Silvertone 1405 with Mosrite type body

I found this paint-stripped Silvertone 1405, made in Japan, in two pieces at Exile Guitars on Main Street in Vancouver.

I paid $60 for it. There was a neck, a body, and a pickguard with the microphonic pickup, a tone and volume knobs with a capacitor for eq, and the jack.

I melted a candle over the back of the pickup to try to stop the microphonic feedback. It worked. The hot wax melted the wax in the pickup and filled up the rest of the volume in the pickup case. I'm sure there's lots of air bubbles in it but it worked.

There was no neck plate. So I used washers and wood screws. Not pretty but it worked.

I purchased the tailpiece, bridge, and tuners from Amazon.ca.

Even though the tuners were small (9mm), I still had to drill out the headstock holes to make each post hole 1 mm wider. I believe the holes were nominally correct but wood shrinkage made the holes smaller by just a wee. You might not have this problem with 9mm post replacement parts.

The bridge and tailpiece: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09J4D35WY

Tuners: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0876R6KB7

It was made in March 1969 and was date-stamped on the back of the pickguard.

The pickup is single coil and super CURVED. This creates a volume balance problem as the neck radius is relatively smaller. The G string can get quite loud compared to both E strings. You have to tilt one away to get balance on the other E. But it comes at the expense of the volume of that original E string.

I am considering replacing with a flatter single coil.

There is not a lot of info on this model so I thought I'd list the basics for folks who are considering getting one or want to know more about theirs.

Scale length - bridge to zero fret: 24 3/4"

Fret width at zero fret: 1 5/8"

Upper bout: 10 1/2"

Lower bout: 12"

Tuning post: 9mm

All total I spent $140 to get this guitar and fix it to a playable condition.

Note the body cavity has room only for that single middle position and it is narrow. A humbucker or gold foil won't fit.

I had hoped there would be more spaces under the pickguard for a bridge pickup but no dice.

I'm still trying to decide if I should rout out room for one.

The Canora has 4-strings and it has been electrified: taking parts from a Slammer by Hamer

This is the old plywood Canora guitar.

You've seen me rip of the bridge.
Saw the neck longitudially to make it a four-string.

A Fishman Neo-D and piezo pickup have gone on and off it over the years.

NOW, it's a Slammer by Hamer neck pickup STRAIGHT to the jack. It's pretty twangy.

The donour guitar looked like this:

I did some modifications to the Slammer as well and I'll document that soon.

Turning 6 strings into 4...

Yeah, I know, I shouldn't have.

Poor old Canora.

I've put it through so much through the years. It's always been just a thumpy box. Sometimes it can drone.

Latest find Yamaha FG 75-1

It's a Black Label, made in Taiwan.
I won't go on. Because I don't have to.
The plywood guitars have a mystique around them. There are lots of  posts about it. On my site, but why bother hearing from me. Here's Guitar World's 50 year look back on Yamaha's.

There is an ultimate vintage Yamaha Red Label, Black Label, Green Label website.

So anything I have to say beyond what I've said already is superfluous....okay, I will include my fishing tale of finding it and some how-it-sounds notes ...but everything you need to know about awesome Yamaha FG guitars is HERE. And...wait.

I know my find (just last night) is a FG 75-1 that was made on December 17, 1975.

I know because of the exquisite serial number information that this incredibly obsessed person who authored Yamaha Vintage FG Acoustic Guitars is just the best.

I'll tell you more soon but for now just look at IT.

Okay. when I got the guitar the strings were old. The neck was high. In fact it was concave. I put some new strings but the guitar sounded muddy in the lower strings. Really murky.

I despaired a bit because the saddle was already pretty low. Any lower and the strings would have started scraping the bridge. I knew you could do something with the truss rod but had never tried.

Wasn't even too sure how. I was disinclined to try.

But I googled and found Taylor Guitar's page on truss rods. It was just enough information and even, josh darnit, demystifiying encouragement to give it a shot.

They wrote:

The truss rod is fairly rugged, so you shouldn't worry about experimenting with different adjustments.

Which is like such a simple but reassuring thing to say, instead of caveats and warning.

So I tightend the rod because the neck was concave. The action LOWERED. And while it's not perfect, the guitar now chimes. The sustain is good and the neck is playable.

It's a pretty sounding guitar of light construction. I'm super excited of letting the strings settle in and hearing how it can sound.

More tales of the tortured Suzuki

So, if you have scanned through this site before, you've seen this Suzuki No. 700 in different states of abused torture.

I've been really clear, the guitars I post on this site are more or less junk guitars that have little or no re-sale value (with the odd exception). Still, it hasn't prevented people from printing comments and asking me what their guitars are worth.

