Another rescue - Skip Find

impmann

Yup. Found in a skip. Probably should have left it there too.
Actually, this doesn’t belong to me. I’m doing a rescue mission on it for a work colleague.
It is an Encore Strat copy. And it is as awful as you’d expect. It’s a solid wood body (weighs almost the same as the skip it was found in) and it’s had a dubious paint job. And yes, there is a lot of sharpie on the back of the neck - I think it’s supposed to look like tribal tattoos. But is poorly done.
Speaking of the neck, it’s got one heck of a hollow on one side and the frets have been filed by a gibbon on crack to try to level them. I think he used satan’s emery board.
Anyhoo… the plan is to get it playing and then try to improve the god-awful non-original electronics. My colleague is a bit of a metal-head so expect the fitment of death ‘buckers at some point.
The joy of this instrument is its 50mm bridge spacing. Yes you read that right. I’ve managed to find a 50mm Strat Trem but I think blade type pickups will be the only solution.
The fretboard is quite a thick chunk of rosewood so I’ve yanked the frets out and I’ve started sanding the fretboard flat - well, radiused to 9.5in, as that’s the only block I have. I need to order up some fretwire and locate a replacement nut… I managed to break the original taking it out. It’s narrow so I may end up needing to make that from scratch.
You may ask why I’m bothering (I actually am asking myself that question too)… in short, it’s because I can’t bear seeing guitars thrown away. It’s actually made of half way’s reasonable wood so I can make it play fairly well with a bit of re-engineering. My colleague hasn’t got a lot of money, hence why he bothered to pull an Encore Strat out of skip, so if I can keep the parts spend low he ends up with a guitar that punches above its weight (well, it’s quite heavy actually).
Anyway… the pics… oh the horror etc:

impmann

Pics of the neck mid way through sorting the hollow

TTony

"Because I can" is *not* a good reason

Keefy

Is the skip still there? There may still be time to do the decent thing.

Funkfingers

Those chequerboard plastic plates are probably worth more than the rest of the guitar combined.

ICBM

That’s actually bizarrely cool. It shouldn’t be…

stickyfiddle

Well that's a solid wow from me...!! 

Good luck!

Keefy

Perhaps someone on here can put you in touch with Joe Bonamassa’s people when it’s done?

WBT2079

That’s one of the made in India encores by the looks of it (narrow bridge, narrow neck heel, short fitting pickguard around the neck), made in the same factory as the Sunn Mustangs of the time. Most bits aren’t standard sizes, so if it’s not been modded already check all measurements before buying replacements, even the original pickups (they had metal plates on the bottom of them) for those were narrower then normal. 

paulnb57

Well, I say “good for you” for saving it, its a bit of a challenge to get a clunker to play reasonably well, but I reckon you will….

impmann

WBT2079 said:

That’s one of the made in India encores by the looks of it (narrow bridge, narrow neck heel, short fitting pickguard around the neck), made in the same factory as the Sunn Mustangs of the time. Most bits aren’t standard sizes, so if it’s not been modded already check all measurements before buying replacements, even the original pickups (they had metal plates on the bottom of them) for those were narrower then normal. 

Yup, everything is the ‘wrong’ size and shape.
Ive located a Trem in the right size but not quite sure what I’ll do about the pickups yet.
Im annoyed with myself for breaking the nut, just heavy handed cock up tbh. I have a low boredom threshold and making nuts from scratch sorely tests that.

Penn

Second guitar I had was an Encore shitburst… er… sorry… sunburst strat. God it was awful. Cost me £50 quid secondhand with a crappy park amp.

It did get chucked into a hedge once when I was messing around with a mate. The hedge was the second best place for it. The first best place obviously being a skip.
 

BillDL

DON'T sand off the felt-tip pen art on the neck before looking carefully at the autograph on the back of the headstock.  M. Rickard could be a famous person, although not necessarily a guitar player, like THIS or perhaps somebody else that is now a tattoo artist to the rich and famous

wesker123

You are brave!  

GoFish

I quite like the chequerboard and the prison tats, but tht probably says more about my bad taste. Good on you for saving a bit of rosewood. I've often wondered about the rosewood used in lower grade guitars of the 80s and 90s.

ICBM

impmann said:

Ive located a Trem in the right size but not quite sure what I’ll do about the pickups yet.

I wouldn’t worry about the narrow spacing - as long as the strings vaguely pass over the poles it will be fine - better that way than them being wider than the pickups, anyway.

prowla

An encore for the Encore.

Keefy

prowla said:

An encore for the Encore.

I see what you did there.

BillDL

GoFish said:

Good on you for saving a bit of rosewood. I've often wondered about the rosewood used in lower grade guitars of the 80s and 90s.

Most of it was a hell of a lot better than most of the budget and even intermediate level / priced guitars these days.  It was a lot more plentiful and therefore much less expensive, so makers didn't need to be as discerning and reserve the better bits of rosewood for more expensive guitars nearly as much as they need to do now.  I've owned and handled loads of budget 80s and 90s guitars like this Encore that had nicer rosewood fretboards than some of the modern guitars selling for up around the £500 mark and higher.  These days I would far rather take a slab of close-grained very hard and smooth Pau Ferro / Amaranth than rough pitted rosewood, even if the colour wasn't as dark.

Funkfingers

I once had a no-name plywood Fender Lead II copy with pickups like that. The one nearer the neck didn't sound too awful. Luckily, the body was routed for HS pickups. This allowed room to install a cheap P90 in the bridge position.

On your SSS format guitar, it might be wiser to connect the bridge and centre pickups together in series. That could be permanent linkage or via a Blend pot.

Thinking back, the plywood Lead II was best for slide. This may also prove to be true of the Encore. Thus, it may be wiser to remove the frets and fill the tang slots.

WBT2079 said:

the original pickups for those … were narrower then normal. 

Measure them (or the cut-outs in the pickguard). IIRC, they are both shorter lengthways and broader than Fender pickup covers. 

So, by an amazing coincidence, are Ibanez Super 6 single coils. I have a trio of these Quarter-Pound lookalikes languishing somewhere.

Chalky

TTony said:

"Because I can" is *not* a good reason

In my experience, it is easier to sell cheap secondhand brass instruments on ebay as "in need of care or repair" rather than saying "good working order" and get the same or better money! 'Because I can' might be a good reason for sellers