The rescue of an el degas

Talk about and show off your El Degas instruments here.
Post Reply
ian1739
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2009 11:38 am

The rescue of an el degas

Post by ian1739 »

Hello from Ontario!

I'm sure the "purists" will have an issue with my story, but I like to think of it as saving an El Degas from certain death rather than butchering a nice musical instrument.

I was driving home from work the other day, which happened to be garbage pickup day, and what do I see on the side of the road, atop somebody's trash waiting to be picked up? An acoustic guitar of course. Without hesitation I slam on the brakes and jump out. To my horror the head had been snapped clean off the end of the neck of the guitar. :( I was about to set the guitar back down when I remembered I had an old Epiphone head from a friend's broken acoustic he was throwing on the bonfire many years previous. So why not, I take the broken guitar home. With a bit of chiseling, wood glue and epoxy I was able to revive this old El Degas classical guitar! See the pictures, unfortunately I didn't take any before I began the project but you get the idea. The head certainly does look out of place, but it works which is all that matters!

Image

The model # has faded beyond recognition, if I had to guess it would be GL43 but I'm really not sure, anybody else know? Made in Korea. Anybody have an approximate year?

Image

Image

Image

Image

Okay so I know it's not too pretty right now, but I didn't want to waste time sanding, etc if the head was just going to snap off as soon as tension was applied to the strings. If it holds for another week or two I'll put more effort into the cosmetic side of the guitar. I sanded and tung-oiled the first and 18th frets just to see the how the grain looked, and will certainly do the rest of the fretboard next string change. It looks and feels great, much better than the black paint.

Image

The guitar has a very nice sound, especially with all things considered..!

Image

So that's it so far, I'll update once I've done some more work. Cheers!
-Ian
User avatar
charles
Site Admin
Posts: 1722
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:00 pm
Contact:

Re: The rescue of an el degas

Post by charles »

Ha ha, that's great. She look a bit worse for wear, but the tung oil treatment and clean-up should make her pretty again.

I don't think you're in danger of running into any purists here :wink:

And hey, if it all goes badly you have a new boat oar to go across that lovely lake! :shock: :lol:
I started ElDegas.com many years ago to help celebrate and inform about El Degas instruments. It all started with a used Ric 4000 bass copy I bought in circa 2000.

El Degas stable as of 03/2022: 42 :shock: (13 bass, 26 electric, 3 acoustic)
ian1739
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2009 11:38 am

Re: The rescue of an el degas

Post by ian1739 »

haha yeah i have a '73 Mercury 850 outboard, which means I can never have enough oars! That's lake Simcoe too, which means I've had to paddle from quite a ways away!

Nice site you run here, I was amazed at how little information there is on El Degas online, I mean it's the internet, come on! Great to see this site tho, and the variety of El Degas instruments that I never knew existed! Fantastic !
User avatar
charles
Site Admin
Posts: 1722
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:00 pm
Contact:

Re: The rescue of an el degas

Post by charles »

Thanks :)
I started ElDegas.com many years ago to help celebrate and inform about El Degas instruments. It all started with a used Ric 4000 bass copy I bought in circa 2000.

El Degas stable as of 03/2022: 42 :shock: (13 bass, 26 electric, 3 acoustic)
User avatar
Barry
Posts: 1045
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:31 pm
Location: St. Catharines, Ontario Canada
Contact:

Re: The rescue of an el degas

Post by Barry »

Hi Ian...WOW!
Talk about an heroic effort! Well done my man. Good on ya!
You've just created something wonderful outa junk! Purist or not, if it's firewood it ain't worth spit.

Yeah these guitars are an enigma alright. And Charles is slowly going bonkers trying to put it all together! :mrgreen:
Enjoy.
"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." --Chuckles the Clown
M U S I C : https://getback.barryeames.com
G U I T A R S : https://legend.barryeames.com/
Image
User avatar
charles
Site Admin
Posts: 1722
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:00 pm
Contact:

Re: The rescue of an el degas

Post by charles »

Barry wrote:And Charles is slowly going bonkers trying to put it all together!
GOING??

:P
I started ElDegas.com many years ago to help celebrate and inform about El Degas instruments. It all started with a used Ric 4000 bass copy I bought in circa 2000.

El Degas stable as of 03/2022: 42 :shock: (13 bass, 26 electric, 3 acoustic)
Post Reply