Unknown ES-330 copy

I picked this guitar up in virtual mint condition because it played and sounded so nicely for a bolt-on neck guitar. It was advertised as a possible Univox from the '80s but after some serious research I believe it is a Matsumoku-built guitar of the same quality as some of the Vox guitars, and most likely the '70s (because the headstock is very Gibson like... almost exactly Gibson.. which was a no-no by the late '70s because of all the lawsuits). The trapeze system is seen on similar guitars, and Matsumoku were one of the only factories that built guitars with the tone and volume knobs placed *away* from the f-hole, as opposed to scattered around the f-hole. Seriously, take a look at others. You won't find a Univox like this but there are some of similar Vox build quality that are like this.

One theory is that this might have been branded for Radio Shack as a "Realistic". Yep, believe it or not, Radio Shack sold guitars at one point! This wasn't uncommon as many electronics and radio companies sold their own branded guitars and amps from catalogs and even stores. Lafayette, for instance.

I describe this as an ES-330 copy and not so much an ES-335 because most ES-335s didn't have the trapeze. The pickups must be single coils, and are a bit noisy in certain positions but they sound really nice and edgy like P90s. When I think of Gibson ES-330 or ES-335 type guitars I think of their amazing bell tones where you can really hear the wood but at the same time you get this glass-like tone that really rings, and this one's got it.

I used to have an Ibanez Gibson ES-345 copy, a lawsuit era guitar as well, and that thing was so light and frail, and the neck would easily bend with any movement. Those early lawsuit era guitars now go for $800 and up to collectors. This lawsuit-era guitar is way higher quality in my opinion, yet it doesn't carry the Ibanez lawsuit desirability and so is much more affordable. I'd put it at a better quality than the recent Ibanez Artcore series guitars as well, and I've played a lot of them. It just feels better. More solid.

I don't have a twang bar for it but the tremelo system works if you can find one. Also the original bridge had plastic rollers and missing wooden bridge support, so these were replaced with a nicer Tun-o-matic style bridge and wood support. The result is a nice player with a unique vintage sound, ie. don't expect to sound like a modern ES-335 with its bolted stop-tail, humbuckers and infinite sustain, but there is plenty of sustain for blues and vintage rock sound as you can tell in the video below.

Replacing an amp that uses 7591 tubes for Yellow Jackets with EL84 tubes

I just got my Yellow Jackets in the mail and I think they're well worth the $50 holiday special price on Amazon (the price went back to $118)! It definitely changes the sound of my amplifier. I have an old Titano amp made by Audio Guild. Audio Guild were a company formed by the guy that made Magnatone amps back in the day. He sold the amps to companies who then put their own names on them, like Panaramic, Da Vinci, Imperial, and others including Titano. Titano was (is?) an accordian company and most likely this amp was made for an accordion. It has a very nice vintage tone, the bass and midrange response is phenomenal, although it's a bit flat sounding (not much high end chime, which i like) in the high end. So I bought the Yellow Jackets and the difference was very subtle but enough to get me the chime I was looking for.

What's great about the Yellow Jackets is that you don't need to bias or anything. You just plug them into your power tube sockets. The only tricky thing is that if you have a cathode-biased amp, you will want to ground the new Yellow Jackets with the forked ground wires to your chassis somewhere. However, I talked to a tech guy at CE Distribution (Yellow Jackets are no longer owned by THD: http://www.cedist.com) and he said even if you don't know if your amp is cathode biasing, and you don't ground the tubes, it won't ruin the amp or tubes, it just might get a bit distorted. No such problem as far as I could hear, so I'm assuming my amp is not cathode biasing.

There are many different versions of Yellow Jackets. There are Yellow Jackets for 6L6, 6V6, EL34 and so on. They offer duets and quartets in standard pentode mode (reduces power to 80%, maybe 50% in some amps). They also offer triode versions in which your amp's power drops by 50-80%. This allows you to overdrive at lower volumes. I can see this being very popular with people who own very loud amps that they can never push loud enough to get that wonderful overdrive. By using the triode Yellow Jackets, you basically cut your power so that you hit overdrive sooner and at a lower volume.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the Yellow Jackets. $50 for a bit more response from my amp is a great deal as far as I'm concerned!

"Enguitar" project part 1

Originally uploaded by Engelfoto

"Engel" + "Guitar" = Enguitar. haha.

I picked up this gorgeous set-neck body last year. No idea what brand or anything. The guy I bought it from said it came from a local guitar maker. It looks like it has several routing mistakes which is why I got such an awesome deal on it. However the neck is really nice and I love the bare wood flame top. Looks like it was routed to be like a Fender Telecaster Custom with a humbucker at the neck and a single coil near the bridge. Or maybe that humbucker is more like a p90 size. I have a Barney Kessel pickup which I just might put in that neck position.

Click on the photo to see some more pics and stay tuned for updates to this project.

1990s Danelectro U2 reissue

Copper Danny
Originally uploaded by Engelfoto

This isn't a resurrection or anything but it's a fun little guitar I picked up a while ago. Has a great sound that comes close to a Fender Telecaster but with a little less treble.

