Pseudo Reed Smith - A Private Turkey Stock Story

Draconomics

Fearless Papa of The Brethren of the Crust
Joined
May 27, 2020
Messages
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Location
The Lonely Mountain
So...normally I dont go on Craigslist for guitars anymore. All thats ever on there is Esteban Cardboard Models. It sucks. So I was on there Tuesday, looking for a freezer, then figured Ill search for guitar stuff, just for the disappointment. Well....I found this....
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What is this frickin thing? It appears to be a PRS style build from an mythological luthier. Heres the story: The dude put this together, used a black walnut cap, a two peice Honduran Mahogany body, one peice curly Maple neck, and Birdseye Maple fretboard. Nice woods! I'm really fond of Black Walnut. He made this probably fifteen years ago. He was leaving Cali and unloaded anything he had on Ebay. It was bought by a guy who I guess tried to mod it...badly. It looks like he tried to put in some carves, especially under the bridge. It made its way to another dude who had it in a closet for ten years, who wanted to finish it but didn't have the means or time. I traded a pickup for it. Suffice to say, it was worth the risk.

So, what is the status? Eh...defcon 3. The horn carve and a rout under the bridge look like a Boy Scout carved em with a spoon. That'll need sculpting. Next, the headstock is missing its veneer...and about a 1/4" of material. Humbucker routs are too small. Neck needs reshaping. It feels like a D shape wide-fat, but has a divot just above the heel. On the fretboard, buddy had a grand ol time with a wood burner. Ugh...frets are ok, but ends are sharp, and a couple are lifting, and need to be leveled. Finally, she has a backbow and the rod is totally loose.

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Woodburning is fun, but leave it to the artistically adept next time.

The good news, the truss rod does work. I made a washer and used a jam nut to test it. She seems to be a one way, which boggle my mind....why blow your cash on all these high end woods just to stick a one way rod in there? Considering that, seeing as that the neck's natural relaxed shape is a backbow, this is not good. However, we have the technology to save the patient. I performed a heat press and it looks like with that and tuning it up to F overnight, we got relief back. Thats a great sign. This Turkey might just fly.

I'll return here every so often and keep you posted. I think we can save her.
 
looks like everything was carved free handed. No templates were harmed in the making of this thing! But totally cool project!
 
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