Here is my little bunch of electro acoustic guitars and folky type stuff.
Almost all of these have been "doctored" in some way, shape or form.
First up is my oldest acoustic, a Dutch built, 1960`s Egmond, (which i got as a swap for my half share of an old van), It`s had just about everything possible upgraded on it now, and can keep up reasonably with most others of it`s ilk these days,
I call it : Egmond the agressor as it tends to put up a bit of a fight.
I`ve now put a Seymour Duncan "Woody" pickup in and it is sounding pretty good.
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And here we have a Yamaha APX 4A, one of a pair of guitars i fooishly sold to my niece several years ago, thankfully she knows how to look after guitars, AND she sold them back to me 
Thanks Hannah, (I think i`m going to name it after Hannah, for obvious reasons).
I`ve also got the 12 string version of this, which is a Yamaha APX 12A, that was clever eh, (I actually had this one first), which i`m going to call Sarah, for reasons that i`ll keep to myself, for the time being.
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Next is another one i found in the road, It nearly had a car parked on it, it`s now strung up as an acoustic, (no electrics ----- yet !), lap steel.
I`ve called it Dodge, for obvious reasons.
( Made by "Kansas" and just missed by a car, -------- OK, i give up 
)
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A while back i fancied a change so i bought this : Fender FM 300,
I called it "Sam the wee man(dolin)", after my son when he was small,
(That changed, and some). It`s the only other fully acoustic stringed instrument
i own. (That`s one of six now, see new mandolin + ukeleles and banjo below)
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This one has now been part exchanged ( 
) for a travel guitar, see below. (Quite far down below 
)
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Yaaaaaaaay Anuver noo toy,
Soprano ukulele by Clifton (IAN4440), At £15 from Lidl`s it`s only one step up from a toy, but after a bit of fettling, it seems to play reasonably well, and you get a "how to play it" booklet and CD as well, Bargain!!.
This little fella has now got proper tuners and a piezo transducer pickup in it, running through an end-pin jack socket. No controls on it, but it sounds OK so far. It`s also got a proper hard case as well, a pressie from the Mrs, and it cost more than the uke
Well that`s another instrument i`ve got that i can`t play properly 
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Then I spotted this in a second hand shop, and it screamed BUY ME, BUY ME,
so i did. It`s actually slightly easier to handle than the acoustic mando, i think
it may be because it only has 4 strings.
No name for this one yet, but it`s official moniker is The Mandobird IV,
by Epiphone, and i think i`ll just settle for that.
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I went to a car boot sale, (quite a while ago now), and treated myself to this:
It`s a brilliant little kid sized guitar by First Act (model FG 158), (it even had health and safety approved plastic covers over the machine heads, in case the little darlings scratched themselves with the string ends). It cost me all of SIX quid, including a cheap set of strings. I think it`s great, and i`m treating it to some electrics before the week is out,
Friday, transducer piezo pick-up and end-pin jack socket in and working now, but i think i`ll have to treat it to some volume and tone controls to get the best out of it, but, so far so good. 
The finish is a bit sh---crap, but it will be perfect as a knockabout travel guitar, or something along those lines.
I`ve also just found out, that it`s exactly the same dimensions and tuning as a friends baritone ukulele, so i could officially call it a 6 string electric one of those, Just think, i could be the first heavy metal George Formby, ---- (ask yer grandad) !
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Yet another one to the fold.
This one is a Silvertone mandolin which could actually be older than ME, as the model was made between 1930 and 1950, (i`m closer to 1950, honest 
),
I`ve had to fit new machine heads as the buttons on the original Kluson ones had shrunk quite a lot and were a bit difficult to turn, (Aww, diddums), and some new lighter gauge strings, (Aww, bigger diddums) but it`s looking and sounding great now, and it may just convince me to have a proper go at learning to play it.
This one has now been sold on as it was simply hanging around gathering dust, a lovely little instrument, but wasted on me.
