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

[dubkitty]

while waiting for the M-77T and the paint for the Jetstar to arrive i decided to go through the parts box in search of a useable tunomatic and the bridge posts that came off the Jetstar, which should screw right into the threaded sockets on the M-77T. not only did i find both, i also discovered that the posts fit the domed thumbwheels i originally bought used for the SG and currently get as new items on Reverb, which should make it a lot happier about staying in tune when i use the Bigsby. i'm going to put the other set i have on the sparkly blue M-75T. i may use the same strategy that was used there of stacking metal washers over the front screws that mount to the body to reduce the break angle...i'll see how it goes when the stuff gets here. i really wish companies wouldn't put B5/B7 Bigsbys on guitars where it creates a 45-degree break to the bridge and a B3/B5 would have enough down tension to work. (while i'm about it, i also wish they would quit putting the B5, which is designed for flat tops, on guitars like Gretsches with arched solid tops.) i took that bridge and the one that came with the M-75 and cleaned and lubed them, running the saddles all the way to both ends to assure things were clean and slippy. i may try using the M-75 bridge out of curiosity as to whether cleaning it helped at all; you might recall that it improved things dramatically when i swapped that bridge out for one in better condition. assuming for the sake of argument that the wiring is OK, the only thing left to get is the pickups. i'll have to wait till the body and pickups are in the same place to figure out what kind of mounting rings i need.

the Jetstar paint is out for delivery. i think i may see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

with a certain amount of regret i'm going to have to stop getting new projects in and getting the ones i've got sorted. after the DeArmond, the Jetstar, and the Double Jet, none of which should require much additional expenditure, i need to pay shit off before getting anything else. and there's always the Galaxiemaster, hovering just out of shot, with enough stuff to do that it's like 2/3 of building a guitar. if that Supro is still on Music Go Round when i have cash to spare i'll grab it because it's at an unusually low price, but it'll have to wait for the Bigsby pickups. the baritone neck is also on the back burner for now. i need to spend some time playing the downtuned Jazzmaster, particularly with effects, to see if it's a thing for me. i'm happy that the total i should have to spend for parts for the Double Jet and M-77T is under $100. once all that is done there's not that much left i really need: my weird Telecaster with the mahogany neck, a Strat with CS '69 pickups, a Tele Deluxe with WRHBs that'll probably just be a Squier with a pickup transplant, and a headless Hohner/Spirit guitar with super clean pickups. that's only 5 things that aren't already in-house. none of those will require anything like the amount of work my previous projects entailed except maybe the Tele, and that still winds up as screwing a few things together. if i ever start playing bass seriously i'll get a Guild Starfire. nobody play me demos of any other cool singlecoil pickups, OK?

jeez, i sound like Robert Fripp planning shit out 3 years in advance.

[dubkitty]

it won't take 3 years, though...more like a year and a half tops, and a fair bit of that will be waiting to afford things.

[dubkitty]

the paint for the Jetstar arrived, and the guy out in California finally got the M-77T dispatched. so i have a pretty good idea of what i’ll be doing for the next couple of weeks.

the M-77T is a great example of why you should have a spare parts box if you work on guitars, and only discard stuff that’s trashed or useless. i was able to sort the bridge question in a few minutes, and that’s after just using one of the tunomatics in my box on the M-75. time and time again the parts i’ve squirreled away after 15 years of doing this shit have saved me trouble, e.g. i had switch tips to replace the one that fell off the M-75 as i was unpacking it.

looking ahead, the only thing that’s absolutely necessary for the Double Jet i don’t have is new Filtertron pickup rings because the ones it came with are cracked so i’ll order those and put it next in the queue after the Jetstar and M-77T. i also plan to replace the fairly crap stock tuners with high-ratio open-back tuners from Fox Music where i got the Oriole. its tuners are shockingly accurate, have removable buttons, are sold with either cream plastic or chrome buttons, and are only like $20 the set. the last addition is a banjo-style armrest which is a popular mod for Gretsch Jets and is like $18 on eBay. it would be great to have the Double Jet finished; when i tested it out before gutting it it was a absolute screamer through the Hammond head. the TV Jones Classic/Classic Plus combo is a fair bit hotter than the Filters in the White Falcon.

i love watching things fall into place.

