Because I didn't see any potential in this piece of junk I didn't take any pictures of it. However, once the parts started coming off I realized this was the perfect "Strat type" guitar for the hollow body experiment I'd always wanted to perform on a strat, ie, strip it off, cut it open, hollow it out and put it back together. The photo above is at the state where I was simply figuring out how to hollow out a strat. You can see my "cut here" lines, and some stylistic "f holes" drawn on with a silver sharpie. Also, at this stage, having a rattle-can of silver paint in hand, I hit the headstock to remove the (now forgotten) brand,,, probably a mistake, but let's move on here.
Here are some parts, once they were removed and cleaned up. That's a signed inspection sticker on the (4 hole) neck plate
and this is a close up of the body without the guts. That round hole to the left lower is the "SPEAKER hole" (that's right, it had it's own amp). Not sure what the funny white powder is that was all over the inside?? Anyway, minus the two single coil pick-ups, wiring and switches (note that one of the jack holes has failed):
and the back. That yellow hole is the battery compartment after I'd beefed it up with a veneer sheet. The big trap door to the left was the guts. The little round hole on the right was a sound hole for the back of the speaker. You can see that I intended to modify the shape of this strat to an Ibanez TM "abreviated"
Once everything was stripped out and I'd drawn a pick guard on the face i realized that cutting on this beast was not necessary, It's already hollow. Counting the bat hole, the speaker hole, the electronics hole, and the two pick-up holes, it's about as hollow as a solid guitar can get. You can see that I traced out the bat hole on the front of the face to get an idea of it's "hollowness". At this stage I'm still thinking about cutting it somehow. Anyone have a skill saw?
Did I mention that this guitar turned out to have a "truss rod" in the neck and a scale of 24 inches (part of the toy guitar thing I guess). The frets are solid and flat, the keys are generally working (minus one plastic bushing), and it seemed to me it needed a "roller" T on the headstock.
Here you can see a mock up pick guard (maple ply), the shined up bridge, and the front of the speaker hole.
The guts plate, the one piece keys, and some other parts laying about, looking to get lost on the floor. Oh, those two strap locks on the left are destined for something soon. Also, I found some nice new shiny matching strap buttons at Steward McDonalds and a set of "antique" bushings for the keys.
I happened to have some thin hobby store plywood that I had used when I was making wooden strat pick guards and it mocked up fine. You can see I've fixed the jack hole, no need for two jacks anyway?
Well, time to paint it. However, I've alway liked those fake vintage fender models and have actually tried some of the techniques for "fake ceramic cups" which mock the old "well used" look. In this case, for contrast with black, I first painted the guitar (or the edges at least) orange to have color come out in a "wear pattern" once it's black.... read on.
Then, an application of black satin, some rubbing on the edges, and a 'screw on" of the neck, and "Whollia" (or however you spell it"?
and a close up. I painted this side a bit rough so the guitar will cling to the player. Notice the antique look of the speaker breather hole, If they had speaker holes 50 years ago. Here you can see that I've prepared the battery hole to install some "Through the body" string bushings. More on that in a later shot.
and a "far out" of the front. It's resting on my clay slab roller. As I have a foam cover on the rollers, this makes a perfect guitar stand. See pick guiard and speaker plugs on the left and the string "throught holes" shining up a bit at the bottom. This replaces the old, cheap, whammy bridge and spring.
and now with bridge, plugs, and unpickuped guard.
new shims and newly greased keys. See the new roller-T for high E/B
Here are the string holes and the polished bridge base
and now the pick up hole is cut and one of the original pickups is in place. I plan a single/single coil PU and I'd like to switch between two capicators, but who knows? Oh yea, I installed some old, used strings that were once on an accoustic
Looking Good!. Don't you just love that smooth paint job (below) and the misplaced pick guard hole? Oh well, it's got more problems than that.
and a bigger shot. looking up, pick at the ready.
and, at about $15.00 you have an instant fake vintage, fake adult, fake beautiful guitar. Once the rebolted neck settled down it holds tune about as well as can be expected from the keys, the neck is almost mystically "on" (in the lower frest), and as it's so light and short, it's a wonder to play with my short arms (compared to Robert Johnson). Yea, it's a bit hollow, but perhaps a hot single coil will bring out the empty spaces.
Oh yea, don't click on the arrow in the picture above thinking it's the link to a Utube video, it's a fender guitar pick. HOWEVER, no guts, literally, there is no wiring in the guitar right now as I'll have to completely rewire it. It now needs new keys, a wring kit, and a jack plug. Think I'll try one of the pickups that it came with. So instead of having a great $4.99 guitar I'll have a "so-so" $95.00 used guitar of uncertain abilities. Oh well, it's the journey isn't it. So stay tuned to the "Wiring edition" of the "5 buck chuck"
Well, the experiment was a lot of fun. Now where the heck did I put that credit card?
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