stevo58

$2k will get you a vintage oval-hole A. Buy from a reputable store if you go this route; things can happen with a hundred-year-old instrument, like a loose transverse brace or a sinking top, things you might not notice. You could get a used A9. There’s one for sale right now in the Mandolin Cafe classifieds, but it won’t last long. You should be looking there anyway. https://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/211184#211184 I’m not affiliated with the seller and have no financial interest. I prefer oval holes anyway. Other than Gibson: You could get a vintage style A Martin for 1K. You can find Flatirons in your range. Flatiron was bought by Gibson in the 80s. You can get a SilverAngel, maybe a used Pava, Northfield, maybe a Mike Black or an Old Wave, two brands that specialize(d) in the old oval hole style. You won’t get an F-style from Gibson or any of the other known builders for 2K. But you pay a lot for the scroll.

You DO want to get that pickguard off of there quickly. The decomposing celluloid a cause a lot of permanent finish, plastic, and metal damage. It will discolor the finish. The nitro will run. The damage is more obvious on archtops, where you can see what is going on under the pickguard. The plating on the pickups corrode, the finish is shot. It may look “cool” but get that pickguard off! this is how it ends -

Ask over at the Mandolin Cafe.

Kluson went to thin plates and riveted gears during the war to conserve metal. So it’s likely early post-war. I can’t tell from the photos. Is the the top mahogany or spruce? The L-48 had a laminated mahogany top, the L-50 a carved solid spruce top, although there may be mahogany-topped versions out there. It looks like an L-48 to me.

The P90s in the standard are - or were, unless they changed them - around 11-12K. 7k is a good vintage wind, and there’s a good chance they will be just fine. The ones in my 2017 were too muddy and hot for my taste and I replaced them with a vintage wound pair. Steven

To be more complete, when you wet sand, you will produce a milky white sludge. As long as it is milky white, you are removing the thick poly clear coat. As soon as it starts to take on color, you are through the clear coat and are now removing colored lacquer (or poly, whatever). So I worked slowly and patiently, drying the wood often and checking what it looked like. I completely removed the finish on the back of the neck, down to the rock-hard filler. The black on the back of the neck was also very thick. I had intended to oil the neck, but that filler wasn’t going to go anywhere and it felt fine, so I left it. When I was finished I used micro mesh up to 8000 to give it a semi-gloss. I removed everything - including the bridge bushings - before doing any of this. I was going to replace the 8mm pot metal bushings with 12mm hardened steel Faber bushings anyway. Lately I’ve been considering going back and doing a full Lennon on it. Not because I worship John; I just never really liked the sunburst on the Casinos with the hard black outline. I only bought this color because it had the stiffest neck in the store. According to the Epi site, the standard has “P90 Classic” and the worn “P90 Pro” pickups. The ones that came on mine were far too hot and muddy for my taste.

600 grit wet sand and patience. Know when to stop.

In a Casino, that doesn’t work very well. It’s a hollow body. The studs are mounted in the parallel braces under the top, but the hole is drilled all the way through the brace.

I cut a small block of hard wood, drilled a hole through it slightly larger than the insert, put a fender washer on a bolt, threaded it in the insert, and slowly tightened the bolt until the insert came out. You may want to score the finish around the insert so you don’t pull a huge chunk of finish when the insert comes out, which will probably occur if the inserts were installed before the clear coat had cured. This is very likely the case.

Then there’s the Fender Duo-Sonic. And Mosrite. And undoubtedly many more Any more information? Grog: impressive collection. I believe that is all of the LP low impedance models? (Other than the basses) Plus an original L5S. What is the Gibson acoustic on the left? Is that factory or modded? I’ve NEVER seen even a photo of that before. Looks 1970-75 or so.

Looks like a 50s L5 to me, with staple pickups and a possibly off-gassing pickguard. Never saw one with white covers, though. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. She’s a beaut and worth a bunch. i would check the top under that pickguard pronto steven

You guys all have such pretty guitars. This is my beater, which left the factory in 1958 as an ES-125T. Unknown people have modified it extensively over the years. It may not be pretty, but it has a great personality.

The fan inlays were originally used on the DeLuxe starting in the late ‘30s, and the peghead inlay was late-40s - 50s Triumph. Gibson was perfectly happy to build whatever combination of features you wanted in the 60s. There’s no evidence from the photo to assume this isn’t original. steven

The cheap and easy way is to replace the bridge with a Gotoh wireless. If you want locking, a TonePro will work - it’s the same as the Gotoh with an added grub screw. The Casino uses a 1-piece bushing/threaded post, so the grub screw will do a number on the threads. I used a TonePro for a while, then I pulled the bushings and installed Faber hardened steel, which required enlarging the holes to 12mm. The Faber locking system is clearly better (no tilt), and the hardened steel bushings made a subtle but real difference in the bass response. But the Gotoh is fine for non-compulsive people. Steven

Yep, 600 wet sand and patience. As long as the run-off is milky white, you are removing poly clear coat. Once the color changes, you’ve gone too far. I removed the finish completely from the neck. There was a rock-hard clear undercoat which I decided to leave as is. My original plan was to oil it. The undercoat actually feels fine.

