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Almost done. I picked up the last piece I need this morning - a little round spacer to hold up the headstock string retainer. I'll get that polished up tonight so I can wrap this one up. Even with a rough setup, I can tell this is a real gem of a guitar. The weight is a pleasant 7lbs 10oz.

These pickups are sounding really great to me, similar to the ones in my vintage Domino Olympic (long magnets and a big coil with a metal shield plate), really responsive to playing dynamics, and begging you to dig in harder.

They are great at surf sounds, with a ton of spring reverb. Splatty fuzz and my Rat are awesome too!

I found a vintage Soviet enameled pin, commemorating the Mars 2 and 3 launches, on ebay for $5. At first, I though I might attach it to the headstock, but the backing of the pin would make that hard. I'll probably pin it to the strap though (which is going to be a custom Couch) and might borrow from this artwork for a headstock decal for future builds.



Also, I thought I'd paste this snippet about the Mars 2 lander, from Wikipedia:

The descent module separated from the orbiter on 27 November 1971 about 4.5 hours before reaching Mars. After entering the atmosphere at approximately 6 km/s, the descent system on the module malfunctioned, possibly because the angle of entry was too steep. The descent sequence did not operate as planned and the parachute did not deploy.[4] The descent module became the first man-made object to impact the surface of Mars. The exact crash site is unknown, but it is estimated to be at 45°S 313°W.[3][5] Attempts to contact the probe after the crash were unsuccessful.

You must be feeling pretty good about this guitar!
It's got me thinking now- I've always wished my '66 SG2 had JM pickups, but wouldn't dream of cutting it up. Maybe just do what you've done, with suitable pickup routing and a variety of pickguards for trialing different pickups.
Those pickups of yours- I've only ever heard them in Teiscos with their shorter scale, I'll bet they're great with your 25.5" scale.
What's that slider switch doing btw?

antisymmetric wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 30, 2023 3:08 pm

You must be feeling pretty good about this guitar!
It's got me thinking now- I've always wished my '66 SG2 had JM pickups, but wouldn't dream of cutting it up. Maybe just do what you've done, with suitable pickup routing and a variety of pickguards for trialing different pickups.
Those pickups of yours- I've only ever heard them in Teiscos with their shorter scale, I'll bet they're great with your 25.5" scale.
What's that slider switch doing btw?

Thanks! I'm feeling great about this guitar!
The slider is a series switch (diagram below for reference), in this case, "master" means it will go into series mode, regardless of how the lower toggle is set, so there are no dead spots. Other than that, the wiring was pretty standard. I couldn't find a clear answer on the pots used in the old Teisco models, some seemed to be pretty low though (150k!). I'd rather have more "open" pots and just turn them down to taste, so I used 500k.

Pretty sure I put 500k in my ET460 and they sound just right to me. It will be interesting to see how yours sound in series, if they're anything like mine (around 7k IIRC) they should push your amp pretty hard!

I think this is probably my favourite among all your builds, and that's saying something, because I love all of them.

That's the kind of guitar I could get lost staring at on a stand for ages before remembering to pick it up.

ThePearDream wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 30, 2023 5:59 am

I found a vintage Soviet enameled pin, commemorating the Mars 2 and 3 launches, on ebay for $5. At first, I though I might attach it to the headstock, but the backing of the pin would make that hard. I'll probably pin it to the strap though (which is going to be a custom Couch) and might borrow from this artwork for a headstock decal for future builds.



Also, I thought I'd paste this snippet about the Mars 2 lander, from Wikipedia:

The descent module separated from the orbiter on 27 November 1971 about 4.5 hours before reaching Mars. After entering the atmosphere at approximately 6 km/s, the descent system on the module malfunctioned, possibly because the angle of entry was too steep. The descent sequence did not operate as planned and the parachute did not deploy.[4] The descent module became the first man-made object to impact the surface of Mars. The exact crash site is unknown, but it is estimated to be at 45°S 313°W.[3][5] Attempts to contact the probe after the crash were unsuccessful.

Wouldn't the pin fit on the headstock if you drill a hole for the pin itself (and then maybe glue it on)? Or is there some extra stuff back there?

bodhi wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 02, 2023 9:39 am

ThePearDream wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 30, 2023 5:59 am

I found a vintage Soviet enameled pin, commemorating the Mars 2 and 3 launches, on ebay for $5. At first, I though I might attach it to the headstock, but the backing of the pin would make that hard. I'll probably pin it to the strap though (which is going to be a custom Couch) and might borrow from this artwork for a headstock decal for future builds.



Also, I thought I'd paste this snippet about the Mars 2 lander, from Wikipedia:

The descent module separated from the orbiter on 27 November 1971 about 4.5 hours before reaching Mars. After entering the atmosphere at approximately 6 km/s, the descent system on the module malfunctioned, possibly because the angle of entry was too steep. The descent sequence did not operate as planned and the parachute did not deploy.[4] The descent module became the first man-made object to impact the surface of Mars. The exact crash site is unknown, but it is estimated to be at 45°S 313°W.[3][5] Attempts to contact the probe after the crash were unsuccessful.

Wouldn't the pin fit on the headstock if you drill a hole for the pin itself (and then maybe glue it on)? Or is there some extra stuff back there?

There's a lot more going on on the back, than you'd think. It's not a simple pinback, It's closer to a safety pin, but more Soviet, with a bulgy part holding the pin. I'd have to drill multiple holes of different sizes. There's too much risk of making a mistake, and no functional benefit.

... and my custom Couch strap is here. That was super fast. Black Galaxy Sparkle RacerX with black stripe, kind of surprised they didn't already make this combo.

So, when I was finishing this one up, it was when the site wasn't working very well. So I held off on posting final pictures of this one. I'm happy to share these pics now though.

This has quickly become a go-to guitar, and I have no plans to part with this one anytime soon. I absolutely love the color too (thanks to copaceticcustoms)! The Mastery bridge and vibrato were a bit of a splurge, but since I got the pickups for a good price, made the body and neck myself, and the finish was through a labor swap, for making a XII body/guard. In any event, I think the fixed Mastery bridge is a more appropriate substitute for the roller bridge on the original. I'm a big fan of the pickups too, they are great for surf-garage-psych-fuzz stuff.

Enjoy the pics and thanks for following along on this build.

Beautiful, stunning, gorgeous, marvelous. Well done Sir.

Cool. Nicely done.

Oh man I don't know what it is, but purple and space go so well together

this guitar is so hot. great job

I love it, well done!