I started with a L50 in poor shape. I looked for quite some time to find a real beater that had all the original hardware and original bridge. I needed a guitar from the correct time period to have reasonably been fitted with a CC pickup when these pickups were available new.
I found this 1937 L50. The top is in 5 pieces. The back is in two but has 5 cracks that I counted.
The wood on the back was in such poor condition, from prior repairs, I would have been smarter to just replace it and make new braces. In fact this guitar was actually MISSING brace #2. No evidence of any glue, the back had never been removed and it could not have been removed through the f hole as it would have been too big.
Back reconstructed with new #2 brace. This L50, like the original ES-150/CC, has a hybrid construction. The top is carved, but the back on both is a flat piece of wood bent over slightly curved braces. The later Non-CC ES-150s have carved front and back pieces.
The CC pickup reproduction was special order and took 3 weeks to arrive. In the mean time, I cleaned up the rest of the guitar and made the bound ES-150 style pickguard. Attachment 27395
Since this will be a 'player' instrument, the neck angle had to be 'playable.' It was just marginal with the original bridge. I wanted to keep the original bridge. I improved the neck angle when I re-fitted the back. I got an extra degree or two. This was actually a big deal and a little stressful... not knowing if the guitar would be playable until the back was glued on.
That's freaking awesome, man! Great job and a real labour of love. You made something useful and desirable out of a forgotten guitar. And I approve of the groove in your video.
Are people familiar with this? This helped me get more specific with my neck preferences. I found that I like the large c shape and the 66 oval c shape the best from this. The only thing I prefer is...
Yeah the #11 with a natural fifth is pretty common –– most chords marked 7#11 will sound pretty good with the fifth as long as it's an octave lower.
b5 with an 11th is weird.
But yeah ... on...
Hi All,
I decided to do extensive nitro lacquer drop fill on the back of my 1981 ES-175. There were extensive buckle rash, gouges, etc., and the result came out looking great except for these...
https://youtu.be/_oAK42erZJk?si=KXeqnuYuRwIkQsRy
When I play freeform, and everything is in the moment, I strive for compositional logic and structure. When I play a tune like this one (“You...
Don't think the modern electric archtops would really do the sound you're looking for. Something with a bit more acoustic dry punch would be better? Too bad the price of a 50's Epiphone has gone up...
On the Benedetto style archtops (solid, carved) from Wu and Yunzhi, ports are huge. Very easy to test playing with them covered to see the difference so it's not just an impression. Port applies...
You might want to email Michael at DjangoBooks.com. He carries all sorts of rare and old pickups, including DeArmond. He also might be able to give you a lead on where to find a pickup or two. ...
I have two guitars with sound ports. The Beardsell short-scale high-A flattop is almost all soundport on the upper bout and delivers a lot more volume than you would hear from the top if there was...
I only had one that I forgot the name (some guy had gits made and imported them) of because I sent it back as it had many top cracks that the seller did not reveal.
That said, despite the cracks...
Since chords are derived from scales, the #11/b5 designation exists so that each letter of the musical alphabet is expressed only once in the chord scale.
so a chord with a b5 can theoretically...
As bad as that break looks, I bet a good luthier can repair that so you'd never know it broke, and it would never break there again. It's pretty clean.
Hello. Old thread I know, but the greatest blues music guitarist/singer/songwriter(imho) was never mentioned; the late Elmore James. All of his recordings are free on YouTube and he popularized many...
Yeah, it's not so much that I wouldn't want one, I just know if I were ever to buy a really nice hand built classical, it's probably not going to have a truss rod--traditional builders just don't use...
Micro Scratches in Nitro Lacquer Finish
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