Elli restoration project

So, I'm hoping to make this my "waiting for final coats to dry" project.
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I was given this guitar by a friend when I was a teenager and made a bridge from scrap, but could never get the warp out of the neck. 20 years later, it's time to try again.
Does anyone know what it is? Some letters are missing off the headstock.
I'm about to order cream binding and reliced tuning keys, TOM bridge and string retainers. I'll look at electronics and pickups once I have the first stage sorted.

Wow look at all of those switches!

it's an Elli Sound
Made in Italy by Crucianelli accordion company.

http://musicmansteve.com/guitars/images/ElliSound-6.jpg

http://musicmansteve.com/guitars/images/ElliSound.jpg

best headstock pic i could find...

http://www.jedistar.com/images/guita...sound_head.jpg

Wow, thanks Stan. I've got an idea now on how it should look. Fuzzbeard, the switches are a bit different. Each switch is a different pickup combo and switching one down pushes all the others back up. It's one of the things I'm dreading because finding replacements will be impossible, I will have to fix what's there.

cool project, how much does the neck warp?

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I pulled the fretboard off years ago to see if I could fix it. May need replacing now, but I want to keep it as original as possible

Wow, that's a really nice axe man. Hope you bring it back up to spec!

cheers,
Gav.

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Originally Posted by AndrewA

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I pulled the fretboard off years ago to see if I could fix it. May need replacing now, but I want to keep it as original as possible

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wonder if you could plane it flat without losing too much neck...

Never seen one of these before, but cool looking though, can't wait to see and hear it back in action.

I tried to listen to some clips of similar guitars on you tube but I couldn't find a good video.

here's an Elli Sound, not great quality, but give you an idea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBvfeocqECs

Like most old guitars, the neck is chunky, so there's lots to play with. I'm going to try planning it down and see where i go from there.

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Had some goodies show up in the post this morning.
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The neck has been pulled apart, planed, sanded and scraped flat and then routed the truss rod channel to depth again. There is about 1mm left at the back behind the channel. I need to plane back the face of the head back flat again now, then start re-assembly.
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can you post a gut shot of the wiring? Looks crazy

Hi mate, quick google search suggests it might be a Gemelli, just might need to brush up on your Italian as the 2nd link is not in English.

http://www.fetishguitars.com/
http://www.fetishguitars.com/gemelli/

Nicosaurus, I'll post pics of the wiring when I get a chance to open her up. Kinda curious myself.

Waz, I've identified the guitar as an Elli-sound by Crucianelli, probably 1964-65.
http://www.fetishguitars.com/crucian...riple-cutaway/

Yep, that's the one however those Italian built axes all have a familiar look and may be different brands from the same manufacturer perhaps? Bit like soap powder where few manufacturers yet an overwhelming amount of choice at the supermarket. One of my high school buddies I started playing with found a Galanti at a garage sale in 1978 or 79 which had all the push button stuff happening too. Punk was in it's heyday and a weird looking and equally thin weird sounding axe became his main guitar. Hardware, particularly tuners were lower end of the quality scale from memory but so was most stuff out of Japan from similar era.

nice work with the neck, this will be very cool

Time to take a look inside.
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I think I've worked out why the neck pickup doesn't work.
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It smells like something died in here

possibly played on such great albums as Attachment 12455

Glued the fretboard onto the neck with some hide glue (in keeping with the age of the guitar). Next is binding and binding and patching the finish on the neck. I have very little experience with either, I'm guessing the original would be a nitro finish?

Ha Ha ....AndrewA and his Wig outs!

Thats a real album btw, if I had some way of uploading a track I would, not sure if that guitar is actually played on the album however

Oops. The headstock is covered with pickguard material, I was trying to heat it to fit, and must have heated a bit too much as it caught alight. At first I thought it was just melting and took the heat gun away, but it kept crackling and slowly disintegrating. After splashing water on it, I found it had burnt a section away about the size of a 20c piece.
To fix it, I've taken some material off the back and melted it in acetone to make it soft, then used it to fill the hole. Hopefully the colour should match better than a new piece.
Other fixes: I've soldered the two outside pickups back on, the neck binding is curing, and I've stopped the volume knob spinning on the shaft.
New challenge: the new bridge is wider than the original, so I will attempt to fill the old bridge holes and make circular metal plates with offset holes for the new bridge to sit in.

Hey deadman, just found sir bald diddley on iTunes. Early Beatles sound mixed with surf rock, but released in 2006. It's not exactly the same guitar, but probably so similar you wouldn't hear much difference.
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That guitar looks like it may be worth a bit, you should record a demo of it once it's all up and running.

Don't remind me doc, I get nervous every time I touch it.

New bridge in place
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Binding and finish needs some work
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Patch spot slowly being built back up on the head fascia
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Frets look like they have seen some playing particularly down near the nut end.

just ordered Behlen nitro black and clear jet spray from https://www.guitaraust.com.au/ (from an earlier DB post). Do I need sanding sealer or anything else? Its only small sections on the sides of the neck that need patching.
The frets are jumbo's so there's plenty left on them to work with when it comes to leveling and polishing.

I haven't died, just doing other stuff.
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The neck has been sprayed, just waiting for the paint to dry before cutting back and polishing. I probably should be working on the frets now, but inspired by others cigar box guitars, I'm half way through this:
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Finally got the neck and everything else back on the guitar. Plugged her in just to see what it was like and... only the middle pickups are working, although they sound great. So, more work to go.
I need opinions. Should I try to find the fault in the other pickups or re-wind them, and then while it's all happening, is it worth upgrading pots, caps, etc?

Hey Andrew, so the 2 middle pups work ? Sounds like you need to do more fault finding and work out of the neck and bridge pups work. If the existing electronics look old and possibly faulty would be worth upgrading some of it. Have you posted a pic of under the pickguard ?

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Originally Posted by AndrewA

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Finally got the neck and everything else back on the guitar. Plugged her in just to see what it was like and... only the middle pickups are working, although they sound great. So, more work to go.
I need opinions. Should I try to find the fault in the other pickups or re-wind them, and then while it's all happening, is it worth upgrading pots, caps, etc?

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First thing I would do is check each of the pickups for continuity with a Digital Multimeter, each one should measure somewhere within about 10k Ohms if they are still good, a reading of OL on the highest resistance range will indicate a break in the pickup's winding somewhere.

When I had the guitar in bits I did a continuity test from the pickups, through the switch to the jack and seemed ok. Should have tested the pickups at the same time, will have to do that next.

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Guitar guts time. The switch probably needs a good clean, but seems to work ok. Sure enough, when I tested the pickups, the neck and bridge showed open circuits. I might take a look and see if I can find the fault before resorting to a rewind.