Kawai F1 Jr (long post alert!)

Chu

Hi,

I'm aware that there's a little interest about Kawai guitars here, so thought that I should start a thread. I've posted this elsewhere online so will cut and paste largely from there. Be warned all you Kawai lovers, this guitar has been mistreated for many years and it is likely that my continued mods won't please everyone! I've condensed each update to keep it all in one post, I hope it makes sense!

My first electric guitar was an Epiphone Strat-alike. I bought it in 1991, used for £100 in a shop in Colchester. Unfortunately the ******* in the store couldn't recognise a tremolo that needed an extra spring so I took it back a week later and bought this from a friend of my dad, a Kawai F1 Jr; Japanese made, through neck with Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups (not that I knew that at the time....)

Being a teenage boy, I tired very quickly of the 'Nan's sideboard' lacquered mahogany look and attacked it with a little of every spray can in the garage. A bit like a swirl paint job, only much, much more ****. Fortunately I don't have any pictures!

Then I took a rotary sanding drill attachment to it and removed the finish and much of the wood in it turned out. I then gave it to a mate to paint it and gave him permission to paint it any colour, so he painted it black... A while later a friend broke his SG and it went to him; not knowing about those Dimarzios he ripped them out and binned them, installing some others he found lying around.

After a year or so, I got it back in a right old state (and after I'd looked after it so well!). The pots had been left dangling out of the back and stamped on by Rick Waller/Michelle McManus, no longer turning properly. The cavity cover had disappeared, some stickers had appeared and none of the wiring worked. In a nutshell, it was junk and went up in the loft until a few years ago, I needed a guitar for C Standard tuning.

A quick bodge up and it worked and even sounded pretty nice. Hurrah! After that band finished, back in the loft it went until last week, I decided to see what I could do with it. After hunting around in the loft for eternity, I finally found it.

So here it is. Nan's sideboard, repainted in black:

Step one, pull everything out/off and work out what can be saved. The pots need to go, as does the nut which is looking like it can't decide if it's brown or white, with large flakes. The toggle might be salvageable but the jack socket is destined for the bin. The machine heads appear ok but the pickups appear to have grown some kind of fungus on them so I gave them a polish with Silvo and they came up quite well.

The big surprise was that one had a Gibson USA logo on the back. The other just had a PAT No. stamped upon it so I assumed it was a generic no brand pickup. Google tells me that it is a late '70s Gibson pickup, possibly a Dirty Fingers. Result! I'll probably spend the money I saved on pickups on some new tuners then!

Before I spend anything, that paint needs to come of. I am seriously considering a little bit or a carve on the top too. My router is looking at me with a look on its face.... Too late!

The heat gun has come out and most of it is off. I have the front of the body, headstock and neck stripped bare. I used a heat gun to remove the worst and have taken it right back past the red stain, I used 80 grit paper, taking every dimple and dent with it. I'll work my way to finer paper once the back is done as it may get a few marks whilst clamped to the bench as I do the back and sides. I'm thinking of a colour free finish, just clear oil.

The front has picked up a load of dust from where I've been sanding the back, which the photo is showing far more than in person. The dark section on the top horn and mottling on headstock is where it got wet in the rain bringing it inside.

I need to blend the carve some but I can't do much on the lower bout as I've already started breaking through to the control cavity.

It's right back to the bare wood. I've filled in the edges of the control cavity with epoxy resin. It only broke through in one small spot but I've reinforced all the corners to keep it strong. I'll mix some sanding dust with glue and apply it to the front before I work my way up to 600 grit paper.

I've discovered another issue, the neck has some vintage colour stain on it, I'm going to have to live with the contrast between that and the naked maple through the body unless I want to sand it right down.

I've cleaned up the fretboard and frets. Close up, there were little bits of multi coloured paint on the fretboard. I started with a razor blade, scraping lengthways between the frets before using fine wire wool, polishing the wood and frets as I went.

I'm starting to think about hardware. The TOM bridge isn't original and is already showing signs of flaking/bubbling on the plating so will be replaced and I may do the tuners too. My head says 'Buy some budget TOM bridge and tuners' but my heart says 'Buy Tonepros and locking tuners'. I've always disliked how stop tails and bridges fall off/get knocked out of adjustment once the strings are off and the Tonepros studs on my PRS are great, even if they are expensive. I just like locking tuner for string changes. I don't know if it's worth it or not, I've owned the guitar for 23 years so it's not going anywhere so I think I should do it right but then I don't know how much I'm going to use it. 

I've raided the spare parts drawer and have found a pair of PRS pots and capacitor, pickup surrounds and screws. I've ordered a jack socket, toggle and locking strap buttons. I've ordered a nut blank as I can't find any that come up close to the weird dimensions of the original, so I'll be trying my hand at making a nut (I have files so should be ok). I've also ordered a sheet of mahogany that I hope to make into a cavity cover at the rear.