In the case of Canoras and plywood Suzuki's, 50 bucks top is my answer. The only value a cheap guitar has is when it's being played. I can't stress this enough. My tortured Suzuki is unsaleable. It has holes, bamboo skewers as dowels, a chunk of plywood to fill a gouge in the bottom bout -- but it's my guitar and I play it. It's a shitty guitar that goes with my shitty voice and shitting technique. We were built for each other.

I could buy better guitars but this one is mine.

Now that I have that off my chest, above is the latest pic of the poor gut box. Notice anything different? I glued the bridge back on. I never got a chance to order that fancy guitar glue from Stew Mac. I used Lepage's Carpenter Glue. I do not recommend you do the same.

The two holes on the bridge are where I ran bolts through so I could have a press plate underneath the sound board. I actually cut channels to avoid crushing the struts and braces but that's all I did in the area of fine lutherie work. The bridge is on. The sustain is ok.

The guitar has always been more of a box than a bell. Chiming is not in the cards for this old thing and recently, I've been disenchanted with its sound so I've been playing my Di Giorgio No. 28 Classico.

It is solid wood and hand built. The neck is huge. I've never been able to really get around it. But I finally did what I've done to all my other guitar...remove the E and the A string. Now it feels like a new instrument. The Brazilian Wonder is actually a fine guitar and it features woods that are probably illegal now. So, I'm glad to have it. Here's the thing, I've always worried its bridge would pull off. That why until now, I've left it stringless until I figured to go with four, which lowers the tension.

On top of that I've slacked the tuning by a whole two steps so D is now a C. It sounds pretty good and fits my range better without resorting to a capo - I know I could play different chords - that's how terrible I am. Any how, I'm playing the Di Giorgio now, fat neck and all...with four strings. Where there's a will, there's a lazy way.

More torture... Suzuki Model No. 700 Guitar

How do I explain what I've done here? It used to look like this.

But the bridge was lifting. I knocked if off. I sanded it back to flat.

But I didn't have any glue or the proper clamps. The guitar remained string-less, bridge-less and cannibalized (I used the tuning heads on my Di Giorgio). Then I came across a LOOG. A three-string guitar. I saw one at the music store next to the Park Hyatt on Bloor and University (or whatever it's called in Toronto). I was there for the 2015 Hilary Weston Writer's Trust Prize.

When I got back home, I found a door hinge, a broken set of tuning heads. And this is what I screwed together. I know, classy, very artisinal.

It is surprisingly loud in the first few strings - which is an improvement. It was a tad faint before.

It keeps in tune which surprises me because the door hinge tailpiece swings (how appropriate). And the intonation is better than it was originally. Still looks like hell.

My tortured cheap-ass Canora A102B (for 'brown') Guitar ...which I LOVE

I wouldn't recommend you do this at home but that's just what I did.

I got the Canora a few years back. It had a crummy bridge. One day I got a towel and a hot iron and melted the bridge off the top. Okay, I melted the glue but you get the picture.

I bought the tailpiece at Rufus's Guitar Shop in Kits/Point Grey in Vancouver. For about a year, I used a piece of oak as the bridge. Later I bought a busted banjo (are you seeing a pattern here?) and discovered a banjo bridge could work pretty well on a guitar top. There are always concerns of pressure on the top/table and pushing down where it is designed to pulled on...but well I took the chance.

Switching to a banjo bridge (Grover - $7.95 at Neil Douglas Guitar Shop in New Westminster), required the use of fewer strings. Fine by me. The neck is classical guitar thick and I always wanted a baritone uke so in a way this is a tailpiece, flat-top, steel-string baritone uke.

Recently, I electrified it with the removable single coil Fishman pickup. The cheap one. But I cut the cord and installed it with a jack. The jack I put in the lower side bout but recently I put it in the front...so yeah there's a hole in the side now.

Because, volume is an issue, the pickup is mounted high in the hole (which was too small and I simply gouged through the plywood to give the pickup maneuvering room). The pickup is set up on washers. The closer the pickup is to the strings, the louder the guitar when amplified. I'm not going to candy-coat it. That's what I did. It sounds quite raunchy overdriven through my Radio Shack Stack. It's comprised of a Realistic six channel board split into two mic channels that feeds into my very fancy Optimus 20 Watt MPA 40 amplifier which goes to my golden Norwegian 8" speaker, pre-57! The speaker is exactly the ones used as PA speakers in schools. It's killer. I'm joking. I don't really know what a gearhead would think of it.

Aria LW-12 six-string cedar flat top acoustic guitar

Acquired this on Friday from a gentleman who lived a few blocks away. There is not much info online about this Made in Japan guitar. The only reference to the six-string model dates the production years between 1980-1992.

The serial number gave no hint to its age.

