0:00
on today's all acoustic ask Zack we're
0:03
going to look at this baxendale harmony
0:06
conversion guitar from the ' 50s and
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we're going to look at some of other
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conversion guitars that I have and we
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are going to look at my old waterl wl1
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14 from 2016 that I refinished and hot
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rotted with extra pickups
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[Music]
0:34
well hello friends and welcome to ask
0:36
Zack today is an all acoustic episode
0:39
and uh we're going to uh we're going to
0:41
look at this harmony baxendale
0:44
conversion from the uh mid to late 1950s
0:47
a
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h162 I believe and uh really great
0:52
guitar we're going to talk about this
0:54
process and uh of course also I'm going
0:57
to look at some of the other conversions
0:58
I have and like I said we're going to
1:01
look at my old uh waterl guitar that's
1:04
actually only about 9 years old and I'm
1:06
going to talk about all the uh the hot
1:08
rotting the refinishing and the relicing
1:11
uh adding pickups to and and all that
1:13
stuff so uh I thought we would uh put it
1:15
all together for this uh all acoustic
1:18
episode of ask
1:20
Zack of course as always I need to thank
1:24
my patreon members I need to thank
1:26
everyone that's hit the like button and
1:28
subscribed and you know put money in the
1:31
tip jar and uh bought a t-shirt or a
1:34
coffee mug I thank you for your
1:37
support let's dive in so just a little
1:41
back history and then we'll talk about
1:42
the process so Harmony guitars has been
1:45
around since well originally was around
1:48
from about the the late 1800s until
1:50
about 1975 and then in 2018 the the name
1:54
was bought and it was
1:56
restarted but the original company made
1:58
guitars in Chicago Chicago and they were
2:01
owned by Sears for a while then they
2:03
became independent again and they made
2:06
guitars under a lot of different names
2:08
so they made guitars under the harmony
2:10
name they made guitars under the
2:12
silvertone name I mean all sorts of
2:13
different you know names they would you
2:15
know because they would uh they would
2:16
make stuff for different stores and such
2:19
you know they would make silver you know
2:20
they would make silver tone guitars for
2:22
seers and uh yeah so one thing that
2:26
became
2:27
popular you know that well started to
2:30
become popular a decade or so ago was
2:34
these conversion guitars where people
2:37
started realizing that these old harmony
2:40
guitars were made out of really good
2:42
wood and they had a Nitro you know lacer
2:46
finish on them but the problem was is
2:48
that they didn't play great and then a
2:50
lot of them had really heavy ladder
2:53
bracing and what people started doing
2:57
was they started converting them because
3:00
these guitars could be picked up pretty
3:02
cheap many times you know this is back
3:04
when these guitars were $100
3:06
$200 and then they would pour a bunch of
3:09
work into it because it takes a lot of
3:11
manpower to uh convert these
3:14
guitars um but it's you know what you
3:19
would call you know kind of a green
3:21
process because you're not having to
3:23
spray more finish and you're not having
3:26
to you know there's there's minimal
3:29
addition wood that's used so uh it's
3:33
it's really kind of a cool thing it's a
3:35
cool way of giving these old guitars a
3:38
new life now there are those that uh
3:42
that think it's kind of a strange thing
3:44
to do and that uh just leave the guitars
3:46
alone let them be what they are but you
3:49
know there's a lot of us that really
3:51
like the fact that these old instruments
3:53
are able to be revitalized and to
3:56
sound arguably you know better
4:00
so so let's talk about you know the
4:03
process that these instruments go
4:05
through so these instruments basically
4:08
get dis disassembled so the neck comes
4:11
off they take the back off the guitar
4:15
and the bracings which were ladder
4:18
braced which basically means you have
4:19
these straight pieces of wood that just
4:21
kind of go across here like that they
4:24
remove the ladder bracing and they put
4:26
in the X bracing which is what you know
4:29
a mark or a Gibson would have a higher
4:31
unless we're talking about like a an lg1
4:35
Gibson which had ladder bracing uh but
4:38
