c.1964 Gibson J-45 ADJ Dreadnought Guitar

I wish customers wouldn't drop guitars like this off. They make me envious!

Of all the dreadnought-shaped designs, I've always liked the J-45/J-50 slope shouldered types the best, personally. This mostly has to do with how it sits in the lap and in the hand for me -- I like short scale instruments and the Gibson scale and rounded upper bouts as well as waist location make the J-45 infinitely more comfortable to play for me than a D-18 or similar. However, I love (and find useful) the sound of both, so for me it mostly comes down to the way it play.

So, naturally, while I was working on this guitar I found the old Gibson dread lust seeping into me.

This one was in for the usual -- fret level/dress, cleaning, and setup. It also had to have its peeling pickguard put back down, which I did with some double-sided adhesive pickup film stuff I have hanging around, though because the edges had curled up (presumably from heat in the case) I have my doubts as to how long this guard will stay put.

As a believer in adjustable bridges, I heartily endorse this one, as I value practicality pretty highly. To my ears they don't make the sound better or worse -- just different -- from a regular "set" bone saddle. The benefit of having the ability to set the guitar up very quickly via the truss rod and the adjustable saddle, however, means that for me any minimal extra perceived harmonic or dynamic loss is quickly made up for in easy adjustability.

This guitar is all-original and crack free. It's also nice to see the fun aged-in "iced tea" sunburst with some of the more intense color of the sunburst leached out.

Faux-MOP dots in a rosewood board.

Good mahogany back, sides, and neck.

Kluson tuners work fine. I shot some lubricant into them to get them to operate a little more cleanly.

It looks like some work was done at the heel area at some point.

It's a good one!

c.1964 Fender Duo-Sonic II Electric Guitar

This nice, beat-up, short-scale (24 1/8") Fender is a very early Duo-Sonic II, in the Olympic White/tortoise pickguard color scheme. It appears to be mostly original, with an obviously replacement brass adjustable bridge apparatus as well as replacement tuners. I did work on this for a customer of mine and to be honest, I'm sick with jealousy. After fixing its woes, this is an incredibly fun and great-sounding guitar.

My work on it included fixing some grounding issues as well as a fret level/dress, cleaning, and full setup. It plays slick and fast and has one of those great old Fender necks -- there's just nothing like them made today in the electric world. They're just -- different.

This guitar has aged to a buttery yellow, distressed color throughout, probably from tobacco staining while used in bars. This is not your normal finish yellowing -- it's a tougher version of it. There are assorted nicks, dings, scratches, and discolorations throughout -- but that's what makes it kick butt, right? At least I think so...!

Nice clay dots. I think I was the first person to work on the frets considering all the divots in the 1-7 area.

Amazingly, the original covered single-coil Mustang-style pickups are still surviving on this rig. So many of these guitars get brutalized with humbuckers!

The Gibson-y style brass bridge is pretty cool and I'm pretty sure adds some decent sustain.

All the pots and switches were a little scratchy to begin with, but after wiggling for 15 minutes or so while playing they're back to about 90% or so. The flip switches for controlling pickup selection are the worst, though, as one would expect them to be.

The simple but yet very usable design philosophy on this guitar is refreshing, as most Fenders are. I have to admit that I roll my eyes once I start seeing more than three knobs on an electric.

The previous owner canted the neck back to go over the adjustable bridge nicely, so I've left it like that.

Overall: cool! Cool!

c.1930 Regal Rarer Spruce/Mahogany Tenor Guitar

This version of the original-shape Regal tenor guitar is step number 3 on the "fanciness" scale as far as these tenors went. The low-grade model, introduced later on, was all-birch with a birch top. The most-seen version has a spruce top but birch back and sides with similar top appointments (black binding and multicolor rosette). This is like the second model but with mahogany back and sides and a little fancier binding as well as planetary geared pegs and then the next up version has fancier binding and purfling still as well as much fancier pearl inlay down the neck. 

At any rate, the mahogany models of both stripes are quite rare on the market and this one is a reall good example, being 100% original (save for a new bone saddle) and crack free.

My work on this included a neck reset, fret level/dress, new bone saddle, and setup. I'd intended to put this right up on the sales block but the wifey got a hold of it somewhere in-between while I had it tuned to GCEA and she's pretty taken with it, so we'll see as far as its "availability" goes.

It's an elegant looking instrument, with almost Martin style 18 appointments, save for the very cool (and typically Regal) green/red/yellow multicolored rosette.

Nice Regal decal. Note the 4:1 planetary pegs -- these are oodles better than regular friction pegs. I've slotted both the bridge and nut to support a variety of string gauges since tenor players seem to be the most diverse in terms of tunings used.

Pearl dots, original nickel-silver frets. The board is some sort of dyed hardwood.

After the neck reset the bridge was slightly low, so I replaced the original smaller bone saddle with this new one.

One really cool feature of the fancier Regal tenors is that they sport banjo-style adjustable tailpieces. This gives the player some unique tone control options compared to a normal guitar-style tailpiece.

Nice, proud label.

She's a beaut!

Nice pegs. The buttons are plain cream bakelite.

Despite the fresh-looking back, when you get up close you can see scuffs and light scratches and a bit of buckle rash. The semi-gloss finish (similar to period Martins) disguises it for the most part, though.

I like the detail of the back having the contrasting black/white/black binding as well.

When I reinstalled the tailpiece after doing my work I added a third mounting screw for better stability.

Ah, and the verdict? Nice and loud and punchy with good sustain. This makes an excellent fingerpicker as well, and the slim-waisted design is just a touch larger than a baritone ukulele which makes it a nice crossover instrument.

Database Finished!

Well, what with more middle of the night workings, I've completed my maker database list so you can browse the old blog posts by "who made what and when."

Click here to check it out!

I also finished work on that Regal tenor guitar and a few customer instruments, so we can all look forward to photos this afternoon.

Ephemera: Amazing Filipino? Band (c.1930)

This amazing group has, frankly, an amazing assortment of instruments. Check out the 12-string guitar banjo! ...followed by a 12-string banjo-bandurria, two old-style steel-strung guitars, a regular pair of bandurrias, Filipino-style laud, a uke, musical saw, and... and... some crazy-as-heck bass guitar! I'm guessing it's related to the Mariachi-style basses considering the positioning and 6 strings (well, 5 strings on it, and 6 tuners).