The LONGO

[mike_C]

howdy friends,

got an interesting one for all y'alls enjoyment here that i lucked into a few weeks ago. fairly certain it's home made and nicely done at that.

it's "labeled" LONGO and apparently came out of a yard sale in western mass. a few years back. according to guy i got the guitar from there was a Carvin catalog from the late 50's inside case. that, pickup, and pickguard do sort of scream 50's to me.

the workmanship that went into building the guitar is very fine. the body is a single piece of nicely flamed maple. same goes for neck which also has some beautiful figuring to it. the fretboard is rosewood obviously ... neck is 1 3/4" wide at the nut but not as deep as you might expect - having a chunky "C" shape instead. the neck is set though there are two plugged holes that i suspect cover screw heads. the neck is straight as can be but there doesn't seem to be a truss rod. i wonder if there's a non-adjustable truss rod within?

the bridge seems also home made and is adjustable.

one of my favorite things about the guitar is it's pickguard! it's made from a honkin' thick piece of firestripe bakelite. pickup is a modified Dearmond 1000 Rhythm Chief (measures 16.5k !?) that has been incorporated into design of guitar, with "monkey stick" gone and controls being fitted into guitar body instead of original Dearmond control box. good stuff!

guitar sounds really cool as is - the pup and it's placement compliments guitar's maple construction nicely which is generally bright and well defined. i need to have a new bridge saddle made and also need to figure out how to how to get a steeper string break angle at bridge ... like i mentioned neck seems straight as is. wonder if guitar will need a neck reset to accomplish this?

i figure guitar was custom made for a fingerstyle/jazz player taking into account neck shape and choice of pup and it's placement.

btw there is a Longo builder in Maryland. haven't written him yet to see if he recognizes guitar.

there's a few more pics here:
http://s1237.photobucket.com/home/rocke ... rstLogin=1

best to everyone,
m

[Riotonsunset]

[Spud1950]

What a unique guitar! Beautiful workmanship. Your readout on the pickup is rather interesting. I've seen other readouts on the Dearmond 1000 Rhythm Chief on a pickup makers forum that put them around 10.5 K ohms resistance with some slight variations, but never anything near your 16.5 k reading. Of coarse these days, no one who knows the value of these pickups would ever perform such surgery on one. They're worth too much money, typically selling for around $700-$800 in nice original condition.

[mike_C]