Dub's Wacky Project Guitars Thread--we're baaaaaack

[dubkitty]

spent some time playing the M-75 and the Aristocrat (boy, would this ever drive a Guild purist crazy since the original’s full model name is “M-75 Aristocrat” LOL) and i’m pleased with how my Guild group is coming along. i still need to dial in the DeArmond a bit more. it’s close, but not quite there yet. the string height could stand to come down a bit, and i may yet go through another round of adjusting the pickups. the Aristocrat is absolutely delightful except that the truss rod needs to be let out a bit. the pickup adjustments worked really well. the Franz pickups are great, with a neat combination of P-90 rasp, single-coil chime, and a woody acoustic quality that really comes out when you roll off the tone knob(s). like a lot of single-coils the bridge pickup poles have to be cranked way up and the neck pickup backed down a bit to get them properly balanced. i loved it when i got it, and it’s at least 2.5 times better now. adjustable pickup heights would make it another 4 or 5 times better.

i note for the record that calling Franz pickups “P-90s” isn’t accurate. they share some similarities but also have significant differences in their construction.

i’m quite amused by the fact that out of 17 active electric guitars (counting the M-75 and Jetstar) just about half are Gretsches and Guilds/DeArmonds. i didn’t see that coming. and in fact the whole M-75T/Jetstar thing was a happy accident…i thought the neck repair would make the Jetstar into toxic firewood, but the Guild warranty center/shop i got it from did a solid if not cosmetically nice job on it. it seems quite solid. and adding the tremolo and resetting the pickups made it into a beast. not quite a Firebird, but in that ballpark. funny that the only one that’s 100% sorted is the sparkly blue DeArmond, and that’s because i went over it in detail and then some last year when i got it.

i saw something when Googling for info about the Gold Tone pickups indicating that they can be coil-split. this is interesting because unlike most ‘buckers these would probably retain some girth along with the emphasized SNAP of the attack. on the other hand, soldering would be involved.

[dubkitty]

in something of a shocker, the replacement DeArmond knobs which were supposed to be delivered on Friday are already in Richmond and will probably be here tomorrow. then all that’s left will be the pickguard.

my curiosity was piqued by the existence of the M-77 and M-77T models so i dug around for specs. apparently the 77s are slightly thinner—like 0.1”—and the non-tremolo M77 uses a Gibson-style stop tailpiece rather than the groovier harp tailpiece on the 75. the 77s also have a belly-relief carve on the back of the left lower bout.

but the surprise was finding a catalog spec sheet that says both the 75s and 77s are mahogany (others say agathis) with a carved maple top in addition to the maple neck. so the M-75 really is an honest-to-jah budget Bluesbird. which is how i was thinking of it while shopping and conceptualizing. i can hardly wait to show it to my friend Charlie, who owned an OG Bluesbird he sold to George Thorogood. who immediately painted it white

[dubkitty]

the new knobs arrived and they’re perfect. not a chip or scratch on ‘em. of course i put them on immediately. i did one more pickup adjustment to make sure the whole pickup was precisely parallel to the string path—god bless them for using a 3-screw Höfner-esque pickup mounting style. everyone should do this, but i’m not holding my breath. once that was done i just got lost playing it for awhile. the bridge pickup is piercing without being shrill, and the neck pickup is full, consonant, and yet keeps up pretty well with the bridge PU when it’s pushed. i’m not used to having this kind of pickup gain on tap, but i could get used to it really easy.

while i wait for the new pickguard to arrive, i’m going to deal with the finish issues. there’s a scratched area on the high end bass side of the neck that’ll get brush-on clear coat and polishing like the sides of the Kondor, a deeper scratch at the bottom left of the front of the guitar i may use clear CA on because it would take several applications of clear coat to get anywhere near built up enough to get sanded flat, and a couple of small dings on the edge of the headstock i’ll drop fill with CA that’s been accelerated.

this shouldn’t take long, and should be done by the time the pickguard arrives. the only other thing i’m thinking about doing is changing out the tone caps for silver-mica which are the only caps that actually affect the high frequency response with the tone pot wide open. they did wonders for the SG and Dyna Jet.

so i’ll work on the Jetstar CA repairs between M-75 fixes. the need for long drying periods should be helped by the accelerator. i have to figure out where the best places on the guitar are to experiment without gassing myself and/or the rest of the building. i’m probably overreacting to the potential problems like i always do.

[dubkitty]

did a layer of clear coat over the scratches on the M-75's upper neck. it looks like the owner habitually leaned it up against something that scratched it like that; there are barely visible scratches on the other side of the neck that run parallel to the ones i'm fixing. this shouldn't be too tricky. probably two coats should do it. again, i'm starting with the simple stuff because i'm afraid to take on the big stuff.

