El Cuba

Hmm, giving me more resurrection thoughts for the Maton L202 I butchered back in 1974

Dave,

Yep you should see if you can resurect the Maton L202 Lute.
What did you do to it? try and cut out the F holes?

This dark Cuban beauty is for all intentional purposes "done'
The strings are on I've plugged it in and it sings .
I will probably do a few tweeks to the Vol and tone pots as they seem to be rotating the wrong way for my likes.
The push pulls work a real treat.
I haven't set the intonation, but it was perfect on all but low E.
I am guessing that will change when I lower the bridge a bit more.
Also need a set of Fat pick up rings, or a lump cut out of the Bridge Pup adjuster springs,a s I can't wind it up high enough.
I've discovered a major draw back with this design style. When I sit down to play it it slips off my knee. DANG..
I haven't played standing up for many many years.

Dave, If you don't want the L202 send it to me. :D

PK

Overall I am very happy with how this sounds. has a nice sustain and tone. Not bad for something built from a failed build.
It was supposed to end up as one of my Eagle 11's

PK

super cool, PK, expert job, looks great

Hey Kells look a treat .Gave a piece of wood a new life in the process.
Well done

G'day PK,

For the poor old L202 I raised butchery to an art form.

The pearloid bit had fallen off the E1 tuner so I turned it into a pointy headstock with three a side, also enlarged the pup routes to house the Schaller HBs that are on the Tele build I posted and filed the frets down to almost nothing.

The headstock is a fairly easy fix and so are the frets, the body will just need a bit of filling but finding a set of period correct pups will be the real challenge.

The neck on these things are tiny and a rebuild is a certantity so the grandkids can have a play, all the rest of the herd are too big for them at their tender age.

Hi Dave,

It all sounds fixable.
The headstocks look pretty much the same as the fyrbyrds. If they are bolt on, then you might find a donor neck.
Tony Giaca had one till he had a fyrbyrd built around the neck.
You could simply raise the whole fretboard and put a new one on. I'd have a go at tapping the frets through till you can grab em with some pliers, then gently pull them out. Then re-dress the fretboard and put new frets on.

Pickups Look about the same size as min hums, You can get fullsize bucker rings to put mini's in. or if you have the originals then put them on a piece of pickguard sheet with holes cut for the pups. :)

All in all it's still a good guitar.

http://www.richardsguitars.com.au/?page_id=7

G'day PK,

here's the result of the butchery, looking back I can't believe that I did this ( maybe there was alcohol or chemicals involved )

Hi Dave,
It's a shame they used those barbell switches. I'd pull it out and use two push pulls like I did. then fill the hole and paint over it.
You should be able to get close to that red. look like the same as the Fyrbyrds but with a bit of a burst around the edge. I guess you could shove a scratch plate over it again. easy enough to do. plug up the headstock and put a set of inline Kluson's on it
I guess if you were good enough you could glue a mahogany wedge on the headstock to build it up just for asthetics.
I'm pretty sure they only sell for $3-500 in good condition.
Mini Humbuckers in the pup slots, but fitted to the Full size reducer rings. that way you don't have to try to plug them and re-route the slots.

I think it's a great candidate for a restoration project. You never know you might even come across a set of Maton pups for it.
with that I'd start with Maton them selves. but I'd bet they would want an arm and two legs for some.

:D

Kellza.

Sorry for the tread hijack and putting a very much non PB guitar in this forum.

I still have the original pickguard and will do a resto as good as is humanly ( DKly ) possible, I like the idea of the mini HBs but even the full sized rings may not be enough because those Schallers are big buggers.

I won't post on the subject again until I start work on it and put something in the non PB area of the forum.

Hey DaveK.

Tony Giacca suggested this for the pups as the originals are single coils made by Maton, so you can't get em for love nor money.


"Tony Giacca The Lute had the same single coil pickups as the Apollo, which are Maton's own and are impossible to find. They're bigger than Gibson mini's and smaller than P90's."
"Tony Giacca Best bet would be to fit some Dearmond or Tiesco Goldfoils as they'd take no body mods to fit and would sound fantastic."

Given we are talking about Lutes, and this build is a Non PBG scratch build and is a Lute, I'd say we are still on topic. :)