GUITARS

[Bikeguy Joe]

What have you got?
What do you like?
What would you like to fill out your collection?

'56 P bass (replica)
'54 Strat (replica) I carved the neck to the proper V shape, and it's a copper color available in '54. sold
'56 Gibson Goldtop (replica)
'58 LP Junior double cutaway P90 pickup (replica)
An 80's "metal" Strat (16.5" radius fingerboard) -sold
A weird Chinese Cozart resonator guitar with a mini humbucker and 6.5" of string between the bridge and tailpiece!
83 LP Cherry burst (clown burst) sold
Squier Tele
Broadcaster (replica) I built from a 27 dollar ebay kit.
Epi SG VE
A Harmony Patrician, I have yet to be able to date...but I think it's an early 60's even though it has an S-48 stamp inside.
J bass copy. sold
90's Maestro LP jr. (made in China for Gibson.....I traded a bicycle engine kit for that one- gave it to my granddaughter.
A Puerto Rican cuatro.
A Roy Smeck Uke. At one time I sold it to a guy in France....it came back almost a year later, undelivered. The guy never contacted me, and I couldn't contact him through ebay any longer.
A Tenor uke I built from a kit- not great, but it looks nice, haha.
A soprano uke I built from a kit, and painted the scene from "A nightmare before Christmas" on the back for my son in law.
Epiphone DR 100 flat top I gave to my granddaughter.
60's Vibe Jazzmaster.
Cozart Jaguar copy.
Epiphone LP Special.
Squier Strat- Reverse silverburst Ltd edition.
'68 Sekova semi hollow body.
Hannah Montana by Washburn- one step above firewood, but I did the impossible, (according to the "experts") and made it a player.
Firefly LP Jr. DC.
First Act VW guitar.
First Act 222 sold.
First Act ME4016 sold.
2003 Squier P bass.


o.k., that's not 50k in guitars, but if sold for top dollar today, some of them are worth a lot.

Most I got from pawn shops over the years before the prices went through the roof.

The Harmony was in an attic, in literally dozens of pieces. I bought a 2 oz bottle of thick CA glue, and a 2 oz. bottle of thin CA glue, and puzzled it all back together. It plays and sounds awesome, but don't tell any "real luthiers" that I did that, haha.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

I won't go into the heartbreak of the National Studio 66 I let go in the 70's, (it was fleshtone pink, hollowbody, and "not cool" at the time....got it at a garage sale for 175 dollars in '75- that was a lot then, and it was my first electric guitar) or the 40's National lap steel a guy borrowed, then skipped town with, (seriously dude?)
OR the '56 Musicmaster I sold to a guy in Texas to help my daughter pay for college. (that one was made in the first month of production, and I got a pile of money for it at least) I will be honest- I did shed a tear or two for real when I shipped that one off.

 

[FOG]

Joe, I've been tuning a whole note low of late, not just E's to D's, I mean the whole guitar cuz it's helps with my voice. I can carry a tune .... just not very far!

But I ran across an internet guy that said it can be bad for the guitar to do that. Over time it can raise the strings making it harder to play?

My thought is why do I need full tension on a 50 year old neck. It's a Yamaha FG180 BTW.

What do you think?

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

Nope. If anything it will cause the neck to flatten slightly. Easily adjusted with the truss rod. (loosen anywhere from a couple of degrees, to around a 1/4 turn)

But, if it ain't broke.....

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

What will raise the strings...also adjustable- is going from .09's to .13's, haha.
That will pull a small bow into the neck.
I have worked on and set up all kinds of guitars for 30 years.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

The Jazzmaster is absofrickinlootly awesome!
I picked up an "unplayable" First Act 222. In less than an hour I had adjusted the truss rod, leveled and polished the frets, and shimmed the neck. TOTALLY PLAYABLE!!! 2.5 mm relief at the 12th fret.
The pickup sounds better (has more treble bite) than my SG VE.

It's the ugliest guitar I have ever owned, but they all feel the same in the dark, haha.

 

[FOG]

You've got me lookin' at mine Joe! And yeah, it's in the neighborhood of 2.5mm at the 12th. If it ain't broke ....

But I have been concerned with the condition of the first several frets. Over the years they've developed dips where the strings contact. I should probably just leave it alone, but what do you think?

