NGD: Early 70s Concert Jag kinda thing (oh sure yeah I need another one)

[MattK]

Many will remember forum member sleepkid and his Electric Deer Guitarworks based in Japan. Well, last week I was in Tokyo for work, and caught the train heading north for about an hour to go visit his place. He took me to lunch with his hilarious daughter and then I visited the Electric Deer works itself, in a special workshop at his home. Let's just say my mind was blown - the amount of boutique, historic and beautiful-sounding gear was just too much to take in. Sleeper tube amps from Teisco in the 60s, Royal Super Bunny artillery-grade lead and bass amps, Voice, Mory, Guyatone ... even the last-ever Voice amp customised by Saito himself to my host's request - after a series of interviews preserving his story, amid the muddy history of Japanese guitar making from the big companies down to the individuals winding pickups in their kitchens. Oh and sleepkid plays as well as he restores things, so it was a bit of an eye opener when he fired up the Voice (Singing Electric) through an old Teisco cab and let rip on a handy Mory.
Being the guy he is, he had even saved me a bit of a lost cause guitar: a pretty 70s offset from the era when Kawai were buying up parts stock from Teisco and others, slapping them together into instruments and throwing them out the door. This Concert is going to stretch my limited skills but it'll be worth it I hope.



So far I've used the aluminium foil trick to polish the chrome parts - for those of you who haven't seen it, crumple a small wad of aluminium foil and wet it with a little water. It will scrub corrosion away with the greatest of ease and leave the chrome polished, and can't scratch it either. Apparently the scrubbing exposes fresh aluminium which the water oxidises, forming the finest Al2O3 polishing grit.




Next: the bridge, which is hanging the strings up around 6mm above the fretboard despite a hefty shim. I have a tune-o-matic / ABR bridge from the Jag I bought last year, I think a solution is forming.

[MattK]

It just occurred to me that this is about the perfect Jag-Stang shape, although the scale is 25" (or maybe 24.75").

[sal paradise]

That’s a damn fine looking guitar. Look forward to seeing your progress on this.

[Nudger]

Next: the bridge, which is hanging the strings up around 6mm above the fretboard despite a hefty shim. I have a tune-o-matic / ABR bridge from the Jag I bought last year, I think a solution is forming.

Firstly, thanks for the chrome restoration tip!

Regarding the bridge, maybe you could file a mm or two off the underside..

[antisymmetric]

Very cool to have met sleepkid and visited his workshop! I have at least one guitar that came from him (indirectly), maybe two.
I love seeing these obscure mutant Japanese models, that Concert looks great, plus it has the square pole pickups. Great score, I'm sure you'll get it sorted.
Edit: A lower bridge, or reduce the height of the existing one, as Nudger suggested. Maybe an even more massive shim- I have a guitar from the same time and place which I believe to be a mashup of Teisco body and a neck from something else. It was sent out the door with ridiculous action, I had to make an enormous shim, it's just what had to be done to make the mismatched parts work together. Goes with the territory...

[ludobag1]

pretty nice ,at this time i have sérious gas for old Japan guitar ,teisco ,kawai and others du to the book history of japanese electric guitar
i lurk an old kawai mayfair that i find the body trop cool
thanks for the foils tricks ,don't know and will be usable

how sound the pups ? i love their look

for your trouble instead of an angled shim ,made a false heal as size in mapple or( mahogany ?) and put it between the neck and body if you varnish(or paint it like body color ) it it will be less visible and totally reversible instead of bridge change or mod ,if you have 6mm height at bridge a 5 mm thick can do the tricks and if you haven't maple some plywood can be easy find to temporary help

[marqueemoon]

What a great body shape. Good luck with the project.

[MattK]

Thanks all - agree on the body shape, it's worth fighting for!
The bridge is one of those crystalline plastics with preset intonation. Having measured 2mm excess action height (roughly) at the 12th fret, I could achieve the right string drop by shaving the bridge down 4mm, and being 10mm tall I could do that without wrecking it. However a few months ago I bought a cheap parlor guitar missing a bridge and thought this one might let me fix that, while the ABR or maybe a roller bridge would give me a better shot at getting this intonated correctly.
I'm still thinking it through. I have a belt sander which will make the shave-down easy to do, but would I be wrecking a part that might save another project? I'm going to think about it for a little while before I have time to get back to the bench.

[Fiddy]

Cool tip with the foil wrap, awesome guitar. Sounds like you had a fun trip.

Im thinking of going back in October.

If you can get your work to send you there then, we can go cool guitar hunting.

We got fairly similar guitar taste i think...

[MattK]

We sure do! I will be trying to get back there later in the year because my daughter has an exchange in Nagoya coming up. No idea how that will play out yet but I will keep it in mind.

[Nudger]

ABR or maybe a roller bridge would give me a better shot at getting this intonated correctly.

Wouldn think twice if it was like my teisco mashups but yours looks like its all orig..


Be a shame to slap somat on un teiscoesque.
Dont know how they manage it but found intonation on models ive had damn good for one piece bridges...
Is it well out?

[debudavid]

Haha! That was my mine and I sold it to sleepkid about 18 months ago. He's a really good guy and knows his stuff. Here it was with its Elk and Pleasant brothers.

[MattK]

No way, that's crazy! I assumed he had picked it up in some dark corner of Hard-Off or something like that. I think I saw the Elk at his place too, would that be right?

[MattK]

Be a shame to slap somat on un teiscoesque.
Dont know how they manage it but found intonation on models ive had damn good for one piece bridges...
Is it well out?

You make a good point - intonation actually seemed fine when I strung it with the action high, but I was assuming that it would be way off once I got the action down. I won't have time to work on it for a week or so, and I'll give it a try with the original bridge if it's at all possible.

[debudavid]

No way, that's crazy! I assumed he had picked it up in some dark corner of Hard-Off or something like that. I think I saw the Elk at his place too, would that be right?

I've sold him a couple of guitars, but he wasn't the buyer of my Elk.

I had another Concert a couple of years before which had been poorly repainted a light blue. Your white one was infinitely better. Enjoy!