Steel Guitar Builder

I'm working on a 1936 Gibson EH-150 replica. The plan is available from the John Anthony Guitars website. I have a Vintage Vibe CC (Charlie Christian) Ryder pickup for it. I'll complete it over the winter but I won't be able to paint it until springtime as I spray outside.

I salvaged a tiger striped maple top for it from another person who gave up on his project. It was under size in the waist area but I patched it to full width with scrap pieces. You won't see that on the final result since I will apply a tobacco sunburst finish to hide the pieces I fit in.

Normally, a pickups height is adjusted with screws from the top of the guitar. However, my Charlie Christian pickup is mounted internally with no need to drill four adjustment screw holes in the top. I didn't want extra holes in the top of my guitar. Here's the solution I've come up with. The pickup will be removeable and adjustable for height through a small recessed cover on the back of this guitar.

The back of the Gibson was attached to the body with many small screws around the perimeter. I wanted to glue the back on mine permanently, which makes binding easier. So I did a hatch-et job on the back, which gives full access to all the electronic components.

My StewMac order of parts arrived so I could finish off some details like drilling the jack plug and control pot holes. I also glued on the back of the guitar. However, I noticed a major problem after I clamped the back down. I glued the back on with the wrong side facing out. Fortunately the glue wasn't fully cured when I noticed the error and I was able to remove the back, flip it over and glue it back on correctly. It could have been much worse. As they say, some days are diamonds.

Now that winter is gone and the weather around here has warmed up I got a chance to clear coat my "Fibson" guitar. I used nitro Lacquer, which I had on hand. I'll let it cure for about three weeks before buffing & adding all the hardware and stringing it up. I'll soon have a lap steel to play.

I'm looking forward to hearing how the VV Christianson pickup sounds.

Balsanova,
That looks nice! You did a great job on the added material, looks good.

LaVern