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

Refretting is actually pretty easy, and inexpensive. However, if it still plays well without buzzing, I'd leave it alone.

I bought a 35 dollar strat copy just to experiment with a few things. I pulled all the frets out and replaced them with Fender super Jumbo frets.....they are so high it's almost like playing a scalloped neck, lol. I managed to do it without screwing anything up, which was a great confidence booster.......so I hand carved the neck into a vintage Fender "V" profile- with a big kitchen knife. It came out amazingly perfect. I used it as a draw knife/spokeshave. It took an hour or so, and barely needed sanding once it was done.

The trick with replacing frets, and other things like neck carving is patients. It takes more time to properly dress the frets after you install them. Youtube has a lot of good tutorials....Dan Erlewine videos are fun and informative. So is Dave's world of fun stuff.
Also have a watch of any of several refret vids. If you really love your Yamaha (and I know you do) get a goodwill 20 dollar job and practice all you want first.

Yes, it's fun and addictive....like bikes.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

I picked up two more yesterday. One was a First Act 4016 with the phoenix design and two humbuckers. He wanted $30!
They guy said if I could fix his LP, I could have it.
I got there and the LP was an Epi LP with a rats nest of wiring somebody butchered up. I was able to get one PU working (the switch was shot among other bugaboo's) so he insisted I take the guitar anyway. I gave him $20 for it just to ease my conscience. That is the cheapest guitar I have acquired so far...by $8.00

The other is a Sekova Semi hollow body from '68 or '69. The kid wanted $80 initially, and said it "just needed strings". When I pointed out that the bridge was gone, and it needed extensive work, he took $40.

It's in ROUGH shape, but the Teisco PU's are worth 40 each in "non working" condition. It has two that work. Everything but the roller bridge is there. It needs a ton of work to bring back from the dead, but I am going to try very hard. It's worth around $200-$250 in playable condition, but if I part it out I can get somewhere around 350-400 for the parts. HOWEVER I have a thing about NOT doing that to guitars, bikes ect. Once the parts go to 10 different places, they are never to be rejoined, so I am going to try my best to get it playable and pass it on to the next collector.

 

[FOG]

I'm gonna chicken out and leave mine alone. The only buzzing I ever get is from is from the imprecise placement of my fat fingers.

It would cool to take an old dog cheap guitar and make it play well tho.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

YES! Go to goodwill or the salivating army and get a 5 dollar cheepie and work on it.

Be careful with the 5 dollar cheepies though.

My son in law (a non player) bought a 3 dollar uke to put up on the wall to look at. He asked me "what kind of a ukulele is a CF Martin?"

After I researched WHICH Martin it was- it turned out to be a "low line Martin". It's a 1929 Martin uke and it's worth 300 dollars all day long.

He put it in a closet somewhere....but at my prodding he said he's going to take lessons.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

Oh snap.

I had one space left after I assembled my guitar rack the girls got me for Fathers Day.

So I bought a Hannah Montana guitar.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

Yes, seriously.

 

[MotoMagz]

Kurt Cobain‘s guitar from 1995 unplugged MTV episode just set a record $6,000,000 yep million!

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

Gotta get me one a those!

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

The acoustic he's playing? That's a sad sad statement of where we are today.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

Got my latest guitar, and the toggle switch was broken. It's a 3 dollar part, and a 15 minute fix....but come on.

I had a problem with FedEx two weeks ago- footprints all over the box, but at least the contents weren't damaged. Not sure what happened to this one- delivered by UPS.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

Anyhow The V Dub guitar is in the house.
I sold a cheapo today and made 15 bucks on the deal, plus I got my education in refretting with that one. So win/win.

Hannah Montana arrives tomorrow.

 

[MotoMagz]

Yep I’ve seen boxes go thru **** and back. Sometimes u get lucky and get no damage in a beat up box. My mail lady will punch my mail into the mailbox . Just so she doesn’t have to walk a package to the door.

 

[Bikeguy Joe]

I used to think UPS was bad, but when I got the guitar with footprints from fedex, I almost lost it....TWO prints right below the word FRAGILE. When I called to make a complaint, I got a "foreign accented gentleman" who couldn't care less. I am sure the complaint went right to the proper people...