so they changed that out uh many times
4:41
the bridge and the saddle gets
4:44
replaced then they glue the back back on
4:50
and of course carefully have to fix the
4:52
binding and such and uh which they did a
4:55
really good job on this one has some fun
4:58
kind of tortoise shell looking uh
5:00
binding maybe it's just Brown no I think
5:03
it's tortois shell and they also remove
5:07
the neck and they do a neck reset which
5:09
many times has to be done to make them
5:11
play halfway
5:13
decently then they remove all the Frets
5:17
they plain the
5:18
fingerboard and then they refret it they
5:23
also remove the old tuning machines and
5:26
they put these kind of uh you know these
5:29
are these are are Grovers but the uh
5:31
they put different types of open gear
5:34
highquality tuners on there and it
5:38
really opens the instruments up now part
5:42
of the controversy here is that some
5:45
people like the sound of ladder bracing
5:48
which is kind of a a more midrangey kind
5:51
of sound but a lot of people have really
5:54
gotten used to xracing and like that so
5:57
this of course has been X braced and uh
6:00
I'll just play it a little for you now
6:12
[Music]
6:58
so what you end up getting is especially
7:00
with this this
7:02
model you get uh really in the ballpark
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of a uh you know an OM 28 and this is
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you know this is a 50s uh guitar you
7:12
know it's got Spruce this is a you know
7:15
nice Spruce top and uh you know good
7:18
mahogany back and sides and and neck so
7:22
uh yeah I think it's a really cool
7:26
process I think it's a really cool thing
7:28
so again this was done by Scott
7:31
baxendale who is one of the guys that's
7:33
really innovated on this one of the
7:36
reasons I did this is because Scott has
7:38
been kind of a he has been watching the
7:42
show he's uh he comments and watches
7:45
most of the ask Zack episodes and so uh
7:49
you know I thought it would be fun toh
7:51
kind of Spotlight him and also because I
7:54
had I had done a thing with with Dan
7:56
Lambert with the with the B Owen's
7:59
guitar that uh that he uh you know fixed
8:02
up for me so nice to you know kind of
8:06
spread the love around and I think these
8:09
guitars are really great alternative to
8:11
buying a new instrument um you know
8:14
they've been
8:16
completely redone as far as the guts uh
8:20
they play great uh now I'll just admit
8:25
right here I like my action really low
8:28
and so because this is not my guitar
8:31
this is something that Scott sent me
8:32
just to check out um you know he has it
8:36
set up for someone that plays a little
8:38
more heavy-handed so the bridge is
8:39
higher than I would like it and also the
8:41
nut is too and so to just kind of Bring
8:44
the Action down a little bit I've put a
8:46
capo on the first fret just to kind of
8:48
bring it down a little bit but uh yeah
8:51
it's it's a really great instrument and
8:53
of if I if this was my guitar then I
8:55
would just take it down to Glazer shop
8:57
and they would bring down the n a little
8:59
bit and they bring down the saddle a bit
9:01
but of course that's also going to
9:02
affect the tone of it and
9:04
everything so let's
9:07
uh let's let's look at some some other
9:11
you know things one of I mentioned you
9:12
know Dan Lambert of course uh and and
9:15
this gets kind of into some
9:16
philosophical aspects of this so some of
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these guys like like Scott I mean he
9:24
Yanks all the uh the ladder bracing out
9:27
and goes xracing
9:30
however you know Dan Lambert out of El
9:34
Paso Texas he prefers to keep the ladder
9:37
bracing but to do some recontouring of
9:40
it and make it less heavy and so you're
9:42
able to kind of keep the ladder braced
9:46
sound but uh kind of just enhance it
9:49
some so because there's very much a lad
9:52
BRAC versus xracing
9:54
sound
9:56
um and then let me just before I hit on
10:00
the uh the waterl I also want to
10:03
revisit uh this fun mandello kind of
10:08
conversion thing that Scott baxendale
10:10
did
10:12
so this let's be careful not to drop
10:16
anything so this is a little K guitar
10:19
that was like a student model and the
10:21
problem is is that the neck is pretty
10:23
narrow and it doesn't really work well
10:25
for a six stream conversion but they
10:28
figured out that uh if you ganged up you
10:31
know and did courses of strings you know
10:34
you could turn it into a mandello kind
10:36
of instrument so depending on the type
10:38
