1976 Time GS2 Timecaster Electric Guitar

Come on, now -- isn't there the kid in all of us that takes one look at this guitar and thinks, "Man, that is so rad!" -- that's my first impression, anyway, and I'm generally not a batwing-pickguard endorser.

Time instruments were a Vermont-made institution in the '70s and early '80s and this particular guitar was made while they were in Waltham, VT -- north of Middlebury and south of Burlington. It was bought new by the current owner and he went to the workshop and picked-out the matching neck and body before having them assembled into this warhorse.

This model is the "Timecaster" and that's because it has a Fender-style bolt-on neck rather than the set-neck construction most of us associate with Time guitars. It's a thinner, faster, flatter neck than I'm used to as well and it reminds me (in some ways) of high-spec, early-'80s Peavey necks. You know -- the indestructible, stupidly-fast ones? This is, of course, built to a lot higher spec throughout.

The body is cherry and it has the cool "ratbite" (or "batwing") pickguard, per the usual, and interesting 12-adjustable-pole humbuckers. These buckers are wired with the normal 3-way switch but can also be modified with 4(!) mini-switches down near the rest of the controls. These switches are (from neck to endpin order) single/hum toggle for the neck pickup, single/hum toggle for the bridge pickup, in-phase/out-of-phase for the middle position, series wiring for both pickups in the middle or bridge position. Between all of these there are a ridiculous amount of sounds one can pull from this guitar -- from chimey Fender sounds to aggressive, prog-rock lead sounds, to Jerry-like mwaaaaaah.

After a glorified setup, this guitar was ready to roll once again and it plays spot-on, quick, and easy. It's completely original throughout, too, though the pickguard shows a few filled holes next to the pickup mounts from a previous pickup-swap event (the pickups are now back to the originals).

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, mild cleaning, and setup.

Body wood: cherry

Bridge: Schaller "harmonica" style

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: maple

Pickups: 2x original humbuckers

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast)
String gauges: 46w-10

Neck shape: slim C

Board radius: ~14-16"

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium

Scale length: 24"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Body width: 13"

Body depth: 1 5/8"

Weight: 8 lbs 15 oz

Condition notes: aside from some filled pickup mounting holes on the pickguard and some finish chipping/bumps/dings along the edges of the body here and there, it's very clean and in very good order.

It comes with: a presumably-original hard case.