Nate Dort wrote: Tue Nov 21, 2023 12:01 pm Google lens search pulls up some interesting results, including another one with a union jack on it. Maybe it's the same one before it was cleaned up? Trem system is different.

https://aucview-aucfan-com.translate.go ... r_pto=wapp

Well that takes the cake! All those years (15+) spent working in IT thru the 90's - 2000's helping people with Mosaic, Netscape, F*%king IE, Firefox and all the rest of interweb whackshow and I never knew about Google Lens! .... until Nate here mentioned it. SO many times I have thought: '.....be cool if you could just chuck a picture up and search that'!!!!! I swear the moment you think you have become some kind of expert you get a big ol' dose of humble! Oh well, there is always a bigger Guru. Onward and upward!
.... and thanks Nate!

Wowee, look at me, I changed a pickguard on a 70s Fernandes FST70 (a great Strat with a unique neck profile, kinda pencil-like but not too thin).
I'll get black replacements for the other plastics so nobody mistakes me for David Gilmour (a real risk).

matttkkkk wrote: Thu May 02, 2024 2:48 am Wowee, look at me, I changed a pickguard on a 70s Fernandes FST70 (a great Strat with a unique neck profile, kinda pencil-like but not too thin).

I'll get black replacements for the other plastics so nobody mistakes me for David Gilmour (a real risk).

I get that. Being mistaken for David Gilmour is one of the great existential risks we face in the modern era! Happens to me all the time..... but then.... a lot of things happen to me........

Here's a picture of a current project:
A much battered but complete Teisco J-1 with original case.

Yes that is blue electrical tape holding the neck together...... but it's vintage Japanese electricians tape and the blue is a reeeeally rare colour!

Oh my god I love it

Yeah I’ve never seen those Teisco J models before but you can bet I added them to my saved searches

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Thu May 02, 2024 7:11 pm Yeah I’ve never seen those Teisco J models before but you can bet I added them to my saved searches

Early days for Teisco. I'm not sure if the J-1 was the actual first model that wasn't a lap steel and made to be played in the conventional guitar manner but it's from around that time. The seller said it was:
"Tesco Early Model J-1 1954 (Les Paul Type Electric Guitar)
Small body with a total length of about 90cm. Weight: 1.6kg "
The LP copy claim is a bit misleading but was probably the look they were going for.
Even in it's current state, (the neck needs a ton of TLC), it all works and sounds awesome!!! Very like the old Valco guitars (Supro, National, Airline, etc)

Tiesco and particularly Guyatone were heavily influenced by the Valco guitars after the war thru the 50's and early 60's so I guess it's not surprising.
Here's a Guyatone LG-60H. It's probably 1958-'60 so later than the J-1 but it shows it's Valco roots very plainly. Needed no work to speak of at all and also sounds awesome! Big fat single coil pickups. If I was dumb enough to take apart a working PU of this age I bet it would look just like the Ralph Keller designed pickup off some GI's Valco guitar that some budding Japanese tech 'reverse engineered'.

Why did I not enthuse over that one? I must have missed it. Insane and beautiful.
Anyway I am pleased with myself because I actually finished a project. Wouldn't it be awesome if Greco had made a Telemaster kind of thing during their late 70s heyday? I have one of their Tele Deluxes and love it. So, anyway, I decided to make my own. This is:
- 1977ish Greco "Super Sounds" neck (parts of the fingerboard were covered in weird crap I had to scrape and dissolve away, leaving bare wood in some places - that's why it was cheap)
- 80s (?) Kluson type tuners to replace the box-back originals
- 2019 Squier Affinity Jazzmaster HH (string-through before the current Strat trem version)
- eBay / China bridge plate in nickel (I will admit I chemically aged it a bit to go with the neck)
- eBay / China bridge pickup (so cheap, so great)
- AVRI (?) Jazzmaster neck pickup
- some repro 70s MIJ witch-hat knobs
- amateur router skills
- amateur wiring skills
Result - Reader, it plays as good as it looks.

matttkkkk wrote: Mon Sep 02, 2024 2:36 am Why did I not enthuse over that one? I must have missed it. Insane and beautiful.
Anyway I am pleased with myself because I actually finished a project. Wouldn't it be awesome if Greco had made a Telemaster kind of thing during their late 70s heyday? I have one of their Tele Deluxes and love it. So, anyway, I decided to make my own. This is:
- 1977ish Greco "Super Sounds" neck (parts of the fingerboard were covered in weird crap I had to scrape and dissolve away, leaving bare wood in some places - that's why it was cheap)
- 80s (?) Kluson type tuners to replace the box-back originals
- 2019 Squier Affinity Jazzmaster HH (string-through before the current Strat trem version)
- eBay / China bridge plate in nickel (I will admit I chemically aged it a bit to go with the neck)
- eBay / China bridge pickup (so cheap, so great)
- AVRI (?) Jazzmaster neck pickup
- some repro 70s MIJ witch-hat knobs
- amateur router skills
- amateur wiring skills
Result -

Reader, it plays as good as it looks.

That fucks. Good work

well thank ya
I’m still getting it worked out, there is some kind of sizzle on the clean tone I’m not liking. I might take it down to 250k pots from the 375 it’s got now.

The Beautiful Guitars thread reminded me that I needed to start preparing for a trip to Tokyo this spring. Will be there for less than a week on a longer family trip to SE Asia to see our in-laws. So I can do a little scurrying away here and there, just not sure how much.

Ideas for gear scavenging around there? Not really budgeting for anything but the usual travel expenses, but it would be great to find a cool mic like the Sony C-38b for less than the ~$700 USD they go for on ebay, though I’m not sure if those examples aren’t scraping the bottom of the barrel already… I can’t imagine much of the good stuff being that much cheaper, but a cool mic would be much easier to bring back than a guitar.

While we’re at it, any music related recommendations - venues, record stores, that sort of thing - are appreciated.