Airline/Harmony/Alden H45 1959 - Modded

I originally bought this guitar on Reverb by accident. You know how it goes, it's late at night. You are scrolling. Someone has a listing of a beat up project guitar. You think to yourself, "I wonder what this lowball offer would cost after shipping?" Next thing you know you accidentally submitted an insulting offer. You try to withdraw the offer but too late, it's been accepted. :-)

So I bought this guitar and it was in bad shape. Raw wood, no finish at all. Original tuners didn't really work. Blobs of something on the headstock but no logo. Pickguard was broken. Electronics didn't work. Bridge wasn't original. You get the idea.

The stamp on the inside says "8396" which is an Airline model. Another stamp says, S-59-T which means the body was from 1959. But Airlines weren't made until the 60's. Maybe the body just sat around???

So, I decided to go with the Airline theme. I sanded the headstock getting rid of the goo and painted it with a black lacquer. I also plugged the holes from the original tuners and installed new tuners from Stewmac that had proper bushings. Now the tuners don't move around and are very reliable. The logo is actually an aluminum pin used for jackets or backpacks.

The neck is in very good shape. No truss rod on this one but it is straight and has just a little relief. The frets could probably use a little dressing but I have done nothing to them except a little polish and that was years ago. I added a shim to the neck so the break angle over the bridge works better (more on that below).

The pickup is an original hershey bar. It sounds just like it should. The pickguard is an original design that is sort of a Les Paul Jr/Telecaster Thinline mashup. I think it works for the vibe I was going for.

I moved the input jack to the side of the body and painted the body in clear lacquer. I think it was originally black or the TV yellow burst thing they did. I don't think it was red. But I can find no overspray from the original finish so who knows, maybe it was clear. Also, some of the photos make it seem more orange than it really is.

The neck on these is fairly narrow so standard tune-o-matic bridges don't work. The bridge is from a 1960's japanese guitar. I don't know what the model was because I just bought the bridge. I works similar to a Gretsch spacetone bridge. It is sitting on a Sorkin bowtie base. But, it could not be adjusted high enough so I made a custom bloodwood base. I put a block under the bridge on the inside of the guitar so that the bridge does not sink when using the vibrato.

The vibrato tailpiece is a genuine Bigsby B12. Yeah, they are meant for archtops, but I always liked they way they looked. With the bridge riser and the shimmed neck it works fine. No dive bombs but if you want a little twang its great.

Matt from Action Music once told me it was the best playing Stratotone he has ever tried. It is still a Stratatone so it is quirky and doesn't play like a modern instrument, but it is fun and funky and definitely a conversation piece. It just isn't getting the play it deserves so its time for someone else to enjoy it.

Let me know if you have any questions.