I call this "project K" My brother pulled this out of a trash can over 20 years ago and it has been sitting in a closet ever since. Over the holidays when I was visiting I brought my modded 5120 and my brother asked me if I could do anything with his junk Kay. It looked like a fun project to me so I took it on. Note it is from the 40's or 50's but not of any value. It was originally acoustic but someone long ago tried to make it electric and drilled a bunch of holes in it. Rather than fixing holes I decided to go with it.

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2011-12-31_14-41-48_132-1.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2011-12-31_14-43-09_614.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2011-12-31_14-42-10_96.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2011-12-31_14-43-20_231.jpg

will you make it electric?

First I fixed the cracks I made jacks to push up from the inside and used Titebond ultimate since the top is plywood it worked very well. This guitar has no internal bracing. they did glue in some reinforcing around the F holes though.

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-03_17-29-59_482-1.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-08_17-14-01_189.jpg

The back and sides are in good shape.

I re-purposed the original tuners from my 5120 they were perfrect for this project. I was going to re-purpose the bridge but this guitar has very narrow string spacing.

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-08_17-14-28_96.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-08_17-13-37_485.jpg

Note in the bottom photo the fret board and frets cleaned up nicely

will you make it electric?

Yes it is getting 2 dog ear P90's

I needed a bridge so I decided to make one. I used purple heart and aluminum.

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-14_08-43-51_648.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-14_10-20-30_818.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-14_10-37-44_258.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-23_14-10-50_651.jpg

Now that that is done it actually plays quite nicely and actually has a very unique sound. The narrow string spacing is odd but will just take getting used to. I got the action just right and the intonation is perfect. Now on to finishing. I stained the back and sides but will paint the top it is way too battle scarred for stain.

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-23_18-15-47_320.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-23_18-15-19_770.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-23_18-16-28_496.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-23_16-38-54_131.jpg

and first coat of paint.

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-24_15-42-18_421.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-24_19-46-58_810.jpg

I have ordered the pickups and have all the electronics just waiting for the pickups. I will need to make spacers for the P90s and match them to the arch top. I also need to shoot a couple of clear coats.

Great. Much respect for builders! Always wanted to have the skills to rebuild such a thing, but state law requires i stay 30 feet away from all power tools.

This is gonna be awesome!

Thanks guys I am having a lot of fun with this. It's like therapy. This is the first guitar I have tried doing this much work to. My finishing skills are normally poor but I am trying to be patient and do a good job. This is as much a learning experience as anything else for me.

Looking good, your brother is going to be really happy!

This is better then watching TV , can't wait to see how it ends.

What a great project. Are you going to paint the headstock?

Very interesting!!! Looking forward of following your work with the guitar. Great Idea of making yur own bridge with aluminium! I really like the fact that your´e putting in some p90 dogears;) I love non cutaway boxes with p90s! wich brand are you going to pick for the puppies?

Great project,its lookin brill! :cool:

I love watching these threads ,just wish i had the skills!

Here is what I did with the headstock. The neck wood is real porous and soaked up the stain like a sponge. I decided to go with it and just hand painted the Kay logo. It's not perfect but I'm not really going for perfect. Let me know what you think I can always sand it and paint the face of it red.

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-01-28_12-57-29_493.jpg

You gonna clear coat it?

Very interesting!!! Looking forward of following your work with the guitar. Great Idea of making yur own bridge with aluminium! I really like the fact that your´e putting in some p90 dogears;) I love non cutaway boxes with p90s! wich brand are you going to pick for the puppies?

To start with I am using GFS P90's but if I am not happy with the way they sound I am going to use connectors so I can swap them out with others until I find a sound I like.

You gonna clear coat it?

Yes I'm going to start clear coating this afternoon.

I think the headstock looks great. That will be a really cool guitar with a couple P-90's.

Ambitious project, I'm glad that guitar is gonna get some relief!
You're off to a great start and you're doing it right.
Keep us posted.

Allright;) dont know much about the Gfs P90´s what is that you dislike about them? I´m leaning into the gibson p90s for one of my guitars. My gretsch 5120, I was aming for hum cancelling P90´s at first made but in the end.. I´d like that about them, its something about that hum and all in the end I guess;) Now youve made up mine mind of doing the exact thing youvé done with an F hole acoustic guitar, must be very fun and relaxing doing what youre intrested in. Cool and very inspiring man! Thanks for posting, hope it´ll turn out great, Im sure it will! The gretsch tuners suited the guitar nicley too;)
/Morgan

Allright;) dont know much about the Gfs P90´s what is that you dislike about them?

