Celebrity internal bracing
Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2010 12:29 am
I've shown the interior shots of my Celebrity-III, serial number K0772. Tonight I dug into another Celebrity-III, serial number K0426 and made some very interesting discoveries.
The pots in K0426 are dated the 7th week of 1966 which would be the 3rd week of February, 1966. My first Celebrity-III, K0772 only has a smal 1 X 3 block in the center of the guitar under the bridge.
K0426 has two parellel bars running the full lenth of the top on each side of the pickups. They are 1/2" X 1/2" and are the long skinny bars in blue, in the drawing. At the rear of the bout is a block spanning across these two bars and is 1/2 X 3 X 5 inches, also in blue.
Down the center of the bout, on the back is a bar 1/2" X 1/2" traveling the full length. It is the skinny red bar in the drawing.
At the top of the guitar where the neck joins the bout is a block 1 3/4" X 3 1/2" X 5". It is in red in the drawing. There is a slot cut out for the neck joint and that is shown in green.
I was very surprised to see all of this bracing in a guitar that is about 350 pieces before my other one. I'm pretty sure this red Celebrity was built before Semie received his patent on the tremelo (March 1, 1966). As I've collected photos of guitars I noticed a long stretch of serial numbers with only trapeze tailpieces and no trems. Now I wonder why he changed the bracing. Too much work? Interfered with the tremelo? Cost cutting?
I have not played this guitar yet. I plan to photograph the interior as well as all of the components and then put this back together. Once it's strung up I will be very curious how it sounds. My first inclination is that with all of this bracing there may be an increase in sustain.
What do you all think?
The pots in K0426 are dated the 7th week of 1966 which would be the 3rd week of February, 1966. My first Celebrity-III, K0772 only has a smal 1 X 3 block in the center of the guitar under the bridge.
K0426 has two parellel bars running the full lenth of the top on each side of the pickups. They are 1/2" X 1/2" and are the long skinny bars in blue, in the drawing. At the rear of the bout is a block spanning across these two bars and is 1/2 X 3 X 5 inches, also in blue.
Down the center of the bout, on the back is a bar 1/2" X 1/2" traveling the full length. It is the skinny red bar in the drawing.
At the top of the guitar where the neck joins the bout is a block 1 3/4" X 3 1/2" X 5". It is in red in the drawing. There is a slot cut out for the neck joint and that is shown in green.
I was very surprised to see all of this bracing in a guitar that is about 350 pieces before my other one. I'm pretty sure this red Celebrity was built before Semie received his patent on the tremelo (March 1, 1966). As I've collected photos of guitars I noticed a long stretch of serial numbers with only trapeze tailpieces and no trems. Now I wonder why he changed the bracing. Too much work? Interfered with the tremelo? Cost cutting?
I have not played this guitar yet. I plan to photograph the interior as well as all of the components and then put this back together. Once it's strung up I will be very curious how it sounds. My first inclination is that with all of this bracing there may be an increase in sustain.
What do you all think?
