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Already mentioned this in that thread about orientating the control labels of guitars that have too many controls, but thought I'd post a few pics of the project now it's pretty much done.

So I got this Musima Eterna for £110 on the bay. That may sound a little steep, but I already had this project planned-out in my head the moment I saw it.





I wanted to add some active electronics to a guitar, and this seemed basket-casey enough that I wouldn't feel too bad about routing it for a battery box.

Here's the Thumbcutter preamp/fuzz based on a Germanium boost with a Germanium clipping circuit for the fuzz.

Nice job on that one. It must have been a hell of a job to clean that one up?

How has it been stored to look like that?

And hows the neck?

I'm a guess it'd been stored somewhere damp, then allowed to dry out. It was in an absolutely decrepit gig bag, that I had to cut away from the guitar. The pickguards on these decay horrifically, oxidising and fucking-up any metal hardware near them. There was a fair bit of oxidation under the chrome(?) plating on the pickups and tailpiece, so a bit of the plating came off in cleaning. It wasn't actually too arduous a job. Fortunately all the pickups still worked, I just chose to only have two for those out-of-phase sounds.

The neck is perfectly straight and the action is great - as low as you'd need, with no buzzing or owt. The neck is a bit fat up the high notes though.

Super save!

Holy shit guy you turned that one around... nice work

Whoah, that looks impossible.

cool! i have one of these here as a wall-hanger only, since the switches won't move and it doesn't make a sound. should fix it, cuz it looks pretty damn hot.

those pickguards seem to be responsible for the oxidation - they have something toxic in them, seriously.

timhulio wrote:I'm a guess it'd been stored somewhere damp, then allowed to dry out. It was in an absolutely decrepit gig bag, that I had to cut away from the guitar. The pickguards on these decay horrifically, oxidising and fucking-up any metal hardware near them. There was a fair bit of oxidation under the chrome(?) plating on the pickups and tailpiece, so a bit of the plating came off in cleaning. It wasn't actually too arduous a job. Fortunately all the pickups still worked, I just chose to only have two for those out-of-phase sounds.

The neck is perfectly straight and the action is great - as low as you'd need, with no buzzing or owt. The neck is a bit fat up the high notes though.

Well great job!!

Amazing.

Looks great.

Great work Tim. It looked beyond saving.

Did you need to do anything to the neck? Did you know if it was straight when you saved it?

In any case, beautiful resto-mod....love everything about it.

Wow, you really turned that one around.

You must have had one hell of a vision for it because that initial pic would have scared me off. What a save!!

Nick wrote:Did you need to do anything to the neck? Did you know if it was straight when you saved it?

In any case, beautiful resto-mod....love everything about it.

I didn't know the neck was straight until it arrived, but I've got the original neck from the Elgita as a spare. Oddly the headstock has a slight warp. I don't know how you'd deal with something like that - claps and steam? Anyway it's not too noticeable. I'll get a decent photo of the neck and action though. Was really surprised how playable it is.

The rust kinda looks worse than it was, and it came off quickly with the scotchbrite / WD40 method.

Looks like they had more tarnish than rust.

timhulio wrote:
I didn't know the neck was straight until it arrived, but I've got the original neck from the Elgita as a spare. Oddly the headstock has a slight warp. I don't know how you'd deal with something like that - claps and steam? Anyway it's not too noticeable. I'll get a decent photo of the neck and action though. Was really surprised how playable it is.

The rust kinda looks worse than it was, and it came off quickly with the scotchbrite / WD40 method.

If the warp on the headstock isn't messing with anything I'd just leave it as-is.

Kim Gordon used one of those as her main guitar after she switched over from bass due to arthritis.
First time I ever saw one was back in 96 or 97 when they were touring Washing Machine.
I'd love to find one someday.
You're lucky to have two.