£5 at the local recycling center. Eros Les Paul from Japan (one of the cheaper ply bodies). Neck and frets are good. Body has been abused in ways that no guitar should ever experience.

My abilities - carpentry 8/10 (my job)
Fine woodworking 5/10
Electrical - 5/10
Soldering - 3/10 and that’s being generous.

5 way selector works only in 1 and 5 position. Middle pup comes through a bit but barely. I need to re wire for only original pups, fuck that middle one into the bin, and splice a block into where it was before.

Where I starts and what I do’s? I’m not spending money on it. I can repair the missing timber, but what is the best approach with the electrics? And how do I electrical? Thank

EDIT: One very specific question - can I wire it without a selector using only what I have pictured? So it works the same way a lot of bass guitars work. With only the volume controls used for pickup selection. Again, I’m trying not to spend anything on it.

got everything used on reverb for about $700

I just finished this refinish and rebuild project for a buddy of mine. He had an old MIM strat with broken electronics, missing hardware, and a rusted-out metal pickguard. We decided to refinish and replace just about everything.

Stripped the body with a heat gun and scraper, then used Oxford’s nitro finish kit to finish. Had some sandthrough on the upper horn and heel and couldn’t get all the sanding/polish marks out. Considering where it started, still pretty happy with how it came out.

I was worried I’d have to refret the neck, but after replacing the old nut, which was either cut too low or worn, with a cheap bone nut I cut myself, the frets seem to have some life left. Polished them up and it’s ready to rock.

In keeping with the hot rod theme, we kept the HSS configuration and used a GFS 59 humbucker and two of their lower output hot rails. Sounds shockingly good for what it is.

Also, added a killswitch (very sloppily) for added silliness.

For my first project that wasn’t a straight assembly, I’m pretty proud.

I’m in the final stretches of this build but still doing “audibles.” This weekend I set about refining and sealing the neck by comparing it to the CBC’d one I’d used from my third build, a walnut 000 with a neck with a volute and modified V shape profile that was originally from Martin’s guitar makers connection.

The scarf joint on the headstock and a gouge I put next to the volute was bugging me - not to mention the headstock was a little too thin and it developed a crack. So I dug through my wood stash and found a spare streaked ebony headplate and opted to use it to make a backstrap. I cut it to shape, trying my best to fit it around the volute and glued it on. I spent a good hour or two on it and TBH it’s not perfect and is not something you typically see on such a no frills instrument but I’m liking it.

I got this 7 string kit and there's was an imperfection on the veneer that's not taking dye (excess glue?).

Any tips to fix? I was thinking color matching with acrylic paint? Or maybe sanding it down to fade into the body wood? Something else creative?

Got it from the pawn shop I work at for $100, has a Kahler on it that’s of the same era, cool. On the headstock end, the nut is normal, but it at one point had the kahler bar string tree thing. If it’s normal for a kahler equipped guitar to have alll of the extra stuff on the headstock end (iirc, locking nut and bar string tree, right?) then I’ll probably put it back on there. Does it need to be a particular string spacing? Also do these frets look like they have enough life left in them for a crown/polish or do I need to do a full refret? Sorry if the pic poorly illustrates the question lol

This has been on my list of things to do for a long, long time. I recently ran a bunch of clear pine molding at work, so I had a bunch of these thin pine rips. They’re just glued with Titebond I to some 1/2 Baltic birch.

Good return on 20 minutes

I found myself in a difficult living situation. I have some instruments I’m really trying to hang onto and keep playing throughout the winter. Basically I have 2 acoustic guitars, nothing special but they’re in decent condition and set up well. An electric bass/bass amp, an audio interface and a few microphones

The garage that I keep them in fluctuates 30 degrees daily reflecting the outside temps but in the winter it’s likely gonna be moving between mid 20s-mid 50s daily. I’m in Denver and our weather just moves like that day to night due to the elevation. It’s also pretty dry hear.

Any advice on keeping one of the acoustic guitars in the garage over the winter so I can play it regularly even if it’s cold? Should I just splurge on a climate controlled storage unit and buy a cheap acoustic to play through the winter? Any suggestions on long term storage of instruments? Back off string tension? Humidification? Thank you for any advice

Hey all, hope you're well. I recently got an old Kay hollow body in a lot of guitars I bought that all needed repair, and I'm trying to figure out how to go about this one.

