Epiphone SG ding

I just bought this sweet Epiphone SG 400 on eBay, and though it was very well packed it somehow suffered a nasty ding!!! This is one I'm not planning on selling; I'll need to do some cosmetic work... I had considered doing something along the lines of what I've seen online (pics included, not my original work) so this shouldn't interfere. I had toyed with the idea of leaving the body as is, but the destroyed finish has sealed its fate. It's right in a spot that really irritates the underside of your arm too... about perfectly awful. But, it still sounds awesome with actual Gibson Burstbucker Pro pickups installed, and no neck / peg head issues, which is what I worried about in shipping!!

I'm not sure what USPS was up to, but this poor guitar didn't like it. The damage is over an inch long and there are cracked pieces underneath the dent just waiting to flake off... (heavy sigh). Hard to get good pics of it in my dim basement... the flash overpowers everything and it just glows red.

Victorian / Western Les Paul... woodburning and setting a neck.

Well... I've been working on this guitar. It's definitely going in the direction of the Gretsch Roundup. I've done some significant woodburning on the top and back of the guitar; lots to do still, but it's coming along. I'll be tooling some leather for those plastic pieces on the top, and doing some fun leather pieces as trim on the sides of the guitar. I actually found some western-themed leather belts at the thrift store, so I may cheat and just use those on the sides.

Nobody seems to get excited about a bolt-on neck, so I decided to try converting this to a set neck. I carved and routed out a small cavity in the neck that would match a maple piece glued (and screwed) onto the neck that extends through the neck pocket into the body cavity. This is glued in with hide glue, just in case there are issues and it needs to be taken apart, as many guitars end up having that need. It still looks fairly rough, but I'll address the cosmetics later.

PEARL HARBOR / WWII Guitar Update

I know it's the holidays and people are buckled down to recoup financially, but despite that fact I'm trying to move some guitars out of my possession. My Dad saw this guitar and thought the Japanese Imperial Flag pickguard was a detractor; while cosmetically and aesthetically it's cool, anyone with actual ties to the war and the era could be offended by its presence and prominence.

So, I fabricated another pickguard out of aluminum. Some snips, a hammer, my Dremel for engraving, some drilling, hardware, paint, and finish- and a new pick guard tribute to the Arizona and the lives lost onboard.

WESTERN / VICTORIAN LES PAUL

I found this Bradley Les Paul in a thrift store. It looked great, and had all of its hardware... perfect for a renovation. The price was right, so I asked the staff if they could bring it over. I wanted to check to see if it was solid wood or not (it's not worth spending time on plywood that no one wants) so I asked to borrow a screwdriver. I removed the cavity covers and found that it seemed to be solid wood! So, I grabbed it and took it home.

When I got it home, I stripped the hardware and finish; in the process I found that the body was solid pieces of a mahogany species which I was fine with, but the top was a bizarrely arched plywood- chintzy, and it cracked when I was pulling out the bridge stopbar posts. Great- an easy project complicated. I was going to turn it into a Goldtop Gibson, but that idea quickly went out the window. Time for another theme guitar!!

I chiseled off the top, used a belt sander to level it, went to Woodcrafters for some mahogany, came back with a mahogany species (sapelle), split it, glued the pieces together to make a wide enough piece,  cut the rough body shape, and glued it on. Once it dried, I used a belt sander to even it out with the rest of the body.

I carefully routed out the neck and pickup holes, and re-drilled the bridge posts according to the scale length. I also started the development of a special pick guard.

Here is where the guitar stands now; nothing close to what it will be. Hint: wood burning, leather stamping, victorian woodcarving.

Boba Fett Custom Strat

I bought a used Strat copy body and neck that I found in a pawn shop. It was to become another Star Wars guitar.

Strats can be beautiful, but the design (though ergonomic) can be a little boring. I love seeing Strats with custom paint jobs, exotic wood, custom pickguard appointments, even just abuse and damage. So, I took this knock-off and got to work.

I hand carved / hand painted all of the features on this guitar. To the best of my knowledge, this guitar has a solid basswood body with a veneer of something denser on the top and bottom. This is actually a great idea- basswood has become a popular tonewood, but it is soft; the denser wood helps protect it. The neck was strange; it appears to be some relative of mahogany. The fingerboard is rosewood.

Here are the specs for the guitar:

*Basswood body
*Mahogany neck
*Rosewood fingerboard
*Locking Fender tuners
*String Saver Saddles
*active EMG SA pickups ($200+ on eBay)- These are so cool and easy to install! Great clean sound.
*Interior shielding
*Custom artwork
*Basswood carved additions
*blocked tremelo for increased sustain (as seen on Clapton's guitars)
*braided Wookie scalps to hang off strap pin
* Behlen stringed instrument lacquer finish
*Gold Mother of Pearl inlays

       Details to look for on the guitar: Boba Fett's 3d helmet, 3d jetpack rocket, 3d wrist gauntlet launcher, pickguard with Han Solo in Carbonite and Mandalorian symbol, backplate with Mandalorian symbol, Slave 1 ship schematic, simulated blaster wear / battle damage, "Fett-der" locking tuners (that's what the "F" stands for, right?), BOBA FETT STRAT-1 metallic waterslide decal, ship console control knobs, real leather belt!

Hear and see the guitar in action here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvec7GEc4jU

World War II / Pearl Harbor Electric Guitar

A few months ago I bought a used Epiphone Dot. I always loved this body style; the first electric I ever personally owned was a black Epiphone Casino with the Epiphone Bigsby-style tailpiece. Grrat looking guitar- I ended up selling it to buy my first Gretsch Nashville 6120. Which... I later sold. My collection has become a rotation of guitars. Moving on...

As seen previously in this blog, I bought this on eBay and the guitar arrived with a broken peghead thanks to some guy who likes to throw boxes somewhere in the shipping process. I've always wanted to learn to repair this classic mishap (because there are A LOT of awesome guitars out there with broken pegheads) and this was the ideal (and necessary) situation to work with.

I took out any removeable part, test fit the broken joint, masked off the truss rod (to protect it from being gummed up by the glue), and carefully saturated the break with high quality wood glue. On top of this, I inlayed steel supports on either side of the neck and filled the space with JB Weld steel epoxy. This neck will not be coming apart again. I will be doing a special "full metal jacket" over the back of the neck to provide even more support as well.

              Anyway, I added "rivets to the top of the guitar, primed, and repainted. All of the additions are to reflect a war-torn WWII / Pearl Harbor theme. You can see...

*WWII era pinups
*WWII Warhawk (shark mouth) fighter design
*"Battle damage"
*Map of Hawaiian islands
*Torn American flag
*WWII Japanese Imperial Flag pickguard
*Pearl Harbor explosion painting (based on famous photograph)
*Authentic WWII Naval dogtag on peghead (information included on this veteran)
*Authentic WWII USN pin on peghead
*military drab paint scheme
*Black pearl knobs

       The guitar has some major hardware upgrades:
*Chrome Sperzel locking tuners
*Duane Eddy style B6 Bigsby
*premium TV Jones Classic pickups
*Roller bridge for tuning stability
*1 volume, 1 tone

           Electronically speaking, this guitar is the Brian Setzer Hotrod Gretsch with the addition of a tone knob.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5wQllYjtHU