Hoffman Amplifiers Tube Amplifier Forum
Other Stuff => Guitars => Topic started by: P Batty on February 12, 2014, 03:27:40 pm
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I'm afraid I'm becoming the neighborhood "cat lady" when it comes to guitars. I found this forlorn Guyatone LG-40 (60's Mosrite style) on eBay:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-YYqS2LT5UKU/UvviD_0wp-I/AAAAAAAANos/KhVw8gS9fWo/s800/%2524_57.JPG)
Definitely a "project guitar" :
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-WioUsx3vZPQ/UvviD25XI1I/AAAAAAAANos/FVDGh2TdLtc/s800/%2524_57-2.JPG[img])https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-x5upCc0IneE/UvviD4qG66I/AAAAAAAANos/uAjKq07h1yE/s800/%2524_57-1.JPG[/img]
I did have to buy a thin neck-mount PU (GFS) to fit beneath the strings without routing and had to make a new pickguard, but the rest of the parts I had already. After cleaning it up I thought that it turned out nice; it plays well and sounds good. The body is plywood, but the neck is mahogany with a rosewood fret board. The faux Mosrite cutaway might not be to your taste, but what the heck, it's a vintage MIJ guitar for about $100 bucks :
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-lhfXl5nKuWU/UvviFF-ImUI/AAAAAAAANos/x1K1G0N_HwA/s800/IMGP2243.jpg)
I've made a vow to limit myself to 10 guitars, but this one is #13. :l2:
Is anyone else in the habit of collecting "strays"?
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Wow,looks great! I occasionally get a jones for old Japanese guitars. I have a Prestige that needs some work, but I don't know where to find parts. The pickups work (or at least used to, its been in storage) but it needs tuning keys and, of course, the tremolo arm is broken off. Some times I think that these guitars were manufactured with broken off tremolo arms, because I've never seen on intact :laugh:
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The hardest part to replace is the bridge, many of the old MIJ guitars have a narrower string spacing, most Fender and Gibson style bridges are too wide. And most guitars of the era (American as well as Japanese) usually need new tuners as well.
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Got a load of strays! :help: 10 elec's, 1 Lap Steel, 3 Acoustics, 1 fiddle, 2 mandolins and elec bass.
I won't even get into the amps :dontknow:
My last adoption was a $20.00 ION strat rescued from a flea market. The wierd thing about the ION, it has a Maple body--never seen Maple for a body? Maple neck yes but not body. Platefire
BTW-Great job on the Guyatone--looks good! I'm an old fan of Mosrites even though I never owned one. They have some nice copies these days that's awful tempting.
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Maple? It must weigh a ton! I made a guitar with a body made from a slab of maple, it was smaller than a LP and it was heavy but it sounded pretty good. It split down the middle though. :sad2:
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Well this ION body has two cracks but it's not coming apart and pretty solid still. I thought it was from the abuse of the previous owner and never considered it may be the material. At first I considered trying to get some glue down in the cracks but it's just not bad enough to bother with yet. The action, intonation, holding in tune and neck is exceptional for a cheap guitar. It has some Ok sounding ceramic pickups and have considered investing in some good alinco's but that would blow my $20.00 guitar out of the water into something else? It plays pretty fine as is. Platefire
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(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-lhfXl5nKuWU/UvviFF-ImUI/AAAAAAAANos/x1K1G0N_HwA/s800/IMGP2243.jpg)
Niiiice!
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Thanks! This one might be my "retirement guitar": light, easy to play, sounds good plugged in and acoustically, not really valuable so I won't have to insure it or keep it locked in a vault. I might redo the pickguard and the control setup. I have two switches now, one bypasses the volume and tone (straight out) and the other a "strangle" (low-cut) switch, I don't use the strangle much, I think it would be more elegant with only one.