1960s Saturn Videocaster
This is a super fascinating guitar with 4 pickups controlled in pairs. Each pair of pickups has a rhythm/solo (treble cut) switch, tone wheel, and volume knob. Each pickup has its own slide switch to enable or disable it.
The neck of the guitar had a nasty twist in it and the truss rod only warped the area around the 3rd fret so I set to remove the rosewood fretboard and see what was inside.
I was actually really taken back by what I saw since this guitar not only has a truss rod but it also has 2 steel bars as neck reinforcements. Typically guitars from this era will either have a truss rod or a steel bar but this marks the first time I've seen a guitar built with both. The neck appears to be maple and the wood between the fretboard and the truss rod is mahogany.
This type of truss rod is known as a compression rod because it works by having one end of the rod be anchored (in this case a half-circle nut stuck in a slot similar to the rod in my Kay Speed Demon) and the other have a nut and washer to force the rod to bend and move the guitar neck. These are generally not the best and there are more effective designs but this design pops up a lot in older cheap guitars.
I've already removed the compression rod and my next step is going to be to order a new, modern truss rod and install it. Then I will reattach the fretboard, plane it, and refret and the guitar will play and be more stable than ever
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