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Escribano -> my journey into the blues #10½ - guitar abuse (May 11 2015 22:58:22)
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I spotted an interesting ad in the local online classifieds. A rather flamboyant flame veneer Strat in bits. When I enquired, the seller offered to include another quilted Strat for £50 more ($80). I added up the component costs retail and it came to around £800 for both ($1250) so I offered £200 ($311) plus £10 shipping and they arrived very well packed.
Last weekend I took at look at my assembly options. Here's what I found on one of the guitar sets. The other has hardly been touched, thank goodness:
- Neck pocket bashed about
- Neck too narrow for pocket
- Neck pocket packed upwards with pick guard scraps
- Neck truss rod unadjusted and therefore bowed
- Gold Gotoh tremolo unit with incorrect vintage string spacing
- Body routed/hacked and drilled for Gotoh tremolo (too wide for neck pocket and neck)
- Neck drilled off-centre to try and align to Gotoh - no chance
- Pick guard hacked to fit when 22 fret neck in place, rather than loosening neck and slipping it under extended last fret lip before attaching.
- Pick guard screw holes therefore out of position
- Shoddy cheap wiring
- Great blobs of solder from an underpowered iron
- Volume pot burnt out
- Tone controls wired backwards
- Wrong capacitor
- Plastic nut with wrong string spacing and too low for playable action - hence packing up the neck pocket?
- Tremelo fitted does not allow arm to pass over controls
The only things not messed up are the top quality, locking tuners which may have come with the necks (special order, because the decals bear his name!). I checked him out and this guy has published a book on Fender guitars and claims guitar restoration as one of his skills on LinkedIn.
I have managed to assemble one almost-playable guitar from the parts, with lots of clamps, drilling, desoldering, orange drop cap, vintage spec. wire, micrometer and bits from my parts bin. You want to talk about intonation!!
I have another tremolo on order to try to get the other one running. They both came with all the accessories, including genuine Fender screws, springs etc. and brand new ToneRider City Limits pups (very nice), though I have installed a hot custom bridge pup in the working guitar. The bodies are both routed for humbuckers, so I might get my pup guy to come up with some special HSS magic sauce.
Here's some photos of the flamed guitar in progress. When I have done a little more fettling of both guitars I will post a sound sample. I prefer the quilt but they are both very handsome and the working one shows a lot of promise in both playing and tone.
I reckon he bought everything all over again to make amends but lost heart. The moral of the story? Know your guitar tech. before ordering a bunch of bits from eBay and invest in some decent tools!!
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