89 Nightbird II after some TLC

wdboland

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Hi All,

As some of you may remember, back on 4/20/19 GAD made the post 'Nightbird II on eBay. Three was a discussion about the HB1 pickups being current NS, as they were. Also it was pointed out that some of the hardware was not original, the tailpiece and strap buttons.

p6xkubJ.jpg


Well as it happens I was the one that ended up with that gem. Unfortunately the problems went a little bit beyond the discussion here on LTG.


1. One of the previous owners had frankensteined the bridge
2. The frets need to be dressed
3. It needed a new nut, someone had filled the slot for the D string as deep as the Grand Canyon.

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The following are the parts that are original and cleaned:

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I was able to acquire the following parts from Hans, your the man: a period correct stop tailpiece, strap buttons, and knobs. I had a bridge laying around from a previous project that never happened. I bought a pair of SD Benedetto A6 pickups, personal choice. You really can't see it in the picture, but I made mounting adapters so I would not have to drill a hole in the pickup ring. Two thing that make me nuts, ruining a guild pickup ring by drilling a hole in it to mount a non-guild pickup, and using a pot that is to small for the hole. Then try to make up for it with washers.

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New controls: volume/tone are both push-pull, the volume coil splits the neck pickup, the tone the bridge. Also a phase switch.

So, here it is. As close as I can get it to period correct.

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walrus

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Wow! Great work, and a great post! I love the grain on that top!

walrus
 

GAD

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Having restored a couple of Nightbirds, I know how tough it can be to find parts and how rewarding it is to get one finished. Congrats and great job!
 

Quantum Strummer

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Very cool! Reminds me (again) that I should get going on spiffing up my Nightbird. The current iteration of this involves two volume pots, a Gretsch-style tone selector switch (but with more sensible cap values) and a set of early "red dot" HB-1s.

-Dave-
 

mavuser

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that is beautiful, very well done and A+ on the rescue! im sure Hans was happy to help make that right.
 

wdboland

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Thanks to all for the kind words, it's easy to justify bringing these guitars back to or close to period correct shape.
 
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