Agileguy_101
Master of his Domain
Re: Category #6 SUBMISSIONS: Best Oddball Guitar
Category #6 SUBMISSIONS: Best Oddball Guitar
- Thread starter idsnowdog
- Start date
BriGuy1968
New member
Re: Category #6 SUBMISSIONS: Best Oddball Guitar
After reading the comments about guitars with cool stories, I thought I'd share my oddball guitar... not as great a story as Silver's by any means, but still pretty good.
Back in 1987, when I was nineteen, I found an electric guitar that I thought looked cool and it was a whopping $500. The music store I bought it from in Kalamazoo, MI (Don Dillon's Music Shop... not even sure if they're still there!) allowed me to make weekly payments on it, so for the next year I paid them $10 a week until it was paid off. It was a Westone Spectrum LX in Metallic Black with black hardware. I don't have a pic of it from then, but this is one I found online that shows what it looked like:
I loved that guitar, and it stayed with me for many years... even though I really didn't know how to play it well (I was mostly acoustic at that point). One day in 1995, though, we had a house fire in which it was badly charred. Finish was peeling off and plastic parts all melted. The bridge and center pickups still worked, but the neck pickup was toast. I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away, so I wrapped it in a blanket (its case was a complete loss) and put it in storage, getting it out every once in a while to look at it. I was simply heartbroken over it.
One day in 2004 I was telling a buddy at church about it and he came to me a couple of weeks later telling me that he had an idea, and I would just have to trust him, but he wanted me to let him take my guitar for a little while... so I did.
About 3 months later he came walking into the paint store where I used to work carrying a guitar case and laid it on the counter. I opened it up to find my guitar refinished in a way that was totally unique... he had laid several layers of clear epoxy (the pour-on type that people use on bartops where you see coins and other miscellaneous stuff in it) over the char and peels. The scars were there, but it was perfectly smooth to the touch. He didn't do anything with any of the hardware except tried to clean it up a bit, but the finish was incredible. I named it "The Phoenix" after the mythical bird that rose from the ashes. (Fun fact: Westone, which was a Japanese company, used to have a sister company here in the USA called "Electra" who also used the same body style on one of their models which was called "Phoenix." Didn't find that out until long after I named it though!) Here are some pics of what I got back from him:
The pickups were still melted and kind of sucked, and the tremolo was rusted and ruined, so I still hardly ever played it. Then last year I started researching pickups, wiring, and other hardware and realized that I could probably do something about it. I invested in a JB/Jazz Combo with a Hot Stack center, got a bunch of gold hardware and rewired it. This year I made some modifications to the wiring and added locking tuners as well. I don't know if it's my familiarity with this guitar after owning it for almost 30 years, or the bond, or if it's just actually that great of a guitar, but it's my number one for gigging and just grabbing to noodle on at home. Sounds great, plays great, and (IMO) looks great... and it's certainly an oddball for its unique finish AND for the fact that you just never see any of them anywhere!
Anyway, here are some pics from right after I did the initial upgrades:
And here's what she looks like today:
If you're interested in seeing other pics, I actually created an album of her transformation here on my profile:
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/album.php?albumid=630
After reading the comments about guitars with cool stories, I thought I'd share my oddball guitar... not as great a story as Silver's by any means, but still pretty good.
Back in 1987, when I was nineteen, I found an electric guitar that I thought looked cool and it was a whopping $500. The music store I bought it from in Kalamazoo, MI (Don Dillon's Music Shop... not even sure if they're still there!) allowed me to make weekly payments on it, so for the next year I paid them $10 a week until it was paid off. It was a Westone Spectrum LX in Metallic Black with black hardware. I don't have a pic of it from then, but this is one I found online that shows what it looked like:
I loved that guitar, and it stayed with me for many years... even though I really didn't know how to play it well (I was mostly acoustic at that point). One day in 1995, though, we had a house fire in which it was badly charred. Finish was peeling off and plastic parts all melted. The bridge and center pickups still worked, but the neck pickup was toast. I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away, so I wrapped it in a blanket (its case was a complete loss) and put it in storage, getting it out every once in a while to look at it. I was simply heartbroken over it.