[dubkitty]

out of curiosity i Googled to see what colors the M-75/M-75T/M-77/M-77T came in, and had a poke at what other stuff was in the DeArmond line. i appear to be safe from other 75/77s because i now own the three finishes i like best: blue sparkle, Moon Blue, and black. there’s also that the only easy replacement for M-series pickups i don’t already have seems to be Firebird pickups.the only other guitar in their line that appeals is the T-400/500, which is a DeArmondized version of the Guild Duane Eddy guitars. they seem to always show up in the Gretsch-alike Tennessee Orange which i’ve never cared for. if i ever see one in natural finish i’m snapping it up. there’s no point in pursuing their other archtops or Starfire bass because you can get used recent Guilds for around the same price, and i’m not interested in the Polara, or other M- and S-series guitars which have bolt-on necks. if i didn’t have the Jetstar and M-75 with the Gold Tone pickups i’d be interested in the DeA version of the Jetstar which comes with the diagonal Guild stop tailpiece and Gold Tones.

[dubkitty]

the Jetstar paint arrived. i didn't realize just how much 500 ml of paint is. now i'm going to have to find something else to paint so it doesn't go to waste. maybe the cheap ukelele kit Becky's sister gave me for Christmas. i haven't felt up to tackling anther round of painting/sanding/polishing yet, and i don't think it's gonna happen today either.

the DeArmsby also came in, and happily all the hardware is included including a coated-paper washer in the bottom of the spring mount. so that's one less thing to worry about. once the body arrives which should be Wednesday i'll first inspect the fingerboard to see if it's staying in place or needs to be glued. then i'll fix the finish along the fingerboard edges and give it a general clean/polish before mounting the tremolo and bridge with posts. assuming everything's OK i'll then put strings on to start setting it up which i'll remove when i get the pickups. i'll have to wait till the body arrives and i get the pickups to see what kind of rings i'll need, which will determine how big the cutouts are in the pickguard i'll order. if everything goes smoothly it could be done in even shorter order (other than the pickguard) than the M-75 which took a ton of dialing in to sound balanced. i really appreciate pickups with no polepieces because there's only a certain amount to be done as far as adjustment is concerned. i can spend days adjusting a pair of pickups. the nightmare setup for me is Filtertrons because they have two rows of adjustable polepieces and tiny adjustments in the balance of height between those two poles make a huge difference to the sound of the string. i spent a couple of hours dicking with the White Falcon's pickups trying to get the sound consistent between strings on the treble pickup and the top end of the neck pickup. it's better now, but still not quite right.

[dubkitty]

turns out that the M-75T has bridge posts with integrated thumbwheels so i can’t use the domed thumbwheels. i’ll bet i already tried this when i was working on it a year ago. i could order up some bare posts of the correct size, but it already seems to be doing OK tuning-wise, probably because of the stacked washers under the front screws that raise the front of the Bigsby about 1/4 of an inch. i’ll probably do that on the M-77T as well. the bridge also has a bit of wiggle room—literally—on standard-sized posts. i guess i’ll be able to compare the M-75T and M-77T and see how much difference the domed wheels make.

[dubkitty]

the folks at Advanced Plating who made the domed thumbwheels also make the correct bridge posts. i'm reluctant to pay $6 postage for a $2 item, though, so i'm going through their listings on Reverb to see what else they sell that i can use. they have Firebird pickup rings so i reckon i can come up with something. it wouldn't be bad to get more historically correct bridges, which they make, on some of the guitars particularly the DeArmonds, but it's not really necessary.

