The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

===> This is a continuation of the original thread started in the For Sale forum. Read more about it here:
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=13733&start=0 <===

Well girlz and boyz, my wait is over!
Today I finally met up with the seller and this rare baby is mine!

In something like out of a (bad) spy movie, we made our rendezvous not in the shadow of an alleyway but in the parking lot of the local Walmart.

The seller even arrived in a big black Cadillac! But it was an SUV, (not a limousine with gun turrets).

And stepping out of the Caddy, instead of "Big Al" and "Kitty the Cougar", it was Norm and Julie, a lovely middle aged couple. And instead of carrying a Tommy Gun, Norm had a large, heavy(!) rectangular case.

Inside was a beautifully looked after trans-white Avenger! I've never seen or even heard of there being one in this finish. But there it was!

For the past 2 weeks or more, the weather here has been quite mild, but with almost non-stop cloudy and light drizzle and/or wind. But today? Today the temperature started to drop and just at the appointed time it started to lightly snow! (Of course it did!) And we're due for about 2 to 4 cm (about 3/4 to 1") by tomorrow

That made it less conducive to chatting much so not a lot of information was shared, but I can mention these tidbits:

• Norm is the original owner
• His wife bought the guitar for him as a gift!
• He's selling it because they sold their home and are downsizing
• "I have 5 other guitars" he said apologetically, to which I replied, "amateur!"
• Norm made the custom case (it's as solid as a rock, almost flight case quality)

It's not good weather for outdoor pix and even if it was, the guitar does need some setup attention first, and of course I have to change that ^&*($ barrel saddle bridge! So in the meantime here are a few indoor grab pictures which don't really do that trans finish justice, but they'll have to do for now.

As with the pix on the previous post please ignore the white "sparkles" which show up on the black surfaces. I had to boost the contrast to enhance the less than perfect indoor pix to try and emphasize the finish :

Front Full

Rear Full

Body Front

Body Rear

Barrel Saddle Bridge

Body Chip

Neck Pocket chip & High Action

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Nice snag indeed!

Wow

That is nice and rare ... Trans White ... very different.

Congrats !!!

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

Wow, that is really nice.
When I read big black Cadillac, I heard Quiet Riot's "Slick Black Cadillac".

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Quality service since 3:00 last Tuesday

Thanks fellas, I will be doing some work on it today but on first look it's in great condition aside from high action (and THAT bridge!). Nothing that a truss rod adjustment and a bridge replacement won't correct.

I'm not getting too exercised over that paint chip, it's not normally in the line of sight so it doesn't advertise itself. But I am wondering how to match the colour if and when I repair it.

The pix don't really do the colour justice. It isn't white-white but more of a cream-white, definitely has a light yellowish haze to it. At first I thought it was an aging white to yellow thing but now I don't think so.

Given the sort of finish materials that Uncle Mats typically used, which are very stable, I think its very likely that this was an intentional tint, possibly to complement the maple fret board.

In different light the colour reads anywhere from light white to dark cream, and even shows a sort of greenish hue occasionally! Really more complex than first meets the eye.

Mats is known to produce many unusual tints, and I have a Westone Spectrum LX in what they called "Candy Blue" and it too changes colour dramatically according to the light. It can be blue, turquoise, or even black!

Any thoughts from the choir??

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Very nice and I enjoyed the story!

Thanks Kmaxpe1500!

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Quick progress update:
Nothing too exciting to report, and that's a good thing!
I have done most of the usual preliminary stuff:

• adjusted the neck to get rid of too much relief
• tightened the tuner buttons (very loose, why don't people pay attention to theses things anyway?)
• snugged up the controls and jack, and sprayed the pots
• tidied up some dust bunnies and a general cleaning of the body (although it was in a very clean condition to begin with, call me anal)
• leaving the frets for last, they have some light divots in the cowboy chords area and they're all very "gritty" up the neck (I assume they've never been cleaned/polished) Overall the neck is in immaculate condition

I have also removed the old bridge and the plastic humbucker mount rings.
The 'buckers are now mounted to some spiffy new chrome rings, the old screw holes of which are just "that much" out of synch (of course they are!). That means I'll be plugging a few and drilling a few new holes.

I have yet to do a layout for the bridge but it too will require new screw holes and slap-down shows that the black and chrome is going to look really nice.

Concerning the "aging" of the finish question have a look at this:




The shadow of the old bridge and around the knobs and mount rings definitely indicates that the colour has indeed yellowed a little bit form the original. So I guess they were originally shooting for more white than cream. Not a huge change though for 42 years eh?

Here are a couple more pix of the control cavity and neck plate which also help to show off that amazing finish. I think you can see what I mean about the colour changing with the light, at least indoors:




We're bracing for a big dump of snow tomorrow so that's a good excuse to stay in and work on this some more. That is, after clearing the driveway.
That's it for now. Film at eleven. Smoke 'em if ya got 'em.

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That looks awesome! I know the missing paint "bothers" everyone to different degrees but, I think I'd leave it. I think it looks cool like that.
If you do decide to fix it, maybe try some tinted poly? Matching the transparency while matching the color may be easier said than done.

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Quality service since 3:00 last Tuesday

Thanks Chris, I'm not in a hurry to do anything cosmetically.
I'd probably bugger it up anyway!

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