1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild

Bringing your older offset back to life.
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mgeek
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1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild

Post by mgeek » Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:30 am

Hello! New member here, though I've been lurking a while...Here's a bit of an unusual offset I've been restoring...

I've been collecting Fenton Weill (UK manufacturer circa 60-65, related to Burns) stuff for five or so years now, and had quite a few different models pass through my hands. One I LOVED the shape of, but had barely seen, is the Super Streamline (example here http://www.wunjoguitars.com/shop/electr ... -early-60s )- made for maybe a year or two before the design was altered into the 'twinmaster' (same shape, but one less fret, a r/w fretboard, and 6/side headstock), so despite being a total wreck, when this showed up on Ebay, I had to give it a go. I'd estimate that less than 50 of these were made, and I know of 4, maybe 5 in total.

It arrived with a brushed on white finish, which when stripped, revealed a previous, black refinish that had been rotary sanded off, grinding the paint into the wood. mmm. And a terrible headstock repair that was stuck together with rubbery glue, and didn't line up properly. In addition the fretboard had some serious grooves around the 1-3 position.

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Much as I love Fenton Weill's, these were made in the early, early days of UK guitar manufacture, and despite lovely set necks, all sycamore (like maple) construction, and killer, hot pickups, the fretting was often terrible, intonation out, and being quite an early example, this was particularly bad. The 10th fret was actually wider than the 9th! As this was going to be a total rebuild, I decided to replace the fretboard. Note the glued/screwed method of neck join!

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I pulled the badly glued headstock apart. The reason it hadn't gone together properly was because it had been drilled out, and a metal bar that was just too big for the hole rammed in there. There were also signs that a metal plate had been screwed onto it as well!
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After spending ages picking off the rubbery stuff, I clamped it up with wood glue, and out of necessity (would have been a real easy fix with plenty of surface area if it hadn't have been bodged first time around) replaced the drilled out wood with a strip of maple.

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Onto the fretboard! £13 for a 25'' slotted one from ebay. I'd also by this point put in some elbow grease and mostly removed the swirls from the body, but it was so boring I alternated sanding with attending to the structural repairs. I also did a spot of filling where the rotary sanding monster had gone a bit deep. This revealed some pretty nice flame to the body. God knows why 'painting it black' seemed like a good idea. Luckily the contours/shape were basically intact, though I did end up filling a few gouges with epoxy

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Knowing the way this left the factory was with a 'burst' headstock (see example in link above), I decided to veneer both sides to hide the repair, and maybe add a little stability.

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After installing the dots (the original red ones, which I prodded out from the old board), here is where I was at.

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Was a bit slack taking photos at this point, but, having radiused the fretboard to a nice vintage 7.25 (originally it was VERY tight...3.5inches probably, which I felt was a little extreme, and more by cackhandedness/eye than design) I refretted. Remarkably, around this time I found an original, shape fitting case, with a Hofner V3 in it. It seems so unlikely, given how rare the guitar is, but I snagged that for a song, and turned a good profit on the Hofner, which paid for the fretboard/fretwire, veneer and paint, AND made the case be free! To put the rarity of the case in context, I know of one other, that I saw a picture of with another guitar in it, and mostly knew what I was looking at because I've seen several examples of the bass version in the same shaped (but bigger) case. None of the other few examples of this guitar I've seen has the case!

I also set about making a new 'secondary scratchplate' as the original had a crack. As these were individually made from 3mm red acrylic and the edges hand buffed, they are all different, so I didn't sweat too much over the non originality and got the shape pretty much exactly as it was anyway.

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Now...onto painting. I've felt my way through a couple of refrets before, but I'm very much an amateur, so this was a bit daunting. After overthinking for ages, I just bought some nitro spray cans and went for it. Fenton Weill finishes were occasionally a bit rum (I've had some with significant runs etc), so with the motto 'what would weill do? in my head, I dived in. The burst isn't exactly the same width all the way round, but it's not a total disaster, so I'm happy

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And that's where I'm at now! Despite some severe blushing from far, far too heavy coats, which seemed to sort itself out when I shot more later, I'm nearly there. Waiting on one more can of clear as 3 wasn't enough for body, fretboard and neck, then the sanding begins.
Last edited by mgeek on Sun Apr 09, 2017 2:46 am, edited 11 times in total.

