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Vincent Gallo
Joined:
03 May 2007
Posts: 201
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 Posted: 01/29/2008 at 2:29 AM Post subject: body / neck / # |
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I worked at a shop in NYC that sold Travis Bean guitars. When the Travis Bean company folded our shop was offered bodies , necks, pickups etc for purchase and for cheap. With that said, most likely many Beans around today may have been put together from parts leftover that were pieced together at the factory for sell offs or put together buy folks who got hold of the parts un-assembled. Sometimes like in the case of Artist #155 it is easy to assume that guitar was not a normal factory output. Its 155 number is very early yet it is attached to a body that was introduced much later in production. As well it is painted a color that was not used until the very end of production. Another explanation for #155 is that it may have been sent back to the factory for refinish and the factory simply replaced the whole body. In any case there is something creepy about Artist #155 , something fishy.
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charlie
Joined:
06 Jan 2008
Posts: 173
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| Posted: 01/29/2008 at 8:32 AM Post subject: RE:body / neck / # |
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I wouldn't call it "creepy". Just like Fenders that are pieced together, they make good player guitars and can be fun to put together. As long as buyers and sellers are straight up about the parts and don't try to sell them as original. I have noticed that bodies usually have a serial number written inside to match the neck they were made to fit. This makes sense since they seem to have a very tight custom fit. It seems that the bodies were fit to the necks before paint was applied then put back together after paint. The solid colors had the number re-applied after the finish, so somehow they kept track of those bodies during finishing (maybe tagged the drying racks) Anyway unlike Fender it is nice that we can usually track the correct body to the correct neck.
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charlie
Joined:
06 Jan 2008
Posts: 173
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| Posted: 02/24/2008 at 3:46 PM Post subject: RE:body / neck / # |
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Just a little update to this topic: I was curious yesterday, so I partially slid the neck out of my original finish black standard Bean (#394) I unscrewed the pickups and took the bridge off so I could move the neck. Once again (like the previous refin standard I took apart) this was a very tight fit but it did move gradually. I only slid the neck out about 2 inches but was able to see that even with the black finish there was a number written on the inside underneath the bridge area. The number was written in the usual black felt pen but since there was less of the black finish in that location or more koa showing the number was quite visible. Typically it seems that the number is written in the control cavities of the koa and white beans, but not visible in the black control cavities due to the paint. Despite this the number seems to show up somewhere on all Bean bodies to insure that necks and bodies always have a specific match. I have now observed the body number in several different locations on different beans (control cavity, under bridge facing up, under bridge facing down, under wood piece between pickups) Thanks again to Travis Bean for a thoughtful and interesting production system. These guitars really are beautiful handmade machines.
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