I'm aware I have mentioned this a few times, but never stated a thread.
It came to me looking like this
At some point the binding had been replaced by 4 thick white strips front and back, then painted over white too
it was refinished and a few parts changed along the way. There was also a suspicion of some neck work, which I have now confirmed was a heel end break.
Blacklight showed a few interesting bit
The refinish glows, which alogn with the wear shows it was all done quite a while ago
some bits of original lacquer remained, like where the finish was scraped back after the rebind shown here
or on the heel where you can see some evidence of the break
or this rather worrying patch that looks like a screw head. Pretty much invisible in normal light. I can confirm it was not a screw head, just a drop fill that has melted the old lacquer into that round shape... the bright green is all original lacquer
The good news is that all the old structural work was done really well. The guitar has been solid for a long time.
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Nice clean channels for the most part
and a hint of original binding hiding under the fretboard
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We also finally get a good look at that old neck break
some damage to the front of the body
and that brings us up to date
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Are you re-doing the neck as well to sort out that split?
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Lets have some more pics
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The poor old girl must have taken one hell of a tumble in her distant past to do that neck heel/front damage.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
The most confusing bit for me is the repair was done so well, but they clearly gave up on the binding. Similar with the plugged bridge posts. They looked badly done because they had not been finished correctly, but actually they were fit and grain matched quite well The result was a solid guitar that plays well and sounds good
I don't know if I would class this one as normal, but I am really happy to have the chance to do this one.
My own custom build has been delayed as its now been rebound twice. First go was fine, but it made sense to try a few repair techniques on something with less value first. I managed to get a much better technique sorted before working on this
I have done plenty of binding work before these, but never more than 4 ply. 7 is a whole different challenge.
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If it was me I'd go for a very light tint, subtle ageing and no 'damage' - there's just the right amount of wear on the gold to make it look like it's been better cared-for than it actually has. And no pickguard unless you can get an original... a flat shiny one like it had before just won't look right.
But not my guitar so feel free to ignore me .
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
2 options on the guard. First will be one I make and age from scratch. Second is making one from a 50’s archtop guard.
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(formerly customkits)
2010
2004
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