1946 Gibson ES-150

Whenever I have the pleasure of picking up a vintage Les Paul, Strat or Tele it's always a memorable experience ~ especially if it's a player's guitar.  You can often feel teleported back through time with such an instrument, as if to summon the players who might have bought one of them new.  Some guitars, however, completely transcend such an experience...

This is a 1946 Gibson ES-150.  The very first Electric Guitar solo was made on one of these just eight years earlier.  Enough said.

This incredible guitar was previously owned by someone who obviously loved playing it so much that they forgot to clean it!  Almost 70 years of buildup is covering it like a blanket, and it's new owner wanted the veil lifted.  This guitar is completely original except for the tuners, which were at one point replaced with a good set of Grovers.  It should come as no surprise that the cleanest part of this guitar was the back of the neck.

Those aren't gold tuners!  They are chrome covered in what looks to be mostly nicotine.  The footprint of the original Gibson Deluxe Kluson tuners can be seen underneath these Grovers.  The fingerboard is also sporting some very thick "fretfingerfungus" that will require lots of elbow grease to remove.  The frets are very well worn but have stood the test of time.  They should really be replaced, but a fret dress and thorough fingerboard cleaning should bring it back to life for a good amount of time before the major work is needed.

Although caked with years of play, this guitar is still in very serviceable shape.  The action is quite low and the neck is perfectly straight, and an internal inspection revealed all bracing to be intact and holding strong.

The electronics were in great shape, and required little more than dusting.  The pots were only a little scratchy which was easily remedied.

Apparently this tool can also be used for dentistry!  After a soak in lemon oil, the gunk came off quite well and it was ready for a fret dress.

Much better.

I went through five of these rags, polishing in small circles like I used to polish boots.  The true colour was finally revealed!  The rosewood bridge received the same lemon oil treatment as the fretboard and the tailpiece, knobs and hardware were also removed and thoroughly cleaned.

This now shiny headstock will be fitted with period correct vintage Gibson tuners.

Project complete.  What an absolute treasure this instrument is!  I had arranged to drop it off that afternoon to it's anxiously awaiting owner ~ but I was late.  I must admit, it was very hard to put down!

It's very humbling to be trusted with such a beauty.

Ongoing Projects

Well it's been a while since I've posted so I thought I'd bring you up to speed on some ongoing projects...


Birney hollowbody:
This guitar was hand crafted Harry Birney of Wasaga Beach right here in Ontario.  He certainly does fine work with a great choice of top quality materials!  This one has a solid spruce top, birdseye maple back, sides and neck with an ebony fingerboard.

As you can tell, this particular guitar has some wiring issues!  The owner was experiencing some hum with the stock Gibson Les Paul pickups so this will be rewired with some improved grounding in the circuit.  More picks of this fine instrument coming soon!



1937 Slide Guitar:
It's great to find these old gems and bring them back to life for a deserving picker to enjoy once more.  Very similar in construction to the old Stella and Harmony guitars, this one was once played quite vigorously as a lapsteel type slide guitar before being tucked away for the soundboard to warp.

This guitar is in need of a neck reset and bracing re-gluing/replacement.  These guitars are a great way to keep the skills sharp as they were made entirely by hand and assembled with hide-glue.

The neck and soundboard required little effort to come off.

The old cross bracing became unglued in certain areas causing the one-piece solid top to adopt a rather unusual profile!  On the left are the new cross braces (placed on for the picture) with an extra one added to the underside of where the fretboard ends.  A slight radius was applied to the contact surface of each one.  The picture on the right was taken just after the top was removed ~ you can see one of the broken top braces and one-piece solid back.  These original spruce braces are in decent shape will be re-glued one at a time.  More pics on a detailed post to follow.


1948 SS Stewart 7009:
This beautiful old archtop has a black painted solid spruce top with maple back & sides and a great herringbone binding.  This was closet find made by the owner and after years of neglect it needed some TLC.  Some of the inlays were popping up and the neck had a slight twist but fortunately the joint is solid and with the quality woods used this guitar is very repairable.

This guitar will also be fitted with a new bone compensated nut and period correct tuners.

Although brittle, this Brazilian rosewood fretboard will clean-up nicely.  You can see the inlays lifting away which is due to their very thin construction.

After dressing the fretboard, some of the edges of the original inlays were sanded through, being only about as thick as your big toenail!  They will be replaced with new vintage style inlays that are the proper thickness to last for decades to come.  You can see here that the fretboard turned out quite well and is ready for refret.

Stay tuned!!

1959 Valco National solid body

It's amazing what people have tucked away in their closets!  These guitars also carried the name Supro and Tosca with different configurations and colour schemes for each. Valco was a very popular manufacturer at the time, and this was their answer to the new solid body craze started by Fender and Gibson.  This one is in for a set-up and general cleaning to be put back in service again...