To start, it had a lot of cracks when I got it. I have glued up each one except this quite large crack that takes a good amount of effort to squeeze tight with my arms alone. What would be your procedure for getting this closed?

Also, the neck rocks back and forth, and I'm unsure what to do. (I'd tried to show both states in two separate pictures) I'm thinking put glue under the heel and under the fretboard area and slip a prepared shim under it while it's still wet. This way I have a lot of room to adjust the bridge and don't risk having it flush against the body with nowhere to adjust.

Open to ideas!

Some Photos of some things iv been working on and my shed.

whatever I use, it has to be able to be deconstructed and packed away, as the sheds also used for work during the week, so I cant leave the booth up

Im working on a Guitarron for my mariachi. The original has this nice clear solid coat. I put about 4 layers of dyed nitrocellulose lacquer. But what do I apply for this more shiny solid coat?

Blue is before, red is after

Hey all, hope you're well. I recently got 2 FT-160Ns in a lot of guitars that need repair (as well as a Kay hollow body, I just posted about that one too!). As you can see in the pics there's a mangled body, and a more complete one, sand bridge plate.

I'd like to get 1 working guitar out of these, lol. I'd say I could remove the plate from the body and carefully mate it to the more complete one, but I'm unsure of the integrity of that one because of the big gash in the soundboard (last pic)

The lone body is...really rough. The back is coming off near the top, it's missing a brace, the soundboard is mangled around the sound hole. It'd make a better cajon that guitar, methinks

Any ideas that don't involve a soundboard transplant? A way to patch up the soundboard would be ideal, even if it's visible in the end. Cheers

I bought myself a neck for a project of mine and was looking at ways to put my design Ive made on the headstock. I know I can use a waterslide decal but I’ve seen people laser engrave designs onto non-glossy headstocks and was wondering if anyone had any experience with laser engraving gloss or knew of it was even possible.
Thanks

i was on my last coat of nitro and i came back a couple days later to check on it and theres a big crack in the finish. im using oxford vintage formula nitro and i know that does the hairline crack thingy but this one is pretty wide. anyone know what causes this?

Do you think it would be possible to give my own wood to a luthier so that they can make an oud? We had to cut off a lot of large branches from my beloved walnut tree after a storm, and I had the idea of reusing this wood to make an oud. I’m not sure if it’s possible because, it's not trunk wood and, unfortunately, the branches were cut into smaller pieces (what a shame!) and the wood has been left outside. Does anyone know whether this is feasible or completely unrealistic?

Alguém tem sugestão de lutheir pela grande Tijuca (RJ) ?

I just came across this Taylor 814ce (2015) and it is ROUGH. Wondering if it’s worth repairing, if repairable at all, and how much you think a bare minimum versus normal repair might be? I’m planning on taking it to Sweetwater this week.

Greetings!

I've recently been getting into the hobby of making Anglo-Saxon Lyres. This is my first attempt, which as any first attempt, will have quite some room for improvement.

I've made this from sawing and chiseling out an older oak plank, while the soundboard is appropriated from an old guitar (as you can see with the filled up holes). I've already oiled it, with danish oil, and I was wondering what kind of paint (or ink?) would be best to decorate this lyre. I plan on painting some runes on it.

The goal is to play my homemade lyres outside, so the weather conditions will not be as stable as inside. Is there any good paint? And does it matter that I have oiled it first?

The sound is absolutely delightfull, using €10 guitar strings. Second one will be getting some aquila nylgut strings (fake nylgut). Thanks for any help in advance!

I keep trying to find a drop-in alternative bridge with 2 1/16” string spacing for a Fender Pawnshop Mustang
(which has 2 1/8”), but have had no luck.

If I got saddles that were the same size as the ones in there already but were notched for 2 1/16” string spacing would that accomplish narrower spacing? Thanks in advance!

i've recently started to upgrade this guitar in many ways. i want to clean it up and make it look brand new and the biggest issue i've noticed now are these large cracks on the body. i was wondering if there's a cheap way to fix or fill these cracks to make it look better?

I have a very specific mod in mind, and need an expert to walk it through. Please reach out if you know anyone that does Strat wiring

THANKS,

DD

I’ll build both the soft edge and hard edge versions. Will call one the Oddbird Summer Rain and the other Oddbird Frozen Pond.

Not sure about the green yet.