Picked up an interesting little thing and looking for some advise! :)

ElectricNoodle

There's a little shop near me that sells all sorts of odds and ends, and I managed to get this thing for £15!  Does anyone know anything about it?? I've googled the brand but had no luck!  (Pictures at the bottom) 

My plan is to clean it up, and put new tuners on it, and get the bridge sorted, but I've never really attempted anything like this, so looking for some pointers! (Will update as I go with pics on here) 

Where is the best place for me to pick up parts for it? I've tested the wiring and the pickup works! Actually sounds quite hot! 

Currently giving it a polish with some car polish as it has a lot of sticker residue on the front, but it's cleaning up nicely! 

Also, I've noticed some of the frets feel a bit sharp along the edge of the fretboard, will sand paper help? Or am I best getting hold of some emery paper? 

In the end I think I'll use it as a travel guitar, and might even try to wire a battery and speaker into it if I can! Or the second option is to somehow raise the bridge up, and turn it into a slide guitar! 

Sorry for all the questions, but I want to make sure I do things right as if this goes well I might start buying more parts and build some other things... haha 

Megii

http://www.axesrus.co.uk/  is not a bad place for replacement saddles and other parts. Also http://www.axetec.co.uk/  .

ecc83

If you wanted a self contained practice/travel guitar you could build in a headphone amp. The One Watt amp kit from Maplins makes a spanking HP amp fed from just 2 AAs and if you used lithiums they would last ages.

Dave.

paulnb57

I made a similar short scale into a 3 string "trance wonder" Seasick Steve style - kept a string at the A, G and B positions, removed the redundant tuners and bridge saddles, tuned to G,d,g. Cheap slide, loads of fun!......

ElectricNoodle

Cheers for all the advise! 

axerus looks like a cheap enough place to start, so I'll get a few things ordered this week! 

I hadn't actually thought of using a headphone amp! I was thinking more along the lines of somehow wiring up a mini speaker! haha 

The seasick Steve idea sounds interesting aswell.. and something I could try right now while I wait for parts to arrive! Will report back!! 

ElectricNoodle

Right, that's me got it strung up as a slide guitar! haha

Used a duracell battery to prop up the strings on the first fret, then wedged some pennies under the bridge saddles to raise them up a bit! 

Not sure I've got it strung right though, as it's not holding tuning at all and seems a bit dead sounding which might be due to the duracell battery... haha 

Any pointers on the correct way to string this thing?? then I'll grab a cheap piece of 12mm steel or something and use it in place of the battery! 

Sassafras

Don't use Duracells, you want Energizers, they sustain a lot longer.

paulnb57

When I did. mine I left the nut standard and just took each bridge saddle up 1 turn on each screw......just go steady with the slide and damp the strings behind it....... 

A low E string at the A position

A d at the g position 

and a g at the b position.......

Paul

This is an old Strat in the same vein

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii21/paulnb57/imagejpg3_zps245fb395.jpg

ICBM

I was actually working on something very like this last week, although with an amp and speaker built in already!

Regarding strings - it probably won't play in tune at standard pitch, the scale length is too short almost no matter how heavy you go - that also makes it very pressure-sensitive so it won't intonate well. The best bet is to string it with 10s or whatever normal gauge you use, and tune it to about the same pitch as the scale length corresponds to, if that makes sense.

I set it up for slide in open A, the same as open E but up a 4th if that makes sense - ie A, E, A, C#, E, A. It sounds like a sort of mad cross between slide blues and the Warner Bros cartoon theme .

ecc83

"then I'll grab a cheap piece of 12mm steel or something and use it in place of the battery!"

Ooo! Deserves a decent bit o brass!

Dave.

JohnB

This little through neck guitar has a 20" scale (looks a bit more in the pictures but I just re measured it) - pretty much equivalent to having a capo on the 5th fret. I string it with a .013 set (Roto Greys) and use standard pitch and it sounds pretty normal - I take it to open mic nights occasionally.

ElectricNoodle

ICBM said:

I was actually working on something very like this last week, although with an amp and speaker built in already!

Regarding strings - it probably won't play in tune at standard pitch, the scale length is too short almost no matter how heavy you go - that also makes it very pressure-sensitive so it won't intonate well. The best bet is to string it with 10s or whatever normal gauge you use, and tune it to about the same pitch as the scale length corresponds to, if that makes sense.

I set it up for slide in open A, the same as open E but up a 4th if that makes sense - ie A, E, A, C#, E, A. It sounds like a sort of mad cross between slide blues and the Warner Bros cartoon theme .

And I must say... thank you very much for this advice!!! I had some time yesterday, and I swapped out the duracell battery with a fat alan key, and finally strung it up properly, and like you said, in standard it just wasn't doing to well, sounded a bit baggy, and was awful at holding tuning! But I took your advice, and strung it up in E,A,C#,E for the 4 strings I have just now, and it sounds great! I definitely had some problems at the bridge before, but now I've got loads of tone and the thing sings! So far I'm loving sticking the TC Viscous Vibe on a slow pulse, then having a wah wah peddle, but I tend to set the wah low, then leave it there as it gives such a rich thick sound.. especially with a glass slide!! 

Was just wondering though, are there any tips for the sort of patterns to play in that tuning? I've been exploring it, but would be great to have some pointers!! I took some more pictures today and I'll post them below. Once I've had a bit more practice I might put up a sound clip or two!! 

Andyjr1515

I love this sort of stuff....the 'I have this crazy idea...I wonder if it would work?' approach