-
Along with the pickguard I’m gonna stick a new nut on and maybe some locking tuners. Also think a single gold-foil toaster pU would look amd sound amazing in there. Kind of Malcolm/Billy G vibes. Fucking about with cheap guitars is so much fun!
-
Quick vid of me widdling about like a twat. Will delete tomorrow so get your baldy face brown tee dumpo widdle fun now! https://youtu.be/YAeUqDnJpjw
-
Snap! Mine's another 83 JV, a '62 model. Its suffered through various ignominies in the 20 years I've had it but I think its looking pretty good right now. The common story is that they shamed the US factoy into upping their standards at the time, though that might be wishful thinking on the part of owners!
1 Attachment
-
-
Nice. The story is, apparently the US staff went over to the Fujigen factory to check out the production and the guitars coming off the line and they 'wept' (probably didn't do that), for they could not make guitars to the same build quality of the Japanese models.
First batch that came over to the UK did have a Fender noodle logo, but they had changed that to the Squier Stratocaster one on your headstock by the time mine was made. The git who sold me it in 1989 had obviously lifted the Squier decals off and put a Fender one on in its place to pass it off as a US model. I knew nothing of this practice at the time and the internet more or less didn't exist. Paid £250 for it, which I now think is/was money well spent.
Have you customised yours somewhat? I know they didn't come in that colour or with that kind of pickguard.
-
Had no idea that was a thing people did to be honest. Could have been a worse scam in hindsight!
No, me neither. I can see why, though. Squiers weren't the guitars they had been by the late 80s and given how good the early ones were, it was probably fairly easy to replace the decal and pass it off as a US Fender. In hindsight, it was a bit of a bargain, but the guy said he just didn't get on with Fenders. It sounded and played so well, I didn't think anything of it. Until I got it refretted about six years ago and the guy said: "Nice Jap Strat. Did you change the decals or did you buy it like this?" I was pretty disappointed at the time, but the more I find out about them, the less I feel that way. In fact, I'm kinda pleased I'm restoring it to its original state (as far as that's possible with custom-made decals).
The sonic blue and tortoiseshell go really well together. Looks ace.
-
Can anyone recommend some decent inexpensive nut files?
-
'kin' 'ell, this replacing a decal malarkey is a bit of a faff, eh? Looks like I'm going to have to sand down the headstock, clean it with naphtha, reseal it, spray some clear varnish on it, leave it to dry, clean the area the decal is going to go with naphtha, then apply decal, then seal, then spray some more clear varnish on it.
Way more of a ballache than I imagined it'd be.
Anyone got any less time-consuming/fiddly solutions?
-
Stick a bit of masking tape over it and write “Squier” in marker pen.
-
Oh ffs. Assembly time falls at the first hurdle. Holes in the body don’t align with any of the neck plates I have.
2 Attachments
-
-
Plug and re-drill I guess.
-
Arf. Ordered some 4mm dowel. Will have to shave or sand to fit then glue and whack.
Also ordered the cheapest nut files on Amazon. Will see how that goes.
Need to ream out the tuner holes this morning and that’s bout all I can do until I can attach the neck.
Are there any rules about aligning neck and bridge? Which do people unusually fit first? I was going to go with neck first as the fit is fairly tight and scope for fettling minimal. The plan is to use high and low e strings (or floss in their place) to make sure I got the bridge in the right spot to mark holes for drilling. Thoughts?
-
The plan is to use high and low e strings (or floss in their place) to make sure I got the bridge in the right spot
That's what I did yesterday when I found out my archtop had a floating bridge while changing the strings and said bridge did what its name would suggest and floated off the top.
-
Filled and drilled body holes and fitted neck. I now have "AN GUITAR".
Added some awesome relic-ing to the finish in the process. Definitely didn't hit the edge of the neck pocket with a hammer when knocking in a dowel. *cough. Never mind.
Having tuner fitting dilemma now. Bushings are 11/32" vintage size which is roughly 8.7mm. The holes seem to be around 8mm. I'm thinking an 8.5mm bit run slowly (in reverse first) should do it? Obviously I have a dozen 7.5mm, 8mm and 9mm bits kicking about but no 8.5. Nipped out to the local hardware shop earlier to buy an 8.5... and just found they've mistakenly given me another 7.5mm. Le sigh. Good job I'm not charging me my labour by the hour.
-
Cheapo nut files arrived too. They're utter shit. Barely more substantial than a short length of guitar string. Hope they'll survive one use.
-
Bridge screws made a appearance on the back of the guitar, worryingly near the edge as well… yikes.
They’re standard length so imagine the body has a deeper than usual rout. Not happy at all as I can see that whole piece of body coming away with enthusiastic whammy action which would be game over for the whole project. Balls.
Reckon I’ll have to taken them out, fill the holes and re-drill with bridge a bit further forward and some shorter screws. Hopefully the saddle adjustment will be enough to get the intonation right. Even if I come fwd 3 or 4mm it’ll hopefully be a lot stronger.
1 Attachment
-
-
Can anyone help with a possible model? The holes look well finished and those look like Grover tuners.
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/740192707248675/ -
I mentioned I had a Blackstar practice amp for sale, but nobody bit. It's on eBay now. Obviously if anyone in London won it I could knock postage off and meet you somewhere central. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165628306151
-
Why you selling bud? Also PICS!
Dooks-Fatberg
stappard
ketsbaia
Regal
Alan_tbt
n3il
Sparky
BRM-
Post a reply
About
Guitar Nerds Anonymous
Posted by
@dooks
I spent longer setting up the Dumpocaster than I have on any guitar last night. Treated and stained the board, polished the frets, I even removed all of the tuners, string trees and saddles and cleaned them up, smoothed and lubed the nut slots, tweaked the action, intonation and put a set of 9s on. Weirdly the neck was almost dead flat and all frets are level and well seated.
After settling in and some tinkering it’s playing great. Trem (having been fettled and lubed) works smoothly and silently and all of the electrics work perfectly. Still can’t believe what a result this was for a council tip rescue.