Construction (3/6) ~ Luthiery Laboratories

Construction (3/6)

Projects sorted by construction style.

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Epiphone Fenderbird

This started out as a broken Epiphone, one of the very nice Pro models. Turns out the Epi copy was a bit too authentic - it even reproduced the standard Gibson pop-off headstock. I removed the neck, re-finished the stump, routed out a neck pocket, and installed a Fender Mexico Precision neck. The pickups are stock, the active electronics are a replacement as the originals blew up. I also made the pickguard. The high frets are basically inaccessible, but the trade-off is much better balance.

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Harmony H617 Bobkat

This pretty little thing is a Harmony H617 Bobkat. The H-bodied series of guitars, originally known as the Silhouette, began in 1963 and ended in 1973. This one is from 1972 or 1973. Harmony built a number of guitars for Sears under the Silvertone name, at first as a step up from the Danelectros, and ultimately replacing them. See the Silvertone 1478.

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Jazzmaster Bass 1

This started as a Squier Jaguar body with a Mighty Mite neck. Stock pickups ( which are pretty decent ) with cream-colored covers and upgraded electronics. I used a MusicMan bridge to evoke the round Jazzmaster tailpiece, and likewise cream Strat knobs. I think it is a vast improvement over the Jaguar it started out as. The Cowbell inherited some of the Jaguar electronics.

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Jazzmaster Bass 2

This started as a stock Squier Jaguar bass body. This 32" conversion neck was my first bass neck build. Stock pickups ( which are pretty decent ) with cream-colored covers and upgraded electronics. I used a MusicMan bridge to evoke the round Jazzmaster tailpiece, and likewise cream Strat knobs. I think it is a vast improvement over the Jaguar it started out as. The Cowbell inherited some of the Jaguar electronics.

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Jazzmaster Bass 3

Hollow plywood body with Mighty Mite 34" neck. Graphtech Ghost piezo saddles with a backup soundhole-mounted magnetic pickup, active electronics.

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Kubicki Factor Bass

Sort of like a Kubicki, but not really.

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Kubicki Factor Guitar

I was so pleased with the bass that I thought I'd try a guitar. This is a little more complicated, as there are six tuners rather than four, but it worked out well. The battery is for an Artec tone control that I wanted to try. More later ...

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Mosrite Bass

This one went through a long and torturous build process over almost two years. All I can say is don't believe the "advice" you find on talk_ass. However, in the end, it turned out to be a pretty nice instrument.

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Musicman Stingray Bass (OLP)

This OLP Stingray was one of the first basses I ever modded heavily. I routed a battery and a second pickup cavity, and did all sorts of experiments on it, before returning it to it's original single-pickup configuration, but with upgraded active electronics and pickup, and a nice new pearl pickguard.

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Osprey Bass (BC Rich Eagle)

This beautiful instrument was built from a teak cutting board that I got for free from Home Depot for review. 32" Eden neck, active electronics. Teak is hard enough for a simple oiled finish. This one was built with a minimum of tools, mostly by hand, to show that it can be done and how.

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Construction

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Passive Distortion

This is a selectable onboard passive distortion circuit using clipping diodes wired to ground. All solid-state 'artificial' distortion circuits, no matter how expensive, have something like this at their core. Instead of requiring power, this circuit uses the output of the pickups themselves and therefore should work better with higher output pickups. It uses a 2-pole 4-position rotary switch to select various combinations of diodes for different degrees of distortion, or none. You could also select one of the diode combinations and wire it to a push-pull switch for a single level of distortion, or even wire it to a separate 'volume' control to control the resistance to ground and therefore the amount of distortion. The diodes cost pennies. I have yet to actually try this one, but when I get back to building six-strings, I definitely want to.

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