I took these earlier today in a rare moment of sunshine. Since that I've started with the Danish Oil, giving the everything except the fretboard a deep coat.

I let it dry for about 2 1/2 hours before getting a bit of 600 grit paper, wetting with more oil and rubbing it in, forming a mahogany and oil sludge to act like a grain filler. It does however make a right mess of the maple through neck so I cleaned that off with a fresh bit of 600 before wiping it down. I've rubbed the whole guitar down with some wire wool and applied a new coat of oil. I'll probably apply a few more over the next day or so. Happily, the oil has nicely blended the maple in the body with the stained maple on the neck.

Sassafras

What a difference! Classy job.

TTony

That looks so much better - and will probably sound better too - freed of that suffocating layer of paint!

Kawai did make them with various painted finishes (some really horribly bright options too), but I always prefer to see the wood underneath, particularly when you've got a lovely 5-piece thru-neck.

I should hate the carving as wrecking the original, but I actually think it looks quite good.  Brave man for giving it a go.

Be good to have another Kawai being brought back to life ...

Chu

Thanks guys,

I didn't just dive in with the router for the carve, I spent ages thinking about it so was 100% sure about it. What I wasn't 100% sure of was whether I'd muck it up but after the first cut there was no turning back. I have held off buying anything of any real value in case I ruin it along the way though! If I'm honest, I'm not 100% I did the right thing but if it makes me play it more than I have then it's all good.

xmrchi

Brilliant work,

impmann

I love this. The carve makes it look like a 1970s Alembic or something. It needs double cream pickups and brass hardware (IMHO) - I'm not the biggest fan of DiMarzios but perhaps a call to Ash to see what he can build using cream bobbins to suit you and the guitar...
Great work.

TTony

For anyone unfamiliar with the F-I Jr (that can't be many of you), this is what it looked like originally

On the left, the full-fat F-I and on the right, the little F-I Jr little brother.  The p'ups in the Jr were Kawai's own-brand and not hugely impressive.  The big-bro had Super Distortion alikes.

Jalapeno

Alembic-tastic !

Chu

So they weren't Dimarzios? Don't tell my friend, I constantly wind him up about binning them!

I'm not planning on replacing the pickups, the '70s Gibson pickups have quite a decent tone, a nice contrast to my other guitars although they are quite powerful. I've got a pair of Oil City pickups in one of my PRS guitars, as good as they are, the Gibsons hold their own against everything else.

TTony

Chu said:

So they weren't Dimarzios? Don't tell my friend, I constantly wind him up about binning them!

Not as standard, AFAIK.

Kawai did use Mighty Mite "emulations" of the mighty DiMarzio Super Distortion as standard on some models, and their own brand of lookalikes (but not soundalikes) on others.

That said, Mr @theGuitarWeasel did find a proper DiMarzio p'up in a beat-up Kawai that I sold him a while back.  But then, he's a lucky man. 

Chu

Well in that case, I swapped a pair of own-brand pickups for some 70s Gibsons. I can live with that!

Chu

After about 7 coats of Danish Oil, it's done. I deliberately didn't want to completely fill the grain in the mahogany, I wanted a little openness but did discover the downsides when just giving a quick once over with wax. The wax sinks into the grain leaving a white/grey residue which is hard to shift. Oh well!

The pickups are in, volume and tone pots from my USA PRS are fitted, new Switchcraft toggle and output jack are all wired up and Dunlop strap buttons attached. I've started work on making the new nut from a blank; this has quite a narrow nut width and I couldn't find an off the shelf nut to fit but there's only so much I can do until I have the machine heads and bridge fitted. Still waiting for my sheet of mahogany for the cavity cover too.

I'm set on a Tonepros bridge and stop tail and some new tuners but due to recent MOT and holiday expenses, they're going to have to wait.  

DartmoorHedgehog

That looks really cool.  Haven't seen one of those before.  Definitely much better with the wood exposed.

TTony

That is much better looking @Chu - looks like a nice rescue.  The carving suits it too.

You might want to flip the neck p'up around through, unless it's wound unusually?

Chu

TTony said:

That is much better looking @Chu - looks like a nice rescue.  The carving suits it too.

You might want to flip the neck p'up around through, unless it's wound unusually?

Erm.... Hadn't realised that I'd done that! I'll flip it at some stage.

It's not been a mistake free process but so far nothing has been too tragic. The two most significant are where I broke through into the control cavity whilst carving the top with the router and where I got over zealous with my orbital sander on the headstock. The flat area for the nut is a lot narrower than it used to be but neither should be an issue except under close scrutiny!

With so much of the original guitar lost over the years, my aim was to create a guitar that I'll want to play for years to come, not necessarily a restoration to formed glory; hence the Tonepros hardware. I'm loving this so far and am happy that you @TTony  aren't completely appalled by it!