording artist Mako has become the latest musician to praise the guitar set-up and repair services of BBZGuitars of High Wycombe, the Buckinghamshire based specialist.

Mako, who plays lead guitar with rock band The Gentlemen of Distorted Sound, had been unhappy with his new Gibson Flying V since replacing the guitar's stock pick-ups with Seymour Duncan's.

"I bought the V while we were on tour in the US and had the replacement pickups fitted at the same time", said Mako. "Unfortunately, because we were playing a gig that night I couldn't hang around and the install job was rushed by the store. I soon started to have problems."

Adding insult to injury, Mako also started experiencing problems with his Marshall JCM900 head-amp, which began failing and blowing power-valve fuses; it was this which first brought him to BBZGuitars. "Once we'd had a chance to test and fix the amp, we found there was a mis-match in the four 6L6 power valves," said Steve Busby, MD for BBZGuitars.

"Although we were able to use a couple of test valves in order to set the bias, we needed to replace all four valves with a matched set. We agreed to replace them with superior Harma Cryogenic 6L6GC retro valves for a richer warmer sound."

"Even if I didn't know BBZ had put cryogenic valves in the amp, so wasn't expecting an improvement, I did notice that all the usual popping and micro-phonic noises had gone and the amp seemed smoother and more responsive," said Mako.

Pleased with the work carried out on his amp, Mako asked BBZGuitars to look at his Flying V as well.

Starting with the pickups, Busby found that the 'hot' connection to the neck pickup was attached by just two strands of wire and the pickup was not connected to the common earth at all; the neck pickup was also adjusted much too low in the body.

Since the strings have to come off a Gibson Flying V, along with the bridge and the scratch plate, in order to get to the electrics, Mako also took the opportunity to get BBZGuitars to fit some hybrid gauge strings in the wrap-over stop-bar style favoured by Zakk Wilde and Joe Bonamassa.

Set-up wise, Busby adjusted the truss rod, string height and intonation, and performed a 'fitting service' to check that the action and feel of the guitar was to Mako's specification.

'I'll need to check out the V in anger, but the set-up seems great; the noisy pots are much better and the pickup is working great now. I'm looking forward to using the guitar through my newly re-valved Marshall JCM 900 head," said Mako.

"When you're a busy gigging musician, the last thing you want is to be unsure about your backline or guitars. You need to be confident that when you throw a switch you're going to get what you expect," said Busby.

BBZGuitars' set-up, repair and maintenance service for guitars and amps is available through the company's High Wycombe guitar showroom in Buckinghamshire.

For more information and to hear songs by the Gentlemen of Distorted Sound, visit http://www.myspace.com/gentlemenofdistortedsound.