The Electra Forums

This is a continuation of the "What not to do with your MPC" thread from the auction section.

The hulk arrived and the case isn't bad just some surface rust

The guitar well... the good, the bad, and the ugly (in reverse order).

Well its ugly what more can I say. It has a very bad rattle can or good brush paint job in black. I have not gotten much of the original finish exposed, just on one point on the side. It looks like it was natural/brown on the side so it started life as a 330, 340, or 350. I kind of doubt it is a 340 but time will tell.

The bad: Well the attempted tremelo instalation was worse than it looked in the pictures from the auction. Most of what you could see was puddy and not even wood puddy as it was still pliable. In addition they had put pieces of brass inset in the puddy around the edges and put a big piece of brass which I think was originaly the sustian/string block from the tremolo in the bridge hole closest to the pickup cavity, also held in with putty. A section of the body between the control cavity and the hole for the jack is broaken and will have to be glued (no missing wood though). The control configuration was chaned from four in a row to to a diamond and three holes for mini switches added. They did a decent job of filling the old holes and I am thinking of using the third hole to have an on-off switch for the center pickup.

The good: The middle pickup route while not proffesional is not bad and will look fine with a pickup installed. The neck is straight, the truss rod works and she has zero fret wear. The routing did not mess up the MPC cavity

So I probably overpaid, $99 with the SKB case and shipping, but I am having fun and I think she will live again.

Sounds like you can see the finished product. Have fun .

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SlmGuy

Thanks SLM Guy.

I have cleaned out the puddy from the bridge hole (Pit?) and filled the Kahler mounting holes with dowels. Most of the dowels will get removed when I cleanup the pit with a router. The break by the jack is glued, clamped and drying which gives me time to post this. I will take photos when I get to more tricky parts.

Question, does anyone have experiance using veneer? I have found ones that are very thin (1/40") which if I re-do the binding should not show.

Have never did it,but I saw some and different Binding in the Stewart Mcdonald catalog. Maybe you could get some help there.

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SlmGuy

The case is probably worth more than the guitar, in all respects.
But, you'll probably com out of this with osmething awesome, so, hopefully it's in good cause.

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Addicted to Matsumoku.

Well while waiting to go fetch my router (it is a pain having tools in two different place) I started stripping the finsh. It has a nice brown mahogany finish on the back and sides but I was unable to remove the black paint without having to go into it a bit. So, it will be a complete refinish, my first. I have an airbrush an a friend has a compressor so after so practice on scraps, I should be OK. I have not started stripping the top. I figured a may as well do the routing, filling and carving first.

I think it should be finished in metallic green. I don't know why, just do it.
Anyhow, good luck, sounds like this thing is on the road to rehab...I mean CPR.

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Addicted to Matsumoku.

quote]
I think it should be finished in metallic green. I don't know why, just do it.
Anyhow, good luck, sounds like this thing is on the road to rehab...I mean CPR.[/quote]


If I did that, I would do it like a LP gold top with the back and sides natural. That could turn some heads.

I won't know it it will live until I have repaired the pit left by the aborted Kahler. Finish is just about making it pretty.

Well the camera and guitar are in different places so it is still just words. I stripped the back and sides and started on the front. Under that bad black was ... black poly so it was an X310 after all. I used some paint remover to get the gloss coat off so that I can sand a smooth finish for what ever I do to the top.

I cleaned up the pit with a router. When I went to cut the mahogany block to size, it started to spit badly. I found a scrap of maple and used that instead. I must say I am happy with the maple as it has been easy to work with. I glued it in and left it clamped for about three days before proceeding with the carving. I used a chisel to carefully take off most of the extra wood and then shaped it with a micro plane. This worked well. It was the first time I have used a micro plane. It was easy to control and took wood off quickly while leaving a decent surface for sanding. All in all it took about an hour and a half to do the carve. I used some wood filler on the edge between the block and the body (one side was not a great fit) as well as some of the worst dings on the front that wont sand out.

I hope to have some pictures soon.

Looking forward to the pics ... I always love seeing axes that were left for dead get resurrected.

I have an X310. Hang in there, Im rooten for ya! Mine also had X310 stamped in black ink down in the gut box. Noticed it one day when repairing a broken battery wire.

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SlmGuy

Well the camera is still not where the guitar is so no pics. I got a nut (Graph Tech Tusque gibson style 12", radius, pre slotted). The radius and string width were right and the slotting done better than I would have but it took a lot of work with a file to get low enough. I installed the tail piece and bridge (Gotoh). My bridge placement was off slightly on the treble side but I could still get it to intonate properly, it just doesn't look like it is It plays very nicely. I have neve been a big LP fan but it souds very nice acousticly as I have not put any electronics in it.

It still is ugly as all heck (PG Rating here) with wood filler in the very numerous gouges. My current plan is to do the back, sides and neck in black and put a flame maple veneer on the top. I am thinking of dying the new top red and doing white and black binding. The finishing will have to wait for warmer weather so I can work out side at out Vermont house. Last I was up there it got up to a high of -5F (thats -20 for you sensible celsius types).

Sonuds like it is getting there.
I still think it should be finished in green.
By the way, does the wood filler effect the feel of the guitar?
Does it feel "lighter" or have any noticeable deadening in the sound?

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Addicted to Matsumoku.

The wood filler is just in gouges and dings. There is not enough of it to change the sound. The guitar is suprisingly nice acousticly. I think that may be the arched top. The green woud actualy be more work than the maple veneer. As it is, I am hopping the veneer will cover up a host of uglyness. If I were to try to get a nice finish on the existing top it would take a lot more filler and sanding. I am not going to take a nice bit of maple and paint it green I could always do a transparent green but that would be a bit to early 70's for me and I remember the early 70's and don't want to go back

The veneer sounds the way to go. I think it will clean up any problems. You said flame burst? Have you by chance seen the limited Hot Rod Gibson LP? Chrome Blued pick up covers, red hued flame tips coming back like the old rods in the fifties. Think it was road and track mag I saw it in. Anyway, that look with three pick ups or two would be smooth looking. Not to wild.....

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SlmGuy