Kay Vanguard referb

[chuck7]

Hey all,

I really appreciate the tips and advice you guys had to offer and I wanted to share some pictures of my in-progress referb of the Kay Vanguard. 

These two show the body with the pickguard and bridge cover off.  As you can see the stock bridge sucks hard

Here is the back of the original pickguard.  Man, that cap is HUGE (physical size, not value)

And a couple of the neck once removed and cleaned:

Here are some pictures of filling redrilling and replacing the tuners.  The new ones are the Golden Age Restoration ones from StewMac.  I'm very happy. 

Next up, the new pickguard.  I failed to take pictures when doing the actual routing, but here are some of the materials and templates.  The material is the vintage perloid from Warmoth. 

Finally the bridge and some things ruffed together.  Again I failed to take pictures of grinding down or mounting the bridge.

Note, the bridge will not be exposed.  It still fits under the stock cover.  Also, I havn't routed the pickup hole yet because I'm waiting on the TV Jones Superton to arrive for installation!

Thanks again,
Chuck

 

[mgaut051]

sweet.

 

[blueruins]

I love those old guitars!!  Have you considered some chicken-heads or are those the original knobs?

 

[rapfohl09]

This is super cool! I wish I could find a guitar like this and breathe some new life into it.

 

[chuck7]

I love those old guitars!!  Have you considered some chicken-heads or are those the original knobs?

Those are new.  i do have the original ones and I'm thinking of using them instead.  I did consider chicken heads, but I decided I wanted to stick with something as "authentic" as possible.  The original knobs were made of a bakelite type product and appear to have been painted silver!  They are mostly black now due to years of ware, but they have those cool, kitchy old giant "T" and "V" marks on them.  Plus if you look at the underside they say "made in chicago".  So they look a bit worn, but I think I may put them back on insted of the new chrome knobs. 

 

[blueruins]

It probably has more to do with there being no pickup rout at the moment, but those knurled knobs make it look a bit like a Line 6 guitar...I'd love to see those original knobs back on there or something more vintage-ish...that is one cool little axe!

 

[johnmark]

Looking good man. Ive got one of these myself and am wanting to replace the pickup aswell..how did the tvjones end up working out? which mount did you get, how did it fit, did you lose the hum and what was the wiring like?
Thank ya sir..
JohnMark

 

[Nando Vallart]

Cool!!!

 

[chuck7]

Hey johnmark, I responded to your PM with answers to most of your questions.  As for how the wiring went - it was really simple.  Sense all the controls jacks, etc mount in the pickguard, it was really really easy.  I did do a treble bleed on the volume pot but out side of that it was just a dead simple 1 pickup - 1 volume - 1 tone setup.  I started with the correct wiring schematic off of Seymour duncan just to refresh my memory and then modified it to include the treble bleed.  My only mistake was I wired the tone knob backward!  I'll get around to fixing that eventually

 

[dNA]

that looks stellar! right on!

 

[trepstrash]

Hello, your restoration looks great!  I have one of these old Vanguards too, and want to replace the bridge.  I like what you did, and was curious what the manufacturer/part number for the bridge you used might be?
Thanks,
mt