Yamaha pacifica modified Partscaster

I mentioned back in November that I had completely refurbed my old  Yamaha Pacifica

Here are the Pictures Check out the awesome ash Body I am a lucky boy.
So far I'm happy with it. Although I feel the musicman pickups are a bit clean for my tastes.

As I mentioned in November. Putting a guitar together with Yamaha parts is effortless. I can recommend it.



 

Wesley Zephyr

 

Check out my latest acquisition.

It's a Wesley Zephyr.
Wesley where a company that sold budget guitars on Ebay for about 10 years. but are no longer in business. John Wesley is still operating a guitar tech business.
From what I can gather they seem to have been reasonably good quality for the prices they went for.

I saw this one on sale on Ebay a few weeks back and I just HAD to have it. 
Having found no information about it I wrote to John Wesley at Wesley Guitars who kindly replied telling me this is one of "about" 12 they did as a test run but never proved to be very popular.

I have also found out they did another model called the Doppler. (pictured below) which had the same body shape but with 2 humbuckers a standard hard tail strat style bridge and a less snazzy Scratch plate.

It plays as good as it looks. It's very comfortable and easy to play. It has a slim neck with a very flat radius. The Pickups deliver in every respect. I haven't had it apart yet but will do when I change the strings. If the pick-ups allow it I might install some push pull pots for coil tap and phase options.
It's also a very well made guitar. The Inlays are Tidy The neck socket is tight and the whole guitar feels solid and resonant. There are a few flaws in the paint work like some bubbles and a touched up bit in the carved ledge just above the bridge which isn't very noticeable and seeing as they where test models one can forgive them of these shortcomings.

I love it. I'm chuffed to bits I have a very rare guitar (for peanuts) and I'm going to have to sell something else to make room for it! (I only have room for 8 personal guitars at a time. I don't need any more as I always have guitars I'm making or refurbing and customers guitars in for setups and repair so as a guitar lover I'm generally satisfied.

Update 27/03/2013 I have now sold this on. (I'm going to regret it.)

 

Marlin Sidewinder. My new favorite guitar

The Marlin Sidewinder. Much maligned and often found lurking in the depths of Ebay where they sell for small change.
I picked this one up with a job lot of guitars. It was dirty. So dirty you could have grown potato's in the accumulated grime. The intention was to break it for parts or to sell it on as it was. However curiosity got the better of me and I decided to give it a clean, fret dress and see how it played.
Usually the sidewinder comes with a two point floating tremolo with fine tuners this one when I picked it up had a weird chunky Japanese 6 screw trem. The saddles of which where all adjusted to be as far back as they could go which for perfect intonation wasn't far enough. mm! someone had changed the original two point for this one but no when I took it apart no extra holes so it was originally fitted with a 6 screw but just not this one so replaced it with a typical squier style one which fitted perfectly and with room for adjusting the intonation.
Also they usually have a bar string retainer whereas mine has the two round string trees.
Marlin also made the Slammer which was a single coil version with the 6 point trem and the round trees so this is some sort of hybrid I guess.
after cleaning I put it all back together strung it up and wow the neck is gorgeous so playable and feels like an expensive neck. The body is plywood. big solid heavy plywood. Now I'm not a believer in saying a particular material is better than another for making a guitar body out. don't get me wrong, I'm sure a rubber body would be pretty awful but some people would have you believe that the best wood for tone is swamp ash or mahogany and anything else is rubbish. this is such a contentious issue. My opinion is that the material a guitar is made of gives it it's own unique tone.
Anyway back to the Marlin. It has a humbucker with big fat bars in it in the bridge position and two Alnico (yes Alnico) single coils in middle and bridge. It also has a mini switch that puts the pick-ups in phase or something.
Sound wise it's just great. it sounds a bit fender but also a bit Gibson but not really you see it has it's own unique sound and I love it. especially in the bridge middle position with the phase (or whatever it does) switch on.
It's not all rosy The machines are rubbish but I will change them when I next change the strings which is a bit of a shame as the retaining lug is not in the standard place so I will have to drill some extra holes. also I find the neck although beautiful to play is not that stable. Some days I pick it up and it plays like my dream guitar then a couple of days later the strings are hitting the frets! I can put up with this as I'm not going to gig with it.
Click HERE for a very good article about the Marlin Sidewinder.
Here's some pics. notice the industrial pickup selector switch!