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mackerelmint
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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by mackerelmint » Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:45 am

That's a truly weird and cool guitar. Nice job with that!
This is an excellent rectangle

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thisisnickpaige
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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by thisisnickpaige » Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:47 am

Dang dude, don't over think it, that came out great! Beautiful job, mate. I've never even seen this guitar before; were they popular or one of those out of the ashes current favourites?
Jesus

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Pacafeliz
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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by Pacafeliz » Wed Mar 19, 2014 12:02 pm

wow man... RESPECT!!!
:-* :?
i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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mgeek
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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by mgeek » Wed Mar 19, 2014 12:05 pm

Thanks dudes!

Nick- they were never particularly popular, even in the UK. They seem to have spread themselves quite thin, both in distribution (small number of instruments, all over the world) and in that they had loads of different designs, but turned out relatively few guitars. Lots of excellent shapes- the dualmaster, triplemaster and twistmaster also offsets.

I ssometimes wonder if they ever managed to make two of the same model, the same. Note the one in the link has a trem and a side mounted jack socket, vs my non trem, scratchplate mounted version. A friend has another project that had a DIFFERENT type of trem, from the factory.

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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by Toots » Thu Mar 20, 2014 1:07 pm

Love this! :-*
Nice work.
I have heard good things about those pickups. Never tried them myself, but Adeson makes a repro that is supposed to be very nice. This reminds me I should buy a set.

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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by Sound for Sandwiches » Thu Mar 20, 2014 1:33 pm

I dig it. I am always glad to see someone bring an obscure guitar back from the dead.

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mgeek
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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by mgeek » Thu Mar 20, 2014 3:52 pm

Thanks again dudes...
Toots wrote:
I have heard good things about those pickups. Never tried them myself, but Adeson makes a repro that is supposed to be very nice.
Yeah, the pickups are super...10k+ each, and very warm and loud. Haven't tried the adesons, but they look to be identical, albeit with a more sensible fitting.

I reckon a set would work brilliantly in a Fender project- maybe add a little power and tame some brightness. I've daydreamed about an MJT bound sunburst body with these in before...and a nice fat neck. mmmm

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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by mgeek » Fri Mar 21, 2014 6:10 am

Ooh- I forgot to mention, this is actually a bit of a 'none more offset', in that it has an offset NECK profile

It's hard to photograph, but essentially it's a narrow V shape, with the deepest part of the neck under the 'A' string, rather than the D/G, so there's quite a steep angle, followed by a smoother one on the treble side. Sounds odd, but actually feels really good!

Quite a few early Burns Weill, Fenton Weill and Burns guitars used this...featured heavily in their advertising as a selling point.

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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by brudy » Sat Mar 05, 2016 8:37 am

Sorry for bumping this old thread but I've become obsessed with these guitars and just wanted to say how awesome this one looks. I've never seen one in real life or even for sale online.

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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by mgeek » Sat Mar 05, 2016 8:51 am

Check this guuuy out- super mint!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Fento ... 0OIR1OWB0w" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

But note the fret positioning!

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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by foot » Sat Mar 05, 2016 2:00 pm

That is an amazing guitar, and your resurrection doubly so! Would love to hear it!

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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by mgeek » Sun Mar 06, 2016 5:44 am

foot wrote:That is an amazing guitar, and your resurrection doubly so! Would love to hear it!

It's an interesting prospect, soundwise. The pickups are 10K or so and there's not a lot of 'top', plus the 'wooden bridge resting on the plastic scratchplate' setup means that in all honesty, I can't say any of the usual positive things people say about resonance or sustain. That said, I switched between a tele and this into a '61 Ampeg Reverberocket, and the tele sounded like a clanky toy. Deffo a worthy addition to the tonal palette of my guitar stash.

My favourite thing is to stick it into my colorsound powerboost on set to kill and rolling back the guitar volume a bit. Suuuuper nasty and all the bite you need, but if you increase the volume back up to full it really thickens up again.

I just got a uk Vox Phantom (all about the English guitars, me) and I feel like there is zero crossover in their tonal range! This is all warmth and low-mid and that's all trebly clank.

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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by littlericky » Sun Mar 06, 2016 8:02 am

Incredible restoration on the neck, and the whole guitar. Between the break, nasty original repair and fretboard I would have thrown in the towel.

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Re: 1961 Fenton Weill Super Streamline rebuild (pic heavy)

Post by Andyforme » Sat May 14, 2016 12:41 pm

I have a 1962 Fenton Weill twinmaster which I have owned since 1990. Basically its just a piece of wood. I had the trem but it has gone missing over the years. I would like to restore it so if any of you out there have any parts for one of these, I would be interested in buying them from you. By the way. That's a great restoration.

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