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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | The 1612 arrived today. It ended up at Madras PAINT & Glass instead of Madras BODY & Glass where I work. That actually happens a lot :) We know the guys down there so they called us when it arrived. Sometimes we get their stuff too.
The guy did a great packing job. It's a good thing too, it apparently had a rough trip. The truss rod nut & washer had come loose & were rattling around in there. The washer stayed in the body of the guitar but the big brass nut was up by the headstock when I opened the case. I'd never seen one before & didn't know what it was at first. Apparently the nut was what put the little dent in the neck. It's really not a problem, it's very small & I don't notice it when I'm playing it. I was lucky, that's the only mark I can find on it other than the little crack in the finish below the neck that was mentioned in the ad. I was trying to point it out to a friend of mine & he couldn't see it until I put my finger on it. It runs the same direction as the wood grain & is very hard to see.
The pre-amp was also loose & rattling around. I took off the knob, tightened up the nut & replaced the knob. That took care of that. I pulled the old strings off right away & replaced the washer & nut to where they belong.
When I removed the strings the nut fell off! That must have been some ride on it's way here. I glued that back in place. I must have guessed pretty close on the truss rod tension, the neck is dandy. I also pulled one shim out from under the saddle & dropped the action a tad. I might pull one more next time I change strings. Which I plan to do as soon as the music store scores som e more Elixirs. I put D'Addario 11's on it & they feel really rough compared to the Elixir 12's I have on my 175. I got spoiled fast.
When I first plugged it in it wouldn't make a sound through the amp but a new battery fixed that.
The box looked like it had a rather rough trip so none of this surprises me.
This guitar sounds wonderful unplugged, even better plugged in, & plays very well now that it's all fastened back together. I like it a lot!
If it had a cutaway so I could use the rest of the frets that would be nice, but I can always grab the 175 if I need more neck.
According to the serial number (344682) it was made in late 1985. It came with a new set of strings, a nice strap, a dozen or so picks (go figure), a Bird of Paradise string squeezer & all the original paperwork & owners manual.
Also-
Last night I picked up my Kalamazoo & the old fiddle. The guy did a nice job on the 'Zoo. $58, including new strings. I played it a lot last night in Bend with the gang. He got the crack closed & re-enforced nicely, the top is much flatter than it was & it sounds & plays much better. It's a loud little devil for no bigger than it is.
I let some fiddle players try out the fiddle. The consensus seems to be that it is a Stradivarius copy that was hand made made in Czechoslovakia no later than about 1920. That could be total BS, but that's what they seemed to think. I don't know diddlery about fiddlery. They all said it played & sounded great. It did sound good to me. Several people tried to buy it. I was invited over to one couples home a week from Saturday to play music. They can both play guitar, banjo & fiddle & offered to teach me the basics of fiddle playing. This is going to be fun :)
Life is good :)
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | there are tons of strad violin copies made in that time period. most are not very good. most antique dealers think they have a real one. rule 1 if it has a paper label it is not a real strad. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | It doesn't have any label at all. No numbers or anything that we could find. All fiddles look pretty much the same to me, except one I saw that looks sorta like a mandolin. Therefore, to my uninformed eye they ALL look like Strad copies :) I'm just glad it sounds decent & nobody laughed at me for spending $103 fixing it up & having the bow rehaired.
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Btw Al, can a guy buy an OP-40 & put it in an older guitar like the 1612? I'm capable of cutting the hole & doing the soldering. I really like OP-40 electronics, especially the tuner & eq. The 1612 battery setup is a minor pita too. All my 1612 has is a volume knob. Assuming this is a reasonable idea & I could buy one from you, approximately what would one cost? |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10581
Location: NJ | Nils
I just bought a op 40 preamp for a customer that was looking to upgrade from an op 20.
You can retro fit the preamp but it will probably destroy any "collector's" value that guitar may every have. Ok so since that is not an issue then sure you can do it. I would assume you need a router and some fiberglass repair kit and some binary reisen.
Sounds like way too much work for me but it is possible. maybe I can sell you a whole guitar. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | Thanks for the info Al. Apparently there's more to it than just cutting the hole & soldering the wires. May not be worth the effort. I thought maybe the outer housing just needed to be wired to the pup & snapped into the hole & then the OP-40 mounted inside it. I've never taken my Elite apart to see how it really goes together.
I think I'd be better off to leave well enough alone & play it a while. If I decide to do something else maybe I can get one of those $750 2003 Collectors I heard you're selling :)
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1612-4 survives the trip from Texas
