Guitar 'smash' goes online

WORD is spreading through the internet: "Visit www.adayinthelifeofaguitar.blogspot.com – there’s an idiot breaking up a rare guitar."
About all I can say is, Hendrix, Townshend and a few other have been the smashers, the guitar attracts lots of bashers and all I am trying to do is make an old Japanese cheapie play a little better.
The renovation of the ColTone two-pick-up solid, however, was destined to run the opposite to smoothly.
The last post told how three of the four screws holding the neck broke, and created a flow-on effect of problems.
Since then, the head flipped off one of the six adjustment screws on the neck pickup as soon as a screwdriver went in the slot to remove them before a cleanup of almost half a century of grime.
Oh well, it will still work. I’m not touching another thing there; traces of grime can stay in the nooks and crannies.
There are plenty of other pressure points, anyway.
The frets have also given me lots of angst, with deep grooves in the first ssecond and to a lesser extent the third.
The last owner must have been big on open chords and long fingernails. The fretboard also has deep furrows.
The emergency solution for a country dweller without ability to run down to a local music shop to get some fret wire was simple: Remove the last two from the fretboard to replace the first two, which now go to the treble side at No 21 and 22, pending a proper replacement in future.
This allows me to have a chance at the guitar’s highest notes, if I ever need to get up there.

THE ColTone is now back together, with the previously listed adjustments but I must get a set of strings before I can finish the setup.
The nut puts the strings too close to the fretboard, so that will require attention.
Please, if anyone knows about ColTone guitars, please write to me and I'll post the details.

SOON, I’ll move on to writing some original observations about guitars generally, my love of the instrument and other players.
I also have a guitar stories floating around in the archives of my editorial column, Classie Corner (www.classiecorner.blogspot.com), so they’ll be in the mix here in the days, weeks, months and years to come.