There's something about florentine cutaways that screams boutique guitars.
Which is why this humble Greg Bennett GA-100SCE caught my attention.
I have always wanted to get it as a project guitar. To see how much I can pimp it up to look like and sound like its boutique counterparts.
Finally got hold of one recently.
Honestly I thought the guitar already looks good on its own.
Silky solid spruce top with dark streaky mahogany back looking extra gorgeous under the polished polyurethane finish.
Took off the old strings, steel-wooled the frets, lemon-oiled the fingerboard and the makeover begins.
The black plastic pickguard had to go. But I was worried. And my hunch was right.
Tanlines. Darn! Took an awful long time to clean up the glue residue too.
I have always loved the look of rosewood pickguards (Taylor 814 and Yamaha FG5). So took the gamble to get one from Taobao.
Got a fitting one on the 2nd try! Check out the rosewood pickguard!
Peak into the internal landscape; the workmanship looks magnificant for a budget guitar! Smooth braces with no glue residues!
Plastic saddle changed to bone and plastic pins changed to ebony. I had put in bone pins initially but tone became too harsh; tone was warmer and more pleasing with ebony.
Tuners were swapped with gotoh 510... style gold tuners.
Was thinking of cutting a sound port but with the fishman preamp installed, I thought it would look weird.
So I guess one has gotta know when to fold.
Check out the makeovered guitar!
Tone-wise, I thought it sounded like a Takamine! That bright yet gentle tone that accentuates the singer's voice. Ideal for acoustic vocal accompaniment but less so for fingerstyle.
Testing out the Isys T preamp with piezo pickup.
While it's never meant to be a keeper, now that it looks gorgeous and sounds great after the makeover I can't bear to let it go.
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