Cigarbox Ukulele

The cigar box Ukulele is finished and I am overjoyed with the end product.
Apart from somehow denting the fingerboard after I had glued it on it's not too noticeable though.

Specification.
Concert scale Ukulele.
Body: Vintage La Corona cigar box. Cedar top (lid) Possibly beech sides and some sort of Mahogany type bottom. with original labels.
Neck: Mahogany scarf jointed headstock. Extra chunky.
Fingerboard: Wenge.
Bridge: Australian Walnut.
Saddle & Nut. Bone
Tuning machines. open ivory effect plastic buttons.
Position markers: Aluminium and Wenge.

I have strung it with Aquila strings and it just sounds so sweet. Not as loud as a standard Ukulele of course but loud enough. It does have the benefit of a under saddle peizo. which sounds fairly good too. although it probably would benefit plugging in to some sort of pre amp to get the best out of it.
I'm keeping this as a demo model ( I don't have the heart to let it go just yet either) If you want to order a similar spec one then get in touch. I did put the jack socket on the back which would be on the edge in any subsequent models.

Beli 3 string Cigar box

Here is the finished cigar box that my recent Build Log was documenting. well nearly finished I have decided to find some brass sheet to make a tailpiece out of as I think it will suit the gold better. I also have a gold strap pin to put on too.

I am very pleased with how this one has turned out putting the neck through the centre of the box was a pretty good move as the sound transmits from the strings throughout the whole body so even without a sound hole it's certainly loud enough for acoustic strumming. Amped up is pretty good too the Teisco pickup produces a warm tone with enough low fi grittiness to keep it on the mojo side of things. It is a bit buzzy though.
For sale? No I'm keeping this one for myself. at least for a while.

Specification.

Body: Back and sides from a vintage cigar box (unsure of wood) Top made from 4 pieces of beli with a central bubinga stripe.

Neck: Beli

Fingerboard: Bubinga

Frets: 21 narrow medium nickel silver.

Bridge: Purpleheart with nickel silver fret wire top.

Nut: Purpleheart

Tailpiece: Stainless Steel

Machine heads: Gold plated

Pickup: Teisco single coil behind a Mahogany cap.

Controls: full size 500k Volume pot with a Bubinga capped gold plated Knob.

Length:

Width:

Scale length: 25.5"

Weight: 1.3 kg / 2lb 9 oz

Here's the pictures:

King Six 3 String Fretted CBG

Fresh out of the Shonky Workshop is this lovely little 3 string fretted CBG.I'm particularly fond of the fender strat Inspired reversed headstock. This is the second time I have used purpleheart as the bridge and nut and I think it works very well.
Anyway here are the pics and bumf from my Shonkymusicalinstruments.co.uk

The King Six is a short scale 3 string fretted CBG

This CBG has a nice rustic look to it and in the best tradition of Cigarbox guitars made from mostly recycled, reclaimed or re-used material. (The strings, piezo and jack socket are new)

Despite it's tiny size this CBG kicks out some volume. it's certainly loud enough to practice on or mic up without amplification although it also has a piezo installed too.

Not only is it loud it also delivers a really sweet mellow tone. The Purpleheart floating bridge and nut Combined with the Australian Walnut through neck construction gives great sustain and clarity.

This guitar is fretted with 20 Narrow / Medium frets. and strung with a .013,.017 .026 Martin acoustic strings. and tuned to DAD.

of course you are welcome and encouraged to try different string / tuning combinations.

