New Kinman Pickups and Hank Marvin

[cockroach]

Yes Bill.....it IS un-Australian, sport...and, ya mug lair, you must immediately sell all that dreadful Pommie and Yankee stuff and buy a Maton (with or without Kinmans) and a Moody GA 35 or Goldentone Reverbmaster 60 amp.

And please send any of those un Australian Telecasters which you have over to me in Adelaide, especially including that proposed 12 string Tele, which you can bloody well put together and finish at long last....

[ecca]

tee hee

[Bill Bowley]

Yes Bill.....it IS un-Australian, sport...and, ya mug lair, you must immediately sell all that dreadful Pommie and Yankee stuff and buy a Maton (with or without Kinmans) and a Moody GA 35 or Goldentone Reverbmaster 60 amp.

And please send any of those un Australian Telecasters which you have over to me in Adelaide, especially including that proposed 12 string Tele, which you can bloody well put together and finish at long last....

Ah, Roach my dear South Australian mate...

Being in New South Wales (the PREMIER State) we are used to getting 'helpful suggestions' from the 'outstaions to the west of us (which we ignore!), however.......! The Tele 12 string changed into a Strat 12 when I bought a custom made hardtail Strat body from China (same place that makes the BURNS bodies - they absolutely refuse to make me a Marvin body though for fear of Barry G taking out a contract on them!) so there's one change that you should be aware of (it only needs the nut to be finished, I must get on with that!). As for the Moody Amp, well.......what can I say? The lead guitarist in my first band had one of those, but for some reason he always wanted to plug in to my Fender Concert Amp and use the Moody as a PA, since he 'owned' the band how could I refuse? Good boat anchors, those Moody Amps! And as for a Maton electric, well the acoustic guitars are great, but I notice even Tommy E doesn't use the Maton Tommy E signature Maton solid body (uses a beat up TE Sig Strat Nashville), but then again you rarely see HBM withy his signature BURNS, do you?

But you are right, I need to make some progress with these 'half assembled' guitars before the wife puts them out at the next council cleanup!

[Tony]

Bill said... ""Being in New South Wales (the PREMIER State) we are used to getting 'helpful suggestions' from the 'outstaions to the west of us (which we ignore)""

Off course being in Victoria we often have to listen to the "babble" that comes from the north and the west of us and consequently have to live our lives with our head buried in the sands...


OOPPSS... nothing to do with pick-ups....


Tony

[Bill Bowley]

Tony,

Did I just hear the sounds of 'South of the Border'.....................?

Let me just say two words - 'Melbourne Storm'. I think that says it all, eh 'Roach?

[cockroach]

At least we are very lucky to be safe and dry down here at the moment...

[John Boyd]

Hello Bill,
Greetings from across the ditch.
Are you able to disclose your source of the hardtail stratocaster body?
I'm keen to put one together, but in our little country, guitar bodies (especially hardtails) are as scarce as 'the proverbial'.
Cheers,
JB

[Bill Bowley]

Hi John,

I found the guitar builder on the 'TRADETANG' website, which is the China equivilent of EBay, it runs PayPal from Hong Kong etc and is well set up but does not have a very good control over 'imposters' etc so it is risky business! Took a while to get the body made up, as it was a 'one off' for this particular factory. In the end, I did wonder whether I might mave been better buying from one of the UK sellers that do advertise hard tail bodies at a reasonable price. Another option that I looked at was a place in your area,
http://www.guitarparts.co.nz/cart/Resul ... category=0
He advertises the Allparts hard tail Strat body at $499NZ, which is about what the Chinese body cost me with shipping,but only on special order. Another one in UK, and one that really does interest me is Axes-R-Us, they advertise a hartail Strat body for 148UK Pnds which, depending on the shipping cost, would probably come up to a similar price to the one from the NZ dealer. They are at http://www.axesrus.com/Acoustic.html and I am sure that I have heard good reports on their stuff from UK members on this website - so they may be options for you perhaps? Items available from the USA usually sit at about $400+AUD, to which you add shipping and it becomes exspensive -particularly when the NZ shop sells the same item for $499NZ! If you want to play the EBay game you can get a bargain, but that tends to be the exception rather than the rule in my experience! http://stores.ebay.com.au/The-STRATosphere is one I have bought stuff from (Fender Tele Custom '72 body mint and the odd Fender parts) and they sometimes have the Fender Japan 12 string Strat bodies on sale, usually for about $450US approx.

In summary, I can give you the details of where I got the body from China, however I think that 'I could have done better' and wouldn't use that option myself again given the other options that are available.

Hope that helps!

[Bill Bowley]

At least we are very lucky to be safe and dry down here at the moment...

SO true 'Roach!

Keep that Strat dry Tony, look after yourself and yours too.

[John Boyd]

Hello Bill,
Thank you for your detailed response.
I'd completely forgotten about that NZ guitar parts supplier. I have actually bought a few bits and pieces from them in the past - It seems they deal mainly in AllParts stuff.
Did wander through eBay and there is a UK place selling bodies for around 68 pounds. I may investigate that a little further.
One other thing, I had also considered a project using a Bigsby tremolo and bridge - any thoughts on that idea.
Thanks again and cheers,
JB