Corvus Guitar Works - builds, paint, mods/servicing, Cambs

Corvus

Here it is. I took the paint off the p/g underside, hope to polish it back later and add the white centre stripe.

The pickup cavities are staying as-is. They're hidden by surrounds and the pickguard and they are part of it's history. Routing out a chunk of body and letting in new one, re-doing the cavities would make it **look** original but also be **less** original? I guess.
Purely a personal thing but to me old guitars that had mods are every bit as interesting as all-originals, if not more so.

Good things: the original pickups and wiring are there. We have a modern trem to fit, they are a bit different to vintage but it'll look right enough. Should a vintage one come up it's a straightforward swap.

Teyeplayer

Corvus said:

It's going out on a mini-tour,  feedback is all positive so far but it's always good to find out what's good and less good both-

Still love this and so glad it’s getting out and seeing some use: I still hope I can get one of these someday. 

Corvus

Cheers Jay, hope all is well. I hoped to push on with these but other work comes in & pays bills, so it's sidelined for now. If/when we move I'll be going at it again.

Corvus

The side dots. There's deepish holes but someone had inset dark red and amber thin dots, surely to suit some previous paint but they were now invisible. And there was white paint or filler in & around them. Signs of previous digging.

I started stripping paint. There's the red, silver, plus a bright white, a thick ol' layer of creamy white, very thick grey primer, gold, and either black or very dark blue.
The paint was seriously thick.

Did the neck first, going very carefully round the headstock to save the serial.
The headstock face is well aged and has some blobs of unidentified matter.. possibly household enamel or the like. The outer face edges are a bit lost.
It'll get Klusons but will need conversion bushes. Plugging and re-drilling isn't really on, I want to save as much of the headstock face as possible, plugs would show up and look odd.

So much paint on the body.. loads.. it took a while.

Corvus

At some point a tailpiece was fitted and the trem screw holes filled. The added tailpiece bushing holes were in danger of breaking out the other side.
I don't have a decent half inch plug cutter and generally they make undersize plugs. So -

Put a wood block in the vice (didn't have a honduran or cuban scrap deep enough so it's khaya/African mahogany). Chuck up the 15mm plug cutter and go, but not all the way through the block.
Swap to a brad drill, buzz down into the plug's end. Glue in a dowel.
Chop the "floor" off the wood block to free the plugs.
Chuck a dowel up in the drill and take the diameter down. Chop the dowel end off. Now have a close-fit plug and it's swift to do.

The body holes aren't clean/sharp so I ran a countersunk in there to deliberately make a small 'moat' that fine filler can go in. Usually stops these sort of things showing in future.

impmann

Is this the right sort of vintage Trem you are looking for?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204279875673?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=gCDW9LcmRuK&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=fvduHkbRTP2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Corvus

Cheers for that - I'll pass it on to the owner, see if he fancies going for it. A fairly rare find I should think.

grappagreen

Corvus said:

Reference pics are hard to come by and with varying light and the cameras used, it's hard to get a clear idea of colour. I hope this is something close. Nitro pink with pearl over it - can't really show the pearly glow just now but better pics will come later





Yeah. Failure to spangle. I'll try again later.

Haven't been around due to some 'life challenges' recently. I'm absolutely sure this will look awesome!

I do like an understated finish..

Si

Corvus

Glad you're back with us, catch up soon Si.

Corvus

Marco's Strat pre-flatting and a final sheen short of full gloss, with dummy spare p/g for seeing the colour kind of thing- it's shooting for faded fiesta red -

guitartango

Corvus said:

Marco's Strat pre-flatting and a final sheen short of full gloss, with dummy spare p/g for seeing the colour kind of thing- it's shooting for faded fiesta red -

Makes me wants to don some black glasses and do the Hank Marvin walk! Lovely Colour

Corvus

Cheers Mike, Marco's shout on the colour there, I do like it.

EioPago

Corvus said:

Cheers Mike, Marco's shout on the colour there, I do like it.

Yes, it was a sort of faded fiesta red I always wanted to have and Bill (Corvus) nailed it 100% from the photos I sent him.
I really love it.

Thanks Bill

Corvus

Some more bits 'n pieces:

These two plus another came in for setups & minor mods, just about to headline London Desert Fest & Berlin Desert Fest on a European tour (Uncle Acid).

The DC is beaten up with a cracked heel and head, the MM is a 60s Epiphone one. Also going is a cheap Strat copy ... probably worth all of £60... It got some nice pickups put in and a few issues sorted

Corvus

Well hello there ... 
 


Not what you need 48 hrs before a tour, but it got fixed up and did it's job fine

Corvus

As seen in the Guitars section; black walnut/maple, P90s, time machine. Repainted from an earlier build. Finished & claimed the same day by a visitor, gonna miss it though, it sounds & plays very well

Corvus

I'm hoping to get a build done or at least anything needing much machinery, before we move house and I lose workshops for a time. When we move I'll be limited to setups & mods and praps minor routing etc etc for a bit, till the new workshop gets sorted out.

I happened across some nice black limba and bought it there & then-



Love the endgrain - like a cloudy pencil sketch:


Jointed the halves with planes, there's a dry join in there

Corvus

And the top, also more by accident than design - some Redwood, 3000 years I think (2-3000 anyway)-

digitalkettle

Corvus said:

I'm hoping to get a build done or at least anything needing much machinery, before we move house and I lose workshops for a time. When we move I'll be limited to setups & mods and praps minor routing etc etc for a bit, till the new workshop gets sorted out...

Not moving too far I hope!

TTony

Corvus said:

Finished & claimed the same day by a visitor

So, if we drop by the workshop on random days, we might just see something coming off the bench and be able to grab it??

See you shortly