1987/2018 Esquire-style Banjofied Partscaster Electric Guitar
This twangy, jangle-king electric is made-up entirely of parts gifted or traded to me except for its bridge and pickup. The neck is an '87 Made-in-Japan Fender Strat job that'd been scalloped from the 12th fret and up and scraped-up below that by a previous owner. The body is a hairline-cracked, locally-cut, basswood, Tele-style stray that I spray-sealed and left "natural creamy-white." The tuners are Fender-brand and probably Mexican in nature (and replaced some tired original Japanese Gotohs), the controls and wiring are all from my parts-bins, and the pickguard came gifted with the body (though I did cut it to its present shape).
For some time I've been telling myself I'd make an Esquire and tune it like a 5-string banjo with an extra low G string. That's how this is strung and that's why I needed a 6-saddle string to get it in tune. It's strung with a high G first that'd be 3rd fret on the high E string in pitch -- tuned gGDGBD bass-to-treble. Gauges are 8, 36w, 26w, 17, 13, 10. I've used this stringing on acoustic guitars before, but it's even better on an electric like this because you can play it flatpicked as a lead machine in open G (and just ignore the high string) but its main interest is in fingerpicking and clawhammer approaches.
Add a healthy dose of reverb and strap-on the metal fingerpicks and you're suddenly in a countrified, Byrdsy-jangle-tastic, technicolor land that seems to mix pedal-steel-like tones in with chicken-pickin' honky-tonk and sitar-drone chime. It's easy to get lost in it. I quickly modified one of my capos to grab the thinner first string correctly and it's pretty nice to be able to "capo" banjo vibes up and down without the fuss of a 5th-peg sliding capo or railroad spikes.
Aside from the put-together and wiring work (fully-shielded, of course), I also gave the neck a fret level/dress and put a sealer coat on the board (which had been left bare after its modifications). I fully expect the lightly-sealed body to accumulate grime to match the fretboard pretty fast. I've already got a good greying streak on one side from where I set this down for a moment while humming with it on the porch. It plays on-the-dot, of course, and the scalloping on the higher frets certainly makes bends easy and slick.
Specs are pretty normal -- 25 1/2" scale, 1 11/16" nut width, mild-medium C-shape neck profile, and (curiously) something like a 10" radius to the board. The body is pretty typical but the pickup route seems to have been cut just a hair more forward than usual. I had to trim the adjuster screws on the bridge almost by half to get them better-suited to where the saddles wanted to be.
For some time I've been telling myself I'd make an Esquire and tune it like a 5-string banjo with an extra low G string. That's how this is strung and that's why I needed a 6-saddle string to get it in tune. It's strung with a high G first that'd be 3rd fret on the high E string in pitch -- tuned gGDGBD bass-to-treble. Gauges are 8, 36w, 26w, 17, 13, 10. I've used this stringing on acoustic guitars before, but it's even better on an electric like this because you can play it flatpicked as a lead machine in open G (and just ignore the high string) but its main interest is in fingerpicking and clawhammer approaches.
Add a healthy dose of reverb and strap-on the metal fingerpicks and you're suddenly in a countrified, Byrdsy-jangle-tastic, technicolor land that seems to mix pedal-steel-like tones in with chicken-pickin' honky-tonk and sitar-drone chime. It's easy to get lost in it. I quickly modified one of my capos to grab the thinner first string correctly and it's pretty nice to be able to "capo" banjo vibes up and down without the fuss of a 5th-peg sliding capo or railroad spikes.
Aside from the put-together and wiring work (fully-shielded, of course), I also gave the neck a fret level/dress and put a sealer coat on the board (which had been left bare after its modifications). I fully expect the lightly-sealed body to accumulate grime to match the fretboard pretty fast. I've already got a good greying streak on one side from where I set this down for a moment while humming with it on the porch. It plays on-the-dot, of course, and the scalloping on the higher frets certainly makes bends easy and slick.
Specs are pretty normal -- 25 1/2" scale, 1 11/16" nut width, mild-medium C-shape neck profile, and (curiously) something like a 10" radius to the board. The body is pretty typical but the pickup route seems to have been cut just a hair more forward than usual. I had to trim the adjuster screws on the bridge almost by half to get them better-suited to where the saddles wanted to be.
The "bullet" truss rod nut and giant headstock scream '70s.
The mini black dots are ones I quickly added to replace the ones chewed-away by the scalloping work.
The controls are almost working right at the moment and will be 1 = low-value tone cap, 2 = higher-value tone cap, 3 = pass-through. Volume works in all positions. The pickup is some sort of inexpensive, Korean-sourced, Alnico-magnet Tele bridge pup that runs about 7.5k in output.
The neckplate and bolts are a random mix from my parts-bins. And, yes, the hairline crack near that one screw was there before I put this together.
Comments