software

So for all the trouble of helping my sister move all her sh!t out of her old apartment, I got my pick of some of the junk she no longer wanted and couldn't be bothered to haul to her new place. Which, among a bunch of coasters from an adult bookstore, included this

It came in a very nice case, which contained extremely old strings, a strap, a Niel Young unplugged chordbook (that's my sister), and some instructional material from when my sister took lessons.

Bad first... the tuners are miserable, cheap plastic things, one of which disintigrated in my hand (substituted later by a pair of vice grips). Two of them are not quite as crappy (but still crappy) adjustable tuners. The strings had to be 20 years old, and the high e was replaced with a nylon string (that's my sister for you once again ) the top is caved in about 2mm... so I was reluctant to tune it all the way up, I've got it tuned 2 steps down now (with medium strings). A peeling pickguard was remedied by doublesided tape

Now for the best part of the axe... the back. Apparently quilt maple sandwiched between rosewood I guess... the axe actually has nice binding throughout.

Anyone heard of Hikare? Apparently quot;Made in Korea, Designed in Hawaiiquot; according to the label. It has an illegible model name added in blue ballpoint pen.

Funky adjustable bridge, (like on my takamine, except uglier, with gratuitous plastic dots.) It's made of I think rosewood, cleverly painted black to look like ebony.

Same with the fretboard. Also has Gibbo quality block inlays in the worst use of the word, but Hikare didn't have enough money to splurge on filler The frets are rough.

disintegrated tuner and 2 replacement tuners, apparently the others already exploded. They're all crappy.

As for how it sounds... not bad actually! Nice, mellow and rounded, which granted is not how I like my acoustics to sound (I like more open, chimey axes) but hey it was free.

I might actually see a luthier to see how much clamping the top and setting it up will cost... It plays nice too, bends are nice and slinky (though rough from the frets) and I don't think it's just cause it's downtuned...

So that makes five acoustics in my possesion, two of which have caved in tops, none of which are good enough for me not to GAS for something else My old 76 Takamine comes closest to cutting it (it's in remarkable condition considering how old it is...) but I hate the neck (tapered... uggh)

The worst part... my hands are so sore from moving all her sh!t I can't even play it Slade

Set it up for slide, with a nice open d tuning...

Cool, I don't know anything about it but it sounds OK.

I've been given a few beater guitars, I like the challenge of making them playable...


Originally Posted by More-Gear-Than-SkillSet it up for slide, with a nice open d tuning...

hmm... not a bad idea

slade

Free stuff is always really cool... plus, this thing doesn't look half bad... would be cool if you could make it playable... enjoy and have fun....

Congrats! Free is cool!

I would go for the slide setup as well (don't play slide, though). Could be fun.

You can never argue with free gear. It'll be fun tinkering around with it, too. Great score, Slade.

I thought that was cool form the moment I saw it but in later days I've been thinking as to what I would do to such an instrument, should I happen to be graced with free gear.

Get it some good tuners and get a nice bock of wood right in the sound hole, you'd have to take the top of and the put it on again but get a block that would be larger than the hole (to give that top some resistance). Then put a single coil in the. Add a concentric pot (vol/tone) and maybe a switch to get series parallel. I bet it would have a cool sound.

I'm starting to consider buying the cheapest steel string I can find and do this as a summer project.

Just an idea I thought was worth sharing.