Does anyone on here know anything about guitars?

I've had this guitar forever and I just pulled it out of my moms basement because it looked really sad and beat up and doesn't deserve to I wanna supe it up and attempt to make flashbulb quality level IDM with it. Its got this weird bridge that I've never understood because it makes no sense. Look at it:

 

Is this a normal bridge? I was into guitars when I was a teenager and don't believe I've ever seen another guitar that had a bridge be the same piece as the pickguard. I was expecting to see screw holes underneath the hammerhead looking part the strings are supposed to sit on but alas:

 

No holes. 

Is this the way its supposed to properly be set up? Does anyone know if I'll be able to find a replacement for the bridge / pickguard? Also, this guitar has no markings on it at all. My dad once told me it was a Fender bullet but it doesn't look like other bullets I've googled. Anyone wanna take a shot at guessing the model?

 

Very weird hybrid looking thing. Tele head and Tele type bridge (except for being one with the pickguard, like on some Bullets). Body's too narrow for a Stratocaster and looks like it has a slightly offset waist. Body looks more like a Musicmaster or a Mustang, but the horns are too long and pointy.

 

I'd say it's a Bullet with a couple of mods, the major one being the dual cutaway. Some Bullets were made with the more Strat looking body, but I haven't seen those with that type bridge before. The humbucker in the bridge position is probably also a modification.

 

The paint job looks like it was done at a later stage, with the same colour on the body, headstock (covering any original logo) and even the neck pickup itself and the bridge pickup mount. That colour was not an original Bullet colour.

 

Is it full scale like the Strat, or a smaller, student type guitar a la the Musicmaster?

 

More Bullets:

http://uniqueguitar.blogspot.no/2009/09/fender-bullet-guitars.html?m=1

 

Edited September 14, 2016 by psn

  On 9/14/2016 at 3:46 AM, andihow said:

flashbulb quality level IDM

 

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 11:16 AM, BCM said:

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 3:46 AM, andihow said:

flashbulb quality level IDM

 

 

 

 

What a masterpiece

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 11:16 AM, BCM said:

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 3:46 AM, andihow said:

flashbulb quality level IDM

 

 

 

it's good to be realistic

pretty impressive that he can play a guitar upside down but maaan that is some shameless squarepusher rippin right there

also... not fender

 

 

also... flahbulb

also...   

Funny how that guitar is both green and blue.

There may or may not be more info in the neck pocket, if you take off the neck.

  On 9/14/2016 at 1:09 PM, perunamuussi said:

also... not fender

Why not? Looks a hella like a Fender Bullet, no?

  On 9/14/2016 at 6:10 AM, psn said:

Is it full scale like the Strat, or a smaller, student type guitar a la the Musicmaster?

 

Its definitely smaller than a strat, and I'm fairly certain its an early 80s bullet now, from looking through this thread and seeing bullets with the same body head and bridge type. Only weird thing is I can only find the black pickguard on the guitars with the tele body like in your pic. Maybe someone pulled the pick guard off the body of the other one and switched it onto here? Anyways, now I'm trying to figure out how to replace the little rusty spring guys that go into the bridge. Then I'll restring it (cheers perunamuussi) and be ready to bulb out.

 

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 11:43 AM, bitroast said:

"I rock rhymes over beats on the real tip" gets me every single time.

 

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 1:53 PM, Barbe said:

There may or may not be more info in the neck pocket, if you take off the neck.

I'm terrified to do this, isn't it really hard to re-align the neck properly without all the weird tools and shit for it?

Yah, don't forget to update this thread with tracks of your guitar wankery.  Just like, 15 minute tracks of scale riffing in octuple time.

  On 9/14/2016 at 2:10 PM, psn said:

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 1:09 PM, perunamuussi said:

also... not fender

Why not? Looks a hella like a Fender Bullet, no?

 

 

 

 

i thought all bullets had the strat style angled jack socket. also they were never strat style body with a tele style head. also no logo insignia. machine heads not right. neckplate would be engraved no? alternate scratchplate style. i suppose somebody could customise a bullet.

