"My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)

daan

daan

New member
A buddy of mine recently bought a Casino. Fully hollow, P90s, trapeze tailpiece, sounds and plays SO nice. So of course I had to start trolling the bay for something with F-holes. I ran across this

It's a late-60's Aria Diamond, made by Matsumoku. Which is basically the same as a 70's Epi EA-250, or a Univox Coily, or a Lyle, Conqueror, Bruno, Ventura, etc etc etc. I've had a couple of these already, so I knew I'd like it. What I REALLY wanted, was a Trini Lopez, or one of those Dave Grohl guitars, or a "Dwight Trash" Epi (all basically ES-3xx guitars with Firebird headstocks) So while watching my bid get up, I saw THIS

A "Lyle" Trini Lopez copy, and all the crappy parts are already gone!
More inna minute
 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)

So I eventually "won" the auction, the guitar showed up and was not exactly as nice as they represented it. (Duh. I keep saying to myself, "Don't buy a guitar you can't play first", but do I learn?) :rolleyes:
I wanted this because it's fully hollow (just a "soundpost" under the bridge)

it's got P-90-esque pups-they're single coils, anyway and somewhat mini-humbucker size. Not the same as the "staple" pups that I had on a couple other guitars, those are kinda low output and just sound "meh". I had an OOOOLD Aria with the strat-singe-esque pups, but they were dead so I don't know if those sound any better. These ones sound pretty good, even though the switch on this doesn't seem to do anything (moving it back and forth makes NO change in the sound, thru all my amps)

When it arrived, it was FILTHY, despite what the auction pix looked like (I know, they could be 8 year old pics) I did my best to clean it up. Everything other than the tremolo bar is there, I've never seen one of these that still had the guard plate (not that I want it).
One of the problems with these is the neck joint- there's not much inside the body for the joint, so over time the body "collapses" leading to inch-high action and eventually the guitar just folds up. They are really hit-and-miss as far as wether they'll break, I had one that was dead solid, low action, great shape

It had the "staple" pups, the guitar sounded crappy but it played nice.
I had a Conqueror EB-2 bass copy, and it folded up on me. So I knew this one could go either way.
 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)

The red one showed up a couple days later. It also looked like it was coated in 40 years of beer, sweat and ...who knows what else. The fretboard has lots of big gouges in it (wear up in the "cowboy chord" zone,) plus the frets are pretty worn.


THe neck joint is dead solid though.
THe green one is the one I really wanted, the sticker-crusted one I posted above is what I settled on, the store also had a green-burst Aria like this, but somebody bought it before I could get back to the pawn shop with $ back in the day. Unfortunately the neck pocket looks like this

The binding is pulling away from the body side, and the neck itself isn't quite in the pocket. It plays OK, the action isn't bad, but that neck area makes me nervous. The red one looks perfect though.

So the plan, is to keep the green body (assuming the neck joint is stable enough inside) get the red neck ready to use, keep the P90s and upgrade the wiring.
I've already got tuners for the red neck

and I doweled the tuner mount holes and the neck mount holes because they looked really stripped out (and had some putty-like crud in them)


 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)

I want to refinish the red neck, in Black (like the dark areas of the burst on the green body) unless the Red color is OVER the sealer, then I'll just sand it down to below the red, and leave it like that. The neck that goes with the green body is maple colored on back

I'd of course do the face of the headstock black either way, once I fill in the giant chip by the tuner hole

I also have a new trapeze tailpiece, a Rosewood-base Tuna-Matic bridge, and a wiring harness (turns out, the "import Les Paul upgrade" harness from GFS fits perfectly inside these bodies.) I bought one for my Hondo doublecut LP project, and tried fitting it for S&G's, mostly to see if the toggle would fit into the body. Well the wires are just about the exact length for everything to fit right where the holes are, without the extra halfmile of wire I've seen in too many "budget" semi-hollows.

I just have to figure out something for pup rings (and pups, duh) and I can re-use everything I take off the greenburst, to finish off the red body. THe pickup holes they routed into these are GIANT, neither the mini-HB or regular HB rings cover the holes up.

Oh yeah, comparing the 2 neck joint areas:

 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)

A trashy Dwight Trash, I like it!

You can't get dogears to cover the pickup cavities?
 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)

Nice! I love fixer uppers!
 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)

Wattage said:
You can't get dogears to cover the pickup cavities?
Click to expand...

I COULD, but I don't wanna buy some, just to find out they don't fit. I don't know anybody who has spare ones, either.
 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)


OK so I fired up Ebay ("I thought you said you weren't going on there anymore?" Uhhhh...) and found some undrilled dogear covers. They were a LOT cheaper than I thought they were gonna be-a million years ago I bought a P90 cover from Stew-mac for a project,

and I wanna say I ended up paying over $20 with shipping for ONE cover...
So I ordered these covers up, and assuming they fit OK, I will cut them to put ....something in. I'd LIKE a set of SD "Seymourized" minis, but we'll see if any of my crap on the bay sells, so I can get something.
 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)

I'm thinking chrome ones if they'll work, not shiny though, kind of like they were dragged behind the car
 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)


it's so GREEN. There needs to be more green guitars.


The finish came off pretty easily when I was sanding down the dowel plugs, so I'm just gonna go for a clear finish on the back of this, like the neck on the Aria. If I decide to use the Lyle neck on the body it came on, it'll still look OK. Plus I really prefer Tru-Oil on my necks anyway. There's a LOT of sealer on this one, but 80/100 grit is taking it off pretty easily.

I got the tearout patched, the face of the 'stock is flat, and will get painted black (and maybe one of the "Howard" logos I made for a different project.)
 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)


They just arrived last night aaaaand...

They don't fit. THey're OK top to bottom (they cover the triangular part of the pup route) but they're just a hair too narrow to cover side-to-side. Shoot, anybody need some undrilled dogears?
 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)

I've been in "the cities" the last couple days, job interviews so I get to troll all the cool guitar stores I don't get to visit living in BFE like I do. Anyway I stopped at one place (Capitol Guitars in dt St Paul, VERY cool guys there and interesting gear) and they had 3, metal dogears

They're wider than the plastic ones I have, plus they're metal, so I can bend them wider if I need. (And I have an extra, so I can practice and not screw up the pair I have left)

So that may solve my pup mounting issue. None of the other stores I checked out had anything useful. Well other than the "real" Trini Lopez Willie's had...

although I have NO business buying a $9K guitar...
Also I've been sanding the neck, man I hate sanding necks down! It'll look and feel nice with some "Vintage Amber" on it under Tru Oil when it's done, but now I remember why I vowed to never sand a neck again. I'm not stripping it because the last time I stripped a neck finish, it ruined all the finishes I put back on it later, I never seemed to be able to neutralize or get out the stripper.



 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)

Its not really hard at all if you use a paint stripping gun. Once you get going you can take large areas off in one go.
 
Re: "My name is Daan, and I'm a GAS-0-holic" (NGD again)

Loving your taste in guitars and your dedication man. I have a AllParts Strat body with no pickguard and a ****ty neck on that's been in a gigbag for two years.
Should do something about it.
 
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