Hofner Verythin John Squire Pollock homage conversion

the_jaffa · March 2020

I’ve had a bit of a project in mind for a while and today was the first of the biggest steps.

I recently bought one of the Hofner UK Special Verithins with a plan to convert it into a replica of (yet another) John Squire guitar (I already have replicas of three of his iconic guitars and this will be number 4 of 4). During most of the 80s he played a Hofner T4ST that had a splattered Jackson Pollock style paint job. These days it seems that T4s are like rocking horse shit (they only made them for a year or two around 1979) and pretty expensive so the cheap Verithin seemed a good substitute to start with.

The main aesthetic differences are the bridge, the pickups being uncovered and the inlays on the neck. The pickups were easily dealt with and a pack of stickers from the States has allowed for some faux inlays that look ok but the bridge is a bigger issue.

Details of the bridge work will follow but today was all about cutting a hole in the back. As I’ve had to remove all the electronics prior to painting (and having changed electronics on a semi before) I decided to bite the bullet and create a control cavity in the rear to make refitting their controls way easier. As I’ll be painting the guitar anyway I thought it worth a shot. I know some of you will think I am mad but hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

So, with the help of @SteveRobinson who very kindly sent me a Les Paul shape cover I set about it. Using the cover I created a couple of mdf templates before rigging up the most shockingly awful, but just about adequate, routing rig ever. The guitar was sat on an old coat on top of my wheelie bin and the template held on with a mix of bench cookies, gaffer tape and wooden blocks acting as fences I set to it with the router.

For reference, the plan is to make this:

Look like this:

So, here's the sketchy routing jig:

And here's the end result:

I’m pretty chuffed as to how it has come out. It's all worked out remarkably well, the plate fits perfectly with hardly any gap and the hole is very nice and neat. I now need to create a ledge to glue to the inside of the hole for the plate to sit on and be screwed down to and the job'll be a good'un.

I'll continue this thread with further info soon. Think like the bridge change and then the painting too.

PeteC · March 2020

Nice result ! - fab workshop improvisation - love John Squier's playing too.

Sarge · March 2020

This wasn't the result the title suggests

Nice tidy job

pintspiller · March 2020

Worked out well. I'm a butcher when it comes to wood and most of what I touch looks like my only tools are a sledgehammer and a bread knife.

Andyjr1515 · March 2020

I've done this once on an ES339. Scary stuff! Nice clean cut there - well done

the_jaffa · April 2020

Over the past few days I have managed to sort a few more bits and bobs out on this conversion.

As the original T4ST had a one piece bridge and tailpiece I have removed the existing ones and their posts/inserts and used an offset of alder that I had from my previous build I cut some plugs. I cut the plugs slightly wide and a fair bit too long then fitted them into my pillar drill to use as a lathe so I could sand them to get a good tight fit but keep them round. Glued and fitted the plugs on Saturday and then trimmed them flush yesterday. I now need to work out the correct position for the new bridge and hopefully should have some TonePros bridge posts coming relatively soon from @FelineGuitars ;

Here's a pic of the plugged holes:

The next job over the weekend was to create some supports for the rear control cover. I wasn't sure how I'd do this but after some experimentation I found the best bet for me was to use some ply that I had in the garage. I doubled up the edge to take up the difference in depth between the body ply and the cover and then shaped and glued the blocks into the hole. I'm yet to work out how to create a support for the screw hole nearest the centre block but I'll have a think and see what I can come up with.

The main thing with the supports for me was to try to keep them relatively small so they didn't end up filling the hole. I think they've gone ok. I'm slightly frustrated that the cover doesn't fit as well as I had hoped and has quite a gap around it in places. I guess my ghetto routing jig may have shifted slightly. It's not the end of the world but not as nice as I wanted.

Pics here:

Once I have the new bridge posts and have established their position I'll drill them. That and the centre block cover support and the butchery is finished. Then is needs a jolly good sand and I can look at painting it which will be a whole new ball game for me.

FelineGuitars · April 2020

Ah - the plot is revealed

Parts ready to go !

the_jaffa · April 2020

I am hoping that when I spray the edges of the body black round the cover plate it might disguise the size of the gap somewhat. Fingers crossed.

