The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

We have an Art-Industrial Highschool for Musical Instruments here and they organize 8 days workshop where participants will make themselves a guitar, either acoustic or electric. It is a hard 10 hours per day week, but still some semi-finished components are necessary to finish the job in such a short time-frame. So I bought this VLP-500 body with broken neck for my son. What kind of pick-ups (MMK45 or inexpensive chinese ones?), tuners (Kluson replicas?) and bridge should I look for? Any suggestions towards this project are appreciated.

I would take a look at pickups from GFS, they have a good reputation and are inexpensive. The prices on MMK's have been getting up their. I would go for a Gohtoh for the bridge and tail piece. They should be a direct replacements. For tuners, it is good of you can fit the original holes. Pictures of the back of the headstock would help with that.

Should be a fun project.

Yup, second that. I've had success with the Crunchy Pat's as a replacement/upgrade for the MMK45's in solid body Westone Spectrums. They are ceramic based like the 45's and put out about the same signal and tone.

I'm not sure I'd use that model here though. Instead, if you want a humbucker, I'd likely go for the Classic II Alnico 2 Vintage Wound or, better yet, the Mean 90- True Alnico P90 (a humbucker size P90). They sound great and would be perfect in a Les Paul style guitar!

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"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
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Thank you for your advice. I thought my son will make during the workshop the whole new neck with open book head shape as on V-100 (more Gibsonish look)....and to use vintage Kluson tuners replicas. What do you think? Or to repair the broken neck?

My impulse would be to restore the original headstock. Physically the repair would be stronger than the wood and your son can practice his refinishing skills to hide the resulting joint. And hey! It still says "Vantage" when you're done.

_________________
"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

I would try both. They are different skills both are worth having. When he is done, he can choose the neck he prefers.

This.

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Quality service since 3:00 last Tuesday

Would you know that GFS pickups are OEM Korean Artec? At least some of them. http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/pickups ... artec.html. I think will go for Mean 90 as RSBBass suggested.

That was me actually Schwott.

I have heard the speculation that GFS pups are re-branded Artec but from what I remember, GFS says "no". They may in fact be made by Artec, but the specs are apparently different. The mean 90's are really nice pups. You'll like them.

_________________
"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

Sorry Barry, credit to you.