Project is it worth it?

Comments

• sweepy Frets: 4237

  July 3

  Strip and clean tbh, I’d get it going with the original hardware and see what you think of it, then you have a benchmark for any mods 

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• Funkfingers Frets: 14921

  July 3

  rsvmark said:

  No whammy bar but trem works. not sure about the saddles though.
  

  How have you tested the vibrato without strings?
  
  My recollection of the Ibanez SAT vibrato is that it is cheaply made and does not return to pitch reliably. (Admittedly, that could have been the stock machineheads or the nut slots.) Check the pivot spacing when choosing an upgrade. (I may still have an Ibanez FAT 32 vibrato stashed away somewhere.)
  
  The pickups are also cheap 'n' nasty. Some versions have a triple coil bridge position pickup. It offers side by side coils for humbucker sounds or stacked coils for "noiseless" Strattiness. 

  
  

  The finish mark on the back looks like evidence of expansion and contraction of the wood, causing the finish to crack. 
  
  A friend of mine bought a set neck version of that model. I forget whether its neck was bowed or twisted. Either way, it was never a joy play.
  
  

  sweepy said:

  … clean … get it going with the original hardware and see what you think of it, then you have a benchmark for any mods 

  This.

  You say, atom bomb. I say, tin of corned beef.

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• GoFish Frets: 1660

  July 3

  WTF? Acid Attack? Bit of fire? It's clearly taken a tumble at some point. Insides looks fairluy clean though, as does the fretboard. I reckon this is doable.
  

  Ten years too late and still getting it wrong
  

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• rsvmark Frets: 1425

  July 3

  GoFish said:

  WTF? Acid Attack? Bit of fire? It's clearly taken a tumble at some point. Insides looks fairluy clean though, as does the fretboard. I reckon this is doable.
  

  I have no idea what it is. It’s not eaten into the finish- it’s on top. It’s hard and not sticky, ie what ever was spilled on it dried out and set. It appears to chip off mm by mm with my thumb nail and seems to leave a clean finish. Not keen on taking anything hard like a blade to it as it will damage the original finish.

  
  

  I plan to nip to the shops tomorrow to get some lighter fluid to see if that shifts it. 

  
  

  Other than being an SA, I have nothing visible to identify the precise model. String spacing is 53mm and 57mm centre to centre of the pivot posts.
  
  

  Funkfingers said:How have you tested the vibrato without strings

  Steel bbq kebab skewer and gentle leverage. It works but no certainty whatsoever as to if it returns in tune! 

  An official Foo liked guitarist since 2024

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• andy_k Frets: 829

  July 4

  Nice find, and an easy clean up is all that is needed.
  Something like a pick, or an old credit card should easily take care of the gunk without damaging the  (thick ) poly finish.
  A good wipe over with naptha ( lighter fluid ) will clean everything else up.
  Take some time to polish up the frets well, and check the truss rod is working before you put any strings on it, and then set it up without worrying too much about the trem working at first.
  I wouldn't invest in any upgrades at this point, if the pickups are working correctly, it is what it is.
  If it is nicely set up, and playing well, it could probably be sold for something around £ 200-250, no problems.
  Upgrades won't add to that, and at its heart it is a cheaply made Chinese guitar, slightly ridiculous that it is possible to buy something like that for that price, but that is the world we live in.
  If, after close investigation, it has a soild maple top, ( doubt it ), it could be a good base for some better pickups and a refin, but it would be a lot of work (money) to get a good result that looks any better than existing, a lot of work to preserve the binding, which is in itself very nice. and something like a Wilkinson trem, for around £100 would be a good upgrade- but won't improve the resale.
  Good project to have, for nothing.

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• BillDL Frets: 8169

  July 4

  The black stuff on it looks like melted plastic.  You get the same kind of drips and runs from a thick black bin bag that's been set alight.  The drips cool and solidify very quickly and are then very "crispy" and hard.  If that is the source of the stuff on the guitar it wouldn't surprise me if the first drips landing on the guitar have melted the clear lacquer a bit and it might not be revealed until you manage to pick it off.  If it is melted plastic, lighter fluid won't dissolve it like it would with tar (my first thought on seeing it).  The circled area does look like smoke or heat damage.

  
  

  

  
  

  It makes me wonder how it came to be like that in the first place.  Put into a bin bag and tossed into a skip during a clear-out of a house or garage and then somebody flicked a fag end into the skip setting fire to the bag?

  
  

  Yes it's worth trying to fix up if you have the time, and if it looks like you can get it looking pretty good it would then be worth replacing any damaged or substandard parts.  The structural integrity looks to be sound and the neck and fretboard look good.  That's what matters and your decision would be made much more cut and dried had any of those main parts been damaged.
  

  Melted-Plastic.jpg 90.9K

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• guitargeek62 Frets: 4307

  July 4

  Interesting project. It’s an Ibby SA360 btw, they’ve been around since the 00s.

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• rsvmark Frets: 1425

  July 4

  Update:
  
  Neck off. Cleaned and reassembled. No identifying marks or serial numbers in the neck pocket. Was pretty clean anyway. Truss rod nut appears ok but i think that wont be fully tested until its had some string tension on it. I have no idea how long its been in this state for.
  
  https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53834186942_dcc1afaa17_h.jpg
  
  Using thumbnail and an old credit card, I got to this. Lighter fluid helps a little but doesnt appear to fully dissolve it.
  https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53834186927_4fda025498_h.jpg
  https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53835084121_1a80e6d0e3_h.jpg
  
  Cleaned the back off and T cut it. Why not?! Jobs come up rather well
  https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53835334898_1e61972c16_h.jpg
  
  Used up most of tin of lighter fluid but still a little to go on the top. @BillDL Your theory is good - marks on the pick up ring were a bit like soot but cleaned off well enough. The main stuff chipped off and was indeed brittle but the lighter fluid helps. Its a right job to get the last little bit off. Also, under where the main blob was, the veneer has lifted into a bubble - suggesting heat? Either way its not noticeable unless you are right up close or have relections so not too worried. 
  
  Next job - dremel and autosol from the garage for a fret polish and finish off the crud removal.
  
  

  An official Foo liked guitarist since 2024

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• thermionic Frets: 9837

  July 4

  Sell it to Essex Recording Studios, tell him it was played