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Post your guitar projects here


Geeto67

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I didn't see another thread like this in searching so if it is redundant please let me know.

 

I imagine a lot of you guys who like to tinker are like me and like to tinker with other things besides cars. Despite being probably the worst guitar player in columbus, I love to tinker with electric guitars.

 

My hope in starting this thread is to see what others are messing with musical instrument wise and maybe get a good discussion going.

 

So I'll start:

 

This is my 1973 Comp-stang Replica project that I completed a couple of weeks ago:

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/Guitar%20Stuff/81E38499-79E0-4143-9ACF-79D7EA820EAC_zpsj1ykg6uc.jpg

 

This project started back in 2010 when a friend of mine gave me a MG72 reissue CIJ mustang body in competition orange with Fiesta Red racing stripe. They had used the guitar as a prop for an advertising shoot and then the crew dismantled it for their own personal projects. All that was left was the body which nobody wanted. I actually think it was one of the JDM "Beck" editions but I didn't get the neck to find out.

 

For those that don't know, the fender mustang models (along with the jaguar) were introduced in the 1960's as part of fender's continued leveraging

of trends in the automotive industry. Up until this point fender had just been using the colors out of the big three's palettes (including the names), this was one of the first times they actually named guitars after cars. In 1969 fender released the "competition" mustangs, which were "influenced" by the Shelby GT350 and GT500 mustang stripe packages. The only thing that makes a mustang a "competition" model is the stripe. One of the most famous Competition Mustangs is Kurt Kobain's 1969 lake placid blue lefty that was used in the Smells Like Teen Spirit video:

http://kurtsguitarsnow.blogspot.com/2009/03/slts-fender-competition-mustang.html

 

...But back to my project. So it turns out that parts for a Japanese market guitar never sold in the states are not easy to come by. By early 2011 I had managed to figure out that the new MG65 1965 reissue necks sold in America actually fit the body really well, but the pick-guards and other parts did not interchange:

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/DA296264-B927-4CD8-BEB1-D97B221948D3_zpsjnnnsypu.jpg

 

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/CC7F95A0-EF9B-4768-BF46-32D84307F350_zps7xwysnsm.jpg

 

So I decided to design my own pickguard shape:

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/4d863d05.jpg

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/A24BCABF-D0B8-41C7-9053-61F39CD23CA2_zpsnek1vdcj.jpg

Early cardboard mockups were kind of rough. I was a big fan of 1960's and 70's Japanese guitars like Teisco Del Ray with their huge pick-guards with engraved designs so my early designs were influenced by that.

 

Unfortunately, this is as far as I got because in 2011 my first child was born and the guitar project went into a box. However For Christmas that year my wife gave me a set of Duncan Antiquity II mustang pickups, a spool of 1960's cloth wiring, and 2 potentiometers and an orange drop capacitor. It all went into the box and sat until earlier this year.

 

Fast forward to January, I am cleaning the garage and I find my box of unfinished guitar projects. I say projects because I some how acquired another body and neck for another project as well. Anyway, I realize that I actually have everything but a pickguard to assemble the instrument. I also find out that there is a guy here in columbus who cuts pickguards. I haul all the crap over to his place and we wine tune my old design:

 

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/Guitar%20Stuff/CEE1E109-2882-46B4-9595-B7F15B351017_zpsqm7crpnu.jpg

 

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/Guitar%20Stuff/D003CA34-0C14-4D60-A02A-0543E743B11A_zpspbohxebv.jpg

 

One of the things I hate about the old mustang design is that it has this seperate steel control plate that never fits well and looks like an afterthought:

c45f72ff7ea8a559a005c3c7f1da6662.jpg

 

If anyone hasn't worked with the pickguardian before, Tony is an awesome dude and was a lot of fun to work with on a project. I highly recommend him.

 

with the one piece design I have something that has a more earl 1960's space age shape and it just looks more "organic". Also it recalls some of those Japanese guitars with their massive pickguards:

LPlivkoOREWG3VDSEBEnfg.jpg

 

Anyway: I wired it up, my first from scratch job. While my soldering won't win any awards, the guitar does function exactly as it should with no static or interference.

 

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/Guitar%20Stuff/BDFB6C6A-7BAF-4AE2-A299-EA1FD11C64C0_zpsyzifhqd0.jpg

 

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/Guitar%20Stuff/20DE3DD5-7BED-4F4B-A661-AB6E9262B740_zpsugvlxssr.jpg

 

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/Guitar%20Stuff/03966DF2-FD4A-4421-9067-E363C79693B1_zpsq3nvpnn8.jpg

 

I used black hardware as much as I could: tuners, covers, switches, and chicken head knobs stictly as a color choice. wanted this to be a really neat and different looking instrument.

 

So that's it - I still have to set the intonation and make some minor bridge adjustments but it plays well, has a great sound, and I am having a lot of fun with it.

 

Specs:

Fender Japan 1973 Comp-Stang reissue body in Comp orange

Fender 1965 reissue neck

Pickguardian custom cut pickguard in vintage ivory - my design

Seymour Duncan Antiquity II pickups for fender mustang (wax covered)

NOS 1960's cloth wire

Fender 3 position switchs

250K potentiometers for volume and tone

Orange Drop Capacitor

Grovers tuners

Fender Dynamic Vibrato for reissue guitars (metric)

 

 

So....what are you guys working on?

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I guess this counts, currently in the process of getting my "music/computer room" organized. Need to put up a few more wall hangers. The gretsch in the middle needs some attention when I get around to it. Need to replace the jack on it and I think I'm going to swap out the pickups for something else

 

http://sbriggs.io/20160307_115925_6x8.jpg

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I guess this counts, currently in the process of getting my "music/computer room" organized. Need to put up a few more wall hangers. The gretsch in the middle needs some attention when I get around to it. Need to replace the jack on it and I think I'm going to swap out the pickups for something else

 

http://sbriggs.io/20160307_115925_6x8.jpg

 

I like that. Nice job.

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I like that. Nice job.

 

Thanks, I think I'm going to pull the album covers down and pick up some more junk/scratched up records to cover the entire wall with, they're driving me nuts being off center

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Thanks, I think I'm going to pull the album covers down and pick up some more junk/scratched up records to cover the entire wall with, they're driving me nuts being off center

 

aw...that foreigner head games album is one of my favorite album covers. I don't know why I just always liked it.

 

still awesome setup.

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aw...that foreigner head games album is one of my favorite album covers. I don't know why I just always liked it.

 

still awesome setup.

 

Agreed, I like it too. If work slows down maybe I'll be able to get around to centering some stuff on that wall to make it look better. Now I just need to learn to play, past tabs, some basic scales/positions I'm not much count. I think I enjoy collecting them more than anything.

 

I think I may look into doing guitar lessons when I can open up my work schedule to do so

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I have a knockoff Ernie Ball Music Man 5 bass (cheapo Chinese knockoff OLP I think is the name) that I disassembled with good intentions, but then we moved, it got put in a box, and has been forgotten til now.

 

It's a natural wood finish, nothing fancy electronics-wise, but I've always wanted to make an art piece out of it. I discovered that a friend from college does really cool woodburnings in his spare time, so I am going to strip the clearcoat off and send it to him. I haven't played actively in a decade so I will probably just leave the crummy old electronics in and leave it as an art piece rather than worry about the electronics.

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