Showing posts with label retrofit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retrofit. Show all posts

Thursday, September 17, 2009

acoustic guitar retrofit






This is my retrofitted nylon string Spanish guitar - my very first guitar, on which I learned classical guitar at 14 - not very assiduously I have to admit, but it still had an influence on my playing even when I switched to 3 power chords punk at 16, then later to noise impro.

It's a crafted flamenco guitar made in Spain - roughly similar to a classical guitar with lower action - that my parents had for a cheaper price since it had a varnish problem (like wrapped too early and some varnish got stuck on the wrap). Over the years the varnish started to peel seriously, then I tried to remove it myself, then I gave up and kept it unused for decades (see pics).

So since I'm into guitar mod mood now, I decided to rejuvenate it in my own way, with a slightly transparent mate black finish. It makes it quite bizarre, for probably good reasons, acoustic guitars varnish is always shiny (if anybody can tell why, I'm curious).

The sound is a little bit dull but it was already so, and it's a nice practice guitar. I find always good to practice on different instruments to work different aspects of guitar playing.












Saturday, October 4, 2008

customized Kawai Aquarius Custom


My very first electric guitar, bought in 1982 (a gift from my dear mother, may she be blessed, she didn't know), at the time when Japanese guitars were so despised that the seller told me that it was "a mistake for the japs to have made such a good Fender copy"(though it's far from being a mere stratocaster clone). Kawai usually makes piano and acoustic instruments, and made a few electric guitars until the 80s - I don't have much more information about this one... It seems that Aquarius was mostly Kawai's line of bass, and I once saw a 12-string Aquarius - that's it.
Originally it was electric blue, and as I was in a band playing a kind of dark batcave music, I added golden paisley pattern - my own sense of humour...

When I had better guitars I stopped using it unless i needed a whammy bar, until 2003 when it was used mostly as a prop in a dance performance and really mistreated - its electronics got broken. Experimenting lately on new guitar sounds, I decided to give it a second life, had the pickups fixed at Alex-Guitars in Berlin, sanded it and revealed its beautiful blond maple wood slightly varnished, replaced the white pickguard by an aluminum one, changed the whammy bar and modified the nut to put baritone strings, and I use it now in variable open tunings.

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