1960s Egmond Typhoon 3V Semihollow Electric Guitar

Update: since originally posting this I've repaired the whammy and got it working. That involved adding a thick baseplate (Jazzmaster-style) to its mechanism and a '70s Fender Bronco arm-holder to it as well. I had to do some other modifications but now it works like a Jazzmaster unit save for the fact that it only likes down-bends. It makes the whole guitar a heckuva lot more satisfying to have it working, though. Now back to the original information...

Hey, a Dutch guitar! I barely ever see Egmonds around here, save for the horrid acoustics that almost always have unsavory warped necks and iffy sound. The electrics I've played, however, have been pretty cool. This one is no exception.

What looks like a solidbody Jaguar/Jazzmaster clone from the outside is actually a Danelectro-style semihollow build on the inside. It's built with a plywood centerblock and edging and has two, thinner plywood front/back pieces mated to that. That's why it's a midweight box with its own, distinctive handling and sound rather than something along the lines of a Japanese Jag-style copy from the same era. From catalog scanning, it appears that this is a mid-to-late '60s variant and the grey-black tolex-style cover on the body suggests that, too. 

I took this in trade from a friend of mine after he'd had me "do it all up" with a fresh refret. Because I'd been dialing it in for him with extra work, this thing plays gloriously and sounds killer in its quirky, garage-rock way. The neck feels a lot like a late-'50s Fender Musicmaster neck or similar, with a short scale and more-generous C-shaped rear. I reprofiled the fretboard from a tight 6" radius down to a 10-12" compound radius during the refret to jumbo/pyramid stock, so that's made it feel like a sports car and is a lot easier for modern fingers to enjoy.

Repairs included: a board plane and refret with jumbo/pyramid stock, minor repairs to the wiring, full compensation and better-fitting of the original bridge, cleaning, and setup.

Setup notes: it plays perfectly with 1/16" action overall at the 12th fret, strung with 50w-11s. It'll take bigger gauges no problem and the truss rod works as it should. The neck is straight.

Scale length: 24 1/2"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 7/16"

String spacing at bridge: 2"

Body length: 17 1/4"

Lower bout width: 13"

Waist width: 7 3/8"

Upper bout width: 9 1/2"

Side depth at endpin: 1 13/16" + arch to top

Body wood: mahogany

Neck wood: mahogany

Fretboard: rosewood, zero fret nut

Bridge: adjustable TOM-style

Neck feel: medium C-shape, 10-12" compound board radius

Condition notes: the pickguard has cracking and a little bit of warp under the controls (but it's stabilized with factory metal backing) and the back of the guitar shows some finish muck-up on the tolex-y covering. Overall it's in good order with average use-wear throughout. The pickup selector is odd because it appears that some positions are in series and some positions are in parallel and some positions may just be out-of-phase. Either way, all the tones are useful but there are three "quite good" ones right from the get-go. The small toggle switch adds a tone cap or resistor in the path to the output jack. The tone pot is not working but I could fix that if it's a deal-breaker (I don't use it myself). The whammy works for down-bends but is not "floating" like a Jazzmaster unit. In addition, its bar is friction-fit into the socket and so to seat it decently, I've just added a layer of masking tape to keep it from slipping around too much.