Doing Things Wrong

Telestar Mona


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.

This Telestar is not the same as the Tele-Star of the 1960s.
The Mona could even be gotten with an 'amp-in-case'.

Telestar failed after a few years, but you can still find these on eBay at pretty reasonable prices. The quality of these guitars is first-rate. The 'Lisa' model was sort-of a Les Paul Lite, with humbuckers in a Danelectro-type hollow body. Both were produced by Samick in Korea, hence the high quality.


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Here is a terrific little saw handle that takes Sawzall blades. It comes with an array of blades, including the dangerously sharp flush-cut and rather dodgy drywall blades, and a few others that I've long since used up, but it will fit any Sawzall blade. But what really makes this thing great is when I started making my own blades - all the small ones along the right. I cut these from much larger Sawzall blades that I bought, using an angle grinder, and shaping them on the bench grinder. Sawzall blades all cut on the pull stroke, but as you can see, two of these blades cut on the push stroke, because I cut them reversed from the parent blade. The tangs are easy to make. Push blades are good for cutting through finished or laminated surfaces. These little blades give me a hand-held jigsaw, very useful for many loothery tasks. This saw is a Craftsman, so you better hustle on down to your local Sears and get one before it closes. Mine is on the death list. StewMac should pick up this idea.