Marinucci Sparkle ( 1960's Italy )
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:15 am
Hey folks, this one belongs to a customer of mine who has a great collection of euro beauties ( he plays them too ) ...
i spent ages fiddling with the switches and repairing one of the pickups.
all the foam rubber cushioning in the switching bay had decayed as per usual, so the switches were free to travel too far and lose connection or pop up unexpectedly in mid-song like the ones on my eko 1100 bass )
sounds great now that we removed all of the 'tone shaping' caps and resistors that were in line with both pickups ( the neck pup was basically a 'bass guitar' tone ... not much use in a garage rock band, probably was a big his on the iatlo 60's accordian circuit )
we opted not to refret it, even tho the frets are tiny and banjo-ey ( these photos are from before the fretdressing ) i once saw a crucinelli guitar being refretted in a shop, the black acrylic fretboard fell apart into a lot of little pieces like a jigsaw puzzle once the frets were pulled ...
also the shrink wrap finish on the necks of these things can catch flash-fire if you buff them a little too hard
i've never done it personally - i stepped down the speed on my buffer when i saw this thing coming.
ducati factory caps.
and one of those elegant shaped trems that turn up on a million euro guitars, works quite well too ...
here she is all set up and polished ( and with a new little gold panel in the 'off switch' )
cheers, AP
i spent ages fiddling with the switches and repairing one of the pickups.
all the foam rubber cushioning in the switching bay had decayed as per usual, so the switches were free to travel too far and lose connection or pop up unexpectedly in mid-song like the ones on my eko 1100 bass )
sounds great now that we removed all of the 'tone shaping' caps and resistors that were in line with both pickups ( the neck pup was basically a 'bass guitar' tone ... not much use in a garage rock band, probably was a big his on the iatlo 60's accordian circuit )
we opted not to refret it, even tho the frets are tiny and banjo-ey ( these photos are from before the fretdressing ) i once saw a crucinelli guitar being refretted in a shop, the black acrylic fretboard fell apart into a lot of little pieces like a jigsaw puzzle once the frets were pulled ...
also the shrink wrap finish on the necks of these things can catch flash-fire if you buff them a little too hard
i've never done it personally - i stepped down the speed on my buffer when i saw this thing coming.
ducati factory caps.
and one of those elegant shaped trems that turn up on a million euro guitars, works quite well too ...
here she is all set up and polished ( and with a new little gold panel in the 'off switch' )
cheers, AP