Cheers for sorting the bridge bits for me.

the_jaffa · April 2020

Massively frustrating afternoon today.

Went to drill the holes for the bridge posts and cocked it up. Firstly, the 7/16” drill bit I bought especially creates a hole too loose for the new studs. Luckily I tested it in a piece of scrap. Tried a 10mm and unsurprisingly that was far too tight but with the 7/16” drilling the first bit it actually produced a really nice tight fit so thought I’d go with it.

I’d spent a good long while the other night measuring and marking the centres for the holes and was happy so went for it. Hole drilled fine and posts fitted well. But...

...the bridge wouldn’t fit. I had drilled one of the holes off-square and canted inwards. And, as it seems both holes were canted back too far too. Made a proper arse of it. Seems that with the back of the guitar being curved, however hard I tried to drill it square it didn’t work. So, I think I need to look at a better method but at the moment I’ve no idea what.

Anyway, to rectify it, I’ve pull the studs back out, drilled them bigger and replugged them so now have to wait for them to dry and either order a new drill bit or come up with a better method or both.

It’s a good job I’m going to paint it as it’s looking a right mess now.

the_jaffa · April 2020

Oh, and it looks like I might have damaged the threads on my brand new TonePros bridge posts when trying to fit the bridge. Great!

Not a great day of guitar tinkering today.

the_jaffa · April 2020

Right, having sat inside pissed off with myself I decided that that wasn’t going to do any good so I’ve been out and built a cradle that sits on a baseplate that the guitar sits in. It now holds the guitar solidly and also flat in both planes.

Hopefully this will allow me to drill the new holes perpendicularly. I will now have to borrow a friends pillar drill though as the throat diameter in mine is now longer big enough.

the_jaffa · April 2020

the_jaffa said:

Oh, and it looks like I might have damaged the threads on my brand new TonePros bridge posts when trying to fit the bridge. Great!

Not a great day of guitar tinkering today.

This is not the main big thread by the way. It’s the little thread where the cap of the stud screws into the stud to clamp down on the bridge.

the_jaffa · April 2020

I’ve finally made some more progress.

I built a jig for the guitar to sit in that kept it square and inline with the base so I could be sure the holes would drill true this time. Worked really well and kept the guitar really secure.

Please ignore Cinderella, my 3 year old daughter wanted her in the photo

Yesterday, I went over to my mate’s workshop and borrowed his bigger pillar drill and drilled the holes perfectly this time. Just mounted up the bridge and a set of strings to check the fit, tuning and intonation and it all seems to work which is a big relief. Going to let it settle in for a bit as it has not had strings in for a while now. I’ll then check everything later on.

If all seems ok then I’ll begin looking at the painting of it. I ordered a load of primer, paint and varnish this week so just need that to arrive now

the_jaffa · April 2020

Just checked it all again. Tunes up fine and the intonation is only a tiny bit out with the saddles set pretty centrally in their adjustment.

Pleased with that.

JezWynd · April 2020

the_jaffa said:

So, here's the sketchy routing jig:

Thought that was John Squire for a moment.

the_jaffa · August 2020

It’s been a long time since I updated this thread but the guitar is now finished and I’m really pleased with the end result.

It hasn’t been plain sailing and the painting has been pretty nerve-wracking but it’s all good.

Here is the end result:

I think it has come out as a pretty accurate replica of the original, especially considering the random nature of the painting technique.

I ended up replacing the pickups with a pair of Irongears due to a moment of idiocy when I cut the original ones out (I cut them far too close to pickup and then could splice new cable). These are a decent upgrade anyway.

Hope you like it. I’m sure it might be a little divisive as some will hate the paint job I think but it’s exactly what I was after and it finishes my collection of the 4 main, iconic guitars I associate with a John Squire.

paulnb57 · August 2020

Thats refreshingly different

SteveRobinson · August 2020

That looks fantastic, great job!

paulnb57 · August 2020

Only disappointment is not seeing how the paint was done!

chrisj1602 · August 2020

Wow, great job!

the_jaffa · August 2020

paulnb57 said:

Only disappointment is not seeing how the paint was done!

Ha, sorry about that. As you can imagine, it gets a bit messy but it is fun

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Hofner Verythin John Squire Pollock homage conversion

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