elynnia

Hi folks,

A while back I remember reading about and seeing photos of someone's project to take an old fullbody archtop and cut it down to make a thinline. It might have been on these PG forums, but I can't seem to find it - if anyone knows where it is, could you please tell me? I'm possibly getting an old archtop soon and am thinking of giving it the same treatment. =)

Thanks,

Aly

Props on you too for noticing it! ^^ (I do have the poster too~)

That'd be awesome - excuse my ignorance, but I'd assume Karl Svarc is some sort of guitar-guilding deity, eh?

By the way, your bass is shiny. Massively. Good luck with it, if it's not done yet, and if you've completed it then congratulations for having something that gnarly.

Finally, I hate to ask so many questions, but - if you, Karl or anyone else knows what woods might have been used, then I'd be extra-glad~ ^^

Aly.

Hi folks,

In a shopping trip to London yesterday I managed to pick up a rather very inexpensive acoustic guitar for messing about, taking around to friends' places &C. It seems to be in good condition, however it does not have a single piece of evidence to show who it was made by.

Interesting points of note - well, there's little that's actually interesting on this guitar, but the little things are the pattern on the headstock, the odd translucent plastic used on the headstock cover, front and back edge binding (allthough no binding down the centre of the back, or the centre of the bottom where the strap button is), the number 085760 stamped inside and Schaller "Made in W. Germany" tuners.

The tuners seem to be replacements, and I can see the imprint of the original tuners and extra screw holes: the original tuners (one for each string) seem to have had a back plate in the shape of an elongated chevron with slight curves on the top and bottom. Also there seems to have been at some point a pair of long pickguards with flat bottoms ending at the bridge attached to the front - one on each side, making a vaguely "bell" shape.

Judging by the headstock pattern, I quite think that it's an European instrument of some sort - and also since Kay/Harmony/Old Kraftsman/Silvertones are rare here in England. If anyone has any information on identifying it, or its age, please share. ^^ Also, would anyone also have a clue as to what kind of tuners were originally used?

Now to the business part - it is generally in good condition and very playable especially regarding its age, however the front seems to have been refinished/coated with extra paint/somethingonce, and on top of which the ridges of the wood seem to have risen, so that when I run my finger across it I can feel it. I don't mind that part, however the overall finish looks dull, and is there any way to shiny it up a bit? I'm lead to think some light sanding with 1500 grit wet-and-dry, or car polish might do the job, however I'm known to be wrong and don't want to mess it up...

Thanks,

elynnia

Thank for all the suggestions,

According to someone who works in a car repair shop, the type of paint is most definitely a flat-black automotive spray usually used to do undercoats and the like in cars.

I'm not sure of the original finish, but it seems to be thin, shiny and transparent...

elynnia

Ah, thanks. However, I was wondering, is there a chemical stripper that'll take off the top spray without damaging the original finish?

Hi,

I have one guitar neck that has been spray-painted with black paint OVER the original finish, which I am trying to restore to put into a guitar. From where the paint has come off, the finish underneath seems to be of good quality and I would like to keep it. The neck is a Strat-type bolt on made of a light-coloured wood and the fretboard has also been painted over - Is there a good way to remove the outer layer of spray-paint without damaging the original finish underneath from this disaster of a "custom"?

Thanks,

elynnia

Harmony Monterey to be exact. I just made a new pickguard for my friend's Monterey. Don't ask me how or why but he loves that guitar so much that hes got just under $3000 Cdn invested in it's refurbishing. To each his own.

Are you sure it's a Harmony Monterey? The headstock with the pointy centre and the tailpiece seem to be rather different from the examples of a Harmony Monterey that I see on the internet. Also, is it just me or does the sunburst pattern look..off for a Harmony or related archtop?

Another thing - when would this guitar have been made?

thanks,

elynnia

Hallo,

I found a picture of an archtop guitar that struck me as curious:

It seems to be an older archtop, by the general look, but the sunburst pattern on the pickguard and the style of sunburst on the body seems to indicate a more recent guitar. The fact that it has no name on the headstock doesn't help...

Can anyone help with identifying this guitar?

thanks,

elynnia

was my post invisible? or he just doesnt understand?

