Dub's Wacky Project Guitars Thread--we're baaaaaack

[dubkitty]

got out the Köndor to evaluate the situation and kind of feel like it needs more work than i'm prepared to do right now to get it in its best-case condition. the wiring wouldn't be a big deal on its own, but the rest of the guitar needs some rehab. there's lots of chips out of the edges where the sunburst turns to black, and i want to try filling them with black cyanoacrylic and sanding them smooth. despite its somewhat battered state, i think that polishing out the chromed pickguard would be a good thing, which would involve taking everything off the pickguard. i have to reinstall the nut, and figure out how to deal with it needing a sloped surface to glue to when the nut slot on the Hondo neck is flat. and the headstock face needs polishing, which means off come the tuners. so i'll basically be taking it apart and going over it piece-by-piece and improving what i can. the basic structure and the concepts are sound, they just need a more optimized platform. i did find a colorful 5" sticker of a condor in flight i'll put on the headstock. kind of funny that i originally literally put this together from random eBay junk and now it has its own identity and integrity. it tells me what's right and what doesn't go with its personality like any other guitar.

so that means no more major project stuff till i get back from vacation next week. i'm doing minor touch-up stuff as it comes up. i needed to change the strings on the Epiphone SG and decided to swap bridges...it originally had an ABR-1 which didn't play well with the stock Vibrola without the domed bridge adjustment thumbwheels which were a vintage feature (and happily are now being made by a bloke down in Texas) so i switched it out for a Nashville TOM which also gave me a bit more room for intonation. it always looked clunky, though, like it didn't belong with the rest of the hardware. The Jetstar came with a vintage-style ABR-1. so i swapped the two bridges since i'm planning on doing the GFS/Hagstrom bridge on the Guild. it just looks right with the smaller bridge, and since it's over 15 years old it's settled down enough that it intonates on the narrower bridge just fine. naturally i did a full cleaning on the SG, lemon oil and all, and reset the action and intonation as one does when changing strings. it looks like a happy SG now. those wee visual details, the bridge and the lettering i removed from the truss rod cover, make a ton of difference in subtle ways. and the bridge and thumbwheels make the Vibrola a pleasure to use, and how often does someone say that about a Vibrola?

SG 6-26-24.jpg (69.01 KiB) Viewed 3600 times

i'm not sure what i'll work on next. the Köndor has a fair bit of disassembly and drugdery involved, the Double Jet's wiring is still intimidating and i have to get the pickup mounts sorted, and the Hopf needs its fingerboard sanded and the aluminum pickguard filed and drilled to accept the larger Schaller single-coils. at the moment it seems the work/gain balance would be best with the Gretsch, but i have time to think about it. i'll have to approach the Kondor as a series of small projects that get reassembled at the end, so that'll pop up during/between other stuff when i need a break from what i'm currently doing. The Hopf is simplest conceptually: put on the correct neck, swap the pickups, add correct bridge, and Bob's your uncle.

and there's weird shit out there calling me. i'm watching a cheap acoustic on eBay like one i had in the 00s which i did my Acoustic Upgrade Package (horn/casein bridge pins, bone bridge saddle, nut if needed, improved tuners) on and used for altered tunings. i'm also developing a jones for weird mutant Fender designs built by Guyatone c.1970. i see shit on Marketplace or eBay and i'm like "PLEASE don't make me buy another guitar!"

FWIW you can improve any half-decent acoustic guitar 100% with the Acoustic Upgrade Package, especially less expensive ones. if you just do the saddle and pins that's most of the improvement.

