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Thread: Elliot Mechanic Broadcaster Clone

  1. #1
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    Elliot Mechanic Broadcaster Clone

    Here's a couple pics of the Mechanicland Broadcaster kit that Elliot was selling a few years ago. His parts are lightweight and the neck is chunky, much more so than the Fender 52 RI and Relics. Total weight on this one is 6lbs.






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    That looks sweet. I've owned a couple of Mechanic necks, and still have a slab board EM Strat neck with brazilian, they were really nice. :)

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    That's a sweet piece for sure!:nelson

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    PS

    If you ever wanna sell one lemme know.

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    Seems to be alot of interest from folks wanting Mechanicland Necks and Bodies. In retrospect, I wish that I had bought a few extras at the time they were available. I have another Elliot Mechanic Tele that has a Wahed Blonde body, along with a hugh neck. I put a white guard on it along with the Duncan Broadcaster Bridge and Alnico II Neck, white guard, compensated brass saddles and Vintique knobs. It's lighter than the Broadcaster Replica.
    At one point I spoke to Elliot Mechanic and he told me about Wood-N-Guitars. I ordered a refinished "Relic" Body along with a fat '52 Tele neck, which had a compound radius. It turned into a great guitarm very comparable if not identical with the exception of the compound radius fretjob to the Mechanicland stuff.

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    I have had almost every small aftermarket made body and neck available in the past 15 years. Mechanics stuff was pretty good. I know the guy that made them for him. However, they were not EXACT, but they were good. I would give the guys name, but he wishes to not get inquiries making copies of stuff from people. He still makes me an occasional body for me as he knows I am not a forger. Wood 'n Guitars on the otherhand was total garbage, and I gave him plenty of chances to make me somthing impressive. A couple of problems were:
    Pin router holes in a "Broadcaster" neck that exited through the face

    A "tele" neck that had a ridge running diagnolly the length of the fretboard. He simply pressed the frets into the ridge, so they too were distorted.

    A Strat neck with incorrect dimensions that could not intonate without moving the bridge.

    A Strat body that the pickup route template was set cockeyed on creating problems trying to use a conventional genuine Fender pickguard on.

    One guy that did a great job making bodies and necks was Kevin Smith at GLF. Now he makes custom guitars and some high end guitars for other comapnies, so he doesn't do that stuff anymore, well, not reasonably. He charges what the real thing would have cost you.

    Musicraft stuff is not accurate. You can't use all genuine Fender parts on them without modification.

    I B.Hefner has a nasty reutaion for making necks that don't work. Meaning lousy fretjobs and non-functioning truss rods.
    Last edited by Jim Shine; 08-01-2002 at 11:37 AM.

  7. #7
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    There is also an up and comer in the neck and body market who makes a strat neck with the nut slot cut .011 off. A simple cnc programming error. They forgot to compensate for the fret slots.

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    So spill the beans!

    Off towards the 1st fret or toward the HS?

    And who is it? I have a few partsocasters waiting for assemble/level/nut for clients and it would be helpful to know what to look for, if possible. email me direct if you prefer, i'd really like to know.
    philtone@erols.com
    www.philtone.com

    Thanks!

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    I had a couple Wood N Guitars necks, and I never had any problems with them. I had one on a mid '50's Strat body and it sounded and played fantastic. A buddy built a beautiful Esquire clone from WNG parts with a Rolph pickup and it is a killer guitar.

    I've seen a lot of Kevin Smith's work as I don't live very far from him. He does a good job.

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    That's disappointing that the WNG was not right. The one I ordered is fine and even came with a Money back guarantee.
    As far as the Mechanicland stuff goes, there was a lot of variation in the bodies and necks that were sold over the few years they were offered. I'd venture to say they came from several sources, because a few of the necks that I had were markedly different in terms of detail.
    I've had terrible luck with Warmouth and Hefner.

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    You are right in that there were several makers building the stuff for Eliot. The guy I am thinking of was making the inital batches. When orders flooded the place, Eliot had to source out to other builders to get the orders filled.

    The easy way for me to spot the difference in the bodies was the guy I know made a straight wire recess in the bridge pickup cavity and the others had several variations of L or J shaped routes.

