I just bought a guitar is it rubbish?

Top left is a regular volume pot, bottom left a push/pull tone pot, top right is a Sanwa arcade button kill switch, bottom right is a pickup selector toggle. There’s another arcade button kill switch on the upper bout where the toggle would be on a regular LP

a dab of superglue should be all you need to stick the case lining back down

@drakesmoke looks really nice. Very snug indeed at the bottom, which I imagine is what's keeping it so solid?

Seeing as I'm here...

I got this lovely old offset guitar, it's been in pics hereabouts before.



That one.

It's a 1973 Framus Strato 6. It's the first electric guitar I ever owned and has been with me longer than I care to admit (something in the region of 40 years). It's absolutely original as well.

Unfortunately, it's in need of some attention - the humbuckers are a bit wobbly and it has recently developed a buzz on one pickup. But it mostly plays really well and it's going for a check up soon and hopefully I'll get those bits fixed. So far, so good.

Now the question.

The machine heads are fucking shit.



They were never very good in the first place but I was talked out of doing anything with them ages (30 years) ago because of originality. And now they're worse. Tiny little incremental adjustments and sudden huge jumps.

So, change them for some nice ones (Fender or something?), or maintain that originality and grit my teeth every time I have to tune it? 😁

That sounds like a good idea.

IMO you can't beat the Fender vintage style, where you make a 90 degree kink and feed them into the top of the post.

That's really, really nice. Any info on the pickups? They're obviously modelled after wide range humbuckers. Wonder if they have the old magic Cunife magnets?

They look nice. Presumably a like for like fit too - you can end up with having to dremmel or have extra holes with tuners sometimes can't you.

Finished the first couple of pedals I’ve made for 15 years last week. An Acapulco Gold and a Lemon Drop Drive. The former a fantastically filthy sounding cranked Sunn amp, it’s the Stooges in a pedal. Bit one trick pony but fab, though it does clean up well with the guitar volume. The latter is that lovely Beatles Taxman/etc era overdrive in a box, really like it.
I used to sometimes hand paint pedals and sometimes etch them, fill them with enamel and then sand back off to leave coloured areas and a shiny metal finish, but mostly used to design and print stuff on an inkjet, which worked really well. But I just have a fairly crummy laserjet these days so the Lemon Drop didn’t quite work. Printed in reverse onto film and painted the back before flipping, fixing and lacquering. Messy. Need a new method as I seem to have a bit of a guitar pedal kit frenzy on at the moment. Have an Electra I’m messing with at the moment, swapping components in an out to audition them. It’s ridiculous how good that circuit sounds for how few components are in it!



 

I've got two updates and I really need to rein it in for a while now on the spending.

Firstly, I got the troublesome Tele back yesterday. It's now better than new, the range of tones between the Tele bridge pickup and the neck humbucker is fantastic and it's had a push pull pot put on the bridge tone so that I can get that out of phase sound it had by accident, by design!

I have noticed that one of the humbucker's mounting screws is completely loose and I'm not sure if that's been lost before, popped loose inside when I accidentally bashed the guitar today or something else. I've just messaged the tech back for advice, as I'm not brave enough to open it up again having just dropped a small fortune on fragile upgrades inside. It's been through three people now and only he's actually sorted the thing so I am not levelling blame his way. Reckon it'll be the last place that lost it.

Anyway, he rang me asking if I wanted shielding foil putting in at an extra expense. I'd just had a difficult morning as my cousin passed away at the weekend. I was writing cards to send to the family and looking at old Facey posts and stuff and shortly before the call had basically been in bits.

He caught me unaware and I did one of those awkward things where somebody asks if you are alright as a greeting and you start to answer it literally. I asked for an estimate pre-shielding before I decided. I explained what had happened and apologised for the awkward moment at the start of the convo. Twenty minutes later I was emailed an invoice which included the shielding part discounted 100 per cent.

So, if anybody needs work doing in the GM/NW area, Jack of Jack's Instrument Services is both extremely competent and a thoroughly bloody good bloke.

Sorry to hear of your troubles, Drake. My condolences. Thanks for the useful information, though. Be well.

Just had a look, about £50 then if you order all the bits? Interested to know how long it takes you to put them together. That and the lack of any sort of skills for me would be the deal breaker. I barely get time to play my guitars at the mo as most of my music time at present is producing stuff for the band.

I can definitely see the satisfaction in it though if you're a tinkerer.

I'm a dirty commerce sucker though, half of the hobby is the beautiful shame I feel when I click the 'add to debt' button, so I'd miss that 😂

Away from buying, anyone got any opinions on selling one?

No interest whatsoever from local ads. Just wondering if it's worth putting it on Reverb or eBay. Any thoughts?

It's been on Marketplace, the Mrs did it for me, but not even the remotest interest.

I'll have a look on eBay and see if there's anything like, but someone mentioned their seller fees can be substantial.

I found two on Reverb, both for quite a bit more than I was thinking of. One is tatty as hell, the other is in the States. Their fees seem quite cheap, but I suspect I'm going to end up with no one wanting it anyway.

I'm not sure if US prices exclude their sales tax, might be worth checking.

FB Marketplace is a crapshoot. Lots of weirdos. Usually only manage to sell if I drop two or three times too.

Got one chap at the moment seemingly desperate to buy my £40 case (£79 new) who won't stop messaging me. I always check profiles and it's full of Boris, Jim Davidson and anti-vax stuff. He lives 200 miles away and I've clearly stated collection only. I reckon his fuel costs will get him there for a brand new case. He'll probably pivot and start asking about couriers.

Read up on the common scams too, which usually involve couriers delivering money.

It's this one: