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SPECIAL FEATURE.
My first home-made Solid-body. c1959. |
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My first attempt at
making a guitar was this solid-body sometime around 1959.
Apart from my first flat-top, I had been playing only
archtops at that time and, looking back, I can see just how much
this guitar was influenced by my experience of jazz guitars.
Although a solid-body, the top was hand carved (by me)
into an archtop shape by laying a piece of solid Spruce over
the solid body and then shaping it.
So, the pickup I used was an archtop pickup and the
fingerboard had quite a heavy radius. I was
learning as I went along
I played it on and off
through the 60's but eventually it went into the loft;
in fact it was in
1981 when we moved to our present home and it was only
recently that I thought I would just see how it was managing
up there in the cold and the heat. Not the best
of conditions.
Amazingly, I found
that it still looked really good and in the same condition
as when I put it aside, and it still plays really well too,
except that the electrics seem to have broken down
rather terminally. Nothing that can't
easily be fixed!
Then, quite by
chance, when I was clearing out my loft just before
Christmas 2013, I found all my original sketches and drawings for
the guitar so it seemed only right to put together this
feature.
Quite a nostalgic
trip for me ...............
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As always, with
me, it began with a sketch book and a cup of tea:
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Lots of ideas, six
string, twelve string, archtop, western, slide and
bass guitars! |
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But I decided to make this double cut, solid-body electric.
Can it really be, even in '59, that I was thinking of
chambering the body! |
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A little bigger than a
Les Paul but influenced by the shape of an ES 335, it was
finished in a hand painted metallic Gold Valspar.
What else in 1959!
Oh, and I made
the amp too:
a Mullard 3 Watt valve self assembly Kit
Amp and my own design cabinet with 10" Goodman's speaker.
The neck was solid,
one piece Maple (no truss rod - not in 1959) glued into the
body which was solid Obeche. Obeche
is very strong but lightweight and the body was a composite
of solid blocks all bonded like bricks with Cascamite with
the neck running through.
The fretboard was French Walnut. I remember it had a
wonderful purple colour when it was newly sanded and was very
silky to touch!
The single pickup was
from Cyril Proctor of Leeds who hand made them for
professional jazz guitarists at the time. Most of the
other hardware was from Hofner's parts catalogue, all
courtesy of Selmer. |
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It looked good but the
gold soon started turning black where my hand rubbed against
it and the electrics didn't sound great. Archtop
pickups and big flatwound strings (I had got used to using
Framus Black Rose strings on my President so naturally put
some on the solid) were perhaps not the best choice!
So I soon decided to
upgrade the pickup (which then went onto my President) in
favour of two '61 Vox pickups. It
meant modifying the body to take the new arrangement.
You can see in the following pics that I wasn't aware of the
concept of pickup rings back then so I made my own in wood and built
them into the body using a Bakelite top to facilitate height
adjustment.
This is how I wanted
the upgrade to look. |
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With twin pickups,
a stop tail and Master Volume and Tone controls it was
transformed. I refinished it in a solid cherry
Valspar. It still looks good today. |
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Here we are, some time
around 1960 with a very powerful Beam Echo Hi-fi amp and
Selmer Tremolo. I still have that
Tremolo! |
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Some 55 years later, and
just a little dusty, here it is as it came out of its
adapted Hofner Verithin case in January 2014.
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and the case still smelled of Evo Stick when I first opened
it. |
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A little bigger than a
Les Paul it is significantly smaller than my ES 335.
Do you know of any other 335 shaped solids from the early
60's. Was it perhaps a first? |
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Dusted and cleaned and
ready to rock - but very quietly!! |
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My wife was quite
impressed when she saw it for the first time. |
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Toggle switches weren't
available in '59 so I had to use these push-push table-lamp switches. |
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Very sculpured neckflow
into the body. Quite ahead of its time. |
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..... and
from the back. |
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The twin Vox pickups
were good. Remember those Framus Black Rose flatwounds
with the gold finish? |
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Very narrow neck. I thought it would be easier to play. I have learned
better! |
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Couldn't get MoP in '59
so the motif is pearloid, cut with an X-acto modelling knife. |
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Tuners are pure Hofner
President. |
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Most of the hardware had
to be made from sheet brass and chromed. |
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Finally ..........
the Calendar Girl pic for February 2014. |
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