‘Blog’ Category

  1. Roadkill Strats!

    October 30, 2019

    shit! I hate that! I just finished writing this post and hit the wrong button and deleted it all…. AAAAGGHGH@@!!!

    so now I’ll start again….. so as i as saying….. there’s always a story to our “Roadkill” guitars, no two are alike and all have a story of what brings all the components together to create something that I feel proud to take to the world… here are two examples.

    No. 1 is a newbie that I finished today…. I’ve always wanted to do a salmon pink S style and I think she came together really well, so what makes this guitar special? well for one the body is Mahogany, which as you strat lovers know is quite unusual. It came from a deceased estate. It has sat around for years waiting for the right pieces to be built around it. The bridge saddles came from a guitar that we’d attached to the roof (you regulars know what I mean) anyways, it blew down in a storm and those saddles looked so amazing I had to use them for something!..

    Next is the original 70’s Bill Lawrence bridge pick up … don’t know how I came across this but it had to be used… it was the fave pick up of Lowell George and Bonny Raitt so that’s good enough for me….. the other two pick ups are handwound Klein’s. The neck is from the folks at Realtone Music ( thank you Iian), add some Genuine Kluson tuners, a brass block bridge and the result speaks for itself, apart from the fact that getting all these bits to fit together takes the routing skills of my erstwhile partner Andre. The tone is amazing as is the playability… but I’ll let you, my discerning comrades to decide.

    No.2 is an S style we built 12 years ago. now this guitar is truly a concoction of whatever we had in the shop at the time. for example the original tuners were a hodge podge of whatever wdrulas in the old parts bin at the time. one did eventually break so we put a whole new set on….. even the neck heal was laminated to meet the required thickness of the body but here’s my two fave bits…. 1. I wanted a thick torty scratch plate reminiscent of the old Italian guitar type…. you know? something which had depth and solidity so we laminated two scratch plates together….. I remember doing this at the time and as I look at it now,,, I think i need to do more…. The other feature is the heavily radiused finger board…. 6.5″! no less and man it feels so good…. beyonf this I have no idea where the parts came from or where for that matter they were made…. all I know is that this guitar is sooooo good… it a funny thing but I/ we only realise how good these little critters are when we see them years later…. like so many things in life……


  2. Lloyd’s Magical Maton

    October 18, 2019

    Now this is the kind of thing we live for….. Lloyd’s Maton is finally getting the love she deserves…

    Lloyd has played this guitar so intensely that even the frets are worn out….. and it’s a nylon string!…..It was only when she became completely unplayable that Lloyd felt the time had come…. I totally understand this….. you play a guitar everyday and love it so much that the thought of being without it seems unthinkable….

    Thank you L. for allowing us this opportunity to revive a family member…….


  3. 1938 Harmony “Hawaiian Club” Parlor

    October 18, 2019

    There was a time when we imported a lot of Vintage parlor guitars from the USA…. 60ish over a four year period (ahh the good old days)…..our Dollar was on parity with the US and People hadn’t realised the true value of these diamonds in the rough, so in short we could buy them for a song…..

    things have changed though…. the dollar isn’t what it was, the guitars we could buy for $250.00US are now $700US… and for the final insult the rosewood laws make it almost impossible to get these gems into the country……

    Good news however, as my dear Friend Tim Smith informs me that this silly law will end at the end of October… I haven’t sought any further verification as I know Timley is very thorough in his research….. now why am I telling you all of this?….. I present to you this little unicorn…. a 1938 Harmony “Hawiian Club”

    This guitar is an Australian delivery. “Hawiian Club” being a musical instrument hire purchase company from Adelaide that sold you the guitar and the lessons on a “pay as you go” basis (you parents with kids in school music programs know what I mean)….

    Anyways Andre has completely rebuilt this little guitar from the ground up…she’s been re braced, new fingerboard and new bridge (made by A. of course) I think you need to hear this guitar to truly appreciate just how amazing vintage parlors are….

    $1550.00 inc case

    Call us today to enquire about this beaut


  4. 1920’s Vega Tubaphone

    October 18, 2019

    Now you kids you know that I just looooovvvveee my banjo’s…. here’s a good reason why….just re skinned, re fretted and set up with one of my “Farmer John’s” antler bridges…..

    this 1920’s Vega Tubaphone was actually designed to be something akin to a “baritone” banjo with a much lower tuning and no high 5th string, however we’ve managed to adapt it back into a standard 5 string using a railway spike at the 5th fret…

    just look at that carving work on the neck heal… no CNC routing in them days…….

    thank Kathleen (aka Wendy) for letting us restore your baby….

    love John (aka Allen)…

    PS as you can see the Clancey family were the previous owners and were thrilled to see thew family name under the arm rest

     


  5. Helpful Hints in the Dry Nasty Weather

    October 18, 2017

    Having read your many comments and questions re. the dry nasty weather… here is my advice:

    1. VIP!!! DO NOT attempt to repair the damage whilst the guitar is dry…. I can’t stress this enough… if you think about it, it’s pretty clear that once the timber expands again….. oh dear……..

    2. I would recommend that anyone with a Maton, Cole Clarke, Martin or any other solid timber guitar should put a humidifier in their case ASAP.

    3. For those who already have cracks in their guitars, the same is true

    4. I read in several posts that putting a wet sponge in your guitar is a good idea and whilst this is a solution it can also cause damage to the lacquer by direct contact with water

    5. When the weather (hopefully) becomes more humid then the cracks should close up but some repairs maybe needed both structurally and aesthetically, although I’ve seen some guitars close up to a point where it is hard to tell anything untoward ever happened. (your guitar will “breathe” with the changes in weather. Don’t stress if you notice change, this is normal.

    I hope that clarifies things….and yes! we have Herco Humidifiers for 15 buckaroos… the best investment you can make…..PS I cleaned the wholesaler out of these guys and only have 25 in stock


  6. Ralee’s Sketches

    October 12, 2011

    We’ve had two visits from the unassuming, but immensely talented Ralee Winks in the past 2 months. Ralee came in, introduced himself and asked if we would mind him taking some sketches of the shop and us working in it.

    So he sat down, pencil in hand and worked away, careful not to disturb us while we were “hard at work” (aka very curious to see what he was doing). When he showed us what he had done we were blown away.

    The drawings speak for themselves but if you want to see more here is Ralee’s blogsite: http://grubbyrubber.blogspot.com/