JGravelin

I'm swamped with pickup work right now but will attempt to snap a few pics tomorrow if the sun is out. A bleak, cloudy day today here in MN - hopefully tomorrow is nicer so I can get some good natural light!

I'm with you on this Rob. It's easy to get a new pickguard made, stowing all the original bits away is no problem and easy to put it all back should I ever sell it. A funky machine, for sure!

OK so: super nice guy and cool dude! Nearly all of the gear he had was bass stuff with only a few guitars: 2 old single pickup Checkmate guitars (one of which he decided he didn't want to sell) and a Teisco Tulip. The bass gear was pretty cool however: Kustom 200 Bass head with matching 18" and 15" cab, an Acoustic folded horn 15" cab, some super old Peaveys (one of which is a 250 and I like those! may purchase next week), a 50w Checkmate all-tube head with matching 2-15" cab (guitar and bass sounded great through it but that cab is a beast, a transistor Univox bass combo w/ a 15" and a horn ...and a really nice collection of 60's and 70's stereo equipment: amplifiers, receivers, turntables, speakers- pretty cool! He also showed me a super cherry Datsun 300 Convertible in his garage: pelham blue, chromed out, pristine interior - if money only grew on trees. The Cimar is mine and I'm pleased with it. I polished the frets, new strings, straightened the neck out, cleaned the electronics, got an "in the ballpark" intonation/setup going but I want to wait for the truss rod adjustments to settle in before I take it further. Nice neck! A modern F-style with a slight V to it. Zero fret wear. The pickup is as I suspected: a Maxon Distortion. These are almost identical in the mechanical build to the DiMarzio Super D but wound to around 11.8k which is pretty bright and the upper mids are grainy, spitty, and just unpleasant. Easy to change that! The trem is a vintage type USA Fender strat style, massive steel block, brass saddles - arm was missing but a USA Fender one fits perfectly. It's fun to play, lighter side of medium in weight, comfy sitting or standing, and looks pretty nifty! A Floyd Rose, yes. Or maybe just locking tuners and make sure I keep the nut slippery? Something to think on. It's also routed for a neck position humbucker under the pickguard and I'm thinking a set with my buffed raw nickel silver covers on them would look great - or double whites! New pots, a good cap, new output jack while I'm in there too. A fun project/player and with the case included for 2 bills? I had to have it.

Yes they do kick ass - cranked, tone on 10, full-on wailing ...hard to beat!

I will report back!

Jake, you got it!

Rob, any specific models you're lusting after? I'm going to bring a pocket full of hex wrenches, small screwdrivers, a multimeter, and for the guitars and amps that have promise I will test and adjust and see what's got legs.

Just got off the phone with the guy. He's a life-long musician, early 70s, recently retired from the music industry, legit player - has boatloads of cool vintage weirdo amps and guitars and tomorrow at noon I'm going to go see what's up. Teiscos, Kay, Checkmate, Alamo, and more. Sleepers. Apparently he's got lots of stuff to get rid of and if any of you are interested in specific things, let me know and I'll keep my eyes peeled. I have a feeling that this might be the best $200 I've ever spent in my life.

Early or Pre Ibanez, yep. I couldn't contain myself and sent a text as he requested in the post so we'll see how this plays out.

I have a hard time saying no to oddball guitars and basses, I know that some of the 70s Japanese models are flatout killer, am daydreaming of Floyd'ing this...gawd help me.

On CL, just down the road from me, great price, likely the Maxon Super D clone pickup, trem... after a fret level/dress and full set up, my thoughts are that this would be a wicked rawk machine. Who's got experience with these? Tell me all about it! Do it? Don't do it? https://mankato.craigslist.org/msg/d/medford-vintage-70s-cimar-japanese/6961634644.html

One of my all time favorite bands. Chris Bells one and only solo record is pretty excellent too.

I will second aknapp on this regarding the the Guitar Fetish blocks - good stuff! I installed one my '89 USA Std Strat and it absolutely made a noticeable difference for the better: bass became tighter, mids more complex and detailed, the "ping!" i heard in the treble frequencies disappeared and it seemed like there was a wider range of tones available that weren't there before along with improved sustain. Additionally, I've suggested and installed these for a few local strat-wieldng customers (both USA and MIM models) and they too were quite impressed and pleased with improvement in sound. I've never tried one of the Callaham blocks but I can imagine those would yield very similar if not slightly better results. PS: learning new licks is good regardless!

The Fralin design is interesting in that it's a "sidewinder" style -- but I've never actually heard one or a set of these in person! I've already sourced the parts for these and could easily do them but I'd like to hear a set cranked and play 'em for a while first. Those Kinmans tho ...just killer...and THAT is what I'm going for.

I'm working on it and Kinman is the one to match or beat if I'm to have any success. So yeah, like Gabe said...