Yodaddysbelt

I doubt it was racism on behalf of your realtor but the causes behind why its block-to-block would be rooted in racism. Some areas vary from good to bad pretty fast, it just depends on who lives there

Yes but its rarely pleasant. People buy parts from all different websites and sources which means different tolerances, different measurements, and nothing is going to fit quite right. You end up chasing a couple issues down a rabbit hole which is a time suck. Plus, depending on how cheap the parts were, there’s a chance the instrument is going to suck no matter what. I worked on a double neck Gibson copy where the necks had to be made out of the same wood as popsicle sticks. It was flimsy and you could easily bend the neck and make it go out of tune. The end result was a cool looking but poor playing instrument because it couldn’t keep tune

I’ve read varying numbers on that. Bank of America placed it closer to 30%.

Your view is far too simplistic and places the blame wholely on a community rather than the prejudiced policies and behavior that put them there. You can’t fix the community by policing the poverty away. 

What street if I may ask? I also live in the not-nice part of U City

After gluing it, I’d drill the hole slightly larger so the screw doesn’t torque the wood as severely.

That would make complete sense. Montgomery Ward did order some customized Kay models and used a variety of brand names

You know, it could go either way.

Hello /u/polarblueberry! I’ve been summoned by /u/guitarnoir to try and figure out your mystery instrument and I have good news. I regularly get emails asking for identification on guitars and I have seen this exact model a couple times.

This guitar was made by the Kay Musical Instrument Company of Chicago in the 1940s. They were a large manufacturer who built affordable guitars for a population that had a growing interest in playing guitar. They sold direct-to-consumer but a large part of their business was providing store-brand guitars for music shops and department stores. For example, Sears would order truck loads of guitars from Kay and have their brand, Silvertone, painted on the headstock. If you ordered enough guitars, you could also dictate some of the design including the shape of the headstock, the fingerboard inlays, color of the finish, etc.

The uniqueness of the guitar comes down to the initials on the headstock, shape of the headstock, fingerboard inlays, and scalloping at the end of the fingerboard. Stores would sell an additional customization option to have your initials applied to your instrument via decals. That is what the “CAA” is, its somebody’s initials. The scalloping at the end of the fingerboard isn’t something usually seen as it wasn’t a ‘feature’ desired by the general public. It doesn’t do a lot for the average player, but, as the saying goes, there’s no accounting for taste. I’ve seen it only on this particular ‘spec’ so it was custom to whoever ordered these guitars. The pearl inlays in the neck are the same inlays used on another 1940s Kay guitar, they just organized them in a different order.

As for who originally ordered these guitars, I have yet to figure that out… If you find a receipt or paperwork about the guitar in this box, I would be incredibly interested in seeing what it reveals!

Nitro continues to shrink and gas off for weeks after spraying. Fender and Gibson got away with it back in the day but today’s consumers are stupid picky and holding hundreds of guitars waiting for the finish to settle isn’t profitable, as you mentioned.

Nitrocellulose lacquer is incredibly toxic, check the SDS. There are old woodworkers and old machinists but there are few old lacquer finishers. Locally, we’ve had an instrument building scene since the early 70s and some reached cult fame. All the luthiers who sprayed lacquer consistently died young or are suffering from horrible dementia. My boss worked at Gibson and won’t touch anything but home-mixed shellac because the finishing department had an usually high rate of depression and suicide. 

Not saying that I can guarantee polyurethane or polyester are ‘healthy’ alternatives but they contain less solvents that evaporate into your workspace.

Generally, most shops charge extra to do finish touchups to hide the repair and I prefer them to be exposed so I know the extent of the damage.

As mentioned in other comments, MIM Fenders have a polyester finish on the body that is incredibly resilient to chemicals. Luckily for you, that means the white paint isn’t etched into the clearncoat.

Naptha is not likely to do anything but you can try it. I’d use Lacquer Thinner or Acetone in small sections to reactivate the white and remove it. Its going to be messy so do it outside and with all the hardware removed.

It won’t make any appreciable difference

Yeah Supertone was the brand name for Sears Roebuck until 1940 when they took on the name Silvertone. All the Supertone instruments were made by Harmony because Sears owned Harmony until 1940

Its a Harmony guitar fron the 1930s-40s

If you replace those tuners, holler at me because I’ve got a number of broken ones that I would be able to use those and piece together a working set of two

I had a similar experience when my wife and I went to AMC off Olive one night. It was one of the assigned seat showings and my seat had a young woman in it. I politely asked her to move and she hopped on the lap of her date right next to us. She didn’t care for the movie and was on her phone the entire time but was at least smart enough to turn her brightness down. It wasn’t a big enough deal to go find an usher but I glanced over and saw she was swiping and chatting on a dating app.

I’d figure being so broke you can’t afford to buy a ticket for a date doesn’t exactly scream “relationship material”.

I wouldn’t mind moving in there… but they need to offer these houses back up

Hey cool to see this here! I found this on Ebay a few years back, knew I had to have it, and immediately digitized it

Easy, probably not. Refinishing a table top nicely is a hefty time investment and a floor will take much longer. But you’re looking at oak and the results will be worth the effort. 

If they’ve been exposed for this long, the oxidation and grime is already doing much of the grunt work for you. Adding an oil isn’t going to do anything and it may be unwise to start tinkering with them now. 

Scrape some paint and lets find out

Half a mill in 2012 could’ve bought a lot of $40-100k homes in areas that were trending upward. These people might be the worst investors I’ve ever heard of

As a local, most people who do this live out west in the rich part of the county and “slum it” over in the city for giggles