This nifty little short-scale guitar was made with quality components and it's unique characteristics make it a sought after model for slide players ~ just like the owner, who traded a record for this little gem many years ago!  It didn't play well at the time, so became a closet dust collector for future consideration...

To my surprise this is an unfixed bridge, with the tailpiece held on only by the strap pin, meaning string alignment, action and intonation adjustments will be a bit more challenging than usual.

Removal of the tailpiece revealed the grounding wire, which was also fastened down by the solid brass strap pin.

These models were available with one or two pickups, but all bodies were apparently routed for two.  An interesting top-mounted pickup with channels below to hide the wire under the pickguard. The neck joint is also rather unconventional, in that the neck profile carries through the entire length and the body mount was relief-cut to match the curve, then bolted on with two screws.

A vintage paper-in-oil .05uf capacitor is wired between the tone control and the sliding two-position switch, conceivably to cut some of the high end at will.  This component is long past it's expiry date and has little effect now, but will be left in at the owner's request to keep it all original.

Not a very tidy soldering job, but decent quality components that have stood the test of time.

This strange pickup looked even stranger when opened up!

Two coils mounted side-by-side.  This is relatively high output, measuring 9.2.  After this guitar was cleaned, polished and re-assembled with complete set-up, this pickup produced a surprisingly rich and balanced clean tone.

With it's short scale, this guitar looks more like a child's guitar.  It was tuned to open E then one full step up so the strings were (low-high) F, C, F, A, C, F to give a little more tension while also producing some inspiring tone!  Through a low-watt tube amp and a glass slide, this diminutive little National became quite a monster!

1961 Symphonic tube amp

What a great find!  A customer bought this the other day and dropped it off for some TLC.  It's a great example of one of the many amps that were made in Canada at the time, many of which are fantastic for recording and practicing.

This particular model has a very subtle and sweet sounding tremolo, as well as clean and dirty channels plus a quieter channel.  As expected, it has a two-prong plug and 60-cycle hum, which I'll alleviate by installing a nice long three-prong cable that will ground the chassis.

Powered by the original RCA 6V6 tubes and an 8" speaker, also made in Canada.  Unfortunately this amp has fifty years of dust and nicotine buildup.  Luck for you it can only be seen and not smelled!  A long overdue thorough cleaning is coming up...

Point-to-point hand wiring has stood the test of time ~ a closer look and it appears there has never been a modification or repair needed for this little gem!

Some surface rust on the controls was easily cleaned up with a removal and light sanding.  It was a good time to clean the pots as well to ensure a smoother function.

A pleasant surprise glued to the bottom of the plywood box underneath all that retro-filth ~ the very readable wiring schematic, dated Feb 1961.

If only this grille cloth could talk!  So impregnated with dirt that it must be effecting the tone...

I soaked it in a mild solution of warm water and plain white vinegar for an hour, then sucked it all out with a wet-vac ~ turned out very well!

The speaker and cabinet are still in great shape.  Not one screw hole was stripped and everything went back together very tight.

A little toothpaste (and someone else's toothbrush!) made the original knobs look new again.  

1960 Harmony H39 Hollywood

A great old maple body archtop in pristine condition ~ this was in for a fret dress and bridge adjustment.

The only thing missing is the tortoise-shell pickguard that covered the wire from the DeArmond pickup to the controls ~ complete with original Bakelite knobs!

The owner had removed the adjustment wheel on the bass side to improve the action.  You can also see some space between the bottom of the bridge and top of the soundboard, meaning it isn't shaped perfectly to the contour of the arch.  The more positive contact you have, the more sound is transferred through the instrument from the string vibration.

This being an unfixed bridge, the first step is to set the intonation perfectly and mark it just underneath at both ends.  You can see here that it sits on a slight angle compared to the photo at the top.  Fortunately there is lots of wood to sculpt along the saddle, so perfect intonation was achieved.

Taping some sandpaper to the soundboard where the bridge sits is a great way to form the bottom to the shape of the arch.  It's important to let the sandpaper do the work and not push down too hard, as that may cause the piece to rock back & forth creating a rounded bottom.  After a few minutes of careful sanding while holding it at the angle of intonation, you can see that only the outside edges of the bridge were in contact.

A few minutes later the whole bottom surface was in contact.  I then taped over the trebble side and brought the bass side down some more to improve the action while making it adjustable again.

Problem solved ~ positive contact with perfect intonation and action!

The inlays on this guitar aren't inlays at all ~ they're painted on!  They were taped over for the fret dress. After a fretboard cleaning and lubricating the original exposed-gear tuners, this guitar was given a thorough polish and was ready for the next 50 years of music!