Thursday 26 August 2004

I went to see DKT/MC5 last night, featuring three of the now legendary rock'n'roll revolutionaries the MC5 from Detroit. Absolutely fantastic show, and Wow! that Wayne Kramer can't half play the guitar! It almost makes me want to get a Fender Stratocaster again. (By the way, I noticed he was playing a hardtail, i.e. non-tremolo, Strat, which conversely had the legend "with Synchronized Tremolo" on the headstock. A mis-matched neck and body, perhaps?). Anyway, catch them if you can!
Mother Maybelle's Guitar in Hall of Fame
Eagles guitar expected to be highlight of Swampy auction

Monday 23 August 2004

Annihilator - guitars for sale
BOOTSY EXCLUSIVE BABY BUBBA - Bassist keeps the funk alive and skates around politics with new album. Or so it says here. It's about Bootsy Collins, in case you hadn't worked it out already.
Body Count Guitarist Dead: D-Roc is the third member of the pioneering rock 'n' rap group to pass away.
Jimmy Page to open London Walk of Fame
James Brown Band bass guitarist dies at 72: Bertrand Odom, RIP.
Guitar Auction to Aid Charley's Victims: loads of signed guitars to go under the hammer to benefit those hit by the hurricane.
Mercurio Electric Guitars Offers Interchangeable Pickups: Mercurio Guitars has launched a new line of guitars that feature an interchangeable pickup system so you can change the sound of the guitar in seconds, and works with all standard pickups. For more information, visit www.mercurioguitars.com.

Thursday 19 August 2004

Yamaha Pacifica 112 Guitar Project, Part 3

Having finished sanding the guitar body, I was ready to proceed with applying the wood stain. I decided against using just a single colour and making the guitar look like it would have originally. I decided instead to try to create my own more interesting finish through the use of masking tape and three different colour stains!
Masking the body with tape
Masking the body with tape


The first stain has been applied and the tape removed
The first stain has been applied and the tape removed


Taped up again and the second stain is applied
Taped up again and the second stain is applied


Tape removed again: the first two colours
Tape removed again: the first two colours


A view around the back
A view around the back


The third colour having been applied
The third colour having been applied


Neck, scratchplate and bridge positioned to show what the guitar will look like
The neck, scratchplate and bridge positioned to show what the guitar will look like

Redneck And Here To Stay - An Interview With Gretchen Wilson courtesy of Epiphone Musical Instruments

Wednesday 18 August 2004

Wednesday 11 August 2004

Blink-182's DeLonge Expects 'Always' To Change Life As We Know It: kiddie-band guitar player talks total bollocks.
Tony Mottola, Guitarist, Dies At 86: Tony Mottola, a guitarist who played with Frank Sinatra and on NBC's "The Tonight Show" over the course of a 50-year career, has died.
Former Eagles bassist Randy Meisner hospitalized
Fans of Martin guitars play a happy tune: 100 Martin guitar enthusiasts celebrate their favourite instrument maker.
Guitars fighting cancer
Townshend's Guitar May Fetch £35,000 at Christie's Sale
New York Dolls play on: The New York Dolls say they will honour their commitments following the death of bassist Arthur Kane.
Hendrix memorabilia set for biggest rock auction in London

Tuesday 10 August 2004

Kinks founder treated for stroke: Kinks guitarist Dave Davies is recovering from a stroke having collapsed on 30th June.
Win an Epiphone Bob Marley Les Paul and some other stuff.
Pilot creates cockpit-friendly folding guitar: A Swedish pilot and amateur musician has created a folding guitar that fits into his cramped cockpit. It is similar in size and style to a Fender Telecaster, with a neck that folds back into the body and the strings being pulled onto a roller.

Saturday 7 August 2004

Yamaha Pacifica 112 Guitar Project, Part 2

Today I spent quite a while sorting out the bad sanding job that someone had done when they stripped the body of the guitar. I don't think they even took the neckplate or perhaps even the scratchplate off the guitar as there was evidence of the guitar's finish underneath both of these!

I did the donkey work with an electric orbital sander and then switched to sanding by hand - you always get the smoothest finish that way. There was also some of the original finish lurking inside the cutaways so I applied Nitro Mors to these areas to dissolve it away, before cleaning it up and re-sanding.

I also checked my box of guitar spares to make sure I have everything I need for re-assembly. I have a loaded Pacifica scratchplate, a tremolo bridge (although with no arm and no springs), and various knobs. Pieces I still need to find (or rather, buy) in that case are tremolo springs, tremolo arm, jack socket and plate for side-mounting, pickup selector cap... and that's it!

Here's what the guitar might look like when I re-assemble it:

Bear in mind that it won't be that colour though. I've not decided on the colour yet, other than it'll be a natural finish, but my inclination is to go for a darker stain, perhaps even mahogany-ish.

Here's a couple of options that I'm considering:

Chrome dome knobs for the volume and tone, rather than the ordinary Strat type knobs, and replacement black pickup covers for the single coils (they look a bit weird here in the photo because I simply placed them on top of the existing pickups for the picture). I'm not decided yet which would look the best (the existing white pickup covers are very dirty), I think we'll have to try it and see when I put the guitar together again.

Friday 6 August 2004

Bass Ukulele utilizing Ashbory strings: Crossbreed a Ukulele with an Ashbory and you get a Bass Ukulele!
DR Introduces Dimebag Darrell Signature Hi-Voltage String
Parker Guitars Introduces Two New Models: Parker is adding two new, more affordable models to their P Series guitars, the Telecaster-ish P-36 with ash body and maple neck, and the P-42 with mahogany body and neck.
Pink Floyd's "The Wall" to be staged on Broadway: Pink Floyd founder and bassist Roger Waters will write the book for the show and orchestrate the music. "Now I can write in some laughs, notable by their absence in the movie," he said.

Thursday 5 August 2004

The Bone by Triff of Switzerland. It's another of those neat little travel guitars - yet another option for a guitar on the move, which can't be a bad thing!

Wednesday 4 August 2004

Yamaha Pacifica 112 Guitar Project

Yamaha Pacifica 112 Guitar Project
I have a new guitar project to get working on, namely a second-hand Yamaha Pacifica 112 body and neck. It does have a scratchplate but there are no electrics and no bridge/tremolo. The neck, however, does have all its tuners intact, and it just so happens that in my box of guitar spares I already have a Pacifica 112 scratchplate loaded with a humbucker and two single coils - all wired up and ready to go. I think I may have a suitable bridge/tremolo for it too.

On the guitar body itself, someone has had a go at stripping it down to the bare wood, but they have hardly made a brilliant job of it. The first job to do will be to get it sanded properly, nice and smooth, and then I think I'll re-apply a finish - I will most likely use my tried and trusted remedy of Ronseal All In One - it's very easy to apply and gives a superb natural finish.

As for the neck, well, at the moment it appears to be slightly bowed, but we'll have to see what it's like once the instrument is finished and strung up. Hopefully, it'll not need much more than a truss-rod adjustment.

More on this project later.

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