Show Us Your Beater Guitars – And How You Maintain/Upgrade Them

[Rudy4]

Here's my main beater. It's a Karl Hauser my daughter pulled out of a dumpster when students moved out at the end of the college year.

I pulled the original flat fretboard off, added neck reinforcement, narrowed the neck, and topped off the neck with a new radiused fretboard. Made a new bridge to replace the one that was missing and replaced the non-functioning tuners with some inexpensive cast base classical tuners.

It made a nice lil' crossover to play around with.



There's also the Kay body I've benn hauling around for 40 years that belonged to my dad. I broke the headstock off it, so I sawed the neck off at the body until one day when I realized it really wanted to be a guitar-bodied octave mandolin. I made a new neck, bridge, and brass tailpiece for it.

[jricc]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

Here's my main beater. It's a Karl Hauser my daughter pulled out of a dumpster when students moved out at the end of the college year.

I pulled the original flat fretboard off, added neck reinforcement, narrowed the neck, and topped off the neck with a new radiused fretboard. Made a new bridge to replace the one that was missing and replaced the non-functioning tuners with some inexpensive cast base classical tuners.

It made a nice lil' crossover to play around with.



There's also the Kay body I've benn hauling around for 40 years that belonged to my dad. I broke the headstock off it, so I sawed the neck off at the body until one day when I realized it really wanted to be a guitar-bodied octave mandolin. I made a new neck, bridge, and brass tailpiece for it.

Such nice work Rudy. I especially like the octave mando on the Harmony body. Don't you have a guitar that looks like that?

The streaky rosewood? neck on your Hauser is real nice too.

I envy and admire your woodworking skills, as I have none...

[phavriluk]

OP: That kitty's eating good!

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by jricc

Such nice work Rudy. I especially like the octave mando on the Harmony body. Don't you have a guitar that looks like that?

The streaky rosewood? neck on your Hauser is real nice too.

I envy and admire your woodworking skills, as I have none...

Thanks, Joe. It's not that I'm particularly good, I've just been doing it for a long time!

The Hauser has a ebony board with prominent streaking. I usually use ebony or Pau Ferro for fretboards.

You might be thinking of my electric, or possibly the 00 mahogany build?





Don't even get me started on banjos, beater or otherwise!

[jricc]

Rudy, your acoustic IS real nice, but I was thinking of your electric. It's a very cool looker. Love the f holes and tailpiece.

[tinnitus]

Originally Posted by phavriluk

OP: That kitty's eating good!

Oh yes, she is! We rotate through 15-20 variations on her original handle - Snickers. "Snack Wagon" pops up a lot. Like a dog, she sits and shakes on command for a runny fried egg yolk. 19lb at her peak, she's down to a sporty 16 this week.

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Back to refurbing guitars. You guys are amazing with the repairs and upgrades. My adventures began when I kept finding otherwise decent electric guitars (really cheap) on Craigslist that needed basic stuff like tuners, nuts, bridge saddles, pickups/pots, neck adjustments, etc., etc. Salvaged and gigged with some decent planks that needed just a little TLC.

My series of Silvertone posts in this thread are as extensive as I have gone with any acoustic.

Rudy4, all of your work is beyond awesome, and that radiused fretboard really sings to me! If I had skills like yours, I'd still own the best sounding guitar I ever played, a sweet cedar-topped Larrivée that was just too darned flat for my crude rock/blues hands.

Seriously. I'm humbled.

PS, this frankenstrat is based upon a 4-bolt neck on a 3-bolt body - plus 25-30 various additions, circuitry mods, bridge saddles/trem, tuners, switches/HSS pickups, and part of a cow (bone nut). I've given my son several guitars and he'll get more, but this one stays with me.