I picked this up on CL from a nice gentleman who is a former OSG member. He did quite a few mods that include Ken Rose pickups (hb in the neck & single coil in the bridge), Golden Age tremolo, Mustang bridge, mint pickguard, GFS XGP paddle neck that he shaped & routed the head stock, roller string trees, & modern tuners with vintage style tuner keys. What’s left is from a SQVMJM. He also threw in a DiPinto gig bag & the original SQVMJM neck. I ended up using that neck for another project. It’s a whole lot of guitar for his asking price of half that of a new SQVMJM.
My idle hands couldn’t leave it be. I reversed the pickups configuration & cleaned up the wiring & resoldered as necessary. I had an extra black pickup cover, so I swapped the cream one that was on the single coil. I ordered a black cover for the humbucker through Ken Rose, but he ghosted after I payed. Anyways, the skirted knobs & switch tip are from a JM Blacktop & I changed the mint guard for a white one that I had lying around.
The Golden Age trem lock button wouldn’t engage (common with these models) so I filed a longer slot path. The Mustang bridge isn’t for a 9.5” radius, so I filled the saddle slots in conjunction with a radius gauge. While I had the files out I filed the terribly sharp fret ends of the neck. I then gave the fingerboard a mild roll & put on Jockomo fret markers while I was at it. The markers are aged white pearl & look too green for my liking. I’ll swap them out for regular white pearl at some point. The headstock face was unfinished wood with the white stripe along the lower route, so I painted it black & shot clear over it & the white. I have to say the previous owner did some pretty good woodworking skills on the head stock. He also put a thin coat of oil of some sort over the back of the neck. It has a very nice, yet smooth “primitive” feel.
After everything was done I gave it a full set up with D’addario NYXL 12’s & slapped on some Twin Peaks stickers. Lynchmaster?
