Doing Things Wrong

Radiatabacker Part IIa

A lot of work for not much to show

I made some small adjustments to the outline, and finished the neck mounting. And a lot of sanding. The drywall sander is a godsend, it works much better than a block, and really saves your hands. But my arms feel like lead.

I also did the roundovers on the back, a mix of 1/4" and 3/4". You can see the small fillets I left at the base of the neck mount. I could have squared those corners with a file, but this will be less prone to crack the finish. The neck will cover them.

And a lot more sanding on the back, I found a spot where the belt sander had dug too deep. It's as flat as a mirror now.

Detail of the neck mount and horns. I'll use a standard Fender mounting plate for the added strength, since this body is rather thin. The front body edge will get binding. Now I think it's time to start roughing-out a neck. Fortunately, I have a model right at hand that I can simply copy - the Superfreak. Speaking of which, that one is ready for final assembly.



Around the time that Evets was putting out their first round of Danelectro reissues in the late '90s, several disaffected Gibson employees started their own company, and put out two models - 'Mona' and 'Lisa'. The Mona is a copy of the Danelectro 1457 from the 1960s. It is a mix of old and new. The body is classic masonite over a hollow core, but lacks the Tolex edge binding of the original. While it has the speckles of the original, the finish is modern polyurethane. The pickups are true lipsticks, wired in series, but the pickguard is bevel-edged plastic, and the bridge is basically a Fender. The headstock is the right shape, but bent down to lessen the awkward string angles.