[dubkitty]

after returning from vacation i started puttering again, doing small doable stuff rather than diving into one of the big projects and trying to finish stuff up.

i added an ivoroid strap button from StewMac to the 12-string so i can use it standing up. i had to cut out the hole at one end of the strap so it would fit over the endpin jack button, whose center diameter is about 2.5 times that of a normal button. it works perfectly as far as i can tell...it's a bit amusing to stand there with a jumbo acoustic tucked under your arm, especially when you're 5'8". it came with a startlingly long screw, assumedly because it's intended to screw into the end block, so i had to drill about an inch into the heel. i started out with a wee drill bit and worked my way up in sequence till i got to 1/8" which was the proper size for the screw. i wrap masking tape around the bits at the depth i want to stop at so i can't overdrill. i don't think i'll ever have to be concerned about it falling out. it includes a quite clever brass bushing that goes between the screw head and the button so you can't easily over-tighten the screw and crack the button. this should conclude work on the Alvarez with the exception of possibly polishing out the pickguard.

alvy peg.jpg (73.7 KiB) Viewed 3555 times

i also got the Kondor's headstock fairly well sorted. i stopped off at an auto parts store the other day and got some finishing products i've used in the past for DIY guitar stuff. i went over the face of the headstock with liquid polishing compound. i'd forgotten how much compound, force, and time are required for a result, but in a reasonable amount of time it was looking almost frighteningly glossy. i found a California condor sticker on Etsy that barely fits on the headstock, but i rather like the bold effect.

kondor headstock.jpg (93.45 KiB) Viewed 3555 times

compare to February. the new tuner buttons are from Hipshot, and i was very happy to find a pearloid option for mini tuners that wasn't a Fender, Grover, or Schaller clone.

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[dubkitty]

when i reinstalled the Fender/Ping locking tuners (which BTW are excellent) i rearranged them so the shortest posts are on the top three strings, which seems best for avoiding string trees in the middle of the bird. i had to use thinner, flat washers on those tuners so the strings will pass through the posts because the headstock is slightly thicker than a Fender. i also filed the nut slot so the Gibson-style nut i installed is properly seated. there's an area of bare wood behind the nut as a result. i neatened it up after the photo with a knife so the edge of the paint is straight. i'm not going to mess with headstock finish issues any further until/unless i get into fixing the damaged parts of the body as well.

the next thing here will be pulling the pickguard, fixing the electronics, and polishing it out. i decided that even with the surface pitting etc. it'll still look better. i already solved the problem with mounting the big beige synth knob on the rotary pickup selector switch, which has a split shaft that got crushed whenever the knob's set screw was tightened...i cut a small rectangular piece out of a Fender Extra Heavy flatpick, which was the correct thickness to slip between the post's ears and force them flush to a brass metric-to-US pot adapter sleeve. it's as solid as i could ask for now. i still need to rewire things with a bigger cap on the tone knob which barely has an effect and get the volume knob, which currently is dead, to work. that should wrap up the Kondor other than finish issues which i'm pushing to the very back of the queue because they don't affect functionality.

after that's done i'll decide whether the Hopf or the Gretsch comes next. i'm doing the Jetstar last because it will require skills (spray-painting the neck and possibly other parts) i don't currently have. the Hopf requires work on the aluminum pickguard's pickup openings and needs the fingerboard sanded before reuniting the Hopf neck and body, while the Gretsch needs a bit of woodworking in the pickup routs and complete rewiring. i have a TV Jones tone switch harness for the DJ, but it needs modification because the only harnesses TV sells are for the full-sized archtop Gretsches, which use different switches and a master volume control that's extraneous to my application. oh, boy, more soldering. my favorite thing. but soon i should have two more "new" guitars to use which will both kill. after the Jetstar is done the next new projects will be the mutant Telecaster and cobbling together a Jazzmaster body, 3 Höfner staple pickups, and the Höfner Galaxie neck that's currently on the Hopf. i finally found a third reasonably-priced vintage 511 so i can go ahead without having to go back and add the third pickup later. wiring that one should be amusing because i want to do individual Jazzmaster-style thumbwheel volume controls for each pickup and recycle the tone switch circuit from the Hopf Jupiter 62 pickguard that's donating its Schaller single-coils to the Twisty. then i'll have a master volume and tone in the normal JM locations. still considering what to do for pickup switching. i found a reproduction laser-cut aluminum Höfner logo for the headstock on eBay which will get polished a la the Kondor.

after that the thing i'm most interested in is putting Bartolini active humbuckers of the original design in a full-sized archtop for that squeaky-clean studio sound. i figure the battery can tuck under the pickguard.

one tiny thing that's coming up will be installing pearloid Hipshot keystone tuner buttons on the SG's Grover tuners. i think they'll look more metaphysically right than the kidney-bean Grover buttons, and will be the last vintagizing thing i can do to its appearance short of throwing it down the stairs. i used the polishing compound on the truss rod cover which improved it a lot.

i also found a second Guyatone single-coil like the one in the Kondor's bridge position for surprisingly cheap. this opens up the idea of a guitar with two or three of those pickups, though i want to keep the first one in the Kondor. it seems like the COVID gear price bubble is starting to pop...i'm seeing parts much cheaper than a year ago, and just got a used Princeton Reverb reissue off Marketplace for $750, i.e. 3/4 of the going rate on ReverbBay.

[dubkitty]

i don't think i'm going to do anything to the DeArmond. it has some audible resonance happening below the top, and i'm not convinced that opening up the lower bout even more would be productive. despite all that removed wood, it's still heavy as heck so a bigger chamber probably won't outweigh the density of the remaining mahogany or give much improvement. i really should polish it out because the top has a lot of swirl scratching that dulls the look under some lights, but i don't want to spend that much time or risk wearing through more of the clear coat which is worn through in a few small places. instead of polishing compound, i put a coat of Mother's carnauba wax on and left it to dry overnight. once buffed out it looked much better, but still tired so i'll do another coat.

[dubkitty]

project momentum is picking up. starting with the small stuff, the Hipshot keystone tuner buttons for the SG arrived. they don't quite exactly match the vibrola knob, but close enough that i don't care. had to leave out the teflon spacer washer so the buttons didn't stick out too far from the headstock. i find it striking how much more balanced the design is with the original style of buttons and the other small changes. i'm really not trying to fool anyone into thinking it's anything it's not...my changes are on a subtler level, trying to making it look right. that "SG" on the truss rod cover in particular always bugged me. i don't see anything left to do here, except maybe put in a US pickup selector switch because the import ones suck. people diss the Epiphone humbuckers, but they're fine if you adjust them carefully.

SG 7-8-24.jpg (89.82 KiB) Viewed 3350 times

SG headstock 7-8-24.jpg (99.91 KiB) Viewed 3350 times

[dubkitty]

the Pickguardian pickguard for the M-75T also arrived, and it's just fucking beautiful. i had him round the edges of the guard so it's as transparent as possible even on the edges. i don't want anything to hide the finish. it's actually a good thing that i ordered a used DeArmond pickguard i'm returning because it didn't fit the pickup cutouts, because i got to see the original DeArmond mounting system. it uses startlingly long screws, which turn out to be Telecaster bridge attachment screws, and rubber tubing inserts that go over the screws and cushion the pickguard. the old ones are fairly thick black rubber tubing, but i'm going to use clear aquarium air hose tubing so it's less obtrusive. i measured the original pieces which are 4mm for the top and 7mm for the bottom. once the screws arrive today all i'll have to do is cut the tubing and screw it on. i'm going to take it right back off though because i'm afraid i'm going to have to polish out the top. it has terrible swirl marks and is just bedraggled, and i want it to be as nice as it can be. i really don't want to do it, but after seeing how well this weekend's small project came out i feel obligated because it can be so much nicer than it is.

