A few years ago, I was driving to a store to buy a present for my Mother’s birthday when I noticed what I thought were guitar headstocks sticking up out of a garbage pile in front of someone’s house. I immediately stopped to check it out. Sure enough, there were guitars in the garbage! I found a solid-body electric guitar, two acoustics and an archtop out with the trash! I chucked them in the trunk of my beloved Hyundai (the only car I’ll ever love) and was on my way.
A later inspection of the haul revealed a little more about what I had. None of the instruments had any markings to indicate the maker. The electric guitar was missing the pickups, one of the acoustics had weird ink drawings on it and the other had all of the hardware (bridge, tuners) removed. The archtop was intact but it was missing a small chunk of wood in the back where the neck meets the body.
I sold the archtop and the electric on ebay pretty soon after. I didn’t do anything at all to them except take the photo! I don’t remember how much I made, but I think both went for close to $100 each.
The acoustic with the weird drawings on it got sanded down and re-varnished with brown stain. I gave it away.
I still have the one that was found without hardware. I installed new tuning pegs and glued on a new nut. I was pretty intimidated by gluing on a new bridge, but it went pretty well. I measured and double-checked my angles and such and clamped everything down for a few days. I used regular wood glue. Almost ten years later and the bridge is still in place. With ball end nylon strings, this guitar is a little on the quiet side, but the sound is pleasing. I play fingerstyle more frequently than flat-picking and this garbage baby is well suited for it.
A few years after the initial find, I found an acoustic guitar case in another garbage pile that I passed on the way to band practice!
A later inspection of the haul revealed a little more about what I had. None of the instruments had any markings to indicate the maker. The electric guitar was missing the pickups, one of the acoustics had weird ink drawings on it and the other had all of the hardware (bridge, tuners) removed. The archtop was intact but it was missing a small chunk of wood in the back where the neck meets the body.
I sold the archtop and the electric on ebay pretty soon after. I didn’t do anything at all to them except take the photo! I don’t remember how much I made, but I think both went for close to $100 each.
The acoustic with the weird drawings on it got sanded down and re-varnished with brown stain. I gave it away.
I still have the one that was found without hardware. I installed new tuning pegs and glued on a new nut. I was pretty intimidated by gluing on a new bridge, but it went pretty well. I measured and double-checked my angles and such and clamped everything down for a few days. I used regular wood glue. Almost ten years later and the bridge is still in place. With ball end nylon strings, this guitar is a little on the quiet side, but the sound is pleasing. I play fingerstyle more frequently than flat-picking and this garbage baby is well suited for it.
A few years after the initial find, I found an acoustic guitar case in another garbage pile that I passed on the way to band practice!
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