My 5 Projects-3 Lord-2 don't qualify , now 4 thread.

[gitpiddler]

Hey there, this is my first attempt at posting photos. This baby has around 100 external pieces of wood visible, plus bracing.

This 23-year-old has App. red spruce bookmatch top; ebony bridge and FLAT fingerboard; walnut sides, back, peghead face, heel cap, and pickguard; mahogany neck with scarf joint @ lower headstock. The top and back binding features walnut and maple inlays
Indy Rush is the builder, it is labeled #2, and dated 11/93. I bought it in 1998, unfinished, and have finish carved from top to bottom over the years. I started with linseed oil layers on THE 9/11 as a form of therapy. This year I have shaved the top, leaving a bit of the old layers of varnish; also have fine-tuned the wider, compensated bridge saddle I had him install in early 2011.
 

[gitpiddler]

First thing I did was take my $600 prize by Guitar Shop to show my friends. They had sold me every piece of guitar gear I had over the span of 22 years. I asked if they had a case that would fit. Around $50 later this tweed Chinese case was mine, a perfect fit.

[gitpiddler]

Here is a shot taken about halfway through shaving the top; the others show the Taylor 12, a curly maple version of their Leo Kottke model. Enjoy!

[gitpiddler]

Here's an old Desert Storm era photo taken by a friend who brought over his new LP. It's the only one I have of the blue '87 Kramer Striker 100ST (serial#SC1340) before the mutilations began. I had just bought a SD Fred pickup to replace the original. It still had the obnoxious squeal at high volume that emanated from the body itself. The high notes tended to get overpowered by the bass when plugged in, and the bridge was still floating. The bridge is a "Floyd Rose II" non-locking with the strings fed through the ends of the saddle pieces-a real piece of crap.

Also shown are "Yeller", a '78 Japanese Lincoln Tele that originally had a 3-saddle bridge that was not string-thru, another plywood affair that I traded my first acoustic for after graduating high school. Chris offered to trade the LP for Yeller that day-I politely declined.

The '90 Collectors Ovation was less than a year old here and was my first real guitar. I walked into Guitar Shop to buy strings on lunch break and had seen the ads. I put a deposit down and then came back later and financed it for 2 years-the start of my meager credit history.

More later...

[gitpiddler]

Some unusual features I came up with over the years include thru-bolts on the control plate, the bevels on the back of the headstock, maple blocks to fill in the holes, and the piece of the original pickguard that I glued to the horn. The neck is laminated maple which is difficult to carve. The fret job came first, around my 21st birthday, and I haven't touched them since. The next year came the brass Mighty Mite bridge, which is mounted on bare wood, and drilling the string-thru holes. Two years later the Duncan JB, potted with red wax, as per EVH. The slug coil, heard at lower volume, emphasizes the treble. The screw coil  then brings in the bass strings between 6 and 7, making volume swells and taming high-gain amps easy, with NO SQUEALS whatsoever. I knew I had something special when people would call and hear it, and ask whom I was listening to.
   One whack with a chisel took the whole corner off at the armrest, which I have rounded and smoothed over the years. Not a procedure that I recommend and which shocked me at the time. I was inspired seeing Beck's Tele in the "People Get Ready" video.
   Just the other day I came across the coffee can I used to melt the wax. The volume pot was out of a Kingston bass my brother had. The plate-mounted jack was out of an old tape deck. I still have the original bridge, pots, switch and jack in a bag.

[strat80hm]

Beautiful job and cool colors too - thanks for sharing those

[gitpiddler]

My pleasure bro, I've been promising these for a while. In Oct. to commemorate 35 yrs. of this project, I retired the original floppy pressboard case and got new string retainers. I had a plastic roller type on the two high strings all those years that finally came apart. The original plastic nut is shown, along with a 3rd generation bone nut that replaced the zero fret, allowing a wider string spacing. The E's are rather close to the edges but it works. If I can't do the gig with this guitar, I'll go back to the house. I've yet to plug her into a tube amp with this pickup

The case is a Guardian brand ($90). I still have the chrome truss rod cover (but lost the screws) that I may reinstall. I'm STILL shaving the back of the neck as we speak, smoothing the rough spots. Over the last 5 yrs. I have re-carved every edge on the body, same with the blue Kramer and the 12-string, as well as the internal braces on the Ovation. That's it for now...

[gitpiddler]

I took a little more off the neck mostly between the 2nd and 5th frets-the sweet spot. That worked wonders on the Kramer beside it here, which I've been shaving some more off the tail end of the belly contour. More on that later.

Last night a Jeopardy question reminded me of something. The dark spot on the end of the Pickguard piece is a cruddy sticker from a box of Domino's pizza, from their mid-80's "Avoid the Noid" campaign. Precious memories of a girl and stuff there!

Peaces upon you ones.

ETA: Just noticed the Gallery title misspelled "two separate pieces." I added a pickup, 22 frets, and a some maple blocks to the Kramer, but subtracted the pickup ring, wiggle stick, and the nut clamps. That's still more than two.

[gitpiddler]

This Cobalt Cloud entered my life 29 yrs.ago and has taught me more about life than I can tell.
Picture the flick 'City Slickers'-Jack Palance as Curly points to the sky and says "One Thing".
That kinda stuff!