It is set up for combination slide / fingering so it is low enough particularly at the headstock end to finger chords and do little runs etc and yet be just high enough so you don't keep hitting the frets.

Specifications:

Body: Vintage Oak King Six cigar box

Neck: Australian Walnut

Headstock: Paduak reversed.

Bridge: Purpleheart

Nut: Purpleheart

Frets: 20 Narrow / Medium nickel silver.

Tailpiece: Aluminium (Maybe)

Machine heads: Gold

Length: 30.5" (70.5cm)

Width: 5.5" (40.4cm)

Scale Length: 23" (58.5cm)

Weight: 1.6lbs (750g)

SOLD

My Indie Shape

This handsome devil is to the best of my knowledge an Indie Shape Real Natural Built 2003 in Korea.

Body is constructed from swamp ash with thin rosewood strips, two strips of maple another two thin strips of rosewood and a central piece of maple. The chunky bolt on neck is hard maple with two rosewood strips and a rosewood skunk stripe. It has a chunky C profile, jumbo frets and abalone dot markers. It has a typical strat set up with 3 single coil alnico Indie custom pickups, tortoise shell scratch plate, chrome Wilkinson WVP tremolo and chrome Grover machine heads. It is finished in a super smooth satin.

Indie guitars Where formed in the UK in 2002 by Keith Willis an Ian Carnell. Recently however they seem to have moved and are now based in the US. If they have been bought out or just moved I don't know.

This one is (reluctantly) for sale on my website although it's a stunning guitar and sounds great I just can't get on with the jumbo frets and it is a little on the heavy side for my liking. Although I should really keep it as an investment as it's an early model and in virtually mint condition.

Sold.

Lag Splatter Jet

Last weekend was a very creative and productive one. the weather was good, and Rachel (My partner) had a week off work so I had no childcare duties which enabled me plenty of time in the workshop (Shed :-) )
I bought the Lag Jet some time ago off a gigging musician near Glastonbury. It came with a Dean Markely 75 watt amp and a vintage Boss Pedal and a hard case.
The guitar was in a pretty bad state still playable, just, but the frets where very worn and the neck was extremely grubby, the tremolo bridge was very badly corroded,  and there where a few heavy chips and scratches on the body all testament to hard gigged life. Ignoring the wear and tear  I was very impressed by the quality and originality of the Lag Jet for what is essentially a entry level guitar. Its beautifully routed inside. not a rough edge anywhere. I love the fact that the back cover plate is recessed into the body so it fits flush. A 24 fret neck with a very cool 2 level headstock and marker dots that recede in size either side of the 12th fret. and two blank control knobs which I think are great as I've always thought that having the numbers on control knobs was pretty pointless. I mean it's either loud enough or it ain't. I never use a tone knob anyway so they are always surplus to requirements.

Any way back to the guitar! I thought a cool Shonky paint job was needed to give this old girl a new lease of life.

It is obviously inspired by Jackson Pollock, I have done many a splatter/drip painting in my time as an artist and it is by far the most satisfying form of expression for me.

Any way back to the guitar again.
I stripped the original finish off. and primed it. I then gave it a backing coat of slate grey acrylic. I used acrylic paints for the splatters then coated with several coats of Poly Varnish.

The finish is quite textured as the paint was very thick. It has to be the right consistency i.e to thick and it just ends up blobby too thin and it runs like crazy. so if you like your guitars with a super smooth finish your going to hate it.

As the Bridge was corroded I Have given it a nice new modern roller Tremolo Bridge.

I have also dressed and polished the frets. The action is low low

The electrics and pick-ups are the original ones which work perfectly well. so I'm not going to change them.

It still has it's original cover plates which have aged nicely.
It also has It's original machine heads with white plastic buttons.

The fret board is still a bit grubby but I am going to leave that as it's only cosmetic and plus it's a bit of history.

SOLD