Category Archives: Guitars

1966 Gibson LG-0

Posted on March 8, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Threw the wife and dogs into the car one night after work for a trip to Gerald, MO to pick up this one. For those of you who are not aware, as I was not, Gerald is about 60 miles this side of Jefferson City. Long drive up some dark, curvy roads. Ended up having to meet the dude in the middle of town. Fine little town. Quiet.

The wood on this guitar was dry as a damn bone. Acoustic guitars, just like anything made from wood, require oil and the right balance of humidity. Acoustics especially, will almost always crack right down the middle. Not fatal- in fact I have a 68 Gibson B-25 N which I play out many times a month that has a repaired crack. Still a wonderful guitar, can barely tell the damage:

The LG-0 had no such cracks. Plenty of finish checking, and the top was Johnny Marred pretty good, but no cracks. Applying the oil was a bizarre experience. The wood literally drank the moisture, so much that it drastically changed the appearance. Look at the contrast with the pick guard removed:

For a period in the mid-late 60’s, Gibson experimented with plastic bridges. Most of them were trashed in favor of a wood bridge, however this one was still in great shape. Long story short, I had found an all-original, perfectly working model that just needed cleaning up. Worth the drive. Up for grabs on Ebay- see it here!

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Posted in Guitars, Uncategorized

Help, my husband has a guitar addiction . . .

Posted on February 3, 2012 by | 3 comments

So this will be JT’s third eBay auction in three weeks.  Crazytown.  This week we have the Vintage G Holiday Electric Guitar.

Due to work-craziness, I’m going to give you my side of these guitar buys & fixes.  Since the Holiday required no fixing, it’ll be a little easier.

Here’s how it begins — JT scours craigslist and is constantly analyzing things he sees on there for its eBay-ness.  Since he is good at fixing things up, that is usually how he gets the best deals.  For the Holiday, he contacted some dude and we met at this cool building in Soulard to close the deal. (I usually go along for company but stay in the car so as not to impede negotiations. )

We headed home and JT inspected the guitar.  No work needed.  It was Sunday, which is a nice time to post to eBay because it means the auction will also end on a Sunday, when people have time to be at home on their computers. (We failed to comprehend that it was also Super Bowl Sunday since we’re not big sports fans, but anyone bidding on a guitar will also hopefully be in the non-sports-fan boat like us.)

Next was a mad scramble to photograph the d**n thing.  It has a really nice detail at the bottom, but it also meant that it won’t sit on any of the stands JT normally uses. 

We remembered an old-school pipe thingy that JT had stashed down in the basement.  Out it came and then we tried three (THREE!) different set-ups in two different rooms trying to get the photographs taken. 

Here’s some outtakes from the living room session.  The guitar didn’t show well against the wall so we abandoned these shots.  It was total chaos and we almost completely destroyed the whole house moving things around and plugging our little work lights into various outlets and clamping them onto various things.

But alas, pictures did get taken and to eBay it did go.  I take and edit all the photos (thanks photoshop) and JT writes the descriptions (he is the guitar expert).  You can see the listing here.  There’s also a cool YouTube video that JT did to show how all the electrics work here. 

There is a new inhabitant to the music room as well, a 1966 (?) Gibson acoustic that we drove to the end of the earth for on Wednesday night.  It needs some work so JT will be around to post on that one soon.  I opened the music room door this morning and it was resting in its case with a sheepskin “blanket” on it.  The guitars in this house get just as spoiled as the dogs.

AND — we’re going to Vandeventer Vintage tonight.  There may be furniture news in the near future. . . . . .  Have a great weekend everyone!

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Confession

Posted on February 1, 2012 by | Leave a comment

I have a confession to make folks. 

Brace yourselves.

When I got out of bed last Saturday morning and made my way to the kitchen, my (one and only 8′-6″ span of) counter looked something like this:

Messy kitchen counter

Shocking.  Bad. 

A quick empty and reload of the dishwasher later, it wasn’t looking so bad (aside from the red toaster that doesn’t match and the patches of green wall let over from taking down the wine racks and the painter’s tape because I’m getting ready to paint again and . . . and . . . )

I think it’s about to get a lot worse before it gets better.  (It gets better, I promise). 

But JT is going to pick up our new tile this week so there will be demolition work soon.  (It might get loud.)Crossville EcoCycle Wetlands

We’re installing Crossville EcoCycle tile in color “Wetland”.  It is a more commercial based tile, so super heavy-duty and the extra bonus is that it has over 40% recycled content in it.  The brochure picture doesn’t do it justice, it’s a nice warm grey color with hints of tan — another chameleon like our Sherwin Williams Amazing Gray walls in the living room.

So here we go everybody.  I’m holding my breath and jumping into the unknown.  First house, first kitchen (small) renovation.  Wish us luck!!

(PS — I should clarify that this is more of a teaser post.  As you may have noticed, we move at a snail’s pace around here.  I’m planning on completing all the kitchen stuff by the end of March.  Two months.  We’ll see.)

(PPS – JT is dragging me out to the middle-of-nowhere-Missouri tonight to look at some other Craigslist guitar he’s considering for his eBay store.   Keep us in your thoughts so we don’t get mauled by ax murderers.)

