My 3/4 scale mini Combo 800
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 5:13 am
I couldn’t wait until it was done to post something...I picked up a super cheap Washburn Idol shaped Hannah Montana guitar for my daughter & lo, found that with new tuners, setup & strings it was pretty fun to play. Naturally I needed one too with the intent of a simple refinished tele style couch guitar. Things got out of hand. I’d always thought the Idol was a blatant Combo 600/800 ripoff so I proved it.
The proportions are close, just slightly squashed. I did not do a full deep German carve with a spoon plane, just a 3/4” panel cove rout that’s rounded over by hand. My headstock looks god awful...not a big enough headstock to pull it off. I shouldn’t be so hard on myself, I’m not done yet, it works & I have plenty of time to make it look worse after our recording in five days. Yikes.
You’ve probably ignored my post about the res-o-glass built with my Electro lap steel’s pickup about as much as I have because it didn’t work well. My initial thought building a guitar for slide was to have a neck similar to my main guitars, 24 frets & the same scale length but slide is just easier with short scales. The reso also had too little sustain for what I’m trying to achieve. The lap steel had string through so I tested an aftermarket ric bridge & raised the neck by simply using the neck plate. Bingo, sustain that just rang & rang.
I’m using rattle can Ford Cayman Green which is teal & impossible to photograph. Color is done. Several more coats of clear tomorrow. Buff & polish later. The goal is to be working by Friday because we record the next day. Going to start with 500k pots,V,T & 3 way N/N+B/B .50 tone cap & OOP & would like to have series too. Neck pickup was necessary because it was already routed. Found one picture of a 2 pickup 800 & went for that look. Using a fiber top higain which has less output than the steel pickup. Eventually will have a gold guard shaped like the 850’s. Not sure if I want to try the real combo wiring 9 tone deal. Pics soon as I can figure out Imgur...
The proportions are close, just slightly squashed. I did not do a full deep German carve with a spoon plane, just a 3/4” panel cove rout that’s rounded over by hand. My headstock looks god awful...not a big enough headstock to pull it off. I shouldn’t be so hard on myself, I’m not done yet, it works & I have plenty of time to make it look worse after our recording in five days. Yikes.
You’ve probably ignored my post about the res-o-glass built with my Electro lap steel’s pickup about as much as I have because it didn’t work well. My initial thought building a guitar for slide was to have a neck similar to my main guitars, 24 frets & the same scale length but slide is just easier with short scales. The reso also had too little sustain for what I’m trying to achieve. The lap steel had string through so I tested an aftermarket ric bridge & raised the neck by simply using the neck plate. Bingo, sustain that just rang & rang.
I’m using rattle can Ford Cayman Green which is teal & impossible to photograph. Color is done. Several more coats of clear tomorrow. Buff & polish later. The goal is to be working by Friday because we record the next day. Going to start with 500k pots,V,T & 3 way N/N+B/B .50 tone cap & OOP & would like to have series too. Neck pickup was necessary because it was already routed. Found one picture of a 2 pickup 800 & went for that look. Using a fiber top higain which has less output than the steel pickup. Eventually will have a gold guard shaped like the 850’s. Not sure if I want to try the real combo wiring 9 tone deal. Pics soon as I can figure out Imgur...