I found this vintage push scooter in the garage of a small country house I bought a few years ago outside of Prague, Czech Republic. It was most likely made in the 60′s and the quality of manufacture is excellent. Keep in mind that at the time the country was communist so it is pretty amazing to see a toy of such good quality when citizens had to stand in line for hours just to get the basics of everyday life! As you can see it is in pretty bad shape but nothing is lost! A lot of patience and this thing will be like new! Obviously there isn’t that much to it but I ran into some problems… 2 things are missing and to this day I still have not found them: the front fender and the ringer on the handlebars… I took this scooter completely apart and had to grind the original rivets to complete the dis-assembly. I will replace the rivets with pan head bolts. The brake pad is completely worn out and I will machine one from a piece of hard rubber. One of the wheel axles broke off so I will machine 2 new ones from quality steel. Other than that it should be salvageable! The first step is to straighten the different parts using a body hammer and a steel block and once everything is straight I will sandblast all parts and spray some quality anti-corrosive primer immediately after blasting to avoid corrosion re-forming… More info with the next article! Stay tuned…
I had the great privilege of being invited at the Rickenbacker factory in Santa Ana, California and interview Ben Hall, the factory’s general manager. Ben let us walk around and film every step of the construction of Rickenbacker guitars and bass guitars which are an integral part of the rock legend of the 60′s… Many famous musicians have used Rickenbacker instruments through the years including The Beatles, The Byrds, The Rolling Stones, U2, Tom Petty, the list goes on and on… In addition to building high quality instruments Rickenbacker also performs restoration services for famous artists… In fact you will be able to see before and after footage of the restoration of Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister veteran bass guitar… The result is astonishing… Rickenbacker will soon resume production of left handed guitars and I intend to get one!
Finally! After lots of time and efforts my custom made left handed Gibson Maestro Lyre Vibrola tremolo comb is done! It is a unique piece for a quite unique guitar and I can’t wait to install it on my Epiphone Firebird… For those who don’t understand the situation, left handed Epiphone Firebirds are using a right handed string comb which means the tremolo arm is facing up! Nonsense! Not to mention it is an insult to left handed people! I did find an original Gibson left handed tremolo comb (probably from an Elliot Easton SG) but it is chrome plated and made from zinc alloy… I couldn’t find a company able to gold plate a non magnetic alloy so I decided to make my own from steel and by doing so not only improve tone and sustain but also be able to have it gold plated! The funny thing is that during the time it took to make the steel comb I found a company able to plate the original Gibson one in gold! So in the end I have 2 left handed gold string combs, one from zinc alloy and one from steel! My next step is to compare the tone and sustain of the 2 and see if steel is better than zinc… After all that holds true for Stratocasters so why should it be different with the Maestro Lyre Vibrola! Time will tell and I will make sure to post my findings!
Hand made lefty Maestro Vibrola Lyre tremolo string comb machined from steel
Here it is folks! i really think it came out nice but more importantly it sounds great! Luis is still in recovery mode after breaking his hand so we won’t be able to shoot a video of him trying out his new guitar for a while but I trust it will happen in a couple of weeks… The preliminary tests are very conclusive and this guitar really sounds like a vintage Stratocaster for a fraction of the price of the real one! The neck is very comfortable and the EVO frets do magic! Stay tuned for all the cool videos that I will soon post, we are still editing them and it is not easy!
Here it is! Ready to rock and sparkle under stage lights!
After sanding and polishing by hand the body and neck, it was time for re-assembly… Everything went back together smoothly and no issues were encountered… The wiring diagram from TFN Technologies was perfect and very clear, once again Tom did a fantastic job with the diagram! at the time of the photos I was still waiting for my home made jack plate to be back from anodizing… the original plate was too small and the screw holes were dangerously close to the bore in the body… I made one from aluminum and TIG welded it together with my ESAB Caddy Tig 2200 AC/DC welder and sent it out for anodizing along with a bunch of parts from a bicycle… The result really sucked so I had to resort to flat black paint, see finished photos… I will have to find a better company for my anodizing needs in the future!
This beautiful metal flake paint job fits that guitar perfectly!
Finally, the Yamaha Pacifica of my friend and guitar teacher Luis is done! The project went really smooth and the result very good… A lot of work has been done to this beast and it is all documented on video, which we are presently editing… Don’t forget to check out the re-assembly and the final result…
Dan Altilio of Top Gear Guitar shows us this incredibly nice reproduction of the Adam Clayton Popmart bass, an instrument built for him by master luthier Jerry Auerswald of Germany… Scott, the owner of this great bass guitar belongs to a U2 tribute band and he commissioned Dan to build his latest dream instrument… As usual Dan went out of his way to make sure the quality is second to none and the result speaks for itself! Scott will certainly be happy with it and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of this bass guitar on YouTube very soon!
U2 Adam Clayton’s Popmart bass high quality reproduction by Top Gear Guitar!
The Mighty Strat is essentially a Fender Stratocaster on steroids! I wanted sort of an Ibanez PGM 300 RE guitar but more versatile so after discussing things with Dan Altilio of Top Gear Guitar in San Diego, I opted for the Dimarzio PAF JOE in the bridge position, the Dimarzio FS1 in the middle and the Dimarzio PAF PRO in the neck… Combined with a custom S1 Fender switching system and an all steel tremolo this guitar rocks like there is no tomorrow! The body and the neck are from the company Mighty Mite, hence the name Mighty Strat! I bought the neck and body separately from 2 different people and I really scored on both! The quality of the wood, the finish, the frets are truly amazing… This guitar is very comfortable to play and the body’s wood is so nice that I decided to keep it as natural as possible and I will only clear-coat it with a satin waterborne clear… I decided not to use stain and keep this guitar as natural as possible since Mighty Mite was nice enough to go out of their way to make this body so nice! I will soon post some pics and videos about this truly great guitar, stay tuned!
This awesome guitar was built by Dan Altilio of Top Gear Guitar in San Diego, California… It has the body of the Fender Jaguar and the features of the Fender Stratocaster! It is outfitted with Dimarzio area 58 and 61 noiseless pickups, a Callaham tremolo, HipShot tuners, a Graph Tech nut, a Fender Eric Clapton pre-amp and a candy apple red paint job with matching headstock… Check out the photos and the upcoming article and videos…
When my friend and guitar teacher Luis told me about his frustration trying to find a good guitar at a decent price I immediately advised him to keep his Yamaha and modify it to get exactly what he wants… Anyone shopping for a guitar knows that you have to try a lot of them before finding something suitable… For example, I have 5 Stratocasters and they all sound different so imagine when you go to a shop and there are hundreds of guitars! Besides, his Yamaha Pacifica has soul! He’s had it for 15 years and traveled all over the world with it… Of course 15 years of hard playing put a toll on his instrument but after close inspection, nothing that cannot be resolved… Luis likes the vintage Stratocaster sound so I turned him on to the Dimarzio Area pickups… He listened to a few samples and fell in love with the combo 58, 61, 67… That being the starting point we kept going back and forth to figure out what other features Luis was interested in… After Luis tried a few of my guitars he decided on a few more cool things such as EVO frets, Clapton pre-amp, HipShot tuners etc… Don’t forget to read the full article!
Werewolf Pat talks about a 1995 Yamaha Pacifica that is in serious need of a pimpin’!
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