[dubkitty]

i’m not up for diving into the Jetstar finishing yet, so i’ve been tinkering around with it. i had to file the bridge saddles down almost to the level of the frame to improve the action because the 2-level structure of the Stetsbar raises the bridge too high above the body. i got that sorted OK and then pulled the pickguard to see if simply having a mirror-image duplicate made would work. unfortunately that won’t quite do because the contours of the body are too different on the other side. that beveled edge along the left lower bout screws up the spacing so the bottom end doesn't fit, and i don't want to get into the degree of redesign it would require to make it work. oh well.

if i'd had to go any lower i'd have been completely off the surface and down into the square base.

i also replaced the big kidney bean buttons on the M-75’s Grover-alike tuners with small bean buttons which i also did with the M-75T…i prefer smaller buttons when possible because they’re easier to grab and adjust, and fortunately have multiple sets of metal buttons that came off Strat-sized tuners or the 12-string’s alternate courses. i put a set aside for the M-77-T which weirdly currently has aftermarket chrome Gibson-style keystone buttons. i now have a parts box for it like the one for the Double Jet, though it’s less full because fewer things are getting replaced. generally a good idea so you can keep everything together and nothing gets lost.

[dubkitty]

i actually felt like working on the Jetstar’s finish yesterday but my back declined to cooperate. maybe tonight or tomorrow. the odyssey of the M-77T continues, but it’s finally in this end of the country. it took four days for the guy to send it, four days to go from Eureka CA to
Oakland, and then it disappeared from Monday until just now when it arrived in Jersey City. so it probably won’t arrive until next Monday. am i irritated? you betcha! since it was due on the 18th. on the other hand, it’s not necessarily altogether bad that i might be able to get at least some of the Jetstar stuff done before the easier M-77T arrives. the pickup rings for the Filtertrons on the Double Jet should arrive today, so i now have everything absolutely required to get it in working order. if i don’t have to do a general polishing job on the M-77T the assembly shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours including putting strings on. i can take them back off when it’s pickup installation time. i’m really hoping this doesn’t wind up being too complicated.

[dubkitty]

the M-77T is FINALLY getting delivered today. one of the worst performances i've seen in recent years by USPS, who have generally been better for me than some folks. the only thing Informed Delivery would show me is when it arrived at a particular stop, not when it left so it was impossible to estimate when it would arrive. so i'll unpack it and inspect it to see if the fingerboard appears stable. if we're good i'll clean it up, mount the tremolo and bridge, string it up, and check that there aren't non-obvious problems with playability. i reckon i'll change the tuner buttons then, too. once that's sorted i'll have to chill a bit because i'm hella broke and can't afford to order the pickups, which i need in hand to tell if normal metal Firebird pickup rings will work. not to mention whether any routing will be necessary in the pickup cutouts.

assuming that everything's kosher in DeArmondville (which sounds like an objective for D-Day +2) i'll be able to work on the Jetstar since the pickups won't get ordered until sometime between Thursday and next month. i plan on doing some prep sanding so the paint has something to stick to which hopefully i'll get in today because i know that thing won't be delivered within the USPS time window. i really want the Jetstar done so it's totally useable...i wouldn't like to take it out somewhere before the neck was sorted.

it would be nice to get these guitars and the Double Jet done before i take a break. the Jet has been sitting around for years waiting...i was working on it when i burned out on projects the last time.

[dubkitty]

the M-77T was finally delivered today. the good news is that the fingerboard doesn’t appear to have actually separated from the neck at all, so all the edges of the board need is sanding and touchup painting with the poly clear coat. it also looks like the entire wiring harness is intact and they just snipped the wires from the pickups at the selector switch. i haven’t taken the covers off so i can’t say for sure, but it looks good so far.

on the less great side, the finish is rather more tired than it looked in the listing photos. the top has a maze of fine scratches, and the back predictably is more beat. everything should polish out with the exception of a few small dings on the top between the cutaway and where the pickguard begins, which will probably get painted or drop filled with CA depending on how much trouble it gives me. the fingerboard needs to be cleaned and oiled. i really don’t want to have to fine sand the entire top like i did with the M-75T…it looks less damaged so hopefully a couple of passes with polishing compound should do the trick.

it looks like Firebird pickups should fit the routs, which oddly are much deeper than the surface-mount DeArmond 2K pickups which were the original equipment. i haven’t any idea why they’d have done that, and wonder if they meant to use some other pickups that never made it off the drawing board. the routs don’t look big enough for the Guild LB-1s like in the Jetstar, so i’m mystified. Franz P-90s? if i wasn’t at capacity for P-90 guitars i would consider the 75-77 series as a platform. i really like them…they’re not superbly comfortable and tend towards the 8 to 10 pound range, but the body, neck, and scale are good for me ergonomically. there’s nothing else in my pickup want list that would work with these DeA’s as a platform. WRHBs and Bigsby pickups wouldn’t be right for it, and the other stuff left is Strats and Teles which are the right platforms for the Strat and Tele-style pickups i want. it’ll be nice to do “projects” that are brain transplants on otherwise complete guitars. i’d particularly like to get a used Strat off the shelf and just drop in the CS69 pickups.

