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70s Cimar StarXplorer


JGravelin

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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. :)

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Cool that you got the Cimar, Josh. I wouldn't FR it, If I were you. Keeping it original is easy to do, even adding a new pickguard with a neck pickup, and no-drill tuners like Hipshot Griploks. You can add quailty hardware/electronic upgrades without cutting up the guitar, while stowing the originals away. That's just my thing, these days

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22 minutes ago, JGravelin said:

Or maybe just locking tuners and make sure I keep the nut slippery?

I like unflavored ChapStick on string trees, nut, and all points of contact, including: claw, springs, block, trem-arm threads, etc. 

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Congrats on getting the guitar. Thanks for checking the gear out for us. I concur....leave it original. I also use chapstick on friction points or powdered graphite mixed with Vaseline or diver’s grease. 

Please post pics when the project is done!

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