New (Old) Guitar from the former #1 retailer in the USA!
Apr 14, 2016 19:13:40 GMT
Michael Messer, Ian McWee, and 4 more like this
Post by gaucho on Apr 14, 2016 19:13:40 GMT
I found this guitar about 2 years ago. I didn't buy it then because I already have an awesome sounding '31 Duolian. The Sears had a hideous rattle can paint job (metallic kelly green with what I thought was Hammerlight finish coverplate, in battleship gray) and it lacked that vintage Doulian "twang" on the unwound strings that I crave from these. Fast forward a couple years and my '31 Duolian is in need of a neck reset and straightening, to accommodate my adding more fretted playing to my style. My Doulian has no paint on it (I found it at a flea market with a broken headstock and flat black paint job), I bought it cheap and fixed it up into a pretty solid guitar. I got to thinking though, for about the same price of the neck work it needed, I could possibly buy the Sears which was all original (save for the finish) and had a good neck and set up. I had to track the guy down and see if he still had it, he did and I scored it for a really good price. My thought was that if I couldn't get the tone of it where I wanted it to be, I'd swap cones with my other '31. I got it home and was really pleased with the set-up and even the tone. I tried to live with the paint job but just couldn't, so I bit the bullet and stripped it. I figured I could carefully take it apart and mark things so it went back together the same and wouldn't adversely affect the tone and set-up.
As always with these (I've worked on a bunch of them) things got funky inside.... there was a weird layer of what looked like athletic tape under the cone and it looked like it had been coated with epoxy or something. I debated leaving it in there as the action was perfect and the tone was pretty good, but it was uneven and thick and lumpy and I knew it had to be adversely affecting the tone. If it had been original felt, no problem, I'd have left it. This was old but definitely not original. It took a lot of scraping and sanding, but I got the well all clean and level. Problem is, the action would now no doubt be way too low and might not even clear the frets. The original cone showed some signs of collapsing slightly over the years, so I reshaped it and hoped that would bring the action back up. The body stripped pretty well and had a nice patina to the bare metal underneath the paint. The coverplate that I thought had been painted with the Hammerlight (textured) turned out to be kinda shiny and the texture seemed to be on the actual coverplate rather than in the paint that was stripped. It almost looks like someone tried to plate it at some point and the plating didn't take to the steel very well. I debated taking it somewhere to be bead blasted, but just went ahead and put it all back together as I was just dying to see how the tone and action had been affected.
Happily, the action is perfect and the tone and volume is better than ever. It's definitely got that vintage twang! I have some MM Newtone stings for it, but I didn't want to put them on yet as I figured I'd need to open it up at least a couple of times while working to get the action correct. You can't take the tension off the round core Newtones or they will unravel, so I saved them for later. Ever with the less desirable strings tho, I'm really happy with the tone.
I've always loved these Sears Duolians. This one is R297 and is not on the list in Mark's great book. Apparently, there were only 600 or so of these made! I'm really happy with the way it came out. The coverplate doesn't look as bad as I feared it might, once it's all together. It's all original and everything works and is in good shape. I'm considering sending it to Rik Besser for one of his awesome Duco refinished. Anyone know what colors these were available in originally? I've only seen the green. Sorry for the very long winded post!
As always with these (I've worked on a bunch of them) things got funky inside.... there was a weird layer of what looked like athletic tape under the cone and it looked like it had been coated with epoxy or something. I debated leaving it in there as the action was perfect and the tone was pretty good, but it was uneven and thick and lumpy and I knew it had to be adversely affecting the tone. If it had been original felt, no problem, I'd have left it. This was old but definitely not original. It took a lot of scraping and sanding, but I got the well all clean and level. Problem is, the action would now no doubt be way too low and might not even clear the frets. The original cone showed some signs of collapsing slightly over the years, so I reshaped it and hoped that would bring the action back up. The body stripped pretty well and had a nice patina to the bare metal underneath the paint. The coverplate that I thought had been painted with the Hammerlight (textured) turned out to be kinda shiny and the texture seemed to be on the actual coverplate rather than in the paint that was stripped. It almost looks like someone tried to plate it at some point and the plating didn't take to the steel very well. I debated taking it somewhere to be bead blasted, but just went ahead and put it all back together as I was just dying to see how the tone and action had been affected.
Happily, the action is perfect and the tone and volume is better than ever. It's definitely got that vintage twang! I have some MM Newtone stings for it, but I didn't want to put them on yet as I figured I'd need to open it up at least a couple of times while working to get the action correct. You can't take the tension off the round core Newtones or they will unravel, so I saved them for later. Ever with the less desirable strings tho, I'm really happy with the tone.
I've always loved these Sears Duolians. This one is R297 and is not on the list in Mark's great book. Apparently, there were only 600 or so of these made! I'm really happy with the way it came out. The coverplate doesn't look as bad as I feared it might, once it's all together. It's all original and everything works and is in good shape. I'm considering sending it to Rik Besser for one of his awesome Duco refinished. Anyone know what colors these were available in originally? I've only seen the green. Sorry for the very long winded post!