I like GFS pickups. I have Surf 90's in my 5120 and they sound great. I think the stigma with GFS pickups is that they are in-expensive. They are 33.95 each instead of 80.00 each for Gibson's or 95.00 each for SD's. I figure it's worth a try. If they sound good done. If I am disappointed I will spring for the higher end pickups.

I like GFS pickups. I have Surf 90's in my 5120 and they sound great. I think the stigma with GFS pickups is that they are in-expensive. They are 33.95 each instead of 80.00 each for Gibson's or 95.00 each for SD's. I figure it's worth a try. If they sound good done. If I am disappointed I will spring for the higher end pickups.


Also, the only reason they are so inexpensive is because:
1. They are manufactured overseas; combined with the fact that
2. They are marketed direct. In other words, there's no "middle man" (like Musicians Friend, etc) to pay, thus raising the price

Personally, I don't have any experience with the GFS P-90s but I've used some GFS hardware, and installed a GFS strat upgrade kit in a friend's guitar with great results. Also, I installed a set of GFS Filtertrons in my Ibanez Artcore and got AMAZING results. I am now a HUGE fan of GFS :D

Well you guys I think I´ll might have to look into the GFS puppies myself;)!, but I dont know about how to get intouch with them from where I live, without changing the subject to much that is,.. I´d be intrested in dogear versions. Keep the good work up!

Well you g... I dont know about how to get intouch with them from where I live...

Here you go:

http://www.guitarfetish.com/

Fantastic!

cool. as. hell.

I could use a little input here. What do your think? Black or cream?

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-02-02_19-02-14_389.jpg

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-02-02_19-02-50_122.jpg

Creme, with matching pickguard & chicken head knobs.
[

Cream but that is just my opinion.
Pop's

Cream with chickenhead knobs. Totally retro.

Cream fo sho.

Cream it is.

I really like the idea of chicken head knobs but I am concerned that the holes for the controls are so close together that the chicken head knobs may interfere with each other. I am considering making knobs out of some of the left over purple hart that I made the bridge out of.

Lovely job. Arf

Good work! I'm curious how you got the cracks not to show on the face? Sanding and filling?..



http://www.gretsch-talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=19088&stc=1&d=1328266724

Good work! I'm curious how you got the cracks not to show on the face? Sanding and filling?..



http://www.gretsch-talk.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=19088&stc=1&d=1328266724

Yes that's it. Since the top is plywood the cracks weren't straight through so I made a jack to lift the pieces from the inside then filled the crack with wood glue. When I pulled the cracks closed with the band clamp, that made them allot smaller. After the glue was good and set I filled with Elmer's wood filler and sanded until smooth. The cracks were filled but the top was left too ugly and scarred for a natural finish. Thus the red top. :)

Oh man that looks amazing with creme puppies, thats totally the way to go, nice work, gotta admit I´m really impressed!;D I just love the red top man, thats one badass mean looking box!

Cream it is.

I really like the idea of chicken head knobs but I am concerned that the holes for the controls are so close together that the chicken head knobs may interfere with each other. I am considering making knobs out of some of the left over purple hart that I made the bridge out of.


They're not chicken heads, but you could always use the cream knobs similar to the ones that come on the Fender Vibrolux (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/fender-custom-vibrolux-reverb-amp-combo). I've always thought those knobs looked really cool. I'm not sure where you'd buy them but I bet they're fairly easy to find.

Well it's together and I am very pleased with the way it sounds and plays. I haven't found cream knobs that I like yet so for now it's in black. ( I had some black knobs ) I'll change it later but I couldn't wait to get it together and play it.

http://i599.photobucket.com/albums/tt72/fgibford/2012-02-11_12-50-04_407.jpg

I like the idea of the Vibrolux type of knobs Tombtone

Thanks :D

If you want extra knobs you can get a genuine Fender set on eBay or you can buy these (http://www.ebay.com/itm/2pcs-Control-Knob-Point-Guitar-Pedal-Eeffect-Amp-Amplifier-1-4-Cream-White-/260890966866?_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D5%26po%3D LVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D6359550983278203348#ht_138 8wt_953) from China via eBay. I'm planning on putting those knobs on a project in the near future.