Vintage '70's Hondo Les Paul

Talk about nostalgia and sentimental value!  This guitar belonged to a close friend of the owner before he managed to procure it back into his circle a few years ago.  That friend has a big birthday coming up so the owner decided to surprise him with a completely rejuvenated old friend!  From what I understand, this was his first electric guitar over twenty years ago, and he'll be getting it back with new frets, tuners, bone nut, pots and genuine Les Paul pickups ~ not to mention some potentially long-lost mojo!  What a great gift ~ who wouldn't want their first electric guitar back?

Not sure (yet) what they used as a fretboard wood, but I've seen several of these guitars from that era and they appear to have painted (not stained) the fretboards to look like ebony.  While it may have hidden the sketchy epoxy work around the inlays, it certainly didn't help in the congealment of "fretfingerfungusitis"!  You can tell by the fret wear that this guitar was a great companion for quite some time.  I'll try a stain to darken the fretboard once all this gunk is removed and the wood is revealed.

Fortunately the neck is nice and straight with no lateral warpage.  It's made out of solid mahogony, so once it's fitted with a bone nut (to replace the plastic one) and with Gibson pickups it should carry quite a believable Les Paul tone.  The frets came out quite cleanly and will be replaced with Dunlop 6130 fretwire ~ same as a Gibson Les Paul.

These tuners have got to go!  In with the Gibson classic Kluson style.  Most tuners work just fine, as these ones do, but it's the poor metal quality of the shaft and press-fit buttons that make them look and feel cheap.

What's with these original pickups?  Look at the size of those screws!  Somewhere trapped inside is a miniature duck with bad nasal congestion ~ or at least that's what it sounds like.

Yep ~ plywood.  Quite a cleaver manufacturing process for high production, budget friendly instruments really.  Makes running the wires very easy during assembly and with good quality veneer you could slap on a great looking quilted maple top.  I'm glad this one is painted black though!

The pots, caps and wires will be replaced with much higher quality components.

With all the grunge sanded off, it appears the fretboard is a solid piece of maple.  CNC machining wasn't available when this guitar was made, so all the inlay work is done by hand and I guess in the interest of quick production they chose to paint the fretboards only to hide the epoxy around the inlay work.  Paint may be a better option as maple is a very difficult wood to stain ~ but I may have another solution...

Stay tuned over the next few days as I update the progress of this animal!

The "Piledriver" power boost build

So I decided to try my hand at putting together a DIY effect pedal.  Here's the end result!  I ordered this basic kit online and it went together rather quickly.  I left the wires a little long as I might incorporate this contraption into another box with some tweaks in the future.  The cardboard between the switch and the battery is to stop the battery from shorting the contacts of the switch and also to hold the battery more firmly in place.  The cardboard and the battery are the only things that didn't come with the kit!

This was a very simple build and came with excellent instructions, although I would prefer it if they added a little more info to the documents, such as an actual wiring schematic and brief explanation of what each component is doing in it's certain place.  If you're thinking of tackling some of the various effect projects that are available, this one is great for initial practice, but don't plan on understanding how it actually works by what's provided in the instructions.  All in all, this is a very inexpensive, usable and good sounding boost that will likely be on my pedal board for a long time!

1952 Stella

What an honour it was to work on this fantastic old songbird!

The quintessential front porch country-blues instrument, this guitar tuned to open E with flatwound 11-52 electric strings.  It may sound like an odd choice, but it absolutely bites into all the sound this guitar has to offer.  With it's non-fixed bridge with no compensated saddles, proper intonation can be a challenge whenever re-stringing.  I noticed each edge of the bridge wasn't even contacting the very slightly arched soundboard, so after some careful sanding it was sculpted to fit.  Surprisingly, the saddle offered near perfect intonation after a set-up and fret dress, with the low B (it's in open E, remember) being a semi-tone flat and the high B a semi-tone sharp.  Unfortunately the already tapered shape of the bridge wouldn't allow for further compensation, but that just compliments the vibe and sound of this guitar!

This guitar is completely original, including the wooden nut!  The tuners and tailpiece were removed and treated, with every screw going back in to it's reinforced hole.  Typically I would want to update these components with new tuners, a custom bone nut and new frets to replace the paper-thin originals, but with such sentimental value to it's owner I wouldn't dare suggest it!

You can tell by the wear that there is certainly no dust on this guitar -- but there sure is a lot of sweat!  This has been one of the owner's closest friends for a very long time, and it shows!

There was also a significant crack in the back at the bottom of the lower bough, running up about seven inches with consistent separation.  (seen above with wooden skewers to open it enough for gluing - a great, inexpensive tool because of their length, shape and long tapered point) It had been there for quite some time and originated with the back panel becoming separated from the side -- a common problem with high production guitars of this era.  It took some creative clamping to coerce the separation to join evenly along the whole length, as the age of the wood and the crack itself had the two sides wanting to curl in different directions.  The crack was sealed and the two sides joined creating a visible seam, but it is perfectly flat and accepted polishing very well after treating the area with micromesh.

It's not hard to find these models for very reasonable prices, often as low as $150.  In certain areas, however, they are increasing in popularity because of the nostalgia associated with the music of the time, with so many renowned blues and country musicians having built their reputation using their unique sound.  This one is no different, but as you know sentimental value far outweighs the monetary replacement value, which also makes such instruments so much easier to appreciate.  Besides, they sound so damn good!

It's not often you see one of these guitars in such playable yet beautifully worn condition.  This one is still gigged with regularly by it's owner and remains a workhorse to this day.  A design originally pioneered by Oscar Schmidt, I'm sure he would be proud to know these once budget friendly instruments have stood the test of time!