of strings you use you can have
10:39
different tunings and such now I really
10:41
like the way Scott sets these up he uh
10:46
he puts an octave string on this on this
10:50
second course here and I have mine tuned
10:53
down um where my low string is an e and
10:58
uh it just has a really fun nice sound
11:02
also this one has a a K&K pickup that uh
11:05
came that way from the factory and I
11:07
think this one was done when um Scott
11:09
was still in Georgia yeah this one's
11:12
Athens Georgia so here you can hear a
11:15
little bit of this the small bodied you
11:17
know kind of fun little
11:20
[Music]
11:42
so this is a really fun instrument also
11:45
so of course they had to plug some of
11:48
the holes you know because this was a
11:49
six string guitar and they put uh you
11:52
know eight open back tuner well two
11:54
strip tuners on there and then of course
11:57
they again they took the back off and
12:00
they uh you know put the X bracing and
12:02
if you want to do a deep dive you know
12:05
on this I did a whole episode on this uh
12:07
you K mandello conversion by
12:11
baxendale so
12:14
now just to kind of uh pull this around
12:19
I thought it'd be fun to talk about I I
12:22
have a waterl wl1 14 and before I show
12:26
it I'm going to talk about it a little
12:28
bit so I bought it
12:30
in 2016 because uh JD Simo had one and I
12:34
just kind of fell in love with it and
12:35
it's the latter braced version and so I
12:38
bought it and have used it a ton you
12:43
know it's been my really my main
12:44
acoustic guitar for n years and I've
12:48
traveled with it I've even thrown it in
12:49
a gig bag and flown with it and uh it's
12:54
a great little guitar and my one
12:57
complaint about it
13:00
was that well one again it was my first
13:03
ladder BRAC guitar but my only complaint
13:05
about it was that the Finish really
13:06
wasn't cracking or doing anything
13:09
interesting and I'm not hard on my
13:11
guitars but still it was just one of
13:13
those things it's like why isn't the
13:15
Finish correct CU I had taken it all
13:16
over the US and and such and it you know
13:19
and it wasn't like it had some thick
13:22
finish on it or something like that but
13:25
you know sometimes late at night you do
13:26
stupid things and I was was complaining
13:30
to uh you know my my friend that will
13:34
shall remain
13:36
unnamed and uh and he said well let's
13:39
see what the Finish is like on there and
13:41
so we took a little bit of acetone and
13:43
we went to like a small area of the back
13:46
and we wiped it and finish came off but
13:50
it was really kind of granular looking
13:52
it was kind of it was interesting and so
13:55
my you know which I was fine with that
13:58
the thing I didn't want it to to be
14:00
where the acetone didn't do anything cuz
14:03
that means it's poly you know some type
14:05
of polyester or you know based finish
14:08
you know kind of a plasticky thing and
14:09
there's even
14:11
Nitro that won't come off with acetone
14:14
and comes off in sheets of rubberized
14:16
plastic and it's supposed to be Nitro so
14:20
at that point I kind of you know was was
14:23
just going to be like okay that's the
14:24
way the instrument is I'm just going to
14:25
go with it but because it was late at
14:27
night
14:29
we ended up wiping the entire top of the
14:32
guitar and part of the sides and like
14:34
the the front of the headstock we ended
14:37
up doing just going wacko to the point
14:42
that we even reshaped the headstock
14:45
crudely and uh my friend hand painted
14:49
Gibson on there in the old
14:54
logo so here it is so this was a you
14:59
know waterl wl1 14
15:02
TR and so yeah this is Ladder braced and
15:06
has a uh a truss rod adjustable truss
15:09
rod and uh I love this guitar and now of
15:12
course it has a uh a old school black
15:16
Nitro finish on it that's also been
15:18
heavily reliced this has been in a
15:20
freezer um you can see you know where
15:24
you have this is this is mostly original
15:28
finish that has been kind of like
15:30
thinned and kind of wiped away some and
15:33
uh and then of course we replaced the
15:35
pit guard the original pit guard was
15:37
white which was cool I mean it was it
15:39
was a great looking instrument and but
15:41
again this was the uh this is what
15:42
happens late at night when we should
15:44
have been uh I don't know what we should
15:46
have been doing but uh this is this is
15:49
what happened and then also I'm a u you
15:52
know probably most of you know if you've
15:54
been watching the channel I really uh
15:56
you know John lenthal is a
