Guitar Players: Show us yours!

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Was gone for the weekend, shop was open 3 days... Walked in to 10 new jobs!
IMG_20220606_112934.jpg

Looking forward to reassembling this unknown banjolin... Best guess is 1920s but check out the odd internal geared headstock. I never saw that before!

IMG_20220606_140110.jpg
IMG_20220606_140119.jpg

IMG_20220606_140134.jpg

GC
 
Last edited:
Whats in the Coffin Case?
One of my Warlocks has the Pro series hardshell Coffin.
 
Whats in the Coffin Case?
One of my Warlocks has the Pro series hardshell Coffin.
It's an LTD LP mutt with new EMG pickups needed level and crowned.

Guitarl
 
Nice.
that’s good honest wear.
I don’t really understand the idea of buying one that’s brand new and looks worn, but do appreciate the look and feel of a well used instrument, tool, or bike.
Thanks Swampthing, you are so right.

Buying new but old looking stuff is lame, like the "pre-stressed" jeans that doctors/lawyers etc. wear with holes in them as if it were cool. I wore my jeans down because we were broke!
I wore this poor bass down to its present state through years of thrashing, bashing, beering and slashing. As well as a heck of a lot of wood shedding and love, which continues to this day.
This patina is truly a slice of life!
 
Thanks Swampthing, you are so right.

Buying new but old looking stuff is lame, like the "pre-stressed" jeans that doctors/lawyers etc. wear with holes in them as if it were cool. I wore my jeans down because we were broke!
I wore this poor bass down to its present state through years of thrashing, bashing, beering and slashing. As well as a heck of a lot of wood shedding and love, which continues to this day.
This patina is truly a slice of life!
But now thinking back, I have no problem with "fauxtina" on my ride or others so what the heck do I know? Not much for sure, and that's why I'm here!
 
IMO there's decent relic jobs out there and I have done a few, BUT I have my grandfathers old Tele to go by and what real play wear looks like. It's not scratches and dents, and it's not beat up. Lester's Tele is smooth and worn from his forearm and from his guitar resting on his thigh, sitting down and playing.
74 deluxe.jpg

I have also taken cheap ratty old sunbursts with scratches and dents all over that just look like junk, the kind you find at garage sales, and made them look amazing just by buffing the gloss off with a green scruffy pad and some guitar polish. A flat finish looks way better that a scratched up old gloss. The relic I hate is the photo finish ones that Fender tried before. Up close they are terrible looking, like cartoon weathering.

Carl.
 
greasefire4.jpg
greasefire10.jpg


I did flip this trashed Tele I called "Greasefire" for 350 clams. Got it from a kid who spray painted the seafoam green and I'm so sick of all of Fender's greens working at a Fender dealer that I had to burn it. Plus you see burnt Strats tryin' to be like Jimi at Monterey, but I'd never seen a burnt Tele. So this thing looks better the more it flakes off....

Carl.
 
IMG_20171120_085731_697.jpg
IMG_20171120_085731_701.jpg

Smooth as silk, finish rubbed off... I'll have to get a newer pic, it has a stutter switch now and a LPB1 style booster built into it.

Carl.
 
IMO there's decent relic jobs out there and I have done a few, BUT I have my grandfathers old Tele to go by and what real play wear looks like. It's not scratches and dents, and it's not beat up. Lester's Tele is smooth and worn from his forearm and from his guitar resting on his thigh, sitting down and playing.
View attachment 196632
I have also taken cheap ratty old sunbursts with scratches and dents all over that just look like junk, the kind you find at garage sales, and made them look amazing just by buffing the gloss off with a green scruffy pad and some guitar polish. A flat finish looks way better that a scratched up old gloss. The relic I hate is the photo finish ones that Fender tried before. Up close they are terrible looking, like cartoon weathering.

Carl.
I wish I had been as loving as your grandfather was. That is a lovely thing!
 
I posted on this thread in the past but I don't think those pictures are supported any longer. My main instrument is the five string banjo played bluegrass "Scruggs" style. Here is my '88 Gibson RB3
IMG_0882.JPG


Next is a Stewart McDonald "Diamond Eagle" parts banjo I built back in 1981

Flathead one.JPG


This is a concert scale Banjo ukulele I built a few years ago

IMG_1456.JPG

I double on dobro.
Not a very good picture. My Dobro is a laminate import that I gutted to just the body and put a Quarterman cone and National spider in.



5763-2943121122007.jpg


Someday I'll try to get a picture of my personal guitar. It is a Martin DM which is a dreadnaught mahogany all laminate with a solid spruce top. I bought it 22 years ago mostly to have something around here for friends to play. I do use it on occasion, especially for working a song out.

Finally, don't ever start with ukes. They come in multiple sizes with multiple timbres. I got a little carried away. This is a part of my collection.
DSCN0371.jpg


Some of those are gone and have been replaced and etc.

What got me started was "Dueling Banjos" being played about every 20 minutes on rock stations here in Florida when it came out. I heard that on WLCY (Rock at the time) and had to have a banjo. Played in a few local bands and have always played in church.

Enjoy playing Americana, bluegrass, gospel, blues, classic rock and etc. Never been much into current top 40 country. Now and then something will strike my fancy. Now something by Hank senior or Jimmie Rodgers that's a different story, count me in.

