Thursday, January 26, 2006

Let the noise begin!

Somewhere in my travels, I picked up this old, beat up electric guitar. It was in pretty sad shape, and the first time I plugged it in, there were sparks and smoke involved. The nut (yes guitars have nuts!) was broken, and the bass string would not stay in place. It was being kept in place by a bent up safety pin. The bridge height was all wrong, the wiring was bad. So I did the best thing: I gave it to my son.

Unfortunately, when I asked him what he wanted for his birthday last summer, he asked me to restore the guitar. Dang, just when I thought I'd escaped.

So I scrounged around and located a piece of mammoth Ivory I had been saving for just such a project. I had to but a diamond wheel for my Dremel tool and carved a new nut and installed it, cleaned up the electrical stuff and resoldered the connections, put it all back together, and last night I plugged it in. It works just fine now, and since I cleaned everything up it looks pretty good too. It has what they call a "sunburst" finish, which is yellow in the middle and darkens as you go out.

I have no idea what brand the guitar is. Any identifying marks have been removed. It is an arch-top, f-hole acoustic/electric with dual pickups and a tailpiece, a three way switch and four knobs. I have a tremolo bar on backorder for it, but it is essentially done.

I should probably include a picture and maybe someone could tell me what they think it is.

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