OT The So Cal guitar? Shameless logo promotion!

Yep!

 

Yeap, the guitar companies can make reissues of old axes, but there is nuthing better then a guitar that has been played hard for 40+ years in smoky bars. The petina, feel of a worn in neck, and the sound, just cant be reproduced. I think guitars at a certin point almost increase in value the worse they look and the harder they were played. I would rather have a old guitar the was played hard, then the same guitar that is mint. Its just as CadillacKid said SOUL!

 

And it's even more true of acoustic guitars. It also applies to reed instruments, brass, pianos and bowed instruments. Why do top symphony players have instruments that are a couple hundred years old? Cause they just sound better!

 

Got to love SoCal hopping in the sack with Fender. I suppose it was bound to happen. Fender's t-shirts are kinda cool. I'm proud to own a bunch of old and new fender junk, but this makes me hang my head and wonder. It's all about the bottom line, so it seems. Anyways, keep on rocking.

BMS

 

Well at least it's a stripped-down one pickup rock 'n' roll kind of thing. I could dig it.

 

Right on guys...at least we're all in agreeance on this....

 

A pinstriped tele...that's badass...I covet your Guitar...and I WILL have have to build one of those now..thankx for costing me $$$ already this year!

 

There's always this.......

 

This board is about building it yourself, ain't it? I'll stick with my 2004 Strato-Castro®. Cigar box (Cuban!), hockey stick neck, draft tap tailpiece, and shot glass slide. Got 3 strings and uses 'em all...







Just added a Gretsch bridge to replace the eye bolt in these photos, and will soon be electified.

 

I can hear the twang from here ..................no frets?....whats the sustain like ....give us the first 3 bars of texas flood please

 

He's using a slide guy, like a steel guitar.

 

mine...Epiphone Flamekat (gaudy, I know)

 

Here's my old stage rig. '65 Fender Twin Reverb w/JBL D120s, '65 Fender Dual Showman w/JBL D130s. Guitars are Rickenbacker 450 12-string, '53 Gretsch Country Club, Rickenbacker 360. All guitars wired stereo, neck pickup through the Showman, bridge pickup through the Twin. I bought the Twin from Jerry Garcia in 1966, toured with it for years, still have it. It had been hotrodded by Grateful Dead soundman Stanley "Bear" Owsley with all milspec components, Mallory capacitors, etc. Don't use it much anymore since it's too loud for most club work. Polaroid picture taken at Goldstar recording studio in L.A. in the early '80s.


Another shot:

 

Yeah! I want one and I want it now!

 

I'll try to post pics of my freshly striped Sorento.

If you have an epiphone, the best thing you can do is put some TV Jones pickups in it. The difference is night and day. Worth EVERY penny.

 

Holy shit Mike, I bet you've got some interesting stories to ell.

Bert, do a google search for cigar box guitars. There's a whole lotta people sitting on their back porches making weird noises with homemade instruments these days. Strato-Castro MkII is in the works.

 

And now there's this!



...but I still lust after a Gretsch!



pigpen

 

Ok, I couldn't resist posting on this thread any longer. As stated before by another, this site is for guys who build their own shit, so here's mine.

I built this about 12 years ago while I was working at a local music shop as the guitar repairman. That was a great gig cuz I got all my parts at cost and a lot of sweet free shit from the manufacturers.

This guitar was the last of about four that I built in a short three years. This is the only one I still own. It's a Tele copy with a twist. The body is black walnut with a 1/4" cherry top fininshed in linseed oil and the neck is a Kramer that I thinned a little, (I have short fingers!).The pickups are old Peavy P12 models that were potted in epoxy so there is no highend frequencies, which make these little babies GREAT for blues, specifiallyTexas blues, which is what I was really into back then. The bridge is sunken a black chrome Ibanez Edge which is prolly the best and most reliable fine tuner made, at least IMHO. The controls are basic volume and tone with a switch for each pickup. I still have a homemade vari-tone 5-way switch that I need to put in it. I chose to run an XLR output just to be different. The strap in the pix is also hand tooled by me. Hell, I evenmade the case! I have about $400 bucks in this whole outfit and and she's a hot rod, not a rat rod! But the best part is, I MADE IT!



Sorry if the pic is big, this is my first shot at Image Shack

Vance

 

Same gitfiddle, other side...



Vance

 

I have a push/pull pot on the tone control and had intentions of adding an on-board chorus but never got around to it. I even got all that foil liner to cover the inside of the cavity that I'd have to sink the chorus circuit board into.

Vance

 

Many times, I won't click on a small pic because my computer is really slow. I just had to make your's bigger for all to see. I have made only one solid body electric guitar in my time and it was extremely labor intensive. I appreciate anyone who makes their own stuff.

pigpen

 

Hey Vance, that's a sweet guitar. We had a flame painted Superstrat. Now we have a home made Supertele. Absolutely 2 cool 1

 

Here’s my gold flake epiphone sorrento that Chris50 striped for me. I wanted it to be subtle and just accent the flake. He did a killer job. Thanks Chris!

 

Now you guys can all laugh, I just bought a Gretsch annervisery model. can't play a note. It is due in on Friday and my first lesson is Sat. It's my birthday present, I turned 53 and have wanted to learn how to play all my life, so here goes, if all goes well in five or six years I'll be able to play a tune, if not I'll still keep it it is perfect.

 

go boy! it won't happen if you don't make it happen.____dan

 

Before this thread totally dies, I want to post a pic of "Big Red", the Jap Strat that I've had for the last 19 years. He's paid for himself a few times!

pigpen

 

What I wanna' know is: when does the OCC axe come out? And the Fender theme bike come out? And, can Paul Sr. tap notes out on the fretboard like Eddie Van Halen?

Fuck it, I'll just go play my home made guitar through my '54 Gulbransen organ (push-pull 6L6's; Leslie speaker).

Here's the axe, under construction - next to the Squier

I just wish my TV and speakers were bigger; still have room between them and the coffee table...

-bill

 

5th Ave. Mike,your Gretsch is super nice !!! What do think about this '55 here ? And no,it's not mine.

 

That is tits on the ritz Frenz! Friend of mine had a 6120 that was even older...had the DeArmonds like this one does but also had the steer head on the headstock and the engraved cacti and fence rails on the fingerboard blocks. Also the Bigsby tailpiece and bridge were gold plated like the pickups and machines. He noticed how good mine sounded as a stereo guitar and when he went to wire his stereo he found that it already had the stereo master volume and tone pots in place. Apparently the guitar had originally come from the factory wired for stereo. The guy got strung out on junk and hocked the guitar and never redeemed it . What a moroon. Wish he'd sold it to me!

BTW a lot of people don't realize that Bigsby was a guy who made custom motorcycle parts who got into making electric guitars. He came up with the headstock design which Leo Fender later copied.