T100 Adventures

jcwu

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I have completed my quest for a '57 T100. In the process of fulfilling the quest, I, um, ended up with an extra T100, from '58. I decided that I would keep the '57 pristine and original, and the '58... well, since it was well loved, I decided to love it some more.

I didn't document the process, because I was too excited, but I did work slowly and surely. By the time I stopped to take photos, I'd done most of the work (including regluing a peeling headstock veneer and bindings that were coming off in several spots). One thing I can say - these guys are built a lot tougher than I thought. That laminated top can take quite a beating!

Here I'm gluing some extra support to the brace, since I had to cut into it to make room for the bridge pickup. When I'm done, it'll have the original Franz P90 along with an HB-1.:
T100CutPaste.jpg



Here's the pickup route (I had to take a bit more material out to make room for the pickup, the route is deeper into the brace than this photo shows; that first pencil mark is for the pickup support depth, the second line is the pickup screw depth):
T100PickupRoute.jpg


With a Bigsby, just to see what it'll look like (and taped so I can draw where the extra holes for bridge volume/tone pots and pickup selector will go):
T100Bigsby.jpg

It's sitting nice and snug in an Epiphone Dot/ES case. Thanks for the confirmation, zizala!

Now here's something weird I found.. the wood used for the guitar seems to have some print material imprinted into it. Here's a stamp on one section of the back:
T100Imprint.jpg


And here's some more text imprinted:
T100Imprint2.jpg


Feels like I'm taking a peek back in time. Wonder what those imprints came from.

On the piece of the top that I cut out for the pickup, there's some smaller fine print. When I get a chance I'll photograph that too and post it.
 
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jcwu

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That is really cool! I love those old guitars and really like the work that you are doing!
Thank you, Keith! I'm discovering these Hoboken guitars myself! So... light and yet resonant. I've not played anything like them before.

Is that ruboff from newsprint? That last one says "open every evening".

Yes, I think it might be newsprint. Here's the imprint from the piece of the top I cut out:
T100Writing.jpg


And here it is flipped and with added contrast for readbility:
T100WritingFlip.jpg


I finished taking out the pickup route down to the right depth, and added a hole for the height adjustment screw to fit into:
T100RouteDone.jpg


And here's a preview with a pickup selector switch from the '70s:
T100PickupSwitch.jpg


The project is coming along slowly. Waiting for some wiring to arrive so I can rewire the harness, and start sticking things where they belong. Can't wait!
 

walrus

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Very interesting post - thanks! I have no skills at all to be doing anything like this, so it is very mpressive to me!

walrus
 

jcwu

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The only wood work I've done was taking a woodshop class in middle school, and building a farm-table style dining table a few years ago. Mostly rough work. I've discovered I'm terrible at detailed work, and I tend to rush.

So this time, I forced myself to go slow and easy. Anyways, the work itself is an enjoyable part of the process, so if it takes longer, I get to have more fun, right?

I do have a router, but didn't know how to make a router guide, so I actually didn't use a router. What I did for the pickup cutout was trace the cutout on my CE100, sketch it on the T100, carefully score through the finish using an xacto knife and a hard straight edge on the straight parts. Then I used the xacto knife and slowly traced over the cut until I had a groove going, then cut through just enough to fit a small saw blade, and hand-cut the rest of the straight parts. The rounded parts I used an appropriately sized Forstner bit to get the curve.

For digging into the brace, a router would've worked best and be most precise, but like I said, I don't know how to build a guide, so I opted instead for a grinder bit with my dremel, and just slowly worked away at it. This is one of my favorite aspects of woodworking - sanding and grinding away at the wood to shape and form it. Of course, a little too much pressure and you take away too much wood, so I had to remind myself to go slow.

It helped that I did most of this while watching TV with my wife - slowed down my tendency to want to rush.

I could never, ever do it to a vintage guitar.

I thought long and hard about taking on this project. I know there are folks that would cringe at the thought of cutting up an old instrument like this, but.. well. What can I say? It's already done. I think it helped knowing that the T100 was a cheaper guitar back in the day, so it's not like I'm taking a Johnny Smith out of circulation or something. :)
 

jcwu

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When I get the chance, I like to peek inside my guitars. This is the first time I've gotten intimate with a hollowbody, and with the electronics out, you can get a pretty good peek inside. Taken from the output jack hole with phone camera, two photos stitched together:

t100peek-ltg.jpg


You can see the huge chunk of balsa I glued to the brace to reinforce it. I probably didn't need something so thick, but I was too lazy to shave it down. So there it is, kind of ugly, but I hope it does its job!

And... a video to go with it!

 
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cc_mac

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This is a cool thread! I like the work you're doing here and can't wait to see how it turns out. The pics and video and very informative.

As for the newsprint on the inside of the laminate top - would a piece of newspaper be used between the bottom of the mold and the laminate wood and if so why? Was there heat involved in the pressing of the tops and backs?
 
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Heat? I believe so. You have to heat the sides to bend them, so I would expect a back would need it too.
 

jcwu

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Chris, yes, I'm thinking along the same lines, newspapers that were used to line the wood, left their print. I'd love to see what other peoples guitars have imprinted!

