335ish 12 string Clone from closing down sale

[wazkelly]

Had some Bill Lawrence blade style PUPs dropped in a Japanese strat copy in 1980. The guitar tech wired them in a Mitey Mite Scratchplate that used 3 x 3 on-off-on mini switches so that they were humbucker in one position, off in the middle, and single coil in the last position. This allowed for multiple in and out of phase sounds, neck and bridge on together both in and out of phase too, plus all 3 on together whilst mucking around with phasing. Unbelievable the number of sound combinations you could get. Even 35 years ago they were very clean, had a warmth across each setting but the best part was no dropouts whilst bending notes as there were no staggered pole pieces to worry about. No doubt they have only got better with time.

[tonyw]

Heres the Bill Lawrence pups i have laying around

Ultrasonic neck pickup


2 tele bridges,notice how they are stacked


And the strat pickup


The Ultrasonic, strat and a Tele Bridge are going into a telecaster HB/S/T and wired in all sorts of crazy ways, the other tele into a single coil tele Esquire kind of build with some more crazy wiring.

[tonyw]

Got in and sanded the body today, 220 then 400, i then ran my fingers over the whole top and bottom and got any rough patches, the top bout was the worst, i didnt want to go too hard for fear of breaking through the lam top.



I quickly measured the front HB route with my HB template, and i can see i need to have a bit of a sanding out there. I need to leave the neck side of the route as is, i dont think theres room for the neck if i route it forward.

[tonyw]

Out with the timbermate, i chose walnut to pump the flame a little, seeing as i am using the color tone cherry red.

The bass wood on the sides is having the filler then tru oil, with out anything else.
the rear of the guitar not filled yet, waiting for the top to dry, will be the same as the top.



whats a mess Mr Hart

[tonyw]

Some blotching on the back, about 6 marks like this showing through, got a feeling its glue residue.

Will deal with it tomorrow when i sand the body.

[tonyw]

Lots of trouble on the back, will try some Goof Off if that fails i will stain the back black and see how that goes if that fail i will spray it solid black. Still alot of sanding to do but i thought i would get stuck into the back because i knew those marks were there. On positive i found them before i tried to do a finish.

Theres always a work around, and then there's the bin haha jkn

[tonyw]

Well its defiantely all chips, scratches and fill, sooo looks like a solid colour on the back, or try the black color-tone dye watered down a bit and see if it hides it at all.

Oh well it was a nice flame.

[FredA]

Shame...
Mine had a few similar spots, and that's partly why I went for the natural finish.
You can't see them with the Aussie Oil, so pretty happy with that.

[tonyw]

Shame...
Mine had a few similar spots, and that's partly why I went for the natural finish.
You can't see them with the Aussie Oil, so pretty happy with that.

I was going to tru oil it after i stained it, trouble is once i am committed it stays.

The actual body colour looks lighter than the pics, and thought it would look good at is with the TO on it, but i am worried about the repairs they tried on it before it left China.

My brother has been through alot of Chinese guitar makers factories, he said he never saw one veener that wasnt as thin as rice paper.

[tonyw]

A bit happier with the top, another going over with a wet 400 and it will be ready for stain.

The bouts have swirling tool marks from the factory, but i hope i can hide those with a touch up of 600, cant afford to go any harder.