[dubkitty]

two coats didn't seem like quite enough. i could still feel too much irregularity where the finish was scratched. so i gave it a third coat, which i think should do it. the packaging claims you can sand it in 3 hours, but from long and bitter experience i believe that means "overnight." conveniently, i'm off to Becky's tonight and will start sanding tomorrow. still not ready to start using the CA accelerator. maybe tomorrow i'll do the deep scratch on the bottom of the M-75, but i think i'll do a test first on the ding in the Jetstar's body that needs some building up before it can be finished, because there'll be plenty of ways to cover it up if it sucks.

[dubkitty]

well, in a Meisterstucke of omission i managed not to order any clear CA in the same thickness as the colored ones, so the M-75 didn’t get used as a test bed. instead, i used clear coat to try to pick up that scratch. no doubt i’ll have to do multiple coats tomorrow.

[dubkitty]

i did try some clear CA--i had some Gorilla CA in my tools boxes--to fill the scratch. it didn't work particularly well, but that kind of deep scratch on a curved surface is really hard to fill effectively. it is much less obvious, though, so i guess i'll take that. it doesn't jump out at you, whereas it was very visible in the seller's photos. the poly clearcoat worked much better when it came to getting rid of the scratches on the neck. still not invisible, but you can't feel them any more. i have one more possible thing on the M-75. there's a chip out of the finish on one side of the headstock that seems tailor-made for a drop fill with black CA. but do i care enough to bother? anyway, i reckon the next thing is the Jetstar fixes. i really wish i could contract this kind of shit out, but i can barely afford the guitars in the first place.

anyway, that makes the M-75 done except that one ding, the new pickguard, and perhaps a little more polishing on the areas i sanded. i'm calling this a successful project: got the guitar for less than half of what they usually sell for, minimal added investment in parts (knobs + pickguard, less than $100 in all), and not much repair work. it took me longer to figure out the pickups than to fix body problems. and i got lucky by getting a 25-year-old guitar with a straight neck and good frets. if every project was this easy, i'd have time to do other things. when i get paid tomorrow i'll order its case and it'll take its place in the group.

the scratch is at approximate center of photo near the edge.

much better result here.

[dubkitty]

i started the filling on the outside (front) edge of the headstock. so far it's a qualified success, with a big qual. i filled the ding with white CA after spraying the spot with accelerator, and that shit is miraculous. dried glue that would usually take a couple of hours in seconds. the contouring worked out quite well, the colors less so. the white CA isn't opaque enough to hide the spots where the black infiltrated small imperfections under the masking tape. here it's sanded out to wet sanding with 2000 grit. i'm going to have to do something else to fix the coloration; the black lacquer marker will probably do for the black surface, but it's going to require some kind of off-white paint that can cover the black bits that lapped over the boundary. please have a Vintage White brush-on poly, thank you very much.

yeah, i know, not a great picture...try taking a end-of-headstock photo holding the phone in one hand and the neck of the guitar in the other. the things i do for content...

i'll polish it out tonight and probably do the black marker bits, which hopefully will cover enough that it won't require separate painting. i'll have to consider what to do about paint...i can't shoot lacquer over poly because it'll fuck it up, so i'll have to find some paint, ideally poly-based, that's opaque enough to make a solid shade. probably StewMac or one of the other luthierie emporia will have something.

next i'm going to go after the body dingus maximus. i'd better sand down the extant filler some to make room for a couple of layers of CA. i'll experiment with tinting the CA here as well; i have amber CA i can mix with the white in minute quantities to try and match the original finish. if it works i'll be happier; if it doesn't i'll assume that the neck stuff will also have to be leveled and then painted over. this may not happen till tomorrow because it's pushing 8 PM and i'm tired, having been at the Jetstar or M-75 off and on throughout the day.

i've apparently decided to sod off the nick in the M-75 headstock. it's not large or obvious, and i'm probably the only person who would ever see it. this is an example of applying the project principle "how perfect does this have to be to be acceptable?" i can live with that ding; i can't live with the obvious problems with the Jetstar.

[dubkitty]

various notes:

i strongly recommend that if you’re using aerosol CA accelerant, you should apply it first and let it dry like the instructions say. it works if you apply it after the glue, but makes the thick glue dry with the same unevenness it shows when left to dry normally. careful CA application over the accelerant dries to a fairly even, slightly shiny surface. like all CA it’s a bitch to sand, but it’s easier if it doesn’t dry all rumpled up.

if they don’t have 1200 grit sandpaper at the store, 800->1000->wet sanding with 1000->1500 works, but you need to be assiduous at the wet sanding.

it pays to have multiple grades of polishing compound. i bought Meguiar’s Ultimate because the packaging says it “obsoletes other compounds” but also got Turtle Wax “Polishing Compound (Pulimento de Corte Fina)”
which sounded like a finishing compound. turns out that’s exactly how they work. the Meguiar’s levels everything off and brings up the gloss, then the thinner TW compound polishes to a nice gloss.

you pretty much need an array of various items for finish work, particularly a good sequence of sandpapers. if you start too heavy—like 400—it’s a bitch to polish though it’d be fine for starting to prep an unfinished body. in a perfect world where Lowe’s was fully stocked i’d have 800->1000->1200->1500->2000, but they were out of 1200. i managed without it, but i’d prefer to have it before doing the tough sanding.