Here's another innie-shot, from a F4CE, shot through where the barndoor preamp used to be (I removed the preamp, instant sound port!):

PeekaGuild.jpg
 

krysh

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great thread, I'd love to hear some sound samples from the "new" T-100. :wink-new:
 

walrus

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Those pics are great! I assume you cleaned the inside first? It seems awfully clean in there...

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jcwu

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walrus, no, I didn't clean the insides... the F4CE did have a little ball of fuzz that came out easily, but other than that, both guitars were pretty clean!

An update! Last night I finally had some time to sit down and solder up the harness and get the electronics loaded up into the guitar. Here's the whole assembly all tubed up, ready to load:

T100Tubes.jpg


I'm sharing a workspace with my son's stop-motion Lego project:

T100Lego.jpg


Here we go, it's like stuffing a turkey:

T100Stuffing.jpg

One good thing about using the stiffer wiring is that the pots don't go floppy everywhere. It actually made things a little easier.

Who needs fancy schmancy tools for mounting the output jack?? The dowel (leftover from when I had to plug up and relocate the mounting holes on my strat neck) came in handy:
T100Jack.jpg


Everything finally mounted!
T100PotsMounted.jpg


At this point, I just want to take a break to say that the phase switch was by far the biggest pain in the behind to get in. First, I had the hardest time getting the aquarium tubing to fit over it. And then I didn't account for the tubing increasing the diameter of the shaft, so I couldn't get the assembly through the hole I'd drilled. So I decide to pull off the tubing, but since the tubing was so tight, when I pulled, the tubing broke, leaving the part on the thread... but I didn't know this. So now the shaft is too large, and can't fit through the hole - which is odd, because I'd checked and double checked the size before I drilled. I finally went out to the garage and re-drilled the hole a little bigger. Of course, I violated the one rule I told my wife I'd learned with woodworking - NEVER rush. I rushed, and ended up chipping the wood around the hole a little bit. THEN once I get the assembly up through the hole, I discover the washer and nut can't fit on it anymore. I guess my eyes are bad, I didn't see the remains of the tubing, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why the washer and nut had shrunk. I was so puzzled!!! I finally realized the problem, got out my xacto knife and cut off the excess tubing, and of course now I have a hole that's just a little bigger than it needs to be, and slight chipping that goes beyond the washer. Live and learn! (I now wish I hadn't installed the phase switch...)

OK, back to our story. I tried to solder the ground wire to the Bigsby, but I just can't get the solder to stick. I end up just settling with mashing the ground wire between the Bigsby and the body. But hooray for a Guild Bigsby I found on eBay! These things aren't easy to mount straight.
T100Bigsby2.jpg


And here it is, almost all done. Pardon the Gibson bits - it's what I have on hand to use for now:
T100Almost.jpg
 

cc_mac

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JCWU,

Looking good so far! THe aquarium tubing stuck to the phase switch is a classic "me" move. Glad you were able to work past that. I'm wondering about the ground wire. On my Starfire IV the ground wire came through the body by the strap button screw hole and was simply stuck between the body and the tailpiece. Where was the ground wire originally run on your T100? When I added a Bigsby I kept it the same way. Can't tell from the pics but what kind of bridge and base are you going with for this? Any updates since last week?

Edit - found a pic from Bigsby install showing location of ground wire exiting the side where the tailpiece mounts to the body.

 
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jcwu

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Chris, the location of the ground wire was exactly where yours is, except that it was soldered to the original tailpiece. I ended up leaving it like you did, just wedged between the wood and Bigsby, because I remembered seeing several instances where the ground wire wasn't soldered in place, but as long as it makes contact with the metal, it's serving its purpose.

I ended up using a tuneomatic bridge with graphtech saddles. The base is similar to the kind found on my CE-100D (original thread asking about that base can be found here), it was basically described as a "Airline Supro National Valco" bridge. Two round metal feet that I secured in place with thin double-sided tape.

As with all things, real life kind of took over, so I haven't posted updates, but the beast is completed, as far as being a functional guitar is concerned. I'll post photo updates after the weekend.
 

jcwu

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As with all things, real life kind of took over, so I haven't posted updates, but the beast is completed, as far as being a functional guitar is concerned. I'll post photo updates after the weekend.

Aaaaaaaand.... 19 months later, I'm posting an update! Boy, that was a long weekend.

I took the beast in for a fret cleaning, and boy, what a difference it makes! The frets are nice and smooth now, all rust is gone. I think I identified my problem with playing this guitar - the frets are really low. But I'm getting used to it!

Here it is, nice and polished:

T100Frets.jpg


I also asked the tech to check out the bridge - turns out one of the strings was sitting lower than the rest, so he fixed things up, now everything's radius'ed just right:

T100Radius.jpg


Next update will probably be sometime in early 2017! :)
 

Guildedagain

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Great stuff, it's nice to see somebody be handy with their instruments, to me it's part of the music process, including the mistakes we make...

I have an "old 335" that came from the Bay area years ago, someone had put Seth Lovers in it, with a push pull on the neck p'up tone knob to split that pickup, makes the guitar so versatile... every single guitar with an LP style p'up configuration should have it, but sadly none of mine do, except for that one.

Looking forward to your next installment ;-)

PS You're right about those feet, I have them on my 1960 ish Supro "Silverburst", albeit in Gold ;-)
 
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