NGD: Late 60s Musima Record 17 (hand carved archtop goodness)

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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Kinx
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NGD: Late 60s Musima Record 17 (hand carved archtop goodness)

Post by Kinx » Wed Sep 01, 2021 2:38 am

I stumbled upon this beat up east german beauty in local classifieds, couldn't help it and bought it as a birthday project - since it had strings on it, I figured out it has to be structually ok to some degree. The price was nice enough to pass up too.

I've never had an hand carved archtop, so I went with it.

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My biggest worry was the inch long crack in the top between pickup cavities, but my tech told me it's an easy fix for him, so I went with it.
These guitars were probably the highest end electric guitars made in eastern bloc back in the day - hand carved, solid spruce top and solid maple back and sides, maple neck with ebony fingerboard, truss rod (usually uncommon on vintage german archtops), the works.

couple of weeks later, tadaa - I wasn't expecting much, but it really blew my mind.

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I was never into the "quilt" and bookmatching, but the wood used here is really stunning.

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check out the original warning sticker (something along the lines of "don't plug this device into wall outlet")

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The middle pickup cavity was unfortunately added by some overenthusiastic hobbyist, luckily it didn't go too deep so the main brace of the top is pretty much intact (the top is about 1cm thick on the average and doesn't have other bracing than the center support beam visible underneath the pickup routes).

interestingly, this guitar has bolted neck construction! the neck is attached via two big flathead screws and doesn't have any baseplate. We added some washers to provide better force distribution and shimmed the hell out of the neck.

It got new nut, frets, gotoh floating TOM bridge and a custom wound vintage style p90 measuring around 5.6k from local pickup maker (Dronski pickups, check him out, he does awesome stuff), the middle and neck p90s are fake to cover the cavities ;D and IT SCREAMS. I'm going to do some video demos on the end of the week, I am really surprised how good it sounds both unplugged and plugged. Despite the relative shallow body depth (it is about an 1cm thicker than a regular les paul), it is very loud acustically and somehow prone to feedback, but usable even on stage volume. Loads of harmonic content I could never get out of solidbodies. It is really solid and feels well made, I just wish I could find a decent case that would fit :))

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I really have to give props to Wolf Guitars, who did amazing job on this one. https://www.instagram.com/thewolfguitars/
Check out my band, The Atavists ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG-HZtrljMg

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noisepunk
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Re: NGD: Late 60s Musima Record 17 (hand carved archtop goodness)

Post by noisepunk » Wed Sep 01, 2021 8:51 am

wowee, what a looker!

i miss the look of the original pickups (especially the bridge pickup–i think the p90 is a bit close to the sound holes) and bridge, but it has kind of a punk look to it that i appreciate. i almost think you should remove the dummy pickups, and either just leave them open or put a nice sticker over them. on the other hand though it kind of looks like an alternate-dimension gretsch as is.

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