Scrybe's Little Mods of Horrors!

LOL. I am going to pull my eyes out and burn them.

I can't be sure, but the guy looks puffier than the guitar.

leaving my white telecaster in the washing machine with any of my red shirts......

:D :D :D

Vic
Vic I cant beleve that even crosed you mind :wink:

It didn't - it's one of those threats that the Mrs has been known to utter from time to time............

:D :D :D

Vic

El Cheapo Acoustico (pics)
One day, I will learn how to resize my pics so they actually fit on to my posts. :roll: Sorry! :oops:

Clearly, this is a brand-name boutique instrument, finely crafted. You can tell by the distinctive logo, visible through the soundhole.....


Zero fret. :shock: Nice headstock inlay, though. And I'm not joking this time, either, its nicely done.

Unlike the fingerboard inlays....look closely and note the particular attention to detail in this specimen where the knot in the wood has been overlayed by inlay. Almost. :roll: No idea what went on here.

Very very pretty soundhole decoration. Were it not for the fact that its coming off (see the top bit in the pic). And whatever it has been finished with (clear coat) is cracking, too. But the pattern is still visible. Gonna see if I can sand (?) or otherwise remove the top coat, and then maybe go in with some fine brushwork and a new finish. Unless its really hard. Then I may give up. Fortunately, a couple of years pretending to be an artist have resulted in me having a handful of good quality and suitably sized brushes.

It's the back of a guitar. And it has a strap button. What else can I say? lol

Headstock. Working tuners (very well, surprisingly)

Grover tuning machines....

See the black fingerboard slab? Yup, thats all wood, all fingerboard......

I wanna redecorate...... Just dunno how just yet. Never thought I might have to paint an acoustic before. :?

The bridge. Got it strung with Fender bullets right now, and one's rattling like crazy, but I just wanted to check how it plays, so meh. Notice the pretty matching string pegs..... :wink:

Wow!
I like that acoustic just the way it is!

I personally wouldn't change anything - except to stop any rattles and make it easily playable.

It might not be as cheap of a guitar as you think....

Usually, things like fine inlays, and grover tuners are indicitive of a bit better of an instrument.

Plus, as you pointed out - it has a solid chunk of wood for the fretboard.

A zero fret doesn't mean cheap ~ Some very expensive Gretsch's have those.

It also looks to be lac finished (%

I guessing a one piece cedar top....
and it looks like a one piece back.... don'know if it's a vanier though.

Like the multi colored bridge pins.... Rory G. had one mis-matched tuner, and a white pearl replacement dot on an otherwise clay-dot marker fretboard....
That's a cool look 8)

IMO - Your acoustic OOOOOOZES MOJO!

Even if it is a cheapo - That's what Cobain used with Nirvana....
And Uncle Bobby has a steel strung acoustic that he played for at least 20 years that his wife bought at a garage sale for 5 bucks!
I made him will it to me!
I LOVE That thing!

Ken

Uh.... Well, the Grovers look to be not original. :|
And the top looks a bit paler in the rest of the pics - perhaps Spruce.

I'm with Ken on this one. It's gotta have some sort of distinctive tone that you'd kill with a refurb.

Usually, things like fine inlays, and grover tuners are indicitive of a bit better of an instrument.

Plus, as you pointed out - it has a solid chunk of wood for the fretboard.

A zero fret doesn't mean cheap ~ Some very expensive Gretsch's have those.

I know zero-fret /= bad, I've just never seen a guitar with one before (it actually makes me feel well 'traditional' lol).

8mm of fingerboard wood to be precise. I just checked. 8)

Yeah, I think the Grovers are add-ons, too. Oh Well (Part ???? :wink: )

hmmm........I dunno about leaving it as is.......I'm not happy with the look of the sides and back. :cry: (I want plain black). I'll see what others say, and then mull it over.

I personally wouldn't change anything - except to stop any rattles and make it easily playable.

Oh yeah, I think the rattle's just because I used F Bullets 10 gauge standard pack. What? They said "for electric and acoustic" on them, and I hate bullets, I just wanted to check how it played. Strings I don't care for = not having to wait until I've played them out before doing anything. Plus, they were free (got a few boxes a few years back and still have a bunch, I could never get with them). :lol: :lol:

The rattle is definitely coming from the bridge, and a couple of the pegs aren't fitting as smoothly as they do on the Martin or Ibanez, so it might be that.........they're cheap plastic ones, so a change wouldn't be disastrous, if necessary.

