ColonelJLloyd 

<inhales deeply>. . Yeah, dude. I totally see it, man. <exhales>

20grit

I beg to differ. At least regarding the acoustics.

The pickups in the Kalamazoo electrics were the same as a melody maker. That alone puts them above most of the Japanese stuff of the era. Those are some sweet little pickups. Nice bite to them.

auchencrow

Beautiful guitar, elmarjazz!

It's amazing how accurately they're making these to the original specs. - (I consider the T-rod an improvement, not a compromise).

There are so many great acoustic guitars being made today. - And in addition to Martin and Gibson, there are many great luthiers who are today making this the real golden age of American lutherie. (We even have one such in our midst!)

I wish I could be as enthusiastic about the new bikes, but unlike today's guitar makers, there is really no new production bike that I would want to own.
IMO, the big bike manufacturers ought to take a lesson from today's guitar makers.
(The stuff they're making today does less for me than a 60's Japanese budget guitar!!)

Antipodes

I haven't posted for quite some time, but nevertheless, I'll start again by adding to this thread.
Here's my early '70s Ibanez model 2370:


Yeah, a Gibson 335 copy, but honestly it plays and sounds as good if not better than the few actual 335s I've had in my hands.
It's all original, bar the tuners. Best feature is the dual Super 70s pickups.

The Golden Boy 

I had a double cutaway (not SG) Kalamazoo. The neck was the same wood as you'd find on the cheap Japanese guitars, the body was sawdust and glue. As I recall, the pickups were not standard Gibson/Epiphone stock.

I recall the story is that McCarty had a meeting on the shop floor with a rack of Japanese guitars- and made a point to mention that the Japanese were selling guitars for less than Gibson could source the wood for a Melody Maker or Olympic.

Putting MM hardware on a vaguely "playable" guitar shaped object doesn't make the instrument any better.

auchencrow

That's not a '335 copy, it's an ES-345 copy, down to the double parallelograms and Gibson Varitone circuitry.

rhm

Looks pretty good to me!

dbakl

OK, not high-end but cool none the less. A mint 50s 2 pickup Kay. Found at a flea market in the original cardboard case.

20grit

Nice, I've been after an old Harmony Stratotone or Kay for a while now. Problem is, I don't value them as much as the sellers seem to.

RavingManiac

A question for knowledgable guitar people. I have a Gibson L-48 archtop with a floating bridge, when changing strings should I check the intonation and try to adjust the bridge location or do you just ballpark it and go with it?

rhm

Bridge setup is key to intonation. Basically what you do is fret a string at the 12th fret and listen to the note; then play the harmonic at the same place. You should get the same note. Set the bridge height first, to give the action you want w/o fret buzz on any string at any fret; then set the bridge position. I always forget which way you have to move the bridge if the fretted note is too low or too high, but you'll figure that out as soon as you move it. Do this at the bass and at the treble. It is pretty easy.

RavingManiac

Thanks rhm, I follow that. It just seems like it would be a laborious process since you have detune for every adjustment to take pressure off the bridge to move it, then retune to check intonation then repeat this process an undetermined number of times until you get lucky and hit it right.

bigbossman 

All is revealed, here:

https://www.projectguitar.com/tut/intonate.htm

rhm

Yes, good point. It depends how hard it is to move the bridge when the strings are at full tension. On the plain strings (top strings) there won't be enough friction to interfere; on the wound ones (bass strings) this will be an issue. But you don't have to have all the strings up to tension to check the intonation; you only need two, one at the treble end and one at the bass end. Intonation on a guitar is always going to be a compromise.

guitar tuner? Hey, if it works for you, that's cool. It's always fun for me to compare the way you do things, bigbossman, to the way I do them. But I play acoustic guitars, standup bass... to check my tuning I strum a G chord on my guitar, and make sure as it's the same as a G chord on my G harmonica, and do the rest by ear. Then again, the gears on my bike say Sturmey Archer on them.

bigbossman 

Hey, I'm just learning this stuff. I'd be lost without a tuner..... I know not the mystic ways of tuning a guitar by ear.

20grit

Once you have a movable bridge in the right place, don't take off all the strings at once. Replace one at a time if at all possible. It also doesn't hurt to have your proper position noted in some way on the guitar. It'll save you a lot of headaches after that first time.

20grit

You'll learn it eventually. Some things that helped me early on: Close your eyes. It seems like taking other senses out of the picture allows you to concentrate more on the important one at the time, hearing. Next is feel. In situations where i can't hear well, I often put my head on the side of the guitar to tune. You can hear and feel the vibrations.

Soon you'll start to hear when the two strings come together, it will actually irritate you to no end to hear someone else play out of tune. At that point, I suggest you take beer when playing with others.

RavingManiac

Thanks all for the help. I'll try to dial it in. One string at a time on a string change, so simple, no wonder I didn't think of it.....duh.

20grit

A non-graphite pencil mark to make the bridge place is definitely a huge help. Use something will rub off, but not too easily. You don't want to mar your finish.

David Newton

Elmarjazz, you got BAR FRETS on your custom shop Martin?
Are you CRAZY?
I mean that in a good way.

I'm doing a guitar "build log" on my facebook page, check it out. https://www.facebook.com/pages/David-...06305429400854

auchencrow

1936 Gibson J-35. (This is the less-common predecessor to the J-45)

Mr. Hobbes

Wow. What vintage? That strat looks well loved (like strats ought to.)

20grit

I bought the Kay Swingmaster tonight. Pics tomorrow, I promise. It's far too late to be taking pictures now.

20grit

Really terrible picture from last night's show. I'll get some decent pictures of it eventually. Purchased on Tuesday and played in a show on Thursday.

auchencrow

20grit - That was Kay's top-of-the-line bass from the 40's on, wasn't it? It would be good of you to post some detailed photos.