Bereft of projects to keep me from hearing my own guitar playing... I saw this on ebay and fancied the challenge.
It's a '79-80 Matsumoku built Westbury Standard.
The seller, a house clearance outfit... informed me that this had been hung on a wall and used as a mirror for the last 10 years
Apparently the seller had removed a mirror-like covering from the body front and headstock face revealing this shitshow underneath, a gloopy soft acrylic substance over the original black finish.
Aside from a few gouges here and there, the top of the headstock being sanded flat and no hardware, it seems pretty solid, I've owned a few of these over the years and still have a really nice (stripped) one as one of my favourite players and the solidity is not a surprise.
Comments
I first brought out the thinners to see if I could remove the silver to inspect the finish underneath... it wasn't long before it became apparent this would be a messy and fruitless operation... big chunks of the original black polyester are missing... so out comes the heat gun and scraper...
ugh
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
part of the metallic W logo has been gouged out so either another visit to Rothko&Frost or see if my old inkjet will let me print onto white waterslide decal paper.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
I did however get it for almost half his original asking price
Headstock end of the fingerboard? just my less-than-sublime photography skills I'm afraid
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
I think I'll be going for a gloss black 2k rattle can finish with cream pickups and plastics as it was when factory fresh.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
The heat gun is the business, no messing
(If you're stuck for cream pickups btw, I have an unused set of the Donlis high-output ones that the guys on the US forums rave about as a budget alternative to the DiMarzios. The poles have the little hex socket heads to seal the look. Might even have a set of surrounds, all acquired as part of an abandoned plan to change the black pups on my standard back to proper cream )
Mine sustained forever..Great Wee Guitars..I have a nice pile of guitars,
so keeping it would have been greed..
Those Old Dimarzios sound brilliant though..
Seriously great guitar...
Supposed to be Mahogany,,but to me doesn't look like it..
Mine is battered,,but Dark SG Red...Love the German Carve in the design..
A Real Tone Monster,,but I just looked silly playing it..
I do have a set of Kawai/Mighty Mite cream for this, they're nice and bright but Super Distortions they are not.
What are the pole spacing on the Donlis? I'm trying to keep within the original specs for this and the original Dimarzios were 49mm which isn't easy to find in replacements.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
most of the stripped black Standards I've seen have been either butcher block or 2 piece with the veneer
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
All fairly solid stuff and a lot of the original sealer is still on, I'll be leaving as much of that on as I can.
I will be wanting to add the little peak back into the top of the headstock though, wether to graft a piece of mahogany on (I do have some nice pieces from an old dresser I salvaged)
or shape some putty/filler/jb weld type thing I'm not sure what's best here.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
The pics are interesting - I never really got my head around the construction of the body on those or indeed the Deluxes. The Deluxe also seems to be a pancake construction, with maybe 8-10 (?) separate pieces of timber moulded together, but with a bit more effort on the grain direction as they weren't painted. Wonder was the in-house MO on the Standard to go cherry red on the 2-3 piece bodies, and black on anything that with more ?
Whatever way they did it - the actual sandwiching looks really well done. Nice also to see the 3-piece construction on the neck coming through on that one of yours.
Aye they're not the original pitch either. I think they're Gibson spec - about 53/54mm, so definitely not the same as the originals. Higher output - as part of the plan was to wire it with a coil split option, and the received wisdom was that higher output coils work better than lower ones when you split them. Just checked, and the black ones in my Standard (which might be Kent Armstrong jobs if the PO owner is to be believed have the wider pitch too). Fwiw, whoever fitted them also put in two push-pull pots to split the coils on the pickups while they were at it. Gave the little Westbury a whole extra set of tones, which was a nice touch, which was why I was going to try to do the same with the cream ones.
short of getting a pair of original Dimarzios I wasn't really considering other pickups than my existing kawai set.
Thanks for the offer though
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
As an aside, dunno if you've ever seen the Westbury Owners section on BookFace ? There's one or two posters on there who've been through the mill on restorations. A reasonable place for info.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
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