Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

[Gardener]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

I listened to your original tunes on Sound Cloud, Gardener. Cool stuff, I liked 'Amber Eyes' and 'Anymore' in particular. As well as 'Leaving Tomorrow'.

Awe thanks. Stringbender... I've only been playing guitar for 2 1/2 - 3 years.. still learning how to using my DAW. But it's coming along, I should be posting another one soon.

Stuff closer to the sound of Anymore and the bandcamps stuff than the singer/songwriter stuff from the soundcloud.

 

[Ascension]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

I got a 1990 Carvin which I was advised one of the custom shop guys made on the side, looked to be a ST body except for the larger upper horn. I just need to find someone with a legit ST that will carefully trace the body and mail it to me so I can complete it. I already ordered finishing supplies for this project. I played on it before I took it apart and man it played awesome! Those USA necks they make.....

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It's a normal 1990 poplar body DC 200 that was ordered with the ST body option and a tuneamatic.
This Pearl white 90 DC 125 with the ST body was mine at one point.

 

[Toner]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

It's a normal 1990 poplar body DC 200 that was ordered with the ST body option and a tuneamatic.
This Pearl white 90 DC 125 with the ST body was mine at one point.

The horns on mine aren't as rounded and look at the photo of the back of my guitar, the upper horn is definitely too big. I wish I could find someone with an ST body that can trace the body for me and mail the template to me (ill pay for it) so I can correct it.....

Also, funny yours was white because that is the color I ordered for this project.

 

[jtees4]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

Mid 80's Samick Super Strat. Beat to hell. Great player. $40.

 

[Ascension]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

Last one was a 1990 Peavy Generation S-1 that I found with the case for $150 in a pawn shop. When I found it it had rusted strings green frets and bridge and was so nasty you could hardly tell what color it was + the electronics were dead.
Brought it home tore it down fixed the active electronics cleaned it up and did a full set up. She is just a monster player now and the factory actives sound really good in it.
Here she is today

 

[stringbender11]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

Gorgeous neck on that Peavey, Ascension.

Yeah I get a lot more satisfaction out of saving a nice player, and setting it up my own way, then I ever would just outright buying a new guitar. New guitars just aint got's the mojo.

 

[Ascension]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

Working on this one today. It's a mid 1990's NOS Washburn MG neck and body. Pickups are PG neck 59/Custom bridge trem is a Gotoh Floyd as are the NOS Washburn labeled Gotoh locking tuners. Doing some minor fill and sand + a mock up to get ready to send the body out to be finished and just installed the NOS tuners.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

The best Cheap score Ive ever gotten is a Japanese Squier strat. bought it for $139 at a local shop. Its a great playing strat with a nice fat sustain. Came with a fender branded trem (not a floyd copy, but not typical strat). After research I found it was made by Kahler but cant recall the model right now. Anyhow, the stock pups were lacking, so replaced the single ply guard and pups and the guitar is awesome now!

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

I found this in my local music store last May and fell instantly in love:



It's a "Hamer Slammer Series", Korean-made, first and best of the Hamer imports. It had a couple big dings in the poly on the top, but sounded good unplugged. Nice mahogany in the body & neck.

Over a few months, I bought a used Custom/59 Hybrid here on the forum, and I pulled the ex-Lucid 59N out of my Telecaster. Creme pickup rings made it more Hamerish. I got a push/pull pot from the Good Karma thread to put in place of the tone control: it gives me spin-a-split on the bridge pickup and phase reverse in the "up" position. The only new parts were a replacement jack and switch.

Here she is today:

 

[Wattage]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

'81 Dean Z

Typical Dean headstock crack and the very common body crack by the controls that someone made an ill-advised attempt to fix. Original case and I have an original DiMarzio zebra SD for it. We'll see how it goes....

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

Wow,some kewl stuff up in here!!!

I'd so re-fin taht Dean!!!

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

'81 Dean Z

Typical Dean headstock crack and the very common body crack by the controls that someone made an ill-advised attempt to fix. Original case and I have an original DiMarzio zebra SD for it. We'll see how it goes....

