Ok when I read Crow's post I realized I must have been on a different planet when I asked greg about Rondo guitar's. I'm not sure why/how I thought the 51 Squire was a Rondo. Sorry
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
Ok when I read Crow's post I realized I must have been on a different planet when I asked greg about Rondo guitar's.
Thanks for that -- I thought it was me. :D
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
Ok when I read Crow's post I realized I must have been on a different planet when I asked greg about Rondo guitar's. I'm not sure why/how I thought the 51 Squire was a Rondo. Sorry
I was wondering, Chris -- but as long as you're okay now …
Crow: very unlikely would mod a Rondo, as I've no real reason to buy one. the '51s were a low-cost blow-out. just looking at them, I was pretty sure I could put together some good playing, good sounding guitars that I could enjoy using as much as my expensive axes, yet not worry about in travel or jam situations. I really didn't know what I would have to do until I got the first one -- but with almost any serviceable body + good neck combo, I can pretty much make a good instrument. as built, a '51s has a poorly-designed bridge/tailpiece, wimpy neck pup, (IMO) pretty ugly pickguard covering some nice wood and a few other minor issues. for about $50 and some time, it's easy for me to make some big improvements. if a Rondo is good as is, I wouldn't change it.
-=tension & release=-
Sanity has been restored and I am back on the planet...but it was a wild ride for awhile!
"It's all about stickin it to the man!"
It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n roll!
if a Rondo is good as is, I wouldn't change it.
I wouldn't mess with mine. Some folks are never happy with pickups. I'm fine with them as they are.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
...with almost any serviceable body + good neck combo, I can pretty much make a good instrument.... for about $50 and some time, it's easy for me to make some big improvements.
I can do it in a matter of years, if I budget my allowance money carefully. :oops:
Still getting over a fundamental mistrust of imported instruments, having learned to play on some real pigs (and not having had the scratch to get something appreciably better). Today the quality of "low-end" guitars, at least in the neck/body area, seems overall to be pretty high. That Spectrum strat's pickups even sound OK, although I'm still getting to know the instrument.
How do the Guitar Fetish P90s compare, say, to a nice vintage Gibson pup?
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
...with almost any serviceable body + good neck combo, I can pretty much make a good instrument.... for about $50 and some time, it's easy for me to make some big improvements.
I can do it in a matter of years, if I budget my allowance money carefully. :oops:
Still getting over a fundamental mistrust of imported instruments, having learned to play on some real pigs (and not having had the scratch to get something appreciably better). Today the quality of "low-end" guitars, at least in the neck/body area, seems overall to be pretty high. That Spectrum strat's pickups even sound OK, although I'm still getting to know the instrument.
How do the Guitar Fetish P90s compare, say, to a nice vintage Gibson pup?
my first guitar was a Teisco. now that was marginal guitar -- yet it had it's charms. I started modding it two week after I got it. it was replaced by an Ibanez 'lawsuit' SG -- the first quality guitar I ever owned, and one of the first US market guitar bearing the Ibanez name.
good Q on the P90s -- they vary a lot. I have three brands of P90 in my instruments, none of which are Gibby: GFS, Reverend, generic (Asian) P90. If you are not familiar with them, Reverend makes very good guitars. I have one of the original US-built phenolic lam body jobs. these days, Reverend builds guitars in Asia.
* Reverend (~$40): Hot, crunchy with the clearest high end -- the strongest magnet field
* generic (<$10): crunchy, a bit less clear high end and slightly mellower than I expect from a P90, still serviceable
* GFS Alnico Vintage ($34): in the middle of the above -- not as aggressive as the Reverend, yet still a bit crunchy, rounder tone -- weakest magnetic field of the bunch
-=tension & release=-
Greg, you did a beautiful job. It looks good and I bet you got it playing real nice too. I've got a Kramer Imperial Axe (Explorer clone) I've been meaning to get to work on but you know how that goes. I think we need more pictures though. Pictures help with the gas ...... help to make it worse. I came close to buying a Squire 51 many times, just never did. It certainly is fun taking an inexpensive instrument and investing some time and money and making it more than the sum of the parts.
Chris ... & Crow, I bought an SX strat from Rondo for $99 worth of empty beer cans. Put another $100 in it in parts and after some good setup I got a great guitar. The changes I made were ones I thought would make a difference. I changed the pots so they were smoother and put a GFS railed pickup in the bridge to have a hot humbucker. I also replaced the trem, block and all, to have better saddles, adjustment and sustain. I also swapped the tuners for a set of Grovers off another SX.
Why invest money in this? I wanted to build a guitar and the SX had a 3 piece alder body. The neck has a 2 way adjustable truss rod. I could not buy this neck and body for $99 each let alone together in a whole guitar. Oh, and the body, it's not a bathtub route. 3 piece alder body routed for 2 singles and a humbucker. My other SX made of ash is a bathtub route however. I still plan to mod that one. Reasons to not mod an SX? You can buy them in just about any configuration you want and they are cheap. Now my Agile from Rondo is another story ...... no modification needed and it is a low end AL2000. Good pots, good switch and like Ric says ... pickups are fine.
Ooops .... sorry Greg, dodn't mean to hijack the thread. More pictures of that 51 will put it right back on track.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
A question about this '51 mod: You've put threaded inserts in the screw-holes in the neck but not in the body, am I right? Why just one and not the other? Body wood is just as prone to stripping as neck wood. (Which probably just means I've stripped as many body holes as I have neck holes, but still.)
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
no threaded inserts for the body. in fact, the body holes should be just large enough to allow the screws -- or bolts in this case -- to slide thru unimpeded. otherwise, there is no guaranty the neck will be seated snuggly against the body when the screws (bolts) are tightened. basically, the body gets clamped between the neck plate and the neck as the screws (bolts) tighten. if you look at the typical wood screws used for neck mounting, you will see that the portion right near the screw head that ends up "in the body" upon full insertion/assembly is actually unthreaded.
-=tension & release=-
Ah, now I get the picture! Thanks. (In retrospect it was kinda a dumb question.)
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
nice job, looks great
#4491....
Nice looking guitar, gnease. Lots of work. Fun to do, I bet. I've been brainstorming a bit trying to come up with a project that doesn't entail just an hour of component replacement and set-up. That kind of thing looks like fun. 8)
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Man, those little guys really dress up nicely when done in the right hands.
That looks fantastic.
Bish
"I play live as playing dead is harder than it sounds!"
Yes they do ... but it seems my request for more pictures has been ignored. :P
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