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Posted in Around the house, Guitars, Kitchen

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Harmony Marquis

Posted on January 26, 2012 by | 2 comments

Just last week we rescued this Harmony Marquis from the Tower Grove area. I made CT wait in the car with it running, because I was certain the dude selling it was an ax murderer.

Anyway- didn’t get murdered. I did however pick up a great old guitar with a few issues. Chiefly among them- the electronics made a horrible noise when plugged in, and the neck was pitched so far forward it was impossible to play.

Step one: rip off the strings, and start some general cleaning. I generally only ever use warm water and a soft rag. When it comes to old guitars, removing dirt and sweat grime is absolutely necessary, as it can break down the wood. What you don’t want to do is use any harsh chemicals that can Johnny Marr the surface, and take away that amazing, aged patina.

Cleaning the neck is a delicate matter- as it collects the most sweat and grime. Solution is spit. Saliva actually the safest and most effective way to clean a fretboard. Cheapest cleaner in town. Once cleaned and dried, I rubbed in a thin coat of fretboard oil.

To fix the neck pitch, I unscrewed it to install a shim. A shim can be anything- credit card, pick, etc. In fact, the Fender guitar factory used to shim most of it’s guitar necks with guitar picks. I like to use a tone wood (in this case, basswood).

Simply drop the shim into the neck pocket like so, and screw the neck back on. This should pitch the neck angle backward, bringing the strings closer to the neck. Good way to test this is to quickly string up one string to see how it plays.

Harmony guitars were cheaply mass produced, with all of the electronics wired to the pickguard. When I tested the wiring away from the body, everything looked and sounded the way it should. Contact cleaner cleared up all crackles and noises.

When I placed the pickguard back on and plugged it in however, I got the same horrible noises. Upon further inspection, it looked as if the input cable was hitting the inside of the body cavity (impact scar pictured), effectively dispersing the current into the wood. Solution- I made the hole bigger, allowing for the cable to input without hitting the wood. It Johnny Marred up the inside surface a bit, but no one sees the inside anyway.

Here it is now, sounds great and plays easy. Before you would have sworn it was one of Jandek’s guitars (perhaps it was). Now it’s ready for the house, if I may make another obscure reference.

Up for auction on Ebay this week!! Click here

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Lawsuit Les Paul

Posted on January 11, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Picked this guy up in Belleville, IL as just a neck and body. Had enough pickups, pots , wire and bridge pieces in stock to bring it back to life. There are way too many gutted, forgotten instruments out there that need a second chance! Gotta recycle that rock & roll.

Finish is still amazing, white binding in great shape.

These are often referred to as “lawsuit” guitars, as many were built in the 1970’s, almost perfect copies of Gibson guitars. Obviously these companies were sued into stopping production, leaving a few of these great quality guitars out in circulation. A few, like this one, were produced without any kind of makers mark. Can’t sue em’ if you don’t know who made em’.

Currently up for bid!

See it on eBay here.

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New Year’s Goal (semi) accomplished

Posted on January 6, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Yay!  Husband did his first post.  I love the band picture.  Hopefully there are many more to come.  Now, back to the weekend.

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Posted in Guitars, Miscellaneous Diversions

Kent Bass Rebuild

Posted on January 6, 2012 by | 14 comments

Sometime between 1964-1966 in Kawai Japan, this Kent 833 violin style bass was created, and not long thereafter, ended up in the able hands of an Ohio junkyard hillbilly, with desperate dreams of becoming Paul McCartney. My father managed to gig this graceful, sublime instrument behind chicken wire and strippers for a great deal of the mid to late 60’s.

 

For the next 40 years or so, the Kent became a sad reminder of past glories. Every aging rock & roller has at least one- under their bed- in the attic. Lots of old widows are ending up with them, desperate to find someone to take off their hands, carefully albeit.

The design is an obvious tribute to the Hofner that McCartney played, but with delightful horns that paint a pretty damn tasteful picture, considering this was a budget model.

Well, the old fool decided to take up the ghost again, and in his retirement can’t seem to stop playing.

I decided to do a full restore of the Kent. No small feat folks. Luckily, the neck was still straight as an arrow. Just needed a little shim at the heel. Solid triple-bound construction. Back then, even the cheap stuff was made to last. Still quality. Novel.

Neck screws removed

The electronics, on the other hand, were frightening.  I had no idea if the pickups still worked. Plugging it in was risky, and produced screams and farts that would make your hair stand up. I thought of it as cries for help, or confused curses from an angry old man.

The tone and volume potentiometers might have been the best a Yen could buy back in the day, but now they were totally fried. Most of the solder points were broken clean as well.

I bought new pots and wiring, but had to end up reaming out the power plate holes to make the new ones fit. This was approached gingerly, as these guitars are brutally rare, and their little plastic parts more so. (This is the bane of all vintage guitar enthusiasts- the plastic parts that break like brittle little bastards).

New switch, input jack and capacitors. Tighten those tuning pegs (original and still in good shape), adjust the bridge. Clean off a heavy layer of dirt, dust, sweat, beer, blood……you get the picture. Fortify with oil. Beautiful and comforting in a way that can’t be articulated.

The pickups still worked. Success. Tone as tinny or creamy as you like. Loud and wild- like any good guitar. One of those instruments that jump up in your hands, begging to be played. Gave it back to the old man for a birthday present. He was pleased. I’m just glad he’s playing again.

The Newcomers. Dad's got his leg up.

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Posted in Family, Guitars