I do understand, but I beg to differ, and I genuinely think the 45+ year old archtop for under $400 is a very reasonable condition. Looking on ebay.com, at one time anyone can find a number of Kay, Harmony and random blank-headstock archtops that surely are 40+ years old that fit the price criteria too.

elynnia

yeah, should be easy to find a 45+ year old archtop guitar for under $400.

That's what I thought first, when I looked around the internet (which is mostly American-oriented)...but I can't seem to track down any in Sydney - I guess the local preferences just weren't for them...so if anyone knows how I could find one, that'd be great...

...elynnia

Hallo,

I'm a not-so-longtime archtop fan in Sydney Australia, currently looking for an inexpensive (under $400 AUD) acoustic-only fullbody (preferably 60's or earlier vintage) archtop guitar to play. I know that in the States, they turn up everywhere from local dealers to ebay and go for very reasonable prices, but so far I have not been able to locate one in Sydney, Australia. Any info on obtaining one, as well as what to look out for, would be great.

Thanks!

elynnia

Hallo,

I was trying to clean up an acoustic guitar I have, and I was wondering if it's ok to use olive oil to polish the fingerboard and the bridge. I've used olive oil on other wood projects, but guitars may be different...

...elynnia

Here are the photos - these were taken on the bad camera with low resolution, more pics when completely done!

The front:

The back:

Close-up of the covered pickup hole:

I think it was a not-too-bad first finishing project (saturating a Strat copy with blue aerosol spray probably doesn't count), and unexpectedly the guitar looks like it has a slightly reliced look.

After I get it signed some more, it'll get some screw holes filled, more coats of clear finish, and hopefully a name in the headstock...

...elynnia

Hiya,

Sorry I wasn't around much - the guitar's in a basically playable and mostly finished state - has been since last December, but I was lazy. Also, I was also too lazt to photograph the work in progress, so here it goes. ^.^

A local car smash repair shop was kind enough to let me use their industrial sander (which they use on car bodies) to strip the paint, which worked quite a bit better than my cheap electric sander. Nevertheless, the finish on that guitar was impossibly hard and thick - one of the people at the smash repair said it was the hardest/thickest coat of paint they'd ever seen. Being a plywood instrument, I also sanded the top layer of the ply off the sides: the intention is to make this a viable acoustic guitar. Removing the f-hole binding turned out to be harder than expected; this is one of the incomplete aspects o the guitar.

After the sanding, the bridge pickup hole was covered using the method explained above by unclej. For the top panel, I happened to come across a piece of plywood approximately the same colour and thickness as the original top, which also had been naturally warped to almost completely match the guitar's arched top. Dowels were glued in to fill the holes where the 3-way pickup selector and two of the volume/tone knobs were. After this, the top was sanded again.

As I could not find anywhere in Sydney with good guitar painting supplies (and for the final time, do -not- point me to reranch.com!), I used a set of furniture paint supplies by Wattyl: the body was stained using Honey Oak "wood gel", and a stripe was drawn down the middle with Walnut Brown wood stain - partly in homeage to Les Paul's Log, but mostly to draw attention away from the joins where the bridge pickup had been filled. The front of the headstock was painted a flat black, and the back of the neck was sanded down to a natural finish, as done in classical string instruments. One coat of Estapol satin finish was used to cover the whole instrument.

The tuners, bridge, tailpiece and knobs were replaced, and the wiring was redone using a liberal amount of shielded wire. The pots and pickup are original - they weren't too bad, and was enough for an instrument that would be usually palyed acoustically (although a closed pickup cover was fitted). Medium-light flatwound strings are fitted right now, and seem to be a good balance between tone and volume - the plywood finish makes this guitar slightly quieter than most acoustics.

After this restoration, the guitar was taken to Byron Bay for a week for schoolies, where we had a great time sitting - or standing - around and singing Oasis and Green Day classics (we -are- a bunch of high-school graduates class of '06), and I got it signed by - well - anyone who wanted to sign it.