[dubkitty]

after a fair bit of research i think i’ve hit upon a solution to the paint problem. lacquer and poly don’t like to get along, so all the nitro VW options are out. there are, however, several brands of brush-on acrylic VW which won’t fuck over the original finish. they’re craft paints that dry to matte, so i’d need to clear coat over the acrylic. but that seems doable. i’m now a bit less on edge, but i’m still very nervous about working on the neck. however, i’ve been very nervous about everything i ever worked on, and so far nothing has crashed and burned but the Musima stuff that was too thrashed to fix up. hopefully the body ding will go well tomorrow. that would leave the neck for Saturday and Sunday. is there a light at the end of the tunnel, or an oncoming train?

[dubkitty]

i went ahead and prep sanded the remaining problem areas on the Jetstar, the neck at the scarf joint repair and the ding in the left side. the new plan may simply be using the Vintage White acrylic to cover the damage, do some clear coat over it so it can be polished, and sand/polish. this could all be done over the weekend, which would be delightful. prep sanding with 800 was very helpful for the neck repair area, removing some cracked paint and taking everything down to a reasonably smooth surface to paint. i’m going to do the acrylic over the surfaces sanded to 800 because theoretically that should help the paint stick.

[dubkitty]

i’ll probably still use some CA for e.g. filling the areas where i sanded down the cracks in the original finish for contour. and i might try tinting the white CA to try and match the original finish. but i suspect that the end game here will probably involve acrylic Vintage White paint unless i match colors really well and the tinted CA suffices as filler. and i expect at least one of those conditions will not be met.

[dubkitty]

sanded the remaining trouble spots. i had originally hoped to infiltrate the finish cracks near the neck break with tinted CA and sand them to an acceptable result, but i think that would only make deposits of CA in/around the cracks i'd have to sand through. polished out the headstock complete with problem bits. i'll pick them up with paint later. you can see here that the neck separated pretty cleanly along the scarf joint. the body ding will be less problematic, i hope, assuming that i can either match the CA or get the Vintage White acrylic matte and clearcoat over it, which worked a treat on the Kondor body fixes. i should probably sand the area below the body ding to try to eliminate or at least deemphasize the cracks in the finish below the ding. timetable for finishing the rest could be this weekend, but given my life i wouldn't count on it. you can see here that the neck is absolutely mahogany or a similar species. have i mentioned how much i love mahogany slab guitars lately?

[dubkitty]

i was too tired to go to Walmart after craft paint so that aspect of things will be delayed. the next thing i’ll try to do is color-match the CA and use it and the accelerator to try and fill the side ding. the neck is kind of complicated…along with the stuff you see in the photos there’s also a substantial divot around the tang and end of the 2d fret that had been filled with paint or something, and about 4” of fretboard edge that lost its clearcoat, which had been cracked in the accident, when being sanded that
will need to be redone. i think i’ll try using the rosewood grain filler on the divot. the light color of the wood should work with the filler hue. whether i try to use the tinted CA on the neck or not totally depends on how well it works on the body ding.

in the process of working on it i also play it and do setup adjustments. it’s pretty snappy now, but i think it needs the truss rod let out a wee bit. i may need to notch a couple of the bridge saddles a bit; the bridge is set as low as it will go and the action on the first 2 or 3 strings leaves something to be desired. the 7mm hex socket for adjusting the Aristocrat arrived and i let the truss out a bit and it literally solved all that guitar’s remaining issues. it’s a lovely sound, less dense and more spatial than the Gibson-style P-90s in my Tokai Les Paul Special but every bit as aggressive when pushed. it really wanted to feed back on the low A with the Princeton on 4. i’m really happy with how my Guild Patrol is coming along. now i just need to get the Jetstar done. it’s not essential —it’s quite playable as-is—but when it’s done it’ll be at least another 15-20% better.

even without the Jetstar and Double Jet being ready i could totally gig with just my Gretsch and Guild-family instruments which run the gamut from single-coil mahogany slabs to carved maple top rock and rockabilly machines to hollowbodies large (White Falcon) and small (the Aristocrat is entirely hollow, thus its desire to feed back).

[dubkitty]

pardon me if i’m stemwinding a bit too much for your taste. i find the ways the guitars of a particular marque relate to each other intriguing, and the similarities and differences between the Aristocrat, M-75, and M-75T fascinating. it’s the equivalent of the variations between the various Les Pauls and Gretsch Jet-family guitars. i was absorbed by comparing DeArmonds and their pickguard/knobs combos. i’d love to check out some OG Bluesbirds, but that’s way the hell out of my range. that’s what i was after with the M-75 with Gold Tones, which i like better than the 60s-70s Bluesbirds i see in demos.