I've been slowly restoring a 60's guitar (repost for the morning)

"UserNotFound" (jalopnik2) 03/12/2014 at 10:49 • Filed to: guitarlopnik

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I think I have enough progress now that I can share it.

My friend and I often get together and jam and his dad has quite a few guitars lying around. A few years ago his dad asked me if I wanted this one electric guitar that he had but never played that he got at a yard sale several years back. It was a quirky looking short scale guitar made by a Japanese piano company - Kawai.

The pickguard wasn't pretty, the pickup selector knob was seized, the tuners looked really cheap, the bridge wasn't adjustable, and the tremolo bar was missing the nut. That being said, it had a truss rod, and the body and neck had a beautiful fade finish, so I decided it was a free diamond in the rough so I took it.

I took it home and tried it out and it turns out the intonation was way off and the electronics didn't work. Taking a look at the bridge I saw that it was a cheap, non-adjustable tune-o-matic style bridge.

Obviously that would have to change if I wanted it more playable, but I also didn't want to spend any money one it. Well, some time after that I was at my friend's house again and I saw an adjustable tune-o-matic just sitting on a shelf. He had no idea where it was from so he agreed to give it to me. It didn't have the proper installation posts but I was able to track down the right parts eventually using the parts number on the bridge. It basically looks like this guy:

They were cheap enough that I decided to commit to the guitar and buy them. I took it to a guitar tech still knowing nothing about the guitar to see if he thought it was workable. It turns out he sees these old Japanese every now and then and they're great fun when you adjust them a bit and get them playable. Since I didn't have the money at the time to get the bridge installed (it required drilling holes and I didn't want to mess up and old guitar) I decided to put it on the back burner for a while.

Well, lately I've been doing some stuff on a laser cutter and I realized I could make a killer new pickguard for my Kawai. I also wanted to learn how to use vector drawing programs so I decided to make a design to engrave in the pick guard. I decided to go with a Sheridan style prairie flower design with a two-piece black and white pickguard. This is the design that I came up with on Inkscape:

And here is a bad photochop on the Kawai:

My original plan was to use gloss black acrylic that engraves gold for the main guard and white acrylic that engraves black for the control guard, but I haven't quite decided yet because I only want to buy acrylic once. By the way I am probably going to get my materials from here:

https://www.inventables.com/categories/mat…

Around that time my friend gave me a bunch of old plexiglass because I designed some logos for a speaker cabinet he built

so I went ahead a laser cut a test pick guard

And I have started experimenting with the colors, and that's where I am right now with the pickguard design.

In parallel to the pickguard I also changed out the tuners.

Again, these tuners are from the same friend. Several years ago my friend and I helped another guy put a Jackson neck on his American strat. In exchange, he gave the strat neck to my friend, who had a Japanese made Bradley strat. We put the Fender neck on the Bradley, which can be seen here:

Well, the Bradley tuners were still pretty good, but the Kawai tuners weren't, so he gave me the Bradley tuners. They are at a funny angle because I use the stock Kawai holes. I think it adds to the character of the guitar so I'm going to keep it like that.

As for the history of the guitar itself, it turns out these guitars were made in the mid 60s and sold in department stores. They are hit and miss in quality, but the good ones are great. One bit of added credibility is that Hound Dog Taylor, a fantastic blues player, played a four-pickup Kawai from a similar vintage:

And, luckily for me, these guitars really do sound fantastic in a dirty, bluesy kind of way.

Bandit > UserNotFound 03/11/2014 at 22:35

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That's awesome! I love old Japanese guitars, they can be had for cheap and have so much character.

Sn210 > UserNotFound 03/11/2014 at 22:36

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Dude, that's awesome! Keep us posted as you go!

UserNotFound > Bandit 03/11/2014 at 22:39

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Thanks! I've grown to love them too after researching my guitar. I learned a lot of the history from this guy and his crazy collection:

http://drowninginguitars.com/

UserNotFound > Sn210 03/11/2014 at 22:40

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Thanks! Will do, the project has been speeding up a bit since I'm using it to keep me slightly sane while writing my Master's thesis.

bhardoin > UserNotFound 03/11/2014 at 23:13

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Dude! You gotta throw up a vid or something when you get it all worked out.

UserNotFound > bhardoin 03/11/2014 at 23:31

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I definitely will! I've been helping my friend make some cool custom amp and speaker stuff so it will be fun to try all the DIY stuff at the same time.

anothermiatafanboy > UserNotFound 03/12/2014 at 10:55

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I like it. And impressive playing as well. I got a telecaster at home.

UserNotFound > anothermiatafanboy 03/12/2014 at 11:02

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Thanks! I like the look and sound of telecasters but I haven't played them often. I've thought about buying a tele neck and making a body for it, that would be a fun project.

Also, that isn't me playing, but I wish it was!

Team6.1 > UserNotFound 03/12/2014 at 11:03

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That's awesome. Rebuilding is always fun and its awesome ending up with something no one else has. Here is a bass I deferred and re finished http://imgur.com/a/8GnGX

UserNotFound > Team6.1 03/12/2014 at 11:07

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I like it! The stain finish is a neat idea. I have a Washburn bass that has been restomodded in a similar way. It has a stingray humbucker, some kind of fender humbucker, and three switches for on/off and coil split. No volume or tone, just full power. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it.

Vizzini > UserNotFound 03/13/2014 at 20:06

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Love this writeup. Interesting guitar, and nice work on your fabrication of parts.

I'm nearing the end of a project to refurbish my late 70s Strat from the ugly Frankenstein it was when I bought it to something much prettier with better electronics. I haven't done this before, but everything seems to be going well. As with all projects like this, though, all the prep work is irrelevant if the last coat of paint, last brushstroke of lacquer or final turn of the screw setting the bridge goes wrong. I'm at that stage now, trying to get the final finish on the body perfect, and I haven't even tried out the electronics yet to see if it all works properly. Crossing my fingers. For all of that, it has been a ton of fun to do the work.

UserNotFound > Vizzini 03/14/2014 at 01:25

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That sounds like a cool project. One of my first guitar projects was stripping and refinishing a Yamaha electric. I learned that I am way too impatient to do any kind of paint or stain work, so props to you for taking your time and doing it right. Got any pictures?

Vizzini > UserNotFound 03/14/2014 at 01:44

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I have actually enjoyed the woodwork and painting so far, but the very last steps have to go right to be happy with it. I'm close.

I might do a post like this one (with pics) when I'm done. I don't want to jinx it now, so close to completion!