    As far as Peter Florence goes, from my experience, he was all talk. Maybe he learned how to make guitars in the meantime. However, because I blew hundreds of dollars on stuff I couldn't use, I am afraid I will never give him a shot again.
    Last edited by Jim Shine; 08-02-2002 at 08:41 PM.

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    mechanic

    I have a mechanic v neck its very nice.
    I also have played and seen wood n guitars bodies and necks
    which looked ok to me I played one and it played nicely.

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    Hey Jim!

    Great to see you here, Buddy! To those that may not know him, Jim Shine knows his stuff! Regarding Peter Florence, I recently examined a couple late-'60's Les Paul flametop/humbucker "conversions" of his. . .Interesting stuff. Both were EXCEPTIONALLY heavy, color was a bit "odd", and the action was VERY stiff. . .I didn't have my glasses, so the details were lost to me:tw59 Overall, I was unimpressed, compared to an R8 Historic. . .

    Thanks for your insights, Jim - please post more over on the Les Paul Forum - we NEED more guys like you over there!!

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    Hey Joe! How are Lipman flametop conversions regarded? I remember he was doing them for Ed Roman for years before anyone ever really thought about doing that kind of stuff. I remember seeing some of them, but I was young and only into Fender at the time so I didn't really scrutinize it.

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    Lipman Conversions. . .

    . . .I dunno Jim - if I HAVE seen one, no one volunteered that it was one of his, if 'ya know what I mean and I think you do. . . I have yet to see a conversion that was ABSOLUTELY correct - maybe that's because if it WAS, what fool would CALL it a "conversion". . .??:p

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    Hey Joe, what are you reffering to when you say absolutly right?
    This biz has so much fraud going on that I am glad I can't do it right. Imagine how someone feels paying thousands of dollars for something and finds out it is phoney and worthless! I love ya Joe but I had to!!

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    I'm making my own now, they aren't anywhere NEAR 'right' if by right you mean so exact as to be indistinguishable. But they're MY guitars, I'm making them for ME, and I'm happy as long as they have what I'm looking for.
    You really don't know what frustration is until you've spent hundreds of hours building a guitar by hand only to find when you've got it all together that it's a tone turd, or the sheer joy experienced when you've spent even more hundreds of hours and somehow the guitar gods blessed it and it came out a winner. THAT'S satisfaction, my friends, and you don't buy it from Elliot or Lipman or Florance. You can't custom-order it.
    I may or may not be done with buying Gibson or Fender, but I do know that what I get out of my own guitars is a babillion(copyright 2002, Ganzman Enterprises) times more satisfying than what I get when I play a store-bought one.
    And the payoff is even more satisfying when you learn that nobody wants to show you the REAL nuts and bolts- they all want to keep all that info for themselves so they can capitalize on it, so you get to make your own mistakes and feel your own way pretty much the whole way.

    Oops, I'm ranting.

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    Hey Scott!

    No apologies necessary - Luv 'Ya, Too! What I meant by "right" is "to vintage specs", which we know is aiming at a moving target! My point above was, by analogy - "If a tree falls in the woods, and no one hears it. . ." If a conversion/replica is "exactly right" (moving target, I know) as in "fools all the experts", with ALL original parts, then is it a replica? Of course it is, just like we know that the fallen tree DID make noise, even if no one heard it. But we BOTH know that there ARE conversions/replicas in TBOTB book, whether their owners (and the author) know/knew it or not. In addressing my friend Jim Shine's query, my point was simply that I PERSONALLY have NOT been fooled by a replica/conversion/forgery - I say that tongue in cheek, since if it WAS that good, then the owner or dealer was not gonna volunteer it as NOT real. . .The "bar" for these is going up daily, thanks to the Internet, "Burst Gang", "BOTB", and sundry other information exchange. Don't you think that some of your reveneered conversions for Gary H. will SOMEDAY be attempted to be passed by SOMEONE as "Real Bursts"? We both know that there are ways of taking even an original P90 guitar and making those routes "go away". . . Here we are on the Fender Forum, talking about Bursts - Sorry, Lily & Dave! Yeah, hearts have been broken, and fortunes lost in the world of counterfeit guitars - and it's only gonna get worse (or better, depending on which side of the fence you're on!). Been going on for YEARS, in the Violin and Art worlds, respectively. . .Like a car wreck on the highway - we're all fascinated, and at the same time repulsed. . .