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Look at wot I got now :
I`ts an Epiphone Mandobird VIII,
Which is a perfect match for the 4 string one further up, so now i`ve got the
MANDOBIRD BROS 
, observe:
Now i`ve got to re-try to learn to play 8 string again. I WILL get there, ----eventually.
I`ve now got a case for these two, I don`t know what it was for, (it`s got an air vent in it ?). I`ve lined it out with some quite firm foamy stuff, and placed them in top to tail, and it`s all going swimingly so far, observe:
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Now that i`ve got a "small" collection of electro-acoustic instruments, i`m going to try them all through this:
As i`ve said somewhere else, it won`t make me play any better, but it may just make me sound a bit more interesting ---- or not, as the case may be 
That lot may be getting changed, as i`ve just got hold of one of these:
Which I can either add to the board above , or use on it`s own. Decisions, decisions, it`s such a hard life 
.
This has now been given to my niece Hannah and her other half who are much more acousticy than me and both of them are excellent guitar players, so it might even get used.
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Gone an` dun it again, aint I !
New electro-acoustic tenor uke by Lani, (LT55CEQ), not an expensive model, but a bit easier to play as it`s a bit bigger than the standard soprano one, (Obviously, Doh). The only thing i`ve had to do to this one, is fit new strap buttons to it, and I treated it to a proper uke sized capo, I`ve now also treated it to a proper Kinsman hard case (the same brand as for the soprano uke), now as well, so it`s all hunky dory, for want of a better phrase.
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I`ve just picked up one of these for my niece:
It`s a Vintage brand V300MH. Not quite my cup of tea, (looks a bit like a wardrobe to me), but sounds and plays quite nicely.
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Here we go again, I`v gone and upgraded on the little soprano uke above, and treated myself to this:
It`s a Mahalo ULP1/VS, and I think it`s as cute as a cute thing, and i`ve already treated it to some strap buttons and a nice big chunky looking leather strap made from a ladies belt. so look out George Formby, i`m comin` for your crown 
, (Ask your granny about him, She may just about remember him, or HER mum mentioning him).
I`ve now got the full electric gubbins to fit into this one, but I can`t see that being done much before Christmas `16 at this rate 
.
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All of the electric type stuff above goes through the amps on the electric guitar page, or the little PA that i have, (but never use as I sing like a fish, and no , not as good as billy bass.
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I`ve now also decided to run everything through the same amp and pedal set-up, so they all go through the pedal boards on the guitar and bass pages, IE, These:
They are essentially electric guitar and bass guitar boards, but a few of them work quite well with, and get some quite interesting sounds out of, the electro-acoustic instruments.
(For anyone interested in what they all are, there are better pics with a little more info, on the guitar and bass pages).
Then from there into the new (ish) Ampeg bass amp, which will save me lugging two amp set-ups around when it comes to putting this lot to some useful kind of use ---- ish 
.
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Right ! We now have two newcomers to the fold, first up is this little beauty:
It`s a Yamaha GL1 Guitalele, and IMHO, it`s a brilliant little piece of kit. As the name suggests it`s half guitar, (tuned to "A"), and half uke, and it`s a lot easier to play than I expected.
Note to self, get some electrics into this little cracker SOON.
I have decided not to put electrics into this, as I have worked out that you need to be able to fingerpick to play this properly, so it`s going up for sale. And it has now gone.
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Then, on the other hand, there`s this:
It`s a bit of a monster, (for me , anyway), it`s an Ashbury AB 45 G 6 String Banjo, strung and tuned the same as a guitar, but a completely different kettle of fish, and it doesn`t help with me not being a finger-picker. Just another one i`m going to have to try to persevere with 
.
No electrics in either of the two new ones ---- yet.
This one is also up for sale, for the same reason as the little Yammy above.