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Never heard about body cracks by the controls... Dean headstocks are a love hate with me. they are too big, but the deans really dont look right to me without them.. (the new series they have where you can get the straight stock) and the old small V they used looked funny too. I like the soltero HS.

 

[Wattage]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

There is so little wood on the outside edges of the control cavity that the bodies crack when they get smacked on something. Similar to the old SG input jacks.

The veneer is the only thing that stopped in from coming off completely from what it looks like. Going to have to be a little creative to fix it since the previous glopped some load of crack in there to keep it together. The headstock shouldn't be too bad I'm hoping. I'd hate to have to refinish it, I'd like it to be as original as possible.

 

[stringbender11]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

That dean is sweet, will make a killer guitar once you're done.

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

Most of mine are just Partso-Squiers,but I like 'em!
Also have a Stellar LPC copy that's better than I would've expected...

All < $150-250ish !!!

 

[Swampy]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

First post. Been lurking for a while.

Here's a couple CL find projects I have in progress.

First is a Yamaha PAC120 that cost me nothing. It was missing the nut, tuners, pots, switch and wiring. But you still can't beat free. I took the tuners off of a crappy RR copy, that I also got off CL. The thing about the Yamaha is I really hated the headstock. Ugly headstocks bug the pizz out of me. So today I decided to do some trimming. I know it's not exact but I think I got it Tele-ish. There wasn't enough meat on the underside to give it a proper lower swoop.

The second is a Harmony H814 I got for the whopping price of $2. I asked how he came up with that price, he said it was his son's, who was around 5-6 and wanted to sell it for $2. LOL. This one I'm giving to my son who's 11. This one had a broken headstock, but everything else was there. I figured it'd give me a chance take a shot at a headstock repair. I am no luthier, but I am a trim carpenter by trade, so I have a bit of experience around tools and wood.

The third is the Jackson copy I got for $20. Don't know I'm going to do with it. Maybe try to get my $20 back. LOL.

Wish the pics could be better, but only have the cell at the moment.





Also had a pointy design I was thinking of.....


The ugly Dodo Bird headstock....


Still needs some final sanding and finishing, also marked where I'm thinking of taking some more off.....

 

[Reaper666]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

I'm a bit late, I know, just found this thread, figured I'd show my own project: Picked up an old mid 80's Samick off some guy on Craigslist about a month back, everything was original, except for the pups: Gibson PAF in the bridge, and some sort of dimarzio in the neck (very bluesy sounding). $USD175. SCORE. I have changed the dimarzio out for Duncan Hot Rails. Gonna change the PAF out for an invader or something similar. Needed a good set up, new pots, waxed/lubricated trem posts, and I still need to install a new switch, and track down an arm- gonna need to convert it to a standard floyd arm, as right now, it has the Fender Strat style block, but the hole where the arm screws in is too big for a strat arm.
Here she is:

 

[formula73]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

70-something Hondo LP. It's one of the setneck versions with the ash body/ash top. This sum***** PLAYS. I bought it from a guy who'd listed it on San Diego CL for $100, iirc. It had the stock neck pup, a Carvin M22 bridge (which I hated), and somebody had replaced the stock tuners with old W. German Schallers. I threw a set of Dimarzios in it to see if it was worth messing with, decided it was, and had it refretted with Dunlop 6000s. I got drunk one day and decided the original finish sucked so I was going to strip it. I got about half done and finally put it back together after about 5 years.

 

[firebirdguy72]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

Do ones that got away count? There was an old, white, beat up 1985 MIJ squier 57 reissue strat about 200 miles away from me on craigslist... Loaded with 3 duncan rails with case for $200 obo... Emailed the guy as soon as I saw it. Was gone before I could even make an offer... Kills me I didn't get it.

 

[allbutromeo]

Re: Tell me about your dirt cheap guitar projects.

I have a late 90's Squire Stagemaster I bought for around $100. It was Candy Apple Red, but I sanded of the finish and the laminate to underneath it (because it was solid color the laminate didn't cover the contours) and gave it a vintage natural gloss finish, tung oiled the neck, and put a brass block on the floyd. Still haven't bought pickups for it yet.