that Sunday project was working on the Höfner Galaxie neck that's been on the Hopf Twisty body; since i got the correct Twisty neck the Galaxie neck is looking for a home. it's the same scale as Fender bodies, so i ordered a Fiesta Red Jazzmaster body from GFS. i'll need to modify the neck pocket because the Galaxie neck has a squared-off heel like a Telecaster and is one fret longer than a JM neck. i spent a fair while polishing the headstock. i started with polishing compound, but had to go back and sand out some scratches with 1200->2000->wet sand w/2000 and then polish, polish, polish until it looked good. to do this i had to take off the tuners, so i disassembled them, cleaned them, and shot some dry lube on the works before reassembling them. i had hoped to be able to get the worm gears out because a couple of the key posts are slightly bent, but they're brazed into place so i'll live with it. if it really bothered me new replacements in that style are available. i found a laser-cut metal foil Höfner logo on eBay to replace the missing one. it was tricky to position because i couldn't find an exact example of another one with the string tree in this position. it's a bit too close to the edge, but it'll do.

Hofner neck 7-8-24.jpg (46.83 KiB) Viewed 3350 times

the M-75T wants to be this shiny.

Hofner headstock 7-8-24.jpg (66.29 KiB) Viewed 3350 times

note difference in fingerboard length.

Hofner and JM necks 7-8-24.jpg (94.3 KiB) Viewed 3350 times

this will be the home of the three Höfner 511 pickups i have, two of which came from a Kapa guitar off eBay a decade ago and the third of which i got more recently. i need to get a multimeter so i can measure the impedances and put the hottest one in the bridge position. since one of the pickups and its mounting bracket came separately, i have the option of rotating the neck pickup 180°from normal orientation so the staples are at the 24th-fret harmonic. i plan to do some oddball Galaxie-inspired wiring tricks...i'll do individual thumbwheel volume controls and on/off switches for each pickup in a Höfner stylie, and put the tone switch from the Hopf Jupiter 62 pickguard more or less where the Fender pickup selector normally goes. the lower pickguard gets master volume and tone controls and the 1/4" output jack. i'll probably redraw that part of the guard for a rounder, more German look; the left upper bout part of the guard will be deleted. i'll get Pickguardian to do the guard, and perhaps send examples of the controls so he can get them just right.

so when the JM body arrives i'll drill the neck bolt holes and set it aside pending getting the control parts and ordering the pickguard. i plan to use the leftover Musima bridge from the parts box, and hopefully the Hagstrom-clone Musima tremolo as well if it adequately covers the tremolo rout. since there's no bridge stud holes drilled in the GFS body (it only has the electronics routs) i can use the bridge which has a broader-than-normal stud spacing.

[dubkitty]

Hofner pickguard 7-8-24.jpg (63.77 KiB) Viewed 3348 times

but i thought you were going to use the Hagstrom tremolo on the Jetstar? yeah, but i found something even better. allow me to introduce the Stetsbar tremolo bridge/tailpiece...it's a surface-mount that uses standard Gibson-spaced stop tailpiece mounts and is based on a plate that pivots with the tunomatic-style bridge attached to it. apparently you can dive-bomb with it and everything, which isn't really part of my aesthetic but adds another possibility. a nice bonus is that i won't have to do anything to the Jetstar other than pull the bridge studs and screw it on, which i like because it's already going to be more work than any of the other projects. and it has a cool chrome industrial look.

stetsbar.jpg (136.81 KiB) Viewed 3349 times

Stetsbar tremolo demo video

all i really need to do with the Köndor is fix the wiring...i cleaned the pickguard and it's in much better shape than i thought and i don't really need to polish it out, so everything can stay attached. the chips around the outside edges of the body can be done at any point since they won't require taking anything apart.

Kondor guard 7-8-24.jpg (142.14 KiB) Viewed 3349 times

the Double Jet and Hopf are waiting. when i mount the Galaxie neck to the JM body i'll also do the drilling for the replacement Twisty neck. i can get away without sanding the Galaxie fingerboard, but the Hopf has to be done. i guess i'll rework the Gretsch harness when i do the Kondor wiring, which will probably push it to the front of the queue unless i get the Grestch with Filtertrons i'm eyeing, which will be the diametric opposite of a project guitar. if that happens i'll do the Hopf first because i'll be covered for Filtertrons. i think that's it. it's been a busy week.

