ShortScale.org

i'm not quite sure how it happened, but it seems as if i've got an early 60s duo project on my hands.

james supplied the '63 neck, and i took delivery of a '62 body from ebay today, which i got for £80. the plan is to finish it off as cheaply as possible, so the only other vintage part i'll be using is a bridge. i got spangled out of one badly last week, it'll just be a matter of time and perseverance before i get hold of that... the rest of the parts will likely be aftermarket stuff, whether new or second hand, whatever i can scrape together really.

the neck's fine, all i need is some conversion bushings for the klusons i'll eventually get, as i think it's been drilled for bigger tuners at some point.

the body however has been stained with some sort of disgusting brown varnish, it looks fucking awful- like the guitar version of a dirty protest:





i'm about to start stripping that muck off tonight, i think i'll refinish it in daphne blue nitro with an aged clearcoat, with the end result looking a bit like this mockup, hopefully:



exciting!!

cool project

yeah, looks sweet.
Very much digging the pink primer peeking trough, a la 60's Hagstrom.

the blue pic's just to give a rough idea, i've only just started stripping the brown shit off.

Yep, yep...

Loves me that pink primer!
...Good thinking putting that pink primer on, and such.


!!! DO THE PINK PRIMER !!!

Dude... did you need the bridge I have as well? It's from the reissue, but I'm nearly certain it's identical to the vintage bridge. Just... newer.

Edit: Scratch that, the RI is identical to the 65+ Duo bridge. Yours would be more square.

yeah, i think it needs to be a vintage one. they cost a fortune too.

Gotya. Yeah I was looking at ebay, those square bridge go for like $100+. Sheesh...

ah strip ya... ah strip ya for real...



will sand it down tomorrow, then onto the grain filler and sand 'n' seal (don't worry, i won't be documenting all that shit).

endsjustifymeans wrote:Gotya. Yeah I was looking at ebay, those square bridge go for like $100+. Sheesh...

Somebody's bound to part out a Squier RI on ebay at one point...

That's awesome. Be patient with it--you'll get it together.

If you ever face that varnish again, just sand it. It's my favorite finish to replace because it dusts right off. But I haven't had great luck with stripper. People here have said that Nitromors is stout stuff. I will see if I have any parts laying around. I don't think so, but you never know.

the nitromors raped it fairly quickly, took one coat brushed on to get rid of the clear, then another brushed crossways to start breaking up the brown stuff, then a good all over scrub with wire wool dipped in it. took about 2 hours total.

astro wrote:

endsjustifymeans wrote:Gotya. Yeah I was looking at ebay, those square bridge go for like $100+. Sheesh...

Somebody's bound to part out a Squier RI on ebay at one point...

Squier RI used the same round bridge as the Fender RI, it's the one from the 65 and up. And I have one in the classifieds section right now. He needs the original squared bridge that was on the 62.

endsjustifymeans wrote:

astro wrote:

endsjustifymeans wrote:Gotya. Yeah I was looking at ebay, those square bridge go for like $100+. Sheesh...

Somebody's bound to part out a Squier RI on ebay at one point...

Squier RI used the same round bridge as the Fender RI, it's the one from the 65 and up. And I have one in the classifieds section right now. He needs the original squared bridge that was on the 62.

I'm not talking about the 90's MIM duo, I'm talking about the new Classic Vibe Squier Duo-Sonic. It uses the same square bridge as the original 50's Duo's.

Ah, yeah that'll do nicely.

Very cool, keep us posted!

so, realised today there'd been zero updates on this, largely because i've just been quietly gathering the bits for it and generally being a lazy cunt.

change of plan (i forget why), but rather than my original idea of daphne blue, i've bought some dakota red nitro, with this as my aspirational goal:



so, i've got the body primed and ready for painting. i kept the primer coats quite thin, and i'll do the same with the colour, so it wears quite quickly (hopefully). don't want it looking too new. as far as parts go i'm just waiting on some conversion tuner bushings coming in the post (thanks to the bawbag who drilled the neck for grovers) and i've still to get pots and a switch. apart from that it's on track. quick mock-up:



(i've got solid black covers to put on, but i haven't checked they fit over the MIM pickups yet- the pole pieces are quite high)

i've got one of those switches if you need one.

ooh, lovely... shall PM.

Looks really good so far Stewart.