CURRENT CATALDO

[dadagoboi]

Sparkle Plenty gone to happy customer. 32" scale with Rotosound Jazz flats. 7.8 lbs.




NR 52 with ThunderBucker Wide5 pickups, 'doghaired' fumed white oak veneer and binding on poplar body. Satin hardware.

[Dave W]

Sparkle Plenty, now there's a cultural reference from long ago. At least you didn't name it after her father.

[dadagoboi]

Sparkle Plenty, now there's a cultural reference from long ago. At least you didn't name it after her father.

I think only you and I will understand either of those references.   

[Highlander]

Agreed... had to look it up...

[Rob]

I think only you and I will understand either of those references.   

Well almost but I do know Dad's name.

I don't even like sparkle drum kits but that is freakin' awesome.

[dadagoboi]

...and now for something not completely different...

I recently cleaned and set up a friend of mine's formerly Polaris White '65 SG Jr.  He bought it in the early 70s from Lipham's Music for $75 with case after another friend of mine traded it in after stripping the body.  On a new  EB-1 reissue IIRC. Here it is next to my '65 EB0.



Hadn't really been played since then, frets almost perfect.  What really amazed me was that the neck was bound with the binding filed to cover each individual fret end, just like you'd see on the most expensive Gibson. Amazing for what was basically a student guitar, although it originally had a vibrola.


Anyway, I played it for a while  and it was FUN! So this resulted:

Tele swamp ash $100 body from a Reverb shop in NH I shot with toner mixed from white nitro/ sanding sealer mix.



Scuff sanded it with 400 the next day and shot six ounces of nitro clear on it. Day after that I hit it with some #0000 stell wool and attached my late brother's '57 Esquire "V" neck to it that hadn't been played since 1980. Also a Duncan Jerry Donahue pickup on Steve Soar's recommendation and a modded three way switch:



Gives a pretty good approximation of a two pup guitar





New calluses!

[Rob]

I like that a lot but Sparkle Plenty spoiled my eyes.

[Dave W]

Beautiful Esquire. Good to see that you didn't sell the neck.

[dadagoboi]

Beautiful Esquire. Good to see that you didn't sell the neck.

Thanks, Dave.  I'm at least going to play it for a while.  There's always the possibility of swapping out the neck since the total value of the rest of the parts is about 10% of the neck and tuners.

12 string RR, ebony neck and Pelham Blue  I custom mixed the basecoat from GM colors designed to be used under 2K urethane clear.  Instead I used automotive acrylic lacquer.  I did a test about six months ago and they're compatible as of this week.  Advantage is no waste mixing up too much catalyzed material plus you get a durable thin topcoat.



Price of a gallon of Clear Acrylic Lacquer has gone up to $300, twice what it was when I last bought one. It gets thinned 1.5:1 with thinner to clear so that brings the price per usable gallon down to around $160. I estimate it comes out to around  $45 in materials for a paint job adding in base coat, additives,etc. and primer. Probably another $5 for disposables.

Pin router jig for pick guard.



I cut the first four freehand, a lot quicker with the router.

[Highlander]

Verrrry nice, my Don...

[dadagoboi]

Outta here tomorrow.

[amptech]

I just gotta say, I've seen so many beautiful instruments made by you over the years, and it's really impressive to see how you mix
Fender and Gibson design elements into something that actually works. Nice!

[Highlander]

Gorgeous, as usual... 

[FrankieTbird]

Hadn't really been played since then, frets almost perfect.  What really amazed me was that the neck was bound with the binding filed to cover each individual fret end, just like you'd see on the most expensive Gibson. Amazing for what was basically a student guitar, although it originally had a vibrola.

Interesting to see a Junior with neck binding.  That's very uncommon.  Traditionally, Juniors had silkscreen logo and unbound neck, Specials had pearl logo and bound neck.

[dadagoboi]

Interesting to see a Junior with neck binding.  That's very uncommon.  Traditionally, Juniors had silkscreen logo and unbound neck, Specials had pearl logo and bound neck.

That Jr. had a stock Vibrola.  That and the Polaris white put it a step above a standard Junior. So I'm guessing Gibson just did the neck like they would have on a Polaris SG Custom.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words! Working on an NR, set neck MAX, and a through neck bigger body EB0 32"12 string, that one's for me.








This one gets a bound flame maple top