As a guitar, it plays better than in its original state, probably because of the removal of the hard/thick original finish and the sanding off of the top layer of the side plywood. Overall, I'm quite happy on how it turned out - after I get it signed by a few more schoolmates, it'll get another coat (or two) of satin finish.

Photos are on the way...

elynnia

As with the strings - there's a manufacturer that makes flatwound cello strings in the same manner as guitar strings, so it should behave magnetically like any other guitar strings.

As for the pickup, I would much rather prefer a guitar-style pickup, because I can plug it into effects pedals and the such - I'm not a classically-trained cellist, but rather I bought the cello to experiment with even more different sounds and playing techniques (I want to use the cello for alternative/innovative rock - as for playing, I leant classical double-bass for over two years, and the technique is similar to cello.)

thanks,

elynnia

Hiya,

I'm planning on electrifying a cello using a guitar pickup, although so far there's been the problem of the string spacing not matching that of either guitar or bass. Recently I found a mini-humbucker pickup for Strat that fits into a single-coil slot and has two parallel rails on top - is it correct that these pickups pick up sound along the entire length of the rails?

thanks,

elynnia

If you want to save the binding I would suggest sanding only.

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So - just to make sure - I'm using 60 grit 'garnet paper' on an palm 'orbital' sander to sand through all of the paint to get to bare wood - is it normal to talk this much time? Should I use wet/dry paper instead, like someone once said?

BTW...what brand if guitar is that?

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It's a Fullerton. Which, incidentally, is one of the many names these cheap import guitars get...

elynnia

Stripper melts binding.

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So - if I'm using chemical stripper on this guitar, how should I cover the bindings? Would masking tape or duct tape also turn into goop?

Sorry - first refinishing project,

elynnia

Hiya.

Although I'd expected it to work smoothly, the finish on this guitar seems to be particularly strong and it looks like this:

after 2 and a half sheets of sandpaper and quite some time, even with a palm sander. I was wondering - would a chemical paint stripper work on this finish be more efficient? I've read that stripper is bad for the bindings - should I cover the binding with masking tape or duct tape, or keep the stripper away from the binding altogether? Also, just wondering, what exactly happens when stripper gets left on binding? (I'm trying to think of a way to remove that f-hole binding...)

thanks,

elynnia

Hiya,

I got a palm sander, various grades of sandpaper and dowels today, so it should get started anytime soon. I've decided to dowel the round holes and fill the bridge pickup hole like unclej said - hope it works well. I'll try and post photos as it goes, but just to make sure - it's fine to do just as this tutorial:

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/sand.htm

says on this archtop, eh?

Also, I got a brown wood stain to colour it after it's done, hopefully should turn out well...

elynnia

Hiya - thanks for the comments and sorry for the late reply.

I've become really busy lately - the guitar's gonna be on hold for another 2 or 3 weeks at least. Will post progress later, thanks.

elynnia

thanks,

The problem's not the f-holes...it's the ugly holes where there once used to be pickups and knobs. I know that the logical thing is to fit the electronics, but I really like a 'clean' top, so yeh. on another topic relating to this unclej said he knows a method...wonder what his is.

the guitar:

thanks,

elynnia

mmhmm - since I'm no expert on messing with guitars, I think the 'dutchman' is what I'll do. Should I trace the holes left and then cut out pieces of wood to fit it and glue that in, or is there a better way? Also, what could I use to fill screw-holes and gaps in the wood before I paint it?

elynnia

To mask any f-holes (or any hole that peers inside the cavity) stuff clean lint-free rags in the cavities so that they protect the innards from overspray. Make sure there is enough rag in there that it dosen't move around while you're spraying.

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Oh, in that post I was asking about fixing up the top of the guitar - it's an archtop which has whole where humbuckers used to be mounted - any ideas on how to fill the holes over so that when I refinish it it looks 'right' would be awesome.

The guitar's an archtop, so there are only f-holes, and no soundhole rosettes, so that should be fine. I'm planning to sand down the whole instrument, because at the moment it's a terribly ugly shade of 'yellow-burst', and then possibly coat it with violin laqcuer. Also, unclej, if you could explain more about how to cover the pickup holes without taking the top off, that'd be great (I changed my mind and got it, currently playing with holes in the front).

elynnia