My Conrad's coming together

[spellcaster]

I've had a Conrad solidbody, late 60's or early 70's for a while. It was given to me, missing a bunch of parts and over the last couple of years, I've acquired everything it takes to make it right.....except the bridge/tremelo tailpiece. I'd almost given up hope of finding one when I got tipped off a few days ago about an eBay auction for one....missing the arm (which I have), but complete with the ashtray top cover, and looks to be in decent vintage condition. The auction will be over in a couple of hours and I'm determined to win.....I've already bid an insane amount of money and will do whatever it takes. So, here's wat I'm working with.......




Not a great picture - it's too late at night for me to start moving a dozen cases to get at it right now - but it's potentially a nice vaguely Stratish body, although there were some startling differences when I held the Conrad body and a Strat body side-by-side. The weird thing is, this is a 25" scale, just a little shorter. Two single coils (the correct Maksumoto pickups) that cost 'way too much money on eBay. I have the original pickguard, pots and harness, pickup switch, and rhythm-solo slide switch, so it'll be correct (if a bit of a partscaster, lol).

I used to have an identical guitar with the Toledo brand name on the headstock. Apparently some of the Maksumoto-manufactured Aria guitars were marketed as "Toledo"s in Canada. I remember it being a fairly high effort guitar, but I had no clue about setup then. I might(?) have tried adjusting the bridge height, but it was never intonated, never had the truss rod tweaked, and I'm sure it had 12's or 13's on it. I'm pretty sure I can make it a happier guitar this time around. By the way....Having owned one before is the only reason I have a tremelo arm: Apparently I neglected to give it to the guy that bought my first one. For years, I've been puzzling over what the heck this arm is....I thought for a long time it was a Strat, but the threaded side was too short. Now after all these years, the mystery is solved...

[Fussel62]

I remember you looking for that special tremelo some time ago. I think to find find one was a huge amount of luck. Congrats and I hope you'll get it in the end.

[spellcaster]

It's mine.....and I'm happy, but I wonder whether I should be celebrating, lol. I just paid 170.00 for a bridge for a guitar just like the guitar I sold for 35.00. I guess this is a case for Guitar Economics 101....

[YeahDoIt]

I don't remember seeing a Conrad guitar before. Thanks.

[die Bullen]

cool- can't wait to see this come together.

On Guitar economics, we all do that on occasion...

[Fussel62]

It's mine.....and I'm happy, but I wonder whether I should be celebrating, lol. I just paid 170.00 for a bridge for a guitar just like the guitar I sold for 35.00. I guess this is a case for Guitar Economics 101....

Welcome to the club, SC! I paid 179 € for the Bigsby I mounted onto my 99 € semi acoustic 335 style guitar.

That Conrad bridge looks completely different from all Strat type bridges I know. Who is CONRAD? It hasn't any connection to Conrad Electronics or has it?

[spellcaster]

Conrad was one of the brand names built by Maksumoto. They actually built some credible stuff. Here's a list:
************************************************** ****************************
Matsumoku:

Exclusive: Arai, Aria, Aria Diamond, Electra, Stewart, Tempo, Ventura, Westbury

Contract Manufacturing for: Columbus, Conrad, Domino, Epiphone, Greco, GUYATONE, Ibanez, Washburn (Wing-and Stage-series), Westone, Yamaha

Sales Brands: Arita, Barclay, Cimar, Custom, Dia, El Maya, Fell, Gallan, Gigan, Hi.Lo, Howard, Lindberg, Lyle, Luxor, Maxitone, Maya, Mayfair, Montclair, Pan, P. visitors, Raven, Sekova, Skylark, Univox , Vision, Volhox

************************************************** ****************************

That bridge is definitely different.....It uses a single spring on the underside of the bridgeplate which is adjustable in tension by turning a screw that can be accessed from the top. That's what the second hole in the ashtray is, beside the slot where the arm screws in. I seem to remember that this trem stayed in tuned reasonably well on my first one, although I didn't use it much.

