Abused old Silhouette Special - back to life

[Axilla]

Hey folks,


already showed off my first Ball in my very first thread, but only the last days I got to take some better photos of my beatup ol' faithful...

That's what she looked like when she arrived here:

Lotsa wear and tear on that beautiful finish, completely f*cked up & non original electronics, big hole from a 2nd output jack the former owner drilled in for a piezo, neck & frets completely wrecked, ...

I met up with our (tech) forumite Mick:
- defretting, sanding, neck refret job (back from super jumbo to original), new oil & wax finish
- completely new electronics installed on a "moonstone" pickguard (thanks again, Beth!) featuring a DiMarzio ToneZone in the bridge and two Chris Kinman '56 AVn "single coils" in the neck & middle positions
- body polished, 2nd jackplate with dummy/bridged 2nd output jack (you never know when your jack will fail on you - especially when you're currently not gigging ) and a complete setup...

Voilà the outcome:

...was born 30th March 1995, saw 10 years of gigging in sort of a fulltime party dance band, several makeovers, refrets & Co. Has taken away many scars, but is swung in and plays like a freakin' dream.
That's about IT

Was my first ball - LOVE OF MY LIFE

 

[greenwizard]

Nice guitar Axe!
And great job Mick!!

 

[candid_x]

Great save!

 

[southpawmax]

"Cash only & f*ck you"?? lol
you call it a silhouete spec, but the headstock says sihouette!
either way, gorgeous axe, and great job with the restoration!

 

[BigTony]

That looks really nice, love the new scratchplate and knobs. Love the pics too,

'Cash only and F**k You'. Classic!

 

[mbgreene]

That's just flat out Sweet

 

[ivanmihaljevic]

Amazing, these pics look like 2 totally different guitars

 

[Axilla]

"Cash only & f*ck you"?? lol
you call it a silhouete spec, but the headstock says sihouette!
either way, gorgeous axe, and great job with the restoration!

...yepp, it's a Silo Special with a strange neck, but according to Jon (asked quite a time ago) there were a few delivered like that in the mid nineties...
Sports the 22 frets after all and not the original Silo's 24...

 

[beej]

Great job. Good karma points there.

 

[JSX]

awesome guitar, love the color!

 

[robelinda2]

love the pickguard, moonstone is cool!

 

[tristan]

extraordinaire work !

 

[threeminutesboy]

The trem is weird are you sure it's an original ?

6 screws instead of 2

I love the pickguard and the color very nice

 

[Astrofreq]

That is AWESOME

 

[roburado]

Axel, that's fantastic!!! I love it!!! It looks great!!!

 

[lock-ny]

the trem is original, those were the trems they used back in 95, the saddles are newer though, those trems came with different saddles, guitar loos great BTW, outside of the name, whats different about the neck axilla?

 

[Earplayer]

great work axel!!! (the moonstone pickguard looks fantastic...) thumbs up!!!

 

[Axilla]

the trem is original, those were the trems they used back in 95, the saddles are newer though, those trems came with different saddles, guitar loos great BTW, outside of the name, whats different about the neck axilla?

...also to answer threeminutesboy's question:

No, the trem is not original. The guitar originally had an MM Wilkinson VSV trem back in '95 which the previous owner decided to replace (I wonder why - they're pretty shytti...) with a Rockinger Vintage type with plain steel block and steel saddles. However - as I don't use the trem on that guitar, it is blocked.
The neck is the old standard Silhouette Special neck. Pretty meaty and absolutely great to play - nuthin' beats well worn in instruments

 

[Colin]

I love these kind of threads, great job

 

[Mick]

Thanks for all the kind words. Nothing better as saving a messed up guitar and bring it back to life.
This one was a real player´s guitar with lots of wear.
Saved.....next one already in the shop(lavender pearl! Not until next week)