The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Pix are showing up now. Looks, uh, interesting...
"Finish. Finish? We don need no steekin' finish!"

Some nice hardware there too. And P90's...the bacon of the pickup world. What else ya need?

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Right, my little flowers; I am done with actual reno work on this; I set to yesterday and fretted the thing... which worked out well...





... the frets went in beautifully and even my meagre skills had 'em looking and feeling right in short order. Incidentally, that neck is quite bare and feels sublime au naturel, just sanded back to about 2000 grit and I'm loathe to oil it or even put on a light clear coat to protect it. I know I said I was going to have a crack at fifnishing it as I would a premium gunstock, but, hells bells - the thing is just ridiculously smooth and fast... Given that I'm probably going to be the only one to play it, it might be OK... we'll see, eh!







Sorry about the top pic; but there will be a set of pool shots eventually! So, I whacked the neck back on after loading it with the locking tuners and string trees and strung, probably for the first time in many years!!



The TRC will go on when I've made a few replacements out of acrylic sheet and had one engraved with "John's rat"..



Electrosocket Tele style output jack. I love these things and will retrofit them to most things with a side mount jack!



I really, really like it and although it isn't ready to be played just yet - neck relief, action and intonation to be set yet and I want to give the neck a day or two to feel the effect of string tension - I plugged it in and whacko!! - it would seem to have a touch more heft than the Spectrum installation... possibly due to the string-through body??

And for the first time in 40 years I broke a string when putting the bastard thing on!! Closer inspection revealed a tiny rust spot where it let go, so I'm off the hook!!

*king great job Johnny! One of a kind.
The string thru definitely makes a difference to the sustain. (I have one of each AV325's with surface mount and thru.)

I'd rethink leaving the neck completely nekkid though. The open grain will be susceptible to wicking up sweat and collecting crud which will quickly make it slow and "grabby". And don't forget that the humidity will affect the wood more dramatically too. I'd go with the gun stock oil and beeswax finish, and you'll have no worries.

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Yeah, mate... I know, I know!! But, holy snapping ducksh1t; it is SO fine just as it is now....

*sigh*

WOW, it looks like it would play itself. . .

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Quality service since 3:00 last Tuesday

Thanks, fella!! We're all done here now and here's the pool pix to prove it...







I've tweaked, cajoled and kneaded it to some sort of playing shape with shims, trc adjustments and intonation; the action is perhaps a trifle low for me but there's no buzzing anywhere on the neck, so pretty much finito. There will be a TRC with John's Rat on it eventually....

Thanks for watching, you blokes!

Sweet.
You're making my suppressed reno genes go all tingly.

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I dig it!

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Quality service since 3:00 last Tuesday

This is a great guitar. It plays beautifully and sounds ridiculously fine - a budget instrument that has been mistreated as this was before my stewardship has absolutely no right sounding so good!! It's taken me a little while to find the sweet spots - and there quite a few!! - and find various FX patches that show off the sound. P90s are a bit of an oddball in that they are a single coil, but sound quite different to Fender-type singles, yet they're not really in h/b territory either... a sound all of their own and I like it!!

My set up seems to be bang on in terms of playability which helps my (very) rusty chops no end; I cannot believe just how fine this is - it's a real sweetheart and belongs inside on the playing rack, with the 696-12, Pantera and the LC-440!! Which reminds me... if any of you get a chance to get one - a 440 - then I would like a shot as this one of Don's plays itself; it's another under-rated, under-used classic that looks über-cool....

Glad you're enjoying the fruits of your labour mate. (as opposed to enjoying your Fruit of the Loom )

These Vantages are just terrific guitars to play stock, but I'm liking the idea of the P90's a lot.

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