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Guitar sacrifices 09/20/08


ksdaddy

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Posted

I do not normally advocate this, in fact I have been known to become enraged when others do it, but in my defense, these were well thought out. One was a Hyostar Hummingbird copy with numerous puncture wounds, a broken truss rod and subsequent missing fingerboard. Hung in the garage for a year. One not pictured is a Chinese copy of a Martin Backpacker I bought on ebay in 2005 for $3.00. The neck popped out a few months later. I glued it, then it decided to warp. As of last night the strings were 7/16" at the 12th fret. Another is a Chinese classical that had a severe hump in the fingerboard. My intention was to remove the frets, plane the board, and refret. All for a $49 guitar very much against any common sense. When I removed the frets I discovered the fingerboard was plywood. And not even good plywood, I mean the same kind of splintery garbage they make the REST of their Chinese crap out of. And yet another sacrifice was the top off a Briarwood, the rest of the guitar was already a victim of domestic abuse (by the high and mighty son of a Pentecost minister I might add) and I was saving the top for some unknown reason.

 

I burned many things last night. Many things I was sure I'd save for some future projects. I figure I've got too many things going on and now is the time to cull.

 

 

 

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Posted

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! If I'd known you were going to do that I'd have paid you to ship it out to me. I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to find an old beater guitar to hang on the wall of my music room. That little Hummingbird knockoff would have been perfect.

Posted

ksd - your wisdom and understanding of all things guitar is - as always - beyond compare.

 

You have removed the damaged homes which shackled those guitar elves, and freed the sunlight that made the trees they were crafted from. Now that light can go back into the universe and grow trees for better guitars, and the elves can seek out homes in better guitars.

 

I think you are, perhaps, a wizard..... or a madman - the difference is slight, if any!

Posted
Karen' date=' I wouldn't have done that to you. That would be like offering a hungry person some blue moldy bread and spoiled milk.[/quote']

 

Eeek! I'm lactose-intolerant! LOL

Posted
ksd - your wisdom and understanding of all things guitar is - as always - beyond compare.

 

You have removed the damaged homes which shackled those guitar elves' date=' and freed the sunlight that made the trees they were crafted from. Now that light can go back into the universe and grow trees for better guitars, and the elves can seek out homes in better guitars.

 

I think you are, perhaps, a wizard..... or a madman - the difference is slight, if any![/quote']

 

 

Sounds like those guitars were made from the same stuff they make cheap suit cases from. The word "crafted"

might be used very loosely here.

 

huumm wonder if i could put some strings on my suit case

Posted

Sounds like those guitars were made from the same stuff they make cheap suit cases from. The word "crafted"

might be used very loosely here.

huumm wonder if i could put some strings on my suit case

 

Everyone knows you don't make guitars from old suitcases!

 

You make chairs out of them.

 

suitcasechair.jpg

Posted

ajsc - sounds like you might never have tried to make a guitar from a piece of timber.....

 

Both craft as in to make with skill, and craft as in guile and cunning, come in to play.

 

Even the lower end of the market have some craft in their construction.....

Posted

"ajsc - sounds like you might never have tried to make a guitar from a piece of timber....."

 

I did however put some strings on my tennis shoes.

Posted

asjc - how did they sound, and what guage did you use. I hear those tennis shoes are kinda tough to get up to concert pitch, and can make a bit of a raquet/racket too.....

 

But seriously - I look inside my ancient Framus, my old Harmony and now this tired old Hohner, and there was some good timber work going on back in the fifties, sixties and seventies - in SOME parts of the world anyway!. Sure - not quite to the standards of Gibson and Martin - but it is craftsmanship and stands head and shoulders above some of the work I see inside a lot of the el-cheapo guitars currently filling the shops, which owe more to the housing construction industry than the craft of the luthier.

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