Doing Things Wrong

Factory Mods

Brownsville Violin Bass
Danelectro Silvertone 1457 Rescue Guitar
Danelectro Companion Guitar
SX Precision Bass
Schwinn Stingray Bass
Samick SG450 Guitar
Fender Squier Stratocaster Guitar
Danelectro Pro-1 Guitar
Danelectro '63 Guitar

These are factory instruments that I either significantly modified, restored or refurbished.


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.


This is another factory guitar, vintage 1960s, made by Danelectro and sold exclusively through Sears. The 1448 was one of the cheapest electric guitars in the Sears catalog, but it came with something special - it's own amplifier built into the hardshell case. There is almost no wear on this guitar, I don't think it was played much.


This is a Harmony-made Sears Silvertone 1478. This body style was originally called the "Silhouette", and Harmony sold similar models under their own name. Later it became known as the "Bobkat". I can't find a serial number anywhere, and I'm not taking it apart to look for one, so I don't know the exact age of this guitar.

Factory Mods


To my mind, there are three kinds of "mash-up": functional, constructive, and stylistic.

  • functional mash-up changes the purpose of the base instrument, for example, building a bass on a guitar body. The Uke bass takes this to an extreme.
  • constructive mash-up is building a classic design in a different way, for example, substituting masonite and plywood for rare and expensive "tonewoods" ( most of which are in truth neither rare nor expensive, although you can pay a lot for them if you shop in the right places. )
  • stylistic mash-up consists of taking features from two or more different instruments and jamming them together. For example, horns on a violin body.