In 2017, I bought a MIC Casino because I didn’t want to gig anymore with my ES-125TDC, as it was getting fragile. I didn’t expect the Casino to be the equal of that (amazing) guitar, but I figured it would be good enough. It ended up being an insane modding journey, which I did mainly for the fun of it, but the out-of-the-box setup was quite good, actually, with perfectly acceptable fretwork and good action. The only things I did immediately were replacing the pickups with Fralins (and the pots, switch, etc. as long as I was in there), because the originals were too hot, middy, and muddy for my taste; and replacing the tuners. Over the next couple years I replaced everything that could be replaced, and I thinned down the thick poly finish, but all that was just me being OC. The new worn Casinos look good on paper - the newer pickups, and a thin finish, but I haven’t had one in my hands yet. The MIC standard doesn’t feel like my 125, or my 2015 335 for that matter, but it’s a good, stable, well-made instrument.

My 1958 ES-125T has three layers. My 2015 Gibson ES-335 Studio has three layers. I believe the Studio has a maple middle layer (I won’t swear to it) while the more expensive 335s have a poplar middle layer. My 2017 standard Casino has five layers. L5, L7, Super 400, Byrdland have solid carved tops. Pretty much anything starting with ‘ES’ (125, 175, 350, 3x5 ...) is laminated. ES-150 is a special case. A solid top can be carved (see above) or pressed (Gibson Formed Archtop from a few years ago, most inexpensive solid topped arch tops) Carved tops can be fully hand carved, fully machine carved, or rough carved by machine and final carved by hand. Very high end tops may be further ‘tap tuned’ so it has a specific resonant frequency. If a guitar is not listed as having a solid top, it is laminate. If it is listed as a “solid top” it is pressed. If it is listed as “carved” it is machine carved. If it is “hand carved” the rough carving may still have been done with CNC (it’s not critical). steven

I’ve been thinking of doing this on my casino, just because. How thick were the original acrylic inlays, and how thick is the MOP? Did you have any problems removing the acrylic - I would probably drill through the center and try to pry it out, at least as a first attempt. How did you radius the blocks without removing the frets?

The metal covers act as a huge heat sink, making it very difficult to unsolder the tabs. I doubt if a 40-watt iron will work. My Ersa electronically-controlled solder station, at 450C, couldn’t do it. A 100-watt gun might do it, or a gas flame.

In my opinion, any guitar whose pots are open to the environment should have sealed pots, for example, Bourns type 82 or 95. Otherwise you will be cleaning them regularly. The new worn Casinos have the “P-90 Pro” pickups, which are an improvement over the ones in the standard Casino, which are overwound and muddy. I also think the thin finish is another big improvement. I thinned down the poly clear coat on my 2017 Casino, and it made a big difference. The guitar was livelier and more resonant without that thick blanket.

Well, I own a Gibson 335. Ok, it’s just a Studio, but it’s a fine guitar. I also in the past owned a Dot. It was also a fine guitar. I sold it a couple months after I bought the Gibson. The Gibson just feels better. There’s no comparison. The neck feels stable and resonant, while the Dot was dead and flexible. The finish feels better. It hangs better on a strap somehow. There are just countless small details which add up. It’s the first 2-humbucker guitar I’ve been able to bond with. The proper 335s I’ve played are even more extreme. It’s up to you what you want to pay for. One concrete difference is the laminations. The Epiphone has five laminations while the Gibson has three. This also means the EPI has twice as many glue layers, and I am convinced - with no evidence at all - more layers of glue = bad. Don’t contradict me; I have no reason to believe it, but I do anyway, so I’ll be resistant to facts.

I bought a ‘58 125T fifteen years ago. It had been through the wringer over the decades. The seller was going to hang it on his wall as deco. It had a poorly -done cutaway. An access hatch slightly smaller than a large county in Texas had been cut in the back. An EMG humbucker (with coil split) had replaced the P90 (which was fortunately in the case). The bridge was glued AND screwed to the top. It sported a nylon-saddle tunomatic. It had some mystery inlay added to the peghead. A bigsby had been mounted at some point. And then removed. The pots and jack were shot and unsalvageable. The tuners had been replaced, and several of the replacements were broken. It was a mess. I cleaned it up, put the P90 back in, and made it playable . Eventually, since it has zero collector value, I added a bridge P90, using the coil-tap hole for the switch. It’s by far my favorite guitar. I can get any and everything I want out of it . What a great guitar

To be honest, I never saw any particular point to it.

Yeah that’s it, but the 2015 added a locking tailpiece, too.

There are rosewoods, and there are rosewoods. I have a Prucha tenor banjo with the most amazing piece of rosewood I’ve ever seen as a fingerboard. It’s not pretty, but nearly as fine-grained as ebony, and hard as can be. The banjo is played heavily and I see no wear on it at all. No idea what species it is.