Dan Beller-McKenna
From:
Durham, New Hampshire, USA
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Posted 20 May 2012 2:54 pm |
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Tomorrow I will begin tearing down the Fender Artist S-10 that I picked up a couple of months ago. I'm going to get everything cleaned up and take care of one or two things I'd like to improve on the guitar. I was taking some measurements today and marveling at the plethora of holes in the underside (while also despairing over how I am going to keep straight which are the "right" holes when I go to reassemble everything). It is as if someone had moved all the pedal and knee levers around, but completely randomly. There are also two holes on the outer back apron down near the keyhead which were being covered by a Fender logo sticker when I got the guitar.
Most of these holes on the underside are at the pedal end of the guitar, as seen above, although there are a few nearer the changer end. Some seem to involve moving cross bars closer to or farther from the end-plate, while others seem to involve moving brackets closer two or farther from one of the aprons. There are also holes on the inside rear apron (see below), but none on the inside front apron.
The existing bracket on the back rail holds the cross bar for the left knee left. Although it is barely visible, you can see that it is covering up one stray hole just above the bracket.
While pondering these holes in particular, the whole history of the guitar suddenly clicked for me! Someone had converted this axe to be a lefty, then someone else put it back. The holes in the rear apron are exactly where the first and third pedals' stop brackets would be, but on the wrong side of the guitar. The LKL cross axle bracket is covering up the holes where the second pedal's stop bracket had been. The most telling holes on the underside are those where the knee levers stops are reversed. This explains the strangest stray holes on the underside, which are tucked away between the changer and the front apron; exactly parallel to the current position of the RKR stop bracket:
Having figured all that out, the holes on the outside of the back apron suddenly made sense: the logo plate on the front had been moved there. The holes are 3.25 inches apart; a perfect fit for the logo plate! Whoever did the switch apparently was going for the Fender cable PSG look, which would have the logo on the front left.
So, mystery solved. Now, the $64,000 question. I bought this guitar off Craigslist in Bakersfield, CA. Does anyone know a lefty steeler playing there, probably more than fifteen years ago (I think my seller owned this guitar about that long), possibly one who played a black Fender Artist S-10?? The guitar is from the mid '70s, so this person would have owned it between then and the early-mid nineties. Of course, the axe may have started its journey somewhere other than Bakersfield, but that's all I have to go on.
Dan |
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