Manchester Guitar Tech
Ozzy Lister – guitar and bass repair
I just made this pickguard for a Tele fanatic. He’s making (another) Esquire, this time using the body from a Baja Telecaster.
I cut the pickguard to accurate Fender dimensions (of course) and lacquered with clear gloss nitrocellulose lacquer and buffed it to a shine just like the originals.
I also fitted a Texas Special pickup in the bridge and wired it to a “cocked wah” circuit.
Just needs a nice neck now!
The La Cabronita is complete. Well, almost. I’m sending it back to Italy without a pickguard as the owner is undecided whether it should have one.
Here are a few shots of the guitar for Daniele with different colour pickguards. The 3-ply one was supplied my Guitar Mill and I made the singly-ply ‘guards.
This Australian-built Maton Supreme 777 is getting on for 50 years old and has seen some action!
It came to me needing a refret, a new nut and a general fettle.
The Bigsby vibrato was in a sorry state and needed rebuilding with a new arm and spring.
The pickups had been cut off at some time and had been attached using electrician’s terminal blocks so I re-cabled them with new braided cable. The rest of the electrics just needed a clean to restore to working order. The wiring in these things is verging on the over-engineered, it is so robust!
An unusual aspect of these guitars is that, in common with some Hofners built around the same time, access to the truss rod adjuster is via the end pin and through the body. Whereas Hofners use a 5mm hex socket, Maton decided to use a 1/4″ square adjuster. I could have sent to Australia for the Maton tool but instead decided to make my own.
When I had the guitar stripped down, a lot of loose paper and fluff dropped out of the pickup holes. From the way the paper had been nibbled, it looked very much as if this guitar has been occupied by mice!
