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.... Then don´t do it.
I can´t believe how often I´ve heard this, and it´s even harder to believe how many people obviously haven´t.
I mean, look at Jeff´s Fuse thread, or some of the other threads that come up. How many more innocent amps and guitars have to die?
Just some examples from my collection that I managed to save from further harm:
Phoenix (´88 Jackson Soloist, STILL waiting for graphics
)
Trem cavity filled with Bondo, Tune-O-Matic mounted, neck poorly stripped (caused a profile change and a small rebinding). Nothing against the stripping (although it coulda been better) or the Tune-O-Matic. But the Bondo destroyed a brand new, formerly unused set of chisels when I removed it.
Fernandes Rhoads: horrible crackle "overfinish", the original paint was badly marred and had to be removed as well. Neck also stripped/reprofiled, near sand-thru on the headstock binding, single coil mounted in the neck Humbucker slot with epoxy, (dead router bit, therefore the cheaper chisels to destroy on Phoenix), electronics changed to 2 volumes, no switch, jack on pickguard with fin-jack unconnected but mounted, Floyd mongrelized from multiple other Floyds, black, chrome and Gold hardware.
Or some of the things I´ve seen....
-Intonation screws used as fine tuners.
-Floyds with the ball ends "locked in"
-Tune-O-Matics with the string "looped" through the ball end with the resulting loop wrapped around the tailpiece
-Floyds resting at like a 45 degree angle, either off the top or into the recess (fairly common, actually)
-Steel strings on a Classical
-Archtop bridges glued in place
-Strat bodies destroyed for a neck that was never mounted or even bought
-SG´s where the neck literally fell off after mounting a Humbucker in what was a P-90 slot
-Strat with the horns cut off to look like a teardrop (actually a cool idea, but did it have to be a 70´s bighead?
)
......
Probably the worst single case I´ve ever seen:
Original (read: Non-reissue)´67 Flying V, bought by dad because of it´s investment value in addition to its players value. 15 year old kid: chiseled(!!!) away wood for a Floyd and a third humbucker, mounted switches for all kinds of stuff that didn´t work, took apart and attempted to "4-wire" the original P.A.F.s., installed black plastic covers as well , Installed a second tone knob with hole, and engraved his initials just about everywhere. Oh, did I mention he refinished it in neon green with red stripes, in non-matching (chemically) paints, and made it a fretless without filling the slots but still scalloped the last 10 frets, obviously scarring the wings with the file as well. The hardware was all tarnished and corroded, as if someone had tried to chemically strip the plating and failed miserably
Restoration of that guitar cost so much (>3500.-DM = about 2000 bucks) that dad took it away for good and deposited it at a bank until he´s 25 (about another 5 years). Smart move by dad, it should now be about worth what it was when he first bought it.
Actually one of the restorations I´m most proud of, I honestly don´t think any casual collector nor most luthiers would ever notice. She looked, felt, and smelled like she had been in her case for 35 years and was just ACHING to be played. I wish I still had pics, cripes I kinda wish I would have told him the axe was unrecoverable when the thought crossed my mind. But I´m the best there is around these parts, and this was my chance to prove it
Let´s hear some of your: "What kind of idiot would do this to a guitar?" stories, I´m sure we´ve got a whole comedy novel in our collective memories.
I can´t believe how often I´ve heard this, and it´s even harder to believe how many people obviously haven´t.
I mean, look at Jeff´s Fuse thread, or some of the other threads that come up. How many more innocent amps and guitars have to die?
Just some examples from my collection that I managed to save from further harm:
Phoenix (´88 Jackson Soloist, STILL waiting for graphics
)Trem cavity filled with Bondo, Tune-O-Matic mounted, neck poorly stripped (caused a profile change and a small rebinding). Nothing against the stripping (although it coulda been better) or the Tune-O-Matic. But the Bondo destroyed a brand new, formerly unused set of chisels when I removed it.
Fernandes Rhoads: horrible crackle "overfinish", the original paint was badly marred and had to be removed as well. Neck also stripped/reprofiled, near sand-thru on the headstock binding, single coil mounted in the neck Humbucker slot with epoxy, (dead router bit, therefore the cheaper chisels to destroy on Phoenix), electronics changed to 2 volumes, no switch, jack on pickguard with fin-jack unconnected but mounted, Floyd mongrelized from multiple other Floyds, black, chrome and Gold hardware.
Or some of the things I´ve seen....
-Intonation screws used as fine tuners.
-Floyds with the ball ends "locked in"
-Tune-O-Matics with the string "looped" through the ball end with the resulting loop wrapped around the tailpiece
-Floyds resting at like a 45 degree angle, either off the top or into the recess (fairly common, actually)
-Steel strings on a Classical
-Archtop bridges glued in place
-Strat bodies destroyed for a neck that was never mounted or even bought
-SG´s where the neck literally fell off after mounting a Humbucker in what was a P-90 slot
-Strat with the horns cut off to look like a teardrop (actually a cool idea, but did it have to be a 70´s bighead?
)......
Probably the worst single case I´ve ever seen:
Original (read: Non-reissue)´67 Flying V, bought by dad because of it´s investment value in addition to its players value. 15 year old kid: chiseled(!!!) away wood for a Floyd and a third humbucker, mounted switches for all kinds of stuff that didn´t work, took apart and attempted to "4-wire" the original P.A.F.s., installed black plastic covers as well , Installed a second tone knob with hole, and engraved his initials just about everywhere. Oh, did I mention he refinished it in neon green with red stripes, in non-matching (chemically) paints, and made it a fretless without filling the slots but still scalloped the last 10 frets, obviously scarring the wings with the file as well. The hardware was all tarnished and corroded, as if someone had tried to chemically strip the plating and failed miserably
Restoration of that guitar cost so much (>3500.-DM = about 2000 bucks) that dad took it away for good and deposited it at a bank until he´s 25 (about another 5 years). Smart move by dad, it should now be about worth what it was when he first bought it.
Actually one of the restorations I´m most proud of, I honestly don´t think any casual collector nor most luthiers would ever notice. She looked, felt, and smelled like she had been in her case for 35 years and was just ACHING to be played. I wish I still had pics, cripes I kinda wish I would have told him the axe was unrecoverable when the thought crossed my mind. But I´m the best there is around these parts, and this was my chance to prove it
Let´s hear some of your: "What kind of idiot would do this to a guitar?" stories, I´m sure we´ve got a whole comedy novel in our collective memories.
plugged into a
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