Also have a '73 (CBS era) Strat' white on black. Don't play that any. Holding it to pass on to a youngster in the family.

Enjoying looking at and reading about everyone's axes and gear.
 
When I posted my banjo I said I would get to my guitars. Here is my favorite. It is a Dobro (Although Gibson frowns on that name usage as they own it and don't want it to become generic) The official name is resonophonic or resonator guitar. Most people just say Dobro but it is a brand name like Allen wrench or Crescent wrench.

Dobro's come in round neck or square neck. The round necks can still be fretted and the neck joins the body at the 14th fret. The square necks are strictly for sliding and join the body at the 12th fret. A square neck is what I play. You use open tunings. Most people that play bluegrass/country use open G (GBDgbd). That is identical to the five string banjo so it makes it easier for me to double on this instrument.

Guitar players may like to look up the history of these things. Two Czechoslovakian immigrants designed them out in California to try to amplify acoustic guitars. About the time their invention came out it was made obsolete by the electric guitar. Shortly however. bluesmen discovered their incredible sustain and dirty tone (It can be clean to). After that discovery they have been a staple in blues, Hawaiian, bluegrass and country. Some had brass bodies. That is what you see on the cover of Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" album. Curtis Loew's Dobro is what Skynyrd is singing about in the Ballad of Curtis Loew. Oddly, there is no Dobro on that song (Curtis Loew), I think they are using a Les Paul and a bottle neck slide to mimic a Dobro.

From the beginning, even the best reso guitars were inexpensive laminate because the tone comes from a thin aluminum cone turned on a lathe. A "spider bridge" of cast aluminum distributes the string pressure over the cone. The cones sits on a laminate sound well inside the body. Some modern builders do use tone woods and have been able to get more earthy tones from Dobros by a redesign of the tone chamber.

Finally, mine is a cheap Pacific rim import. I think I gave $200 for it over 20 years ago. The imports have chrome plated steel components and they rusted in short order. All the components are replaced with nickel plated brass now. The original plastic keys crumbled from the Florida heat. I replaced them with metal button units and no more problems. I also installed a domestic "Quarterman cone", a National spider bridge and a bone string nut. The only thing original to this guitar is the basic body. I would have been money ahead to have bought a better Dobro to begin with, but I love to tinker with stuff anyway. You can get a Dobro in a solid or slotted headstock. If I had it to do over I would go with a solid peg head it is hard to string a .052 string down in that slot. The string sets for open G usually are from .016 at the smallest to .052 on the low end. These are high tension beasts. Sorry for the long post. Always hoping to get people turned on to Dobros.

20220802_121746.jpg
20220802_121757.jpg

You can see the action is slide only by the righthand picture.

20220802_121817.jpg

The spun aluminum cone (Like a speaker cone) is the dull grey in the back ground behind the cover plate holes. You can see the legs of the spider bridge between the cover plate and the cone. The two screens are tone chamber "vents."

20220802_121906.jpg

The neck is probably about 1 1/2" x 3." I think that along with the 12 fret neck join is to handle the high string tension.

20220802_124818.jpg


I do my left hand slides and individual noting with a "Stevens" steel (really nickel plated brass). On the right hand it takes a thumb pick and finger picks for the index and middle fingers. You achieve a kind of banjo roll but I really miss being to be able to bounce off the banjo 5th string when playing this.
 
Last edited:
I've worked on a few of those. They're cool, vaguely like a banjo in that they're all mechanical assembly. Google a bandurria. I'm rebuilding one. I'll get some pics.

GC
 
Thanks, I found one at an estate sale literally falling apart and added it to a pile of parts I ended up getting for $20 that included a broken Ibanez 12 string acoustic and a busted Epiphone Firebird. The trapeze tailpiece from the Ibanez was worth more than that.
IMG_20220730_134402.jpg
IMG_20220801_003031.jpg
IMG_20220801_003036.jpg
IMG_20220801_083036.jpg

IMG_20220801_083508.jpg
IMG_20220801_085018_676.jpg

GC
 
IMG_20220716_152157_992.jpg

I picked this up as an empty husk with no hardware or electronics and an odd route for a p-bass pup. I drilled it for a end jack just above the busted off control cavity and charred the edges of the break with a torch. I wired in a 3way mini switch to shunt the p-bass pup to the rhythm or lead side of the circuit with the center off. It's like an El Kabong survivor now and the p-bass pup adds a chunkiness when engaged.

GC
 
Store I work at sells V-picks. They're pricey so I just cranked out a similar but original design using a scrap from my buildoff bike's windscreen. I'm calling it Red Alien. Standard pick for size reference.
IMG_20220812_161104.jpg

I figure there's 3 different angles to try out. Should be interesting. Thick picks are the rage for speed these days. C.
 
Last edited:
I too recently worked on a late 50's Kay. I reset the neck and did a complete setup including cleaning of all electronics and removing, cleaning and polishing tuners and tailpiece.
IMG_20220825_135208.jpg
IMG_20220825_135216.jpg
IMG_20220825_135236.jpg
IMG_20220825_135225.jpg

Gotta love a "Kelvinator" headstock!

GC
 

Latest posts

Back
Top