The model number however gives a pretty good idea that it was a low-end design. Aria, I have discovered through website dedicated to Aria catalogs (here, too), numbered their models based on their price. For example, this LW-12 probably sold for ¥12 000 in 1982, making it the lowest of the economy instruments.

In my effort to date the guitar, I began to look at the head stock. It is cut in a manner similar to many Aria Pro II electric head stocks and also sports text much like what appeared on some of its electric guitars. It reads:

 "Hand Finished by Craftsmen. Built from
Selected Materials giving Fine Tonal Qualities
that will Mature as the Timber Ages."

With that info in hand, I felt pretty sure the guitar came from the Matsumoku factory. But I was no closer to dating the guitar. UNTIL, I noticed a series of numbers stamped on the bracing, "820111." With such a clear numbering, I can safely guess the guitar was made in 1982, in January, and it was the eleventh one made of this model in that month. It seems like a minor detail but I like my guitars old and this one is nearly 33 years old.

It sounds pretty nice too.

For the basics on the guitar, see below

Finish colors: black finish, natural finish
Number of strings: 6 strings
Body: back material walnut. sides material walnut
Body style: dreadnought-size body
Top material: cedar body top
Pickguard material: tortoiseshell
Neck: joins body at 14th fret
Neck joint: set neck
Neck material: mahogany
Peghead (headstock): veneer headstock
Fingerboard inlay material: pearl fingerboard inlay material
Fingerboard material: rosewood fingerboard
Bridge: maple

A very special Yamaha (FG-140)

"Never before has folk music sounded so good..."

Yamaha FG-300

Yamaha FG-140 Nippon Gakki guitar

The dirty yellowed plastic tuning heads caught my eye. Then I noticed the deep yellow patina of the top and well I had to have it. I love its weathering.

Online one can find posters raving over Red Label Nippon Gakki Yamaha guitars. The argument goes, though it possesses a laminate spruce top, the red label FG somehow exhibit aging characteristics of solid top instruments. Ehow claims the early FGs are solid tops but I believe they are mistaken.

This FG-140 has the serial number 1291xxx. After placing a call to Yamaha's astoundingly accommodating customer service line, I was able to date the guitar circa 1969-70. The FG-140 model was made between 1968 and 1972.

I also found out FG-140 guitars were also made in Taiwan starting in November 1970. However, the made-in-Taiwan instruments can be distinguished by its serial number which would include the letter "T". On this example, the label is more pink than red.

The FG-140 was described by the Yamaha service staff as a "smallish, full-sized dreadnought". Other notable details are the open gear, three on a plate tuners.

At a webapge posted by Mark Searcy, the woods used are listed as follows:

• Top: Spruce
• Back/Sides: Mahogany
• Neck: Mahogany
• Fingerboard: Rosewood

And it sounds pretty all right to me.

To find out the age of your Yamaha "red label" wonder (notice, I've bought in), visit Yamaha's serial number app site.

If it doesn't pan out, try their customer service number: (714) 522-9000.

They will punch in the number and do their best to answer your questions. A fantastic brand building service. Don't forget to thank them profusely.

Franken Tenor Guitar/Banjo

Ingredients

1. Near stripped Kay Banjo with ripped skin circa 1930s (that’s what Craig told me but I think it’s later)
2. Cheap tailpiece from toy banjo ukelele
3. Friction tuning heads from above ukelele and from weird DVD rental store/old music shop by the highway in Greenwood BC
4. Nut (made by yours truly) made from maple
5. D’Addario Jazz Strings
6. New Fishman Neo-D passive pickup

1974 Di Giorgio Classico No. 28 - Made in Brazil

My apologies for not having better information. It is rather scant.

As far as I can tell, the guitar top is solid spruce or Oregon pine. The back and sides are Brazilian rosewood (jacarandà, is that right?). I believe they are solid wood as well. Some posters online say the fingerboard is rosewood too.

The book matching of the back pieces suggests the wood is solid. The back, it appears, is arched. The best site on Di Giorgio's I've come across belongs to Marco Bessone.

He describes a Estudante No. 28 as follows:

"This instrument has classical shape and dimension and owns a good quality sound. It's ideal for beginner guitar players. The resonance chamber is made of Pau-Ferro and the harmonic board is made of Oregon Pine. The frets are in alpaca and the machine head is in steel."

My 1974 Classico No. 28 may differ as they are different model years and, apparently, the quality of the lower-end Di Giorgios declined over between the 70s to the present.

Bessone also describes Di Giorgios which he personally owns. He too has a Classico No. 28 but it is from the 1960s.

The lower bout (lower width in Martin parlance) is 36.7 cm at its widest. Its depth (outside edge) is 11 cm. Scale length is 64 cm.