[Fussel62]

Yeah, there are quite a lot of names under it I've heard about.

[spellcaster]

One of the things I'll have to sort out is what to do about a carrying case. I tried it in a Fender Deluxe Strat case and a Fender Custom Shop case, and it's too long. Weird, because the neck's slightly shorter than a Strat, but the body's a bit longer. Right now, when it's in storage, it lives in a Yorkville Sound 335-style case that's 'way too big in every way. I've been mulling over the idea of building an insert to make the interior of the Yorkville case the right size and shape for the Conrad. Anybody ever tackled doing this to make a odd-size guitar fit? I'm so buried in this guitar that I can't imagine ever spending more dough to buy an original case, even if one magically became available. And I think I used up my share of luck on this one when I found a correct bridge after all this time. The weird thing is, after waiting so long to find a bridge, just before the auction on the one I bought ended, somebody listed another one....although it's in tougher shape and has no ashtray cover or arm. What are the chances of that happening, lol?

[Teleblooz]

Get a decent gig bag & call it good.

[spellcaster]

Since a lot of my guitars spend a fair bit of time in storage because of space constraints, cases are an issue for me. And, I find guitars don't stack too well in gig bags, lol. Serioiusly, I've never used a gig bag.....The two guitars that came with them, I gave the gig bags away 'cause I just don't feel like they offer adequate protection.

[Fussel62]

I only use cases as well. The are safer.

[spellcaster]

I only use cases as well. The are safer.

I call gig-bags "relic-makers".

[Fussel62]

It works on house corners, door frames etc.

[spellcaster]

LMAO!

I pulled the Conrad out last night and had a fresh look at what needs to be done. The original harness is intact and mounted in the pickguard, with only the replacement pickups and the output jack to be connected. When I got the guitar, only the bottom plates were there and soldered to the shield. No idea what happened to the originals or why the plates were removed.



You can see in this picture the subtle differences in the body shape of the Conrad and a Strat.



It's just a waiting game now. When the tailpiece gets here, I'll put it together, string it up, and take a trip down memory lane.

[Teleblooz]

I only use cases as well. The are safer.

No argument there, but after the umpteenth gig lugging hard cases around I switched and never looked back. I might change my mind if I ever get back to only taking one guitar to a gig. After 3 years of using (high-quality) bags I haven't added a single ding to my guitars.

[Lilblackduck]

That Conrad is awesome!!! I have a 335 Conrad copy,it has that same roller style bridge. Mine is missing the trem arm, otherwise she's complete. It also has 3 P90 type pickups, 3 tone 1 volume, a 5 way, and a 2 position switch. I have found very little info on this guitar, other than its a late 60's or early 70's. It also has a 2 piece neck, split down the middle. Never seen that before.

[spellcaster]

I used to have the twelve strings version when I was a teenager, although I didn't keep it long when I discovered it needed to tune down a step-and-a-half and wasn't much good for lead guitar. I found the same guitar about seven years later in a pawnshop 30 miles away and bought it back. Very well made guitars.....

[Hu Duck Xing]

"building an insert to make the interior of the Yorkville case the right size and shape for the Conrad."

Go to a fabric store. You can find some fairly dense foam, some material that's like case-lining, and some spray adhesive. Piece of cake!
FZ would have called the peghead "Bulbous!"

Edited to add; Cutting the foam is easiest with an electric carving knife. And,,,, let the adhesive really dry, and off-gas before using the inserts.

[spellcaster]

The bridge/tremelo tailpiece arrived yesterday and looks to be in great shape. I'll probably be putting the guitar together in the next few days. I need to go for a 40 mile drive to buy strings though.

[die Bullen]

You have got to start stocking up on strings, SC

[spellcaster]

I actually bought a bunch of strings not that long ago and thought I was set for a while. Problem was, when I changed the tuners on the DuoSonic, I kept breaking high E strings and having to rob sets. I just checked and I now have seven sets of 10's with no high E string. I keep looking on eBay hoping to find someone selling single E strings, but so far no luck.

