Guitar Players: Show us yours!

[Ulu]

Patterning a new pick guard.

There’s a lot of room inside this guitar but there’s no sound holes. Maybe I should put one in the pickguard.

 

[Ulu]

Fancy 3-layer pickguard plastic.

I want to put a 45° edge on this but I’m not sure if I can do a neat job of it. At least I have enough material to do it twice.

 

[Ulu]

Good thing I have extra material. My first Dremel setup had a fatal glue failure and I screwed up the part. Now I have to relocate things and try again. Before that I will make A special clamp to positively locate the router base without glue.

I used my 1950s Bruning drafting machine as a pantograph.

I attached a plastic platten to the machine and then glued the router down and braced it with 1/8 inch steel wire and screws.

Also I’m going to try a different cutter, because this one seems to leave a particularly poor finish.

I took a closeup picture of the carnage just as my camera decided to go dead so you’ll have to imagine it for now.

 

[Captain Awesome]

 

[Ulu]

OK, it’s just like buying bikes. I can stop any time I want to. Right?

Generic 2020ish “Fender” partscaster and a 1958 Silvertone Speed Demon.

I had a gun that I did not like, a scope that cost a lot of money but I thought it was damaged, a bipod that had too many adjustments to be useful, and the protective case so heavy that the cost to fly it anywhere would be prohibitive.

I sold it all and turned the cash into these two new guitars plus a fancy Taylor guitar strap, Also a few other little goodies like lemon oil, a pot oiler, a new set of volume and tone pots, and knobs all for the Bobcat.

 

[Ulu]

OK you knew this was coming, right?

I tore the Silvertone guitar down today.

There was a problem with the middle pick up but as it turned out it was the switch. The selector switch was just dirty and corroded, and after a good cleaning it’s OK.

This guitar has a two piece construction, with the neck bolted to the body, like all fender guitars. It needed the neck reset, because with the bridge adjustment all the way down, the action was still a mile high. OK it was 1/8” which is nearly twice what it should be.

I took it all apart and found that it had been shimmed up the last time it was apart, with a bit of birthday card and some drafting tape.

Then the gap (There should not be a gap!) had been filled with a whole lot of mahogany furniture crayon. Most of it has been scraped out already in these photographs but you can still see the dark crayon.

I made a new shim tapered to approximately 4°, but this turned out to be nearly twice what I needed. Now my bridge is above the normal top of his travel, but the action is too low and the strings are buzzing.

I congratulated myself on a successful shim that I can disassemble and shave down a little bit until I get the correct angle. Better that than the other way, because you can’t add to the shim.