Harmony Rocket H53 from the early 1960s

This Harmony Rocket is a really great 1950s sounding guitar with a classic golden foiled Dearmond pickup. The sound is distinct, very woody in midrange tone but not soft on the edges like a jazz guitar. Rather it is a bit more saturated and "hot" sounding, with a bit of a sharp edge to it. You can really hear your pick digging into the strings.

The tone control really shapes the sound drastically, as you'll see in my video below.

The neck is super straight, I think it has a simple steel bar in it, not sure, but this thing will not bend. At least, not this particular one. It's a joy to play.

I picked up this guitar from someone on the south shore. I don't have any "before" pictures but trust me when I say this, I actually think some mice lived inside it at one time. I didn't find any mouse droppings, but it was full of little bits of pillow stuffing and seed shells. Maybe the stuffing was in there to reduce feedback, but the seed shells? The guitar was covered in dust, the bridge wasn't adjusted correctly (and it had been glued at one time I believe). And there was some gummy puffy sticker of some kind once attached to the headstock with some horrible glue that was very difficult to get off. This glue damaged some of the logo on the headstock.

Electronically, it seemed in good shape, however the volume control was frozen and the tone control was floating in its hole.

A good amount of work went into resurrecting this guitar. Everything is original except the hand-made pickguard with logo, and the pickguard bracket. It's definitely got nicks and dings, but it's got that vintage shine and plays like a dream. And of course, it sounds amazing.

Hondo II Les Paul

Hondo started making cheap copies of Gibson Les Pauls, but most were based on Standard designs. This Hondo II is probably from the 1970s and it's pretty unique in that it looks almost like a Les Paul Custom. It's got beautiful inlay on the lawsuit era headstock. A search on the Internet shows that it's hard to find this particular model. Now, while this wasn't a high end model by any means, as it's got a bolt-on neck, it really looks like one otherwise.

I picked up this guitar completely covered with rust and about 30 years worth of thick dusty grime. It needed a lot of cleanup, and some of the wiring looking like it had literally been yanked out.

I replaced the plug and some wiring, hooked it up and was surprised at the pleasant tone. It doesn't have the hot humbucking sounds of modern Les Pauls. It's got a more round sound, softer. Then again, maybe it's because I have the pickups lower from the strings. Still, I like the sound of this guitar. Here's a clip of me noodling around with it.




The action is just a tiny bit higher at the highest frets than brand new Epiphone or Gibson Les Pauls, but if you like the blues, this is a fun guitar to play with. The only drawback to the guitar is that there's a little nick out of the binding on the finger side of one of the lower frets. I doesn't impeded my playing, but if you pull a lot, you might notice it. The guitar bottoms out a bit in some places, but hey, it's a Hondo. You're getting a guitar that's just about as good as an Epiphone, but looks prettier and sounds more unique.

One of the things I love about this guitar is that the paint and nitro cellulose finish is thin enough that you can see the relief in the wood. It's just gorgeous in person. The only thing that looks a bit out of place is the replacement pickguard. I'm going to look for one with more of an aged white or cream edge.

They Live

I've got GAS.

That's Guitar Acquisition Syndrome (or Gear Acquisition Syndrome to some). You get laid off and what do you do? Look for a job? No. You start buying guitars. Now, I'm not talking expensive guitars. I'm talking cheap guitars. The guitars we called "junky" back in the '80s. Now people collect those guitars. But most of those guitars really are kind of between "good" and "junky". You can buy a pretty good brand new guitar these days for $300. But there are a lot of old guitars out there from the '50s, '60s and '70s going for $50 to $150 which just need some TLC to bring them up to blowing away those $300 guitars. And a lot of them are American made or pretty good quality Japanese.

Problem is this GAS thing. You can really pile up a lot of those "junky" guitars. We're talking Teisco, Silvertone, Harmony, Kay, you name it, people are getting rid of them... and I'm buying them.

So what do I do with them?

I'm reviving them. Resurrecting them. Not restoring necessarily. That can get expensive. People know you want the missing Teisco roller bridge and so they'll charge $85 on eBay, even though the guitars that use that 2.5 inch non-standard bridge cost about $100. No, I'm resurrecting... bringing back from the dead, just a few things here and there to make them playable, maybe use a completely different roller bridge which is much cheaper. But now the guitar works and plays great.  And now it can easily compete against the drones from Fender/Squier and Gibson/Epiphone... not that they're bad or anything... but let's face it... they're kind of... well... boring these days. Their idea of diversity is changing the color or finish and putting some famous guitarist's name on the headstock. :: yawn ::

Come on, let's bring back the golden age of guitars, when there weren't just Ibanez, Gibson and Fender, but you also had Domino, Danelectro, Harmony, Kay, Kent, Kimberly, Silvertone, Supro, Kawai, Teisco, Guyatone, the list goes on....

Let's bring these guitars back to life. Give them new opportunities to make great music.

This blog will be devoted to talking about these guitar projects, such as my very first project, a resurrection of my Kalamazoo KG-2. Stay tuned!