Eddie's Hot for Teacher video Kramer, that he plays the solo on running down the row of tables had the pickup at the same angle as his Franky, that one is now in the Hard Rock NY. I noticed he had shaved that sharp point at the armrest in a photo. The Striker prototype.
The photo was taken on location with the kid actor holding is Kramer 'Little Guitar' strat. The later 5150 was a Beretta body.

I've spent years shaving her plywood body, every layer with a unique tone, often plugged in and cranked. When I'm working on a spot, when it squeaks like crystal, I move on. The center layer is maple? where the neck sits. I leave it at the apex of the curved edges. The belly contour has been the main area of work for almost 5 yrs.

Since the bridge is flat on the body, and blocked both sides in the back, the spring tension actually bends the top slightly backwards at the hinge points.
The string height has gradually lowered as I've taken material from sides of the tail end, and the belly cut is the easiest to fine tune the bass string heights.

---

[gitpiddler]

Counting sealer and paint, there around 2 dozen layers. I've found when you can get them to agree on a shape, it's a good one(French maybe?). The pickup hole needed chiseling out to move it under the high E, and drop the PU angle to strings.
The maple block at the bottom of the hole is from the same barstool as the ones in the Tele.

TIA!

[gitpiddler]

The knife edge on the bass side curve is rather unusual. The center has few layers down from the front face. Gives needed bite to the otherwise thumpy attack cranked up. I've aimed for a similar tone at low volume on the knob, the only control for now, on the amps gain channel. The pinch harmos really scream now. Clean channel is easy-wide open like Joe likes it.

I've soldiered the treble bleed cap on the pot this week after it has been temporary for 5 years, when I had my amp restored. During the 4 years before we gigged in Church every weekend. For most of that time I would carve on it through the week, and hear it in the big room thru the Mackie system.

When I discovered I had miswired the bleed cap, it inspired me to play and work on the body and neck. I finally did what I needed, but still acts as a tone control with off at the bottom. Acts like a linear, labeled '500A'. Made in Korea.

She weighs ~8 lbs with the voice of a horny angel. I'm curious what a solid body cut to this shape would sound like.

[gitpiddler]

On the front armrest, there was a big dimple in the finish, eventually I uncovered all the wood. The primer spot on the left is the bottom of the dimple. Several smaller dings on the tail around the strap peg also went away.
Which brings us to the spot on the right. A hard, black knot starts there, runs past the bridge, with a small tip at the treble waistline. On Cellos, it's called a soundpost. That partial, hard layer ends over to the left, with the other end in the center of the cut on the bass side of the neck joint. Both seemed to affect overall tone quite a bit. 24 voices in that puppy.

On the Tele, the ancient ding on the treble edge became a little strip of paint sticking out. It is located at the thin, centerline layer, which runs crossways and supports the neck. I shaved too much out of the neck pocket, the strings bottomed out, and the bridge screws won't move. She's got nine lives, not sure how many left.

The Ovation got a shave around the soundholes, it's flat now. I hit top in the middle. The neck tongue has a lot of fallaway, pushes the top down. They don't normally have a full 24-fret board. The far right tip of the epaulet had pulled up and broken due to the extra stress. I glued a loose main brace under the treble side of the board, and shaved them all to work with the bridge, which was moved apparently late in the process to make room for the neck. Relieved a lot of stiffness, so did changing to 13's at the same time. Ow!.

They have been good therapy for the Obummer terms, and the post 9/11 period. That is all for now. Oiling the top and sides of the Indy 12. Thinking about rough soundclips if this laptop cooperates.

[gitpiddler]

Here's a progress report. These two sound better than ever now.


I detailed the corner of the headstock when I was satisfied with the neck carve on the Tele. The grain looks like Hieroglyphics.


I took a little more off the armrest curve...


and the waistline on the Kramer. This makes the front side curve match the rear which was shaved earlier.

[gitpiddler]

Took some more paint and wood off of the tailend, listening as I went. Got more resonance and dulled the lethal slice a little, even with old strings. New ones may still hurt the lobes.


On the Blue side, been perfecting the waistline close to the control cavity. It is the hinge point on that side of the body. This is not a vocal-friendly guitar, but she's learning to be nice when I ask. Just trying some new strings, D'Add NY XL's. She's only known DM Blue Steels and these feel cryo'd.


The Dark One sounds more like the Bright One, and vice versa. I've recorded little sound bites with my phone, I'll check on getting them hosted and posted.

[gitpiddler]

I've taken a little more wood off the bass side soundholes also. This one gets plenty of treble, with a little more resonance now.



Finally new John Pearse strings on the twelve. The soundclip I have is the old strings that have seen years of on and off for bridge mods.
I've sold the Taylor 12 to my cousin, the real player in the family. He has a Taylor 6 from the same year. So I'm down to a comfortable 4 now.

[gitpiddler]

Hey y'all, I've picked up and moved to my fren Indy and 'ems place.
He's now left-side paralyzed from strokes, and hadn't finished this 11yo beast.
His 12-string beast has been featured above. This is his first electric project.

She has a 2pc. flame maple neck with 27 fanned frets. 2pc. carved mahogany body
with bone nut and saddle and EMG Select bridge PU. So far I've shaved the back
and treble horn, dressed the fret ends and headstock wood.