Started over on the Supro Belmont...

Made huge big fuckup with this build. Seems half an inch off from the original guitar.

So I started over again. And what is better than 1 Belmont?

Right!

 2 Belmonts!

Pics soon...

'58 Supro Belmont

I started a little contest between a professional luthier and me this weekend. This guy helped me out a lot with the Dual-Tone and drew up a plan of that guitar. He said he'd like to build himself one like it someday. Turns out there's going to be a guitarbuilders meeting in 2 months...
So we set up this build-off plan.

Here's what I did so far:

Made the templates and glued a 2 piece Yellow Pine body.

 Roughly cut out the body, neck and fretboard...

Routed out the neck and shaped the headstocktransition

 Routed out the body and beveled the edges.

Did the back with a router, the front by hand.

Still figuring out how I'm going to do the neckpocket...

Think I'm going for a modern version of the old Supro's.

 Last but not least:

A mock-up!

To be continued...

CSTMS pt.2CSTMS pt.2

Did a few shows with these guys now... Loving every moment. Learning a lot about the Rock n Roll world. A lot about backline and stuff. Cool!
Next week: festivals! The real deal. Looking forward to it.

CSTMS

Guitarbuilding is going to be slow this week... Got a job as a roadie/techie for this band called CUSTOMS.
I do some backline work now and then so I figured this might be fun too! Guess what: did the first show yesterday everything went great.
Thing is I still need to learn a lot, which cables to pull and which to leave alone for example! Glad these guys are cutting me some slack (for now)...
They're a healthy crazy bunch, they like a laugh and are not afraid to be serious too.

Anyways: here's their new single. The CD is coming out september 23rd! Go check 'em out in a bar near you soon. ;)

GretschCaster Pt.2

A nice 2 piece body (glued totally off-center, like it matters...)

 The chunk of wood in clamps, being glued together.

Almost invisible glueline. This is a nice looking piece of wood!

Soon updates on the neck ;)

GretschCaster Pt.1

It's been a while since I last posted an update but here's the news:
I started on another Telecaster project (I dubbed it the GretschCaster)... A friend of mine wanted a guitar to fit her specific needs.  She wanted a guitar that would sound good, look good and play good for a decent price and since she's a cool person I offered her to build one for her she designed.

Meet the GretschCaster:

The specs:
2-piece Yellow Pine body: Gretsch orange up front, dark red back and white bindings
Maple neck with rosewood fretboard: 25" scale and 22 frets, abalone dot inlays and 12" radius

Duesenberg humbucker in the bridgeposition, Duesenberg P-90 in the neckposition
1x volume, 2x Tone and a 3-way switch.

What's not to like about it?

More soon!

Other guitars 'n stuff...

Here are some pictures of other things I'm (was) working on.

For starters: my real first build, a black Esquire with a BG pickups T-90 in the bridge.

A refret for a friend of mine, note the Leatherman again.

A cigarboxguitar with a smokey amp.

A neckthrough SG with mahogany neck and flamemaple sides, 2 P-90's and gold hardware...

Supro Dual-Tone so far...

So here's where I'm at right now... Pretty good, considering what I started from. Don't you think?

 Back, all done with the correct covers for the screws!

 Mockup with everything except for the pickups!

 What I started from, remember?

Mine on the right, an all original '58 on the left.

Really cool dude that trusted me with this little gem (thanks S.)!

I'll keep you posted!

Cheers,

M.

Supro Dual-Tone hardware

The biggest problem with these guitars is finding the right parts, they are either rare or to expensive... So what do you do when you want a bridge or tailpiece? That's right: DIY FTW! Build it yourself.
I found out the bridges of these old Supro's were made out of rosewood, so I went to this luthiershop and got me some pieces of rosewood to get started with.
And by accident I got in contact with a really kind French craftsman... He made me these repro tuningbuttons! These are another detail that add to the character of this guitar.
The tailpiece is made out of a sheet of brass (0,8mm thick) and an aluminum bolt.

Repro tuningbuttons on a piece of rosewood.

 Removing the white buttons of the 3-on-a-plate Kluson tuningpeg.

 The new buttons installed! Looks great, doesn't it?

 Replica tailpiece, made to the exact specs of an original '58 D-T.

Bringing the rosewood to the correct thickness and size...

Checking the shape... Looks good to me!

Here's some bridges I made. The one up front is the one I used on my D-T, the others didn't turn out good enough...

Finished Supro bridge. Could be better, but good enough for now!

Next up: Winding pickups!!!

Supro Dual-Tone body refinish

The paint on the body I got was really horrible, so I sanded that off and ordered some spraycans of Olympic White nitrocellulose. Really nasty stuff, gotta watch out you don't inhale to much of it!
I went for nitro paint because it turns slightly yellow over time and the original plastic coat was too hard to track down, couldn't have gotten it right...

 Nasty red! Yikes...

Nitrocellulose primer

 I decided to paint the body like the old Fender's were done... Less drips and stuff. Much nicer result!

As you can see I used nails to prevent the top from sticking to the table when it was still wet. No worries! Used existing holes, didn't make new ones.

Next up: the hardware!

Supro Dual-Tone neck refret

So I got to work on the Supro. First up: the neck & frets.
Like I said, there was a crack on the bass-side of the fretboard. All the way through from the nut to the heel. So I got my 12" radiusblock out and leveled the fretboard again. Saved the wooddust and mixed it with some superglue. Used that stuff to fill up the crack, really glad it worked out that well.
Next, I widened the fretslots so the new frets would stay in place properly.
After that I pressed the frets in with a little bit of glue and the 12" radiusblock.

 Neck with the new 12" radius and no frets...

 Taking care of the frets (Note the Leatherman: it's my favorite tool!)

Masked the fretboard to level the frets and give em a nice crown again...

To be continued...

1958 Supro Dual-Tone restoration

My first restoration project: a '58 Supro Dual-Tone... After I finished my first home-made Esquire, the guitarbuildingbug got to me. Couldn't resist when I saw this beauty going by on eBay.
The ad said it was a Belmont, but the routing proved it to be a D-T.
Here's some pictures I took during the process.

 Picture of the stuff I got: Neck with a cracked fretboard, repro pickguard and a badly painted body...

 Battlescars on the fretboard, took care of that. Really sorry of that now...

 Close-up of the body, note the controlrouting.

Neckwear... Really cool if you ask me!

New to this stuff...

So I just made a blog... Now I gotta figure out what to do with this thing.
It'll come to me. Will try to post some things now and then.