 

occam's razor: most likely generic japanese strat style copy

 

bullets were pretty crappy anyway 

also: flahbulb

  On 9/14/2016 at 2:46 PM, andihow said:

I'm terrified to do this, isn't it really hard to re-align the neck properly without all the weird tools and shit for it?

nah, I've done it plenty of times, nothing to it. The end should fit pretty snug in the join and the screw holes will keep it in the right place anyway.

depends on if there is any shims behind the neck?

If the neck and the body are legit bullets that were meant to be together there will not be, if it's a frankenstein or a self buildbullet copy then there may be but there won't be too much movement to throw it out that you can't adjust with the bridge.

Ahh, cheers dudes, sounds safer than I thought. I'll try this tonight. 

 

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 3:21 PM, peace 7 said:

Yah, don't forget to update this thread with tracks of your guitar wankery.  Just like, 15 minute tracks of scale riffing in octuple time.

I intend on learning to either shread or learn to play joe satriani solos verbatim. 

 

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 3:45 PM, perunamuussi said:

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 2:10 PM, psn said:

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 1:09 PM, perunamuussi said:

also... not fender

Why not? Looks a hella like a Fender Bullet, no?

 

 

 

 

i thought all bullets had the strat style angled jack socket. also they were never strat style body with a tele style head. also no logo insignia. machine heads not right. neckplate would be engraved no? alternate scratchplate style. i suppose somebody could customise a bullet.

 

occam's razor: most likely generic japanese strat style copy

 

bullets were pretty crappy anyway 

also: flahbulb

 

The tuning heads actually look really deece: 

http://www.sperzel.com/guitar-tuners.php they were the only thing on the guitar with a readable logo

This was definitely heavily customized at some point, hopefully tonight I find out more info

  On 9/14/2016 at 3:45 PM, perunamuussi said:

 

also they were never strat style body with a tele style head.

 

 

I thought all Bullets had Tele style headstocks.

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 2:46 PM, andihow said:

Its definitely smaller than a strat

 

Measure it! I read that the first year of production the Bullets were made using left over Tele necks, and in that case they would be full scale.

Edited September 14, 2016 by psn

Well, the only thing I can add is that there's something about the combination of knobs, finish and the radius of the edges that makes the body remind me of some 80s Kramers I've seen over the years.  That bridge integrated into the metal pickguard is really strange though, I've never seen anything like it.  It's the kind of thing I'd expect them to have tried on an old Teisco or something.

 

I can't tell for sure from the photos, but the headstock doesn't look like it has that slightly metallic paint on it like the body, which would definitely suggest it was painted to match the body.

 

The Cat In the Hat print on it might make it easier to identify but apparently that's Slash's nickname, so I've had no luck finding anything on Google that isn't Slash related.

I wouldn't replace the bridge if I were you, simply because it's a very unusual piece and you would have to cut parts off of the pickguard to fit any kind of conventional bridge.  You could clean it up by taking off the saddles, separating all of the screws and pieces, and soaking them for a day or two in some kind of off the shelf rust remover.  There are plenty of instructions online for that, here's a random one that looks as good as any:

 

Edited September 14, 2016 by RSP

Nice! Yeah I decided against replacing the bridge, was going to try to find some new saddles (thank you for letting me know what theyre called lol) but now i'm kind of realizing the rust treatment is an option. Also, I can confirm that the cat in the hat paintjob was done by my dads friend back in the day, so that won't help identifying the body. 

I wonder if the all-in-one bridge/pickguard would affect sustain/tone/harmonics.. it's very interesting!

  On 9/14/2016 at 2:46 PM, andihow said:

 

  On 9/14/2016 at 11:43 AM, bitroast said:

"I rock rhymes over beats on the real tip" gets me every single time.

 

the flashbulb is so much better than squarepusher

  On 9/14/2016 at 3:21 PM, peace 7 said:

Yah, don't forget to update this thread with tracks of your guitar wankery.  Just like, 15 minute tracks of scale riffing in octuple time.

 

 versus 15 minute tracks of people moving a couple of knobs and pressing a couple of buttons on a tb303.

  On 9/14/2016 at 1:06 PM, perunamuussi said:

w8ZnCxL.jpg

 

 good work. for illustrating the solution i mean, before someone suggests that this post is in any way sarcastic.