And yes. I did mean 8mm fingerboard. :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: That wasn't a typo.

Raif MkI Update: Just did the fingerboard touch up. Leaving it to dry overnight, then gonna do the clean up. Idiot that I am occasionally known to be, I forgot to take any 'before' shots, so you'll have to take my word for it that work was necessary. Nothing major - small chip of wood missing off the edge of the board, but right at one of the frets so it kept snagging my finger when running my hand along it, making it nasty to play. It wasn't where any of the strings lie though, fortunately.

scrybe, that is a cool old guitar. cedar top, nitro finish. DON"T TOUCH THE TOP.

go ahead and paint the sides. I don't mind dings. maybe cause I have dings and have learned to live with them. but it is not a mortal sin to paint.

nice tuners.

zero fret does not mean cheap. a friend and stunning player has a zero fret guitar. its his main gigging guitar. he takes it busking all over the world. it is an expensive guitar.
however, I found a cheapo guitar., no bracing, inked on sound hole decoration (came off with a rag when I cleaned dirt off the guitar) intonation like poo. it had a zero fet.

get those bullets off. put on traditional end strings . I like that the pins don't match. the Fender strings may be the cause of the rattle.

cool guitar. it sounds ok? thanks for the pics.

I played El Cheapo t'other day when I restrung, but gave it another play through just now.........

The rattle mainly seems to be the G string, definitely at the bridge end. But the adjacent strings have slight buzz sometimes, too. Could it be the G string buzzing in those cases? I'm thinking its possible. Plausable, even. I certainly hope so.

There's also a buzzing on the low E string, but this time at the nut. I actually think it's the string hitting the zero fret thats 'causing' the buzzing, though the actual cause might be the nut being low. The action is very very low.

The tuning is bloody brilliant. I restrung the day Dan, Laura and Vic came to jam, as Yashicamat might have been joining us and I wasn't sure if we'd have enough guitars. Haven't played it since. It's still perfectly in tune. :mrgreen: The intonation is perfect, too. :mrgreen:

The neck is bloody unweildy, though. I can play it fine, but its just not as comfortable as my other guitars. CitizenNoir might like it. :wink: I'm fine about this though - it'll be a great practise tool for anything fast or involving long stretches. Maybe the neck size has a little to do with this, but the frets feel HUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEE. I did a few bass line runs on it, stuff I can do fine on e.g. my strat or my Spear, but which involve some fair finger stretching. On el cheapo it was quite a test!

The sound is, well, loud. I can't do like-for-like right now, but I think it might be the loudest of my acoustics. The tone is a little difficult to judge, between the bullets and the buzzes, but that aside it sounds pretty great on the country/country blues stuff I tried. Which is what you'd expect a guitar like this to do best, I suppose.

Well,
if the strings are too low from a wore out nut, there's a few ways to go about tackling that....
Though, every old Blues player I knew in Chicago all took great care to place matchsticks (not the wood ones!)
in between the string and the nut slot in question :wink:

Ken

Well,
if the strings are too low from a wore out nut, there's a few ways to go about tackling that....
Though, every old Blues player I knew in Chicago all took great care to place matchsticks (not the wood ones!)
in between the string and the nut slot in question :wink:

Ken

huh? what matchsticks aren't wooden? cardboard ones? or am I missing something here? :?

LOL!

Yes.... Use these:

Not these:

Vintage Art Deco Ronsons like this, also do not work....

Nor do Zippos! :P

ya. my lighter is too BIC for the purpose.

Zero frets wear out like any other -- especially if lighter (thinner) strings were used instead of an original, heavier gauge, and these thinners could move back and forth slightly in the "nut" slots, which are actually just guides over that zero fret.

I love beater guitars. While working on my fave, I must have whacked the f-board, cuz I had exactly the same issue with a bit of the rosewood splintering off the edge and exposing a sharp fret edge. Shaved some rosewood off a scrap and epoxied it roughly into place. Filled slight gaps with a bit more epoxy; filed; sanded; lacquered; polished; feels fine now!

Have fun with these -- don't breathe too many fumes!

Greg -
So, when trying to utilize the matchstick quick fix on a zero fret (such as this)....
Would you put it in the nut slot AND over the zero fret then????

And since Bullet 10's are being used, do you think that thicker acoustic strings would fix it?
(as Scrybe had predicted)

Ken