This is my most experimental project so far: building a solid body jazz guitar out of an old acoustic. I tried this to get my hands on some lutherie work that wouldn't hurt a good guitar. But there's some history to this project.

I was directly inspired by JJ Cale $50 Harmony guitar. However poor the background of the artist, I cannot come up a another notable guitarist that got such sweet tone from that cheap Harmony. He started recording with it probably because he didn't have any money for a decent guitar, working in studios as an engineer he got a little cash and some more studio time on the side.

"Back when I could only own one guitar I played an old $50 Harmony -- a real cheap roundhole acoustic -- and I made all of my old records on it. Then it deteriorated through the years with touring and going on planes and everything, and I got into the position where I could afford several guitars. I played a Stratocaster for some time after that, and also me ssed around with Les Pauls and 335s. The Harmony was good because it was an acoustic guitar and that got me into songwriting."







"And how about that old Harmony [guitar] that we've heard so much about, do you ever play that anymore? I know you don't tour with it or anything, but do you ever mess around with it at home?
CALE: No not really. I took all the pick-ups back out of it. It was a very very cheap guitar and I modified the crap out of it. I took the back off of it and it fell all apart. And I played it and played it, it's in storage now, just sort of the bones, the carcass of what it used to be."

In this context, his first set *Really* was recorded in 1971 almost entirely with this guitar save for a rented Gibson on one or two tracks. Originally recorded as demo to be sold to other artists, the set was released only after money came his way with Eric Clapton's cover of *After Midnight*. I believe he bought himself a Stratocaster at this point, but continued recording with the Harmony.

Originally it was just an ordinary accoustic with a pickup and control plate as can be seen on the back of *Really*







Building my own



STEP 1: Getting the beast into shape

I had this old acoustic lying at my parents house It did have some serious issues: the neck had come loose because of the string tension. I first had to straighten the neck which is did very rudely by driving a screw from the inside out. First though, the back of the guitar had to go:



When the neck was straightened, the fret board popped up touching the strings. Reglued that very rudimentarily but with killer contact glue. Put the clamps on for a hour or so.



Strung it up to check playability and it had very low action initially. Fret buzz to some minor extent. After a few hours and decent tuning, the neck bent into shape and allt he buzz is gone. A lucky strike for sure




STEP 2: Electrification

Don't understand what JJ did exactly to replace the sound hole and mount the pickups. After staring at the ceiling for a couple of hours, I just grap some linolium carpetting that seemed solid enough and cut out hole for the pickup.

The pickup is two Jap Strat pickups (neck and middle) tied together humbucker style with duck tape.





I tested it and it sounds very deep and jazzy indeed. Also mounted jack and volume pot but testing with alligator clips for now. There IS a lot of noise using the pickup like it is, but putting a 0.047uF capacitor between signal and ground helps a lot and you want it dark but cutting still.







Next update, we'll be doing some onboard electronics and I will be looking to get some space to host audio clips.


Soon more!