15:59
an influence on me and uh I really like
16:03
what he does on acoustic guitar and
16:05
electric and one of the things he does
16:07
is he does this kind of dual pickup
16:09
thing and so I I did the same thing uh
16:14
on on this guitar because this is this
16:16
is my main you know gigging acoustic and
16:19
so when I bought it I had a K&K mini put
16:23
in there and that was the only pickup
16:24
for a long time and then I decided I
16:26
wanted to do the John lenthal thing
16:28
thing which is basically you run a uh
16:32
some type of Saddle
16:33
transducer through a direct box you know
16:37
live or in the studio you just mic up
16:40
the the instrument and then you have a
16:42
sound hole pickup that you run through
16:45
pedals and then run it you know through
16:48
an amp and uh and so live it's a really
16:52
cool thing because you're able to take
16:55
up more space as an acoustic player and
16:57
you're also able to
16:59
compete uh with electric instruments
17:02
because you are electric you're kind of
17:04
half electric half acoustic and you can
17:07
you know kind of choose how you mix it
17:09
how how loud your amp is you know
17:12
compared to your direct sound which is
17:15
more of your true acoustic thing so uh
17:18
yeah so I've got this fisherman
17:20
humbucking pickup um this is the rare
17:23
earth humbucker and which is nice
17:26
because it has a uh it has a little
17:27
volume control on it and so that helps
17:30
me kind of mix that in and then I and
17:34
then most acoustic Jacks Are stereo
17:36
already and so I have the K andk
17:39
attached to it and this
17:42
pickup and then I run this stereo Y
17:46
cable so it's a stereo you know TRS to
17:50
dual you know dual monos and so one of
17:53
them is marked K and K which that would
17:55
go to the direct box and this other one
17:57
would go to the pedal board and the amp
18:01
and uh this is a really cool thing
18:03
especially when you're an acoustic
18:05
player that you're wanting to be able to
18:07
solo and kind of compete with electric
18:09
instruments or you're just wanting to
18:11
bring different
18:12
textures um you know and different kind
18:15
of sounds because it sounds it basically
18:17
basically sounds like two instruments
18:19
almost because you kind of have the
18:20
acoustic thing going on then you have
18:22
this very electric thing that a lot of
18:24
times you put like some tremolo and
18:26
delay on it and uh and if you want to do
18:28
into that more I've done interviews with
18:30
John lenthal where he's talked about
18:33
this whole thing that he does
18:36
but getting back to the
18:39
uh the whole um lad brace xrace things
18:43
these instruments are available either
18:45
way and so I really liked the lad
18:48
bracing and so
18:55
[Music]
19:25
so hopefully you've been able you're
19:26
kind of able to hear the kind of ladder
19:29
braced thing which is a more mid- rangey
19:32
thing and it's kind of Less open in a
19:35
way and you know you you kind of T tack
19:38
that on with a smaller bodied instrument
19:39
and you get a really kind of focused
19:42
instrument so again this this is a a
19:46
great guitar that I really enjoy playing
19:48
a lot and now I don't know what to call
19:50
it now because of course now it it says
19:52
waterl in the sound hole but then it
19:54
says Gibson on the on the headstock but
19:57
it's it's you know it's still kind of a
19:59
waterloop so I guess it's a Waton or a
20:03
gialo I I think I'm going to call it a
20:05
gialo
20:07
so all right well I think that's enough
20:10
for today hope you've enjoyed our
20:13
acoustic focused episode I hope when
20:16
you're thinking about an acoustic guitar
20:18
you will think about some of these
20:20
conversion instruments like uh Scott
20:23
baxendale and Dan Lambert and there's a
20:25
guy I think his name is James Burkett
20:27
that's down in brette down in Alabama
20:30
but I think these guys are really doing
20:32
really great work and they're really
20:33
taking these old guitars that you know
20:36
for so many people they would just be
20:37
wall art and they you know I've seen
20:39
these things hanging in studios for
20:41
years and now those instruments are
20:43
being converted and turned into real
20:45
instruments and they're cool you know
20:47
they're really cool they have a cool
20:49
look and Vibe and they're old wood and
20:52
now the uh the labor and uh is being
20:55
poured into them to really make them
20:57
great instruments
20:59
all right guys well I hope you've
21:00
enjoyed today's episode and I'll see you
21:01
next time bye-bye