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    Ed if guitar building is such a mystery to you and it indeed sounds like it ( from your complaints all the time). Then sir, why don't you either go to some luthier school, stop complaining or stop building! I don't ever remember anyone telling me this career would be easy, your not going to listen but believe it or not some people are gifted in certain area's. I don't work on cars or do my own dental work! It is a big world out there and life to short to struggle with something that is defiantly not going your way. Guitar building picks you, you don't wake up one morning and decide to be a guitar builder!!

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    There's an interesting book called "Violin Fraud" by Brian Harvey, worth reading. Many of the issues that are discussed here on these boards have existed for centuries in the Viol world.
    The stakes are much higher.
    Fortunately, there is discussion, debate and documentation occuring early on in the Vintage guitar arena. This will make it increasingly difficult for someone to pass off an instrument as original, centuries from now.

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    The whole essence of life is to struggle with something that's not going your way- until it goes your way or until you learn to go its way. This is what's called 'learning'. People who weren't born to do a certain thing, or haven't discovered what that thing is yet, have to do that. If I give up when things are difficult I'll never learn a damned thing because that's always way too easy.
    I've learned I can't be taught- but I CAN learn. One of the things I've learned is that nobody's all that interested in sharing the knowledge. Another thing I've learned is that there's no easy way to share the knowledge, and that even if you do somebody else will tell you emphatically that it's wrong. He won't neccesarily give you the correct method but he'll make sure you know you're doing it wrong. That's not being directed at you, it's happened many many times over lots of things.
    Yet another thing I've learned is that no matter how much you try and pick someone else's brain, no matter how many questions you ask, no matter how much reading or research or digging you do, there's no substitute for actually DOING it. And you have to do it more than a few times to get it right. Admit it, your first set-neck guitar wasn't anywhere near the standard of quality that the guitars you're producing today are. Everyone's got to start somewhere, even the Naturals.

    What I'm really railing against is the fact that I don't have the time I want to spend in the shop, and where I live I couldn't spend all day in teh garage anyway due to the noise. I wish I could just be in the garage all day and most of the night- I'd learn a lot faster.

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    Ed I knew you had no appeitte for the truth, the very first neck set was on a 53 L.P. back in 85 and the guitar was sold for a unheard of $5000.00 at the time. You are arguing with the wrong guy.If you think everyone has to learn the same way you have missed it totally! Your constant mantra that nobody wants to share is getting thin,share what? What have you to give in return!

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    [QUOTE]Originally posted by Ed Rafalko
    [B]The whole essence of life is to struggle with something that's not going your way- until it goes your way or until you learn to go its way. This is what's called 'learning'. People who weren't born to do a certain thing, or haven't discovered what that thing is yet, have to do that. If I give up when things are difficult I'll never learn a damned thing because that's always way too easy.
    I've learned I can't be taught- but I CAN learn. One of the things I've learned is that nobody's all that interested in sharing the knowledge. Another thing I've learned is that there's no easy way to share the knowledge, and that even if you do somebody else will tell you emphatically that it's wrong. He won't neccesarily give you the correct method but he'll make sure you know you're doing it wrong. That's not being directed at you, it's happened many many times over lots of things.
    Yet another thing I've learned is that no matter how much you try and pick someone else's brain, no matter how many questions you ask, no matter how much reading or research or digging you do, there's no substitute for actually DOING it. And you have to do it more than a few times to get it right. Admit it, your first set-neck guitar wasn't anywhere near the standard of quality that the guitars you're producing today are. Everyone's got to start somewhere, even the Naturals. "

    You know what I learned? Ed's got me really confused...........

  24. #24

    Mechanicland necks

    I have one on a Gregg Rogers body. You can access the pics from the "Pics of your Strat" thread in the Strat section. I think it's a great neck. I wish I could find one as good with a rosewood board.

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    oh boy god has spoken again

    Gee isnt this america and cant anyone do as they wish?
    Im self taught so what I watched Mike stevens
    steve crisp zac berry all these guys are great at what they did.
    Some schools cant teach you what you want to know
    Id like to know of one that will show you how to make
    solid strat necks not maple caps....research time handson time
    that is key I think depending on what it is you are after.
    Passion for what you are doing ! dont let anyone tell you
    that you cant or you have to be chosen that is bullshit
    now are you going to ban me from this site too?
    who died and made you king ?

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