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Here we go again, I go and help my niece move house, and she gives me all this stuff as a thank you. A VOX Valvetronics AD30VT amplifier, (Now sold), and this:
It`s an old-ish, (and I`m led to believe, German), lute guitar. Some of the frets are a bit loose, one of the machine heads has had to be replaced, (bottom left in the 2nd pic), and the soundhole rosette needs replacing, but it`s getting there,
hopefully.
There`s no name to be found anywhere on it, (I`m going to call it Hans), and I can`t find any info regarding the shape / style, so if anyone can shed some light on it, I would be grateful.
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I`ve just spent most of the week-end fitting the electrics pack to my little Mahalo soprano uke, (See pic further up), and it`s been a b****y nightmare, to say the least.
The kit was cheap enough, then I found out why, it had NO instructions included, and it was partly pre-wired, so I had to un-solder that first, then work out how to get it all into the uke, then solder it all up again, great fun 
.
Anyway, for those who may be interested, it now looks like this:
And after some careful planing as to where the various bits should go, (Except of course the end pin jack socket), It looks OK, but it actually sounds really good for the money, and i`m now quite pleased with the result. There`s a decent range on both the volume and tone controls, so i`m now off to plug it into my pedal boards, (Also see pic further up), to see what kind of mayhem i can cause now 
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As i`ve mentioned on the guitar page, the pedal boards are getting a bit oversized, to say the least, so i`m going to use this in the house instead:
For anyone interested, all the details are on the guitar page 
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Gone and dun it again, check out the electric guitar and bass pages 
.
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Late July 2017, and I`ve just been to a music festival in Warwick, had a good time, and came back with this little travel guitar.
It`s a hand-built job by a guy by the name of David Freshwater who worked in Scotland, and I am led to believe he is sadly no longer with us, having been told this by the dealer who sold me the guitar. It has been a fine instrument, but it is now in need of a bit of TLC, so i`m going to have a go at it and see if I can get it anywhere near it`s original spec, wish me luck.
As I say, it was decent quality to start with, so it shouldn`t be toooo hard to get it back, (Says I, with my fingers crossed 
)
Later:
This fella is turning out to be a complete pain in the a****e, (that`s the Scottish version, with three R`s). Obviously as much my fault as anyone`s, as I didn`t look closely enough at it before buying.
(Give me an electric guitar to work on anyday, they`re far easier to pull apart and glue back together again).
The action was about a foot high, but i`ve now managed to get that down to about half a foot, (that`ll be about six inches, or a single decker bus for the tech minded), and it now appears to me that the bridge itself may be fractionally out of position, not by much, but by enough to knock out the intonation if you tend to do anything above the second fret.
(I think the old boy`s eyes must have been going by the time he stuck this one together).
I may be forced to take the bridge off completely and re-set it. GRRRRR 
etc.
The alternative is that it becomes an ornament hanging on a wall somewhere, (that`ll be a little bit more of an ornament than all the other ones then 
).
Much later: OK, I think I may have got it under control, a bit, i`ve changed the nut and the bridge saddle, cleaned and polished everything, and oiled the fretboard. The intonation is a bit better now, but not brilliant, I can get up to about the fourth fret without it giving me too much grief, and as I won`t be playing it way up at the dusty end anyway, it should do the job. It IS only a travel guitar after all.
And it now looks like this:
Spot the difference:
Nice new brass and abalone inlaid bridge pins, and a new real leather strap, (made from a belt), unfortunately they don`t make it sound much different, but I think it looks a bit better, so it`ll do for now, and it won`t become an ornament, YET 
.
It didn`t become an ornament, I took it back to the guy I bought it from, and part exchanged it for this :
A proper twin pickup electric ukulele by Kamoa, complete with hard case. So, designed in Hawaii, but built in China, (these days, that`s no bad thing). I had to pay him a bit extra for it, but I actually think that I got the better deal in the end. It`s a great little thing. I`m going to try it through a distortion pedal and a delay just to see what kind of chaos I can cause 
P.S. I`ve only changed the 3 way switch tip on this one 
.
(AND, I can almost get a tune out of it). So, one up to me I think 
.
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