[dubkitty]

i finished polishing out the top of the M-75T and it looks way, way better. i didn't try to make it perfect because there were a number of small scratches around the lower edge of the top that i'd have to sand out and risk making more holes in the clear coat. rather than sanding, for the remainder of the top i used an automotive swirl-removing polishing compound that's coarser than the finishing compound. it was a lot easier and i felt like i was taking less of a chance that way.

i don't want to photograph it yet because i cracked the gorgeous pickguard Pickguardian made for me and have to get a replacement. the screw holes were drilled just a teensy bit too small. i'll file out the new one with a circular file.

the body for the Galaxiemaster arrives today. i still have to get a neck plate and bolts, so it won't get assembled immediately.

the next batch of stuff to do is wiring (ugh). the Kondor should be quick, but after that i need to alter the harness for the Double Jet which will be a bit trickier. once the Kondor wiring is done it'll be up and running; i still need to fix the Double Jet's pickup mounting so the damn pickups sit straight.

[dubkitty]

the body's here. i got it out of the box and laid it out on the sofa with the neck.

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as noted i'll have to essentially bung out the back of the neck pocket to make room for the extra fret, though arguably i could just square out the corners and leave it because there's nothing drilled for the bridge so i could have it be 1/2" closer to the neck. i'll think about that. the pocket will have to be shimmed on the sides because the heel is narrower than Fender spec. i'll have the pickguard cut to cover the shims which i'll trim down to the height of the top.

the color is odd...it's more orange-pink than any Fiesta Red i've ever seen. i don't love it, but i can live with it. i reminds me of the dish i learned from my first wife, mashing up and melting cream cheese in tomato soup and blending it. it's particularly curdled-looking in the dim sunlight from the overcast skies and looks several shades lighter than the photo. i'll definitely have to sand and buff it out...the paint job is decent but a bit orange-peely. i might skip the final fine polishing though...i'm not sure this shade needs to be brighter.

the Hagstrom tremolo is way too small to cover the tremolo rout, so it's back to the drawing board there. i'd like to find something more interesting than a bog-standard JM trem, but that form factor seems to be what will work. i could get a 60s Schaller trem like the one on the Twisty, but i'd prefer not to spend $200 if i can help it.

so now i have to establish how much space there is for pickups and electronics, and figure out how i'm going to lay out the controls. i'm glad i chose a JM body rather than a Strat which was the other option. i think it goes with the Galaxie DNA better.

in other news, i spotted one of the metal-cased Guyatone pickups like the bridge unit in the Kondor that has a heftier 5kOhm output that the two i have (including the one in use) at 3.3 and 2.98 respectively, so i may swap that into the Kondor and then have a pair that's relatively matched which i reckon i'd put in a Duo Sonic.

[dubkitty]

i need to get an electronic calipers thingy to measure this stuff. Pickguardian will probably want very precise measurements.

i think i can cobble together a bracket for the roller pots by soldering pieces of multiple Jazzmaster roller pot brackets together.

[dubkitty]

i've gotten into a rhythm of going at project stuff periodically and piecemeal, doing a bit here and a bit there and trying to stop before i get sick of it.

since the Jazzmaster body has a sanded/finished surface with the same paint as the top that'll be hidden by the pickguard if it isn't redacted in order to put controls in that space, i was able to experiment. starting low on the grit scale and working up through polishing compounds makes it much better...it's never going to be a perfectly smooth thing because it was painted on the cheap, but i can get rid of the orange-peel and visible ripples in the flat surfaces. the down side is that i'm going to wind up sanding most of the surface area of the guitar before i'm done. thankfully i don't seem to be arthritic despite being both Justified and Ancient.

