Ok, got a project now that is somewhat beyond my skills, but fun nevertheless!
WARNING: a lot of text, sorry.. I got carried away
A while back (years?) I requested some info on the EB6 (sg shape), because I was buying an EB0 I´d convert to six strings. It´s a looooong story, but I am now in the luthier´s landscape - a dangerous place. Woodworking, glueing...
all done without my beloved soldering iron!
First, I jumped onto a bargain ebay EB0 - my first shortscale gibson. However, it turned out to be a ´63 fuzztone.
The seller, a Denmark street vintage shop(!) claimed that the unoriginal pickguard was there to hide other unoriginal mods/routings. Needless to say, I didn´t have the heart to chop it up, so I put it together as close to original as possible.
Second, I bought another 60´s EB0, this time a body husk only. When it arrived, I noticed the skinny (1967) neck.
No way to put six strings onto that nut! So it became the fretless LoZ project (which I have posted here).
Then finally I bought a beat up (but complete) 1965 EB0, wide neck and ready to go!
My dream project: EB6 in polaris white with gold hardware; ultralite tuners, schaller roller and a bigsby!
This might not sound like a lot of work, but I met some dilemmas. For starters, I decided to complete it structurally
before finishing it, to make sure I was comfy with the layout. Well, I fitted (modded) a 70´s gibson/bigsby vibrato,
bought a set of (expensive) hipshots (wrong size-1/2")
and wound a couple of tall bobbin humbuckers.
The problem is, in the end it played so well and sounded so good it ended up being my main axe.
And the worn cherry finish looks so good, except it does not match the gold hardware at all!
So when I saw this really hacked up 65 EB0 on a recent auction, I got it - and yeah, HACKED up!
Finally something bad enough to refin. This will be the white EB6 with gold HW, the red one I have already collected nickel hardware for (including 3/8" ultralites with small clovers)
Actually, the ´usual neck repair´as the seller called it, was a medium scale 3 piece maple neck cut down (truss rod sticking out) , bolted on, and with the original fretboard AND MOP decals/serial glued onto it. Headstock shaped with
plastic metal and painted black. Never seen ANYTHING worse. I´m just glad he didn´t glue the neck on.
Ok, it´s a long shot - but I hope to make it play. Got a luthier to carve a maho shortscale neck, and I have now prepped everything to bare wood. I´ll post pictures when I get things more together, BUT:
TO THE POINT:
Glue seems to be up for discussion. (like oil and sparkplugs at mc foras) Got a bottle of (dare I say it) liquid hide glue, but apparently many luthiers hate this. I glued the trussrod filler strip with this, seems to be ok, but should I not use it for glueing the fingerboard to the neck?
My ´guitar repair book´recommends fresh hide glue (never used it) or regular titebond (not available nearby)
What do you guys think?