Got a few things to do on the Conrad in the meantime. I'm going to bring my power polishers and rubbing compounds home from work and I'll random-orbit the pickguard, as it's pretty scratched up. And, I still haven't soldered the new pickups into the harness. Also want to go through and clean pots and slide switches. It's been almost a year since I last did anything with this guitar and I have a vague memory of there being an issue with the pickup switch - loose and floppy, with no detents, if I remember correctly. If that turns out to be the case, I have a new switch in stock that I bought for my Les Paul, and it should work as a replacement. I'll probably dig into it after I pick up up my tools from work in the morning.

I need to figure out where to buy some lemon oil locally. The fretboard was so gunked-up when I got the guitar that the only way I could get it clean was with mineral spirits. It worked, but it's left the rosewood looking really dry and washed-out. Any thoughts on what kind of store sells real lemon oil.....Is it a hardware store item, a paint store thing, or....?

[die Bullen]

How about this:

D'Addario PL010-5 Strings: Shop Accessories & Other Musical Instruments | Musician's Friend

On Lemon oil- furniture restoration places near me have it- I don't know about hardware stores

[spellcaster]

I've looked at ordering from Musicians Friend, but they only ship to Canada by UPS which means big brokerage charges.

[die Bullen]

Any music store near me carries single strings.

Alternately on MF's (or any website's) shipping charges to you- remember you are paying time and using petrol to drive to these stores that are far from you so it might still be worth it to order- but only you can know this. If the UPS charge is $40 for a few loose strings I'm sure I wouldn't order but if you are talking $5-10 that's cheaper than driving to pick them up. Just make the order count!

[spellcaster]

It's a tough call. UPS doesn't charge brokerage if the value of the shipment is under 20.00, but the idea of paying 16.00 - 18.00 shipping on under 20.00 worth of product seems wrong. And once the value of the shipment goes above 20.00, the brokerage charge is around 40.00. I've been told by a UPS employee that the brokerage thing is a real profit-center for them....It takes under five minutes and nets them twice what the actual delivery does. On principle, I won't help UPS bend me over.

[spellcaster]

I'm just getting into the electronics, and my thoughts about the pickup switch were right....The toggle, which I don't think is original, is pooched. I dug up the original switch from my Les Paul, which has a nicely aged off-white switch tip. It's a little soft feeling in one position, but I think I'll use it. It's a little deeper, but there's enough body depth to dremel out what's needed.

I had some reservations about originality, but in the end, I decided that this is a partscaster....The pickups came from another guitar, the tailpiece is from a second guitar, and the tremelo bar from a third. I'm going to foil the cavities while I've got it apart.

I'm curious about these pickups....I initially though they were conventional single coils, but while researching the guitar, I read that they're P90's. It would be neat if they are, but I'm not sure how to tell the difference. I know from asking elsewhere a few years back that the design difference is that the normal strat-style alnico pickup has individual magnetic poles under the strings, while a P90 has one large magnet across the bottom, much like a humbucker. There's no way to see the bottom of these pickups because there's a very large and substantial-looking base plate on them, but rather than seeing pole pieces on the top, there are screws. Does anybody know if the presence of screws is proof that they're P90's?

A couple of pics so you can see. The first pic isn't mine....It's an identical pickup with the cover removed from an eBay ad. The second shot, of my pickguard, shows the baseplates.

[spellcaster]

I just discovered that the volume pot's a B500K. Two things...this makes me think the pickups might be P90's which should optimally have a 375K pot. It's not a big stretch to imagine an MIJ manufacturer in the late 60's or early 70's subbing a 500K. Second, B500K means it's a linear taper which I think is wrong. Shouldn't a volume pot be an audio taper? The tone pot's an A500K, so that'll be fine. I guess I'll try it and if it doesn't work out, I'll have to change it.

The stupid little things take the longest....There's a rhythm/solo slide switch that mounts to the pickguard with microscopic nuts and bolts, and of course, all the electronics had to be dismounted to do the shielding foil. I spent almost two hours trying to put the switch back in. In the end, I magnetized a pair of jewellers tweezers to hold the nut and that did the trick. Working on guitars is teaching me patience......