i’m really happy that things came together easily, and that it appears i won’t have to completely rewire it. you know how i feel about soldering. tomorrow or Wednesday i’ll go to the hardware store and get some washers like the ones the previous owner used to raise the front of the DeArmsby so the break angle wasn’t atrocious. but i have to clean and polish it before mounting anything other than the small Grover bean tuner buttons. the keystone buttons required screws that were too long for the baby beans; fortunately i had shorter screws that came with the Hipshot buttons i put on the Kondor that i didn’t have to use.

so the next order of business will be nicing up the M-77T and doing the Jetstar painting. i won’t get going till Wednesday at the earliest because i’m going to Philadelphia to see gybe! tomorrow night. happily, it seems easy to mix the paint since it’s a smallish 500 ml tin that’s easy to shake and invert. everything’s ready except for me LOL.

it was almost 100°F here today, so please forgive me for being too tired for photos of the M-77T. i’ll take some in the next couple of days.

[dubkitty]

something i noticed immediately when oiling the fingerboard is that the M-77T neck’s angle and relationship to the body raises the end of the fretboard a good quarter-inch above the top compared to the M-75. i should compare it to the M-75T and see what its neck join looks like. if i wanted to give it a floating bridge, the extra space would probably be enough for a rosewood bridge base or Gretsch/Melita bridge, but i doubt i’d hear much tone difference considering how thick the top is. that top is also flatter than the M-75s, with much less “dish” in the top like you see in a Gibson Les Paul. there’s still some arch, but it’s visibly less. this appears to have been a change to make the M-77 more like the original Bluesbirds rather than the more arched tops that came in on 80s and later ‘Birds which are noticeably more Les Paul-esque.

[dubkitty]

i finally got going on what hopefully should be the last stage of working on the Jetstar. i’m starting by sanding the headstock tip and the area around the filled ding on the left lower bout with 800 grit paper to give the paint some texture to grab onto. it took more sanding than i anticipated to get the side areas flat and reasonably smooth; apparently the accident + 3 or 4 layers of attempted repairs made it a tiny tad uneven, and the different hardnesses of whatever filler was first used, the CA i applied over that, the existing paint, and the wood made getting flat surfaces tricky. i think it’s pretty good now. we'll see how well it works.

[dubkitty]

i put a first coat of lacquer on the areas i prep sanded. it goes on pretty thick if you want actual coverage. looks like the color isn't a perfect match, but it's close enough for jazz. the clearcoat should also help to even out visible differences like it did on the Kondor body. when the white has dried and been niced up i'll fix up the boundary line between the white edge of the headstock and the black face.

and now we wait. the Nitorlack site says let dry for 24 hours between coats, which works for me. they also say to let a completed finish dry for 2 to 3 weeks, which isn't happening. that's if you're polishing out a full coat. i think i can get around that because it'll be covered by clear poly after sanding etc. so maybe i'll do another coat tomorrow. but it's finally happening, y'all. if i want something else to do tonight i could start polishing out the M-77T.

how do people who don't have a workshop let a body dry for 3 weeks? it's kind of gonna get in the way in the garage or basement.

[dubkitty]

it didn't take long at all to polish the back of the M-77T. that Meguiars polishing compound is the shizzle. there are a few deeper scratches the compound won't get, but they're not that serious and on the back where nobody will see them.

i need to take the retaining nuts off the pots and switch and push them down into the cavities before doing the front so i don't end up with less well-polished rings around the parts. i really would like to order the pickguard, but i have to get the pickups and rings first so i can establish how deep the pickup cutouts need to be. they'll probably start at the outside edge of the pickup rings like the M-75 so i can adjust the pickup height without taking the damn pickguard off.