speaking of sanding, i decided to try evening out the fingerboard inlays on the Höfner neck, which are made up of pearloid binding strips on either side of a tortoiseshell binding strip. since the celluloid shrank at different rates, this made some of the strips thicker resulting in an uneven, horizontally-ridged (i.e. parallel to the frets) surface. first i tried using a small file to reduce the worst offenders at the high end of the neck which were tortoise strips, but i wound up doing the whole inlay areas because i noticed that as i took off surface area the pearl became less yellowed to the point that one strip particularly stood out. and since i wanted it to look balanced, that meant going in and totally flattening all the inlay areas with files and sandpaper. it loses some of the antique effect, but i think it looks better. it's also a much better surface to bend a string on because there were surface irregularities in the strips which are now smoothed. now i'll have to fix the wood parts of the board, too, or they'll be too rough compared to the inlays. dammit. here's how the highest four look compared to the un-sanded ones to the left.

hofner markers half sanded.JPG (45.45 KiB) Viewed 2770 times

here's a couple of examples of the improvement in the M-75T's top after polishing. compare the reflective area in the middle to the heavily swirled areas around it.

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dearmond blues 2.jpg (83.8 KiB) Viewed 2770 times

[dubkitty]

i needed thick clear plastic tubing for the M-75T's pickguard so i hit up my girlfriend, who uses supplemental oxygen at times and as a result has a ton of tubing of various diameters. i twigged that this was the solution to the Kondor's problem with the pickups being unsteady because the springs weren't right for the job. remembering i'd seen Strats with tubing for springs, i cut some short-ish pieces and they work way better. the pickups barely move at all, even though the opening for the bridge pickup is much larger than the pickup itself.

Kondor pickup supports.jpg (65.65 KiB) Viewed 2770 times

i intend to do wiring work next, first finishing the Kondor so it's playable again and then working on the Gretsch wiring harness. but in the near future i'm going to take a bit of a break...i've been doing so much project work that i'm hardly playing through the setup i've just about perfected, and the literal Guitar Of My Dreams will be delivered sometime soon at which point i'm dropping everything but my girlfriend and my cat while we get to know each other.

[dubkitty]

i must say i'm tempted to just mail the body to someone and say "make this Dakota Red and nice." that's a LOT of fine sanding. and the more i see that color the less i like it...it's about 3 shades lighter in person than in the photo above, more of an orange with pink undertones. not necessarily bad, but not the vibe i'm looking for here. a tortoise guard rather than black would help, but i kind of want the materials to bend to me sometimes rather than the usual other way 'round.

[dubkitty]

i gave it some thought and decided that having the JM body repainted isn't an option. it just doesn't pencil out to spend $300 (which is cheap) on a $89 body. so now i'm considering whether to move ahead with the current body or get a different one from them. since i fucked around with it testing polishing i can't return it, but i feel less bad about doing all that work on a body whose color i actually like (assuming that, unlike their Fiesta Red, other GFS colors are more true to type). they don't have a lot of options for JM bodies with vintage tremolo routs that work with the Galaxie vibe which i feel precludes metallic finishes which they didn't do much in Germany in the early-mid 60s. i'm basically left with Arctic White, Mary Kay White, Gloss Black, Vintage Cream, Sonic Blue, and Daphne Blue...i hate Surf and Seafoam Green, and already have a Candy Apple Red Squier CVJM. i already have two black guitars, and 3 white ones counting the two basses. so that leaves cream and the two blues, either of which would work for me. i just need to consider whether it's more wasteful to write the red body off or to spend hours and hours working on a color i don't even like. maybe it's worth $100 to me to have something i like. i'm leaning towards cream at the moment because i already have the Duo Parts-O-Sonic which should be Daphne Blue (i'm not sure because it's aged) and plan to do my Weird Tele, which is on the boards right behind the current projects, in double-bound Sonic Blue. if anyone sees a decent, affordable JM body in a darker green or turquoise hit me up. i guess i could throw authenticity to the winds and go with orange or purple metallic. if only they did green sparkle! or Sherwood Green, or Ocean Turquoise!

yeah, i could just get a Fender body, but they start at $300 and most of the affordable ones use the incorrect Mascis CV/Player Edition tremolo location which i don't want, or a Strat tremolo which is an abomination on a JM. i need the harp effect. i still could just throw up my hands and say "why try so hard when this is supposed to be enjoyable on some level?" and get a more expensive body. but i hate the idea of chopping up a $400 body for funsies...it seems disrespectful somehow. i dunno. i'm confused today.

[dubkitty]

the replacement pickguard for the M-75T arrived, and it's just as well-rendered as the one i fucked up. it turned out to be a good thing that i ordered a used clear pickguard for a M-68 from Blackrider that didn't fit because it gave me a look at the stock mounts. the original guards used wide black rubber tubing to support the guard, which is otherwise free-floating...there's no bracket on the outside edge. since i got a clear guard that'd show off the sparkles i needed something transparent, and got some plastic tubing of various widths from my gf who uses supplemental oxygen at times and goes through tubing and fittings regularly. having measured the original M-68 tubing before returning the guard all i needed to do was cut pieces of tubing off the end bits that slide onto the machine's ports. i suppose i could have used the smaller tubing i used for the Kondor pickup supports, but the wider tubing is super-stable. that guard isn't moving at all.

i'm very happy with how everything came out. polishing the top really, really helped. it doesn't look out of place next to the White Falcon i got recently now.

M-75T done.jpg (74.32 KiB) Viewed 2200 times

the Jetstar is coming along. i'll take pictures presently. i'm still figuring out how to get the Stetsbar tremolo to the range and resistance i want, but it's generally useable now even though the neck repair needs sanded down and painted. i had to sand the fingerboard at the 3d fret and the adjacent areas because it was scratched up from the accident where the neck was broken, but after the requisite lemon oil treatment it looks fine. in another example of my negativity proving excessive the stock Fender-style tuners are fine, not the best but not bad so i'll leave them. i have plenty of things to spend and work on that will make bigger differences on other guitars.

i'm going to send the Duo Sonic pickguard to Pickguardian soon. once the new guard is done it'll be maybe a half-hour routing with the Dremel and then i can just put the electronics on the guard and screw it on. i'm going to do the Kondor wiring in the next few days...i just got an espresso machine and i'm on a roll LOL.

going back to my OG project guitar, i decided to give up for now on the Gretsch bar bridge on the Dyna-fied Pro Jet. i changed strings and it was obviously hurting sustain because the string grooves are 90 degrees to the bar but the bridge studs on the DPJ are offset for a tunomatic at a diagonal to the center line, so the strings dead out on the sides of the slots. i put a tuna from the parts box on and it helped a ton, so i ordered a nickel Kluson ABR-1 which will be a bit more period-correct for the design. i've been negative about tunas on Gretsches, but my Stills White Falcon has a ABR-1 and it works fine and looks like it belongs there so i figured fuck vintage versimilitude, give me something that works. i do have some ideas about ways to get bar bridges on Pro Jets that i'll experiment with...my Guild Aristocrat has a floating bridge with small brass cups for feet that are shallow enough to work on the PJ top with its shallow neck angle, but naturally Guild doesn't sell them as loose parts. vintage Aristocrats used wooden feet with their non-adjustable rosewood bridges, so it occurs to me that i could cut down the archtop bridge base that came with one of my bar bridges to two discs maybe 3mm deep with the bridge studs still in them that should be short enough to work (the standard base is way too tall). that's a bit too complicated for me to fuck with right now so i'm not going to do it with the DPJ, but i'll try it when i put the Double Jet with the TV Jones Filtertrons together. if it works i'll do the DPJ as well.

i really like how things are going. with the DS i'll have graduated three project guitars in the last month. i may be on track to accomplish getting all the projects sorted by the end of the summer, but it'll take a lot of coffee.