[spellcaster]

The old LP switch turned out to have issues, so I cannabalized my Les Paul. The good news is the switch is very slightly smaller and fits the cavity without modification.

The pickguard is wired, with only one small glitch - The shielded cable on one of the pickups was shorted and had to be replaced....otherwise, routine.

The body cavity has been foiled and I'm getting ready to insulate the foil on the bottom with liquid electrical tape. I should be able to assemble it later tonight.





My inital tap tests with a screwdriver on the pickups when I tested the loaded guard confirmed my earlier concerns about that volume pot.....Almost all of the action is at the top of the control, so I'm going to need to change it to an audio taper. The other curious thing is that this guitar has never had a string ground. If it seems warranted after I've played it, I'll add a string ground when I upgrade the volume pot.

[Teleblooz]

I'm assuming when you say "string ground" you mean a ground wire running to the bridge, right? I think you can safely assume that it's warranted.

How close are you to the border? If it's not too far, maybe you can hop over to Bellingham or something on a day trip and pick up a boatload of strings. There's got to be a music store of some kind in the area, right?

[spellcaster]

Yeah, I'm talking about the ground wire to the bridge. When I first noticed that there hadn't ever been one, I got thinking about other older MIJ guitars I've owned. My first ZenOn (which I still own), my Guyatone, my Toledo solid body, my Toledo 12 string .....none of them had a bridge ground wire. When I look at lots of the big 335-style guitars that have a floating bridge, I can't see how they can have a string ground, unless it's somehow connected to the screw that holds the trapeze tailpiece. Is it possible that it's a more recent inovation but didn't happen on older electrics?

I'm not really close to the US....Well, I am geographically, but not in terms of getting there. I'd need to drive 40 miles to a ferry terminal, take a two hour, 80.00 ferry trip, and then drive about twenty miles from Vancouver to the nearest border crossing. It's been 35 years since I crossed into Washington State, but I think I remember Bellingham being several hours driving from the Peace Arch crossing. It would be a lot closer (40 miles) to go to Victoria or Nanaimo....I'm just really nervous driving the Island Highway.....

[spellcaster]

Here's a weird one..... I just posted a Wanted-to-buy ad on the VintAxe Forum looking for a headstock logo. When I posted a picture of the headstock to illustrate the logo mounting hole spacing, something showed up that's very difficult to see when you look at the guitar.....



Can you see the faint outline where the finish has aged around the logo area? It looks a lot like a big T or perhaps a graphic that had a name superimposed over it. Now I'm having an identity crisis....Is this thing really a Conrad, or is it something else? It's definitely a Matsumoku guitar, but what brand? Hmmmm.......

[Teleblooz]

Spooky - it's like one of those "Ghost Hunters" shows...

Ooooo-weeeeee-oooooooooooo...

[spellcaster]

Well, it's together and it plays. It's already a much better playing instrument than my first guitar of this type. Lower action, lighter strings, etc. It feels a lot like a Strat to play, but soundwise, this one's unlike anything else in the stable. Very nice sounding, although very microphonic pickups!

There's still a lot of setup work to do....I haven't intonated it yet, and I have a hunch that I might be able to lower the action even further by shimming the neck. I suspect this would benefit from a new nut, as it undoubtedly had much heavier strings on it originally. Shaping and slotting a new nut is beyond my capabilities (not too mention my selection of tools) so if it seems worth pursuing, I'll send it to my luthier. These pickups are very sensitive to height adjustment and after it's intonated, I'll probably crank them up and experiment. The shape of the top of the pickups is much more curved than the arc of the bridge and fretboard, so I'll likely have to adjust the pole screws to compensate.