One day in 2004 I was telling a buddy at church about it and he came to me a couple of weeks later telling me that he had an idea, and I would just have to trust him, but he wanted me to let him take my guitar for a little while... so I did.
About 3 months later he came walking into the paint store where I used to work carrying a guitar case and laid it on the counter. I opened it up to find my guitar refinished in a way that was totally unique... he had laid several layers of clear epoxy (the pour-on type that people use on bartops where you see coins and other miscellaneous stuff in it) over the char and peels. The scars were there, but it was perfectly smooth to the touch. He didn't do anything with any of the hardware except tried to clean it up a bit, but the finish was incredible. I named it "The Phoenix" after the mythical bird that rose from the ashes. (Fun fact: Westone, which was a Japanese company, used to have a sister company here in the USA called "Electra" who also used the same body style on one of their models which was called "Phoenix." Didn't find that out until long after I named it though!) Here are some pics of what I got back from him:
The pickups were still melted and kind of sucked, and the tremolo was rusted and ruined, so I still hardly ever played it. Then last year I started researching pickups, wiring, and other hardware and realized that I could probably do something about it. I invested in a JB/Jazz Combo with a Hot Stack center, got a bunch of gold hardware and rewired it. This year I made some modifications to the wiring and added locking tuners as well. I don't know if it's my familiarity with this guitar after owning it for almost 30 years, or the bond, or if it's just actually that great of a guitar, but it's my number one for gigging and just grabbing to noodle on at home. Sounds great, plays great, and (IMO) looks great... and it's certainly an oddball for its unique finish AND for the fact that you just never see any of them anywhere!
Anyway, here are some pics from right after I did the initial upgrades:
And here's what she looks like today:
If you're interested in seeing other pics, I actually created an album of her transformation here on my profile:
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/album.php?albumid=630
Re: Category #6 SUBMISSIONS: Best Oddball Guitar
BriGuy, Cool story! I remember reading it before and being amazed the heat didn't warp the neck and such. Very cool its your main squeeze again! you can tell people the charring is from all the hot licks you've laid down on it.. haha
BriGuy, Cool story! I remember reading it before and being amazed the heat didn't warp the neck and such. Very cool its your main squeeze again! you can tell people the charring is from all the hot licks you've laid down on it.. haha
eclecticsynergy
Well-known member
Re: Category #6 SUBMISSIONS: Best Oddball Guitar
Wow, that one's an oddball all right!
Wow, that one's an oddball all right!
Brandenburg
New member
Re: Category #6 SUBMISSIONS: Best Oddball Guitar
its an SG but it is an oddball too.. 1985 SG special.. beat all to hell and needs works.. but has alot of sentimental value.. EVENTUALLY ill get it restored/refinished.. Ive owned it since 1991 or 3
has a 2 volume/1 tone configuration which is a bit odd for an SG... I could be wrong but I believe there are only 2 models that are like that.. a 1978 SG studio and the model of my SG which is a SG special made from 1983 to 1988..
its an SG but it is an oddball too.. 1985 SG special.. beat all to hell and needs works.. but has alot of sentimental value.. EVENTUALLY ill get it restored/refinished.. Ive owned it since 1991 or 3
has a 2 volume/1 tone configuration which is a bit odd for an SG... I could be wrong but I believe there are only 2 models that are like that.. a 1978 SG studio and the model of my SG which is a SG special made from 1983 to 1988..
Rand-O-Monium
New member
Re: Category #6 SUBMISSIONS: Best Oddball Guitar
Love that SG control layout,the 4 knobs + switch + jack is too clustered to me...
Love that SG control layout,the 4 knobs + switch + jack is too clustered to me...
