I thought I would share a goofy project that I put together over the past week. My girlfriend is a member of a site called Freecycle. It's like craigslist but the items are free. Anyway she yells to me the other night that a member has placed guitars and an amp by the curb in the next town. It's like 9:30 at night and I figure what the hell lets take a ride. There was a pretty nice amp with a cover. It was a carlsbro lead 90 from the late 70s or early 80s and I grabbed it. There was also a Memphis Les Paul copy. Both the amp and guitar looked pretty grimy but I grabbed them anyway.

I took the amp home and took the cover off, cleaned the pots and it actually works pretty well. I will categorize it as a great find.

The guitar is another story. Apparently there were 2 types of Memphis Les Paul. One with a set neck that was decent and the other with a bolt on that may be the worst guitar ever made. Of course I have the crap one. I thought the body and neck were okay and it was black with binding that had yellowed nicely. Body is plywood, but with nice weight.

I ripped it apart and tossed the tuning machines, and electronics. The pickups were a joke, single coils with humbucker covers . I had a couple of humbuckers in the parts bin from guitars that I had that were flood damaged. I rewired it and put in the pickups and new strings. I also did a nice cleanup job with windex, furniture polish, car wax and more furniture polish. I put on strat style tuners, but I made them work. I put it all together and it actually plays pretty decent. Definitely not bad for a free guitar!

Check out the pics of the amp and guitar:

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Hello Kong.

Great job on the freecycling.
That Memphis,Carlsbro rig is a sweet Deal.
The world is a better place now.

Cheers.

Thanks Mr Bill and Nevin. You can't beat free and I love a project. I thought it was going to be futile, but the thing actually feels and plays pretty nice. I'm still a Fender guy though.

Mr Bill - I'm looking forward to Thankgiving dinner in your neck of the woods. I have dinner with my girlfriend's family who live on a farm in Washington's Crossing. Went there last year and the meal and day were great.

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Hi Kong,

I was just up the Crossing over the weekend
on a bicycle ride, it's nice over there. I'm about
12 miles westsouthwest in mega-burbia.
Have a great Turkey day and play that axe.

Cheers.

I've already posted about this on another board--but nice score--for free.

I never see that on my local freecycle.

I do see people who want guitars though. Maybe that's why none are ever offered...

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It wasn't Willy-Nilly, it was at crows.