Howie Coleman's '83 Epiphone Emperor Tailpiece Refit

Rockabilly guitarist Howie Coleman (Class of '58) gives his beloved axe some love after 25 rockin' years on the road! Here's a note from Howie:

Hi Steve,

We bought a tailpiece off you recently and as promised here's the photos of the guitar with it on! We really loved the fast and co-operative service provided, we apologise for not being as quick as you, in replying!!

The guitar is a 1983 Epiphone Emperor and has had a hard working life. She has been on the road consistently for the last 25 years. I originally changed the synchromatic tailpiece virtually straight away, mainly for 2 reasons.The first being, that with the long headstock and the short length of the split tailpiece on the bass strings, at the time getting strings long enough was a real pain! And the second reason was that I wanted a tailpiece like a Gibson L5 (like Elvis' guitarist Scotty Moore, in the early days) - the real reason if I'm totally honest with myself was probably mainly the second reason!!!! She started life with a block inlay on the fingerboard but after a bad re-fret, which ruined the fingerboard, I had to get the fingerboard replaced, and it was cheaper to have dots rather than block inlay. The L5 style tailpiece never really seemed to fit and as I suffer from real acidic sweat (too much information, I know!!) a lot of the metal parts got severely wrecked. In real life, it's a hell of a lot worse than you can tell in the photo I've sent. All of a sudden I'm middle- aged and realise she deserves better and decided to put her back closer to her original state, hence the trapeze tailpiece, which I suppose is a cross between the two - clean lines without the metal. Actually, the wolf-tones are not as bad as they were before, either. I suppose the bottom line is, although not vintage, she's possibly one of a kind - being a cross between a 330 and an L5. No matter, she's all mine - and I wouldn't get rid of her, anyway!!!

Hope I don't sound too much like an anorak!!

Catcha' Later,

Howie Coleman

The Class of '58 (50's Rock 'n' Roll band)

Peter Bower's Daphne Blue "Tele" project

DIY Guitar Shop customer Peter Bower based his beautiful Daphne Blue Tele Project on a Saga ST-10 he purchased from us.

Read more about it on Guitar Attack.com.

Simon Young's B-Bender "Esquire" project

Simon Young, singer from the London-based band Sonny, built a B-Bender Esquire-style guitar using the DIY Guitar Shop DKT01-A Ash Body Guitar Builder Kit. Here's what Simon wrote about his project:

"The inspiration behind the B-Bender Esquire was, no surprise, the ex-Byrds, amongst others, guitarist Clarence White who used the Parsons-White B-Bender to great effect on his Telecaster. Two significant moves though were to build a one pickup Esquire (because I don't use the neck pickup on the Tele) and rather than use the very expensive Parsons-White B-Bender, use the Higgins Peg-Bender - which also does the job rather well at a fraction of the price.

I bought one of the ash bodied Tele kits from DIY Guitar Shop – and very well constructed they are too. Ash, I believe, was used for early Fenders before they switched to alder and other woods. Even the current American Standard Tele's are alder still, but the custom shop bodies are often ash – which says something. To make it an Esquire I bought a new pickguard, a vintage style bridge, and also upgraded the pickup (no doubt the original would have been fine, but my brother who would use the guitar most has a custom-shop Fender Nocaster so is used to the very best!).

The first thing I did was to varnish the body. Steve at DIY Guitar Shop gave me some advice on guitar finishes and I decided to give the varnished look a go as it would prove to be the easiest and cheapest option. I sanded the body first and then varnished it with Ronseal Diamond Gloss Walnut Varnish. I did three coats on back, front and sides and lightly sanded between each. Finally I put a couple of coats of Ronseal Ultra Clear Varnish to finish it off. The result is a nice warm colour and you can see and feel the texture of the wood. It may not be the traditional guitar finish but I like it a lot and would do it again. For the neck I just used two coats of the Ronseal Ultra Clear Varnish. Though applied with a brush, you hardly notice the strokes on the finish which is really very good indeed.

Before final construction I drilled holes for the string ferrules as I decided to go with a string through body. This is not difficult as long as you prepare properly. Construction was straightforward and took little time, and after setting-up and installing the Higgins Peg-Bender it turned out to be a really great looking, playing and sounding guitar.

I couldn't recommend one of these kits more highly if you're interested in making your own custom guitar – and it's easy too with a bit of forethought and care. I'm already planning the second – a Tele with coil-tapped humbuckers and a Bigsby!"

Visit the Sonny MySpace page at

www.myspace.com/popgroup

Welcome!

We're glad you made it! We set up this blog mainly as a quick way of showing off your work, and letting you know what's happening at www.diyguitarshop.co.uk. We have had great response to our DIY guitar builder kits (DKT01A, DKS01A, etc) and have been happy to receive many great emails and pictures of builds. As quickly as we can, we'll post what you've sent in. I'm excited to see all of the great work in one place. I'm sure you'll be as impressed as we are.

In addition, we'll be letting you know about new products and info to help you build the guitar in your imagination. Stay tuned!

Best regards,

S F Thompson