A couple of glitches to solve.....This is the only guitar I own that's RF-sensitive. While I had it plugged into the Twin I listened to an extended conversation between two nearby marine VHF radios. I wonder if the lack of string ground is related to that. Also, it needs new tuners.....badly. Lots of backlash, and a great deal of slop where the worm gear shaft rotates in the tuner body. Tightening screws did nothing to solve this....The tuners are just worn out. Not much point in buying another set of original tuners as they'll probably be just as bad. However, these are trapazoid-shaped and having eyeballed it, I think a set of the seventies style Fender F-tuners might bolt right on and use the same mounting holes. I'll probably buy new ones after I get back to work.

This has been a fun project and a real trip down memory lane for me. I think, with a little more tinkering, this would be a great guitar to gig with.

[Teleblooz]

Beautiful job. Not sure what's causing the RF sensitivity, but running a ground wire to the bridge certainly can't hurt (and costs nothing to try).

Funny - now that you pointed it out, I can't NOT see that shadow on the headstock. Kinda reminds me of a "Thunderbird" key fob I had as a kid.

[die Bullen]

great job SC. Would you consider potting that pickup to cut down its microphonics?

[spellcaster]

Thanks, dB. I know potting the pickup probably would be the best thing to do, but I'm a little hesitant.

Yesterday, I got curious about what would be involved in changing the pickup covers, as the originals should be black surrounds with white insets. These pickups, although they're the right guts, have the surrounds that you'd normally find on a Makumotsu-build 335-style guitar. Assuming I could find the right covers, I'd like to change them. Anyway, when I tried to slide the cover off, I coud feel scraping inside, which I assume means the covers are pretty snug against the wondings. Having heard what can happen when the metal cover is pulled off a Tele neck pickup (quite often the windings are damaged), I was afraid of the same thing happening. Since I'd just spent 100.00 for the pickups, and didn't have the right covers to put on even if I got the old ones off, I decided not to chance it.

If I ever do find the correct covers, I think I'll send the pickups to a pickup winder in Ontario that I've used before and have him change the covers and pot them for me. I had this same guy sort out an original Fender Wide-Range Humbucker for me a couple of years ago that somebody had unsuccessfuly tried to do a four-wire conversion on. He did a difficult job really well and charged me 15.00.....Probably the best deal I've ever gotten on guitar work that I had to farm out.

I've got to be careful just how much more I invest in this......The last set of the correct pickup covers that were sold on eBay (and I missed 'em by a week!) went for about 50.00, I need to do a set of tuners which is probably another 50.00 for a set of F-trapazoid Fenders, and I need to replace the nut somewhere along the line. I got the incomplete guitar for free, but I've spent 270.00 for the pickups and tailpiece. I just saw an Epiphone ET-270 (same guitar with a Gibson-style headstock) go for 463.00 on eBay, so there's definitely a ceiling on what I should spend.

There's lots to tinker with for a while. I think I'll try the neck shim....I've dropped the bridge down as low as is practical and I think I'd like to lower the action further. The neck is straight enough, and the fretwork good enough, that I should be able to make this the equal of any of my Strats for playablity.

[spellcaster]

Now that I've had a couple of days to play it, I'm really happy. These pickups are great! If they weren't designed for very narrow string spacing, I'd look for another set for a build. Adjusting pickup heights has helped a lot, although I think I'll need to try lowering the bridge pickup a bit....I'm having some trouble keeping the G string tuned and I think it may be how close the pickup is.

I'm still thinking about tuners. i discovered that I have five the same in my parts bin, but they're off a 3x3 headstock and the usable ones are canted in the wrong direction. However, I've also compared the stock tuners with the Fender F-trapezoids, and it appears they would fit if I need to sub the originals. I'm still looking for a manufacturer who makes reproduction tuners for the old MIJ guitars. If you guys know of a source, please let me know.

[spellcaster]

Made a breakthrough on the headstock logo with the help of a friend on one of the vintage forums. The Conrad isn't actually a Conrad at all.....it's a Raven. Check out the thunderbird shape and pin spacing with my blank headstock picture above. It's perfect! Thanks to Electraglide on VintAxe for his help.

[Spike Strider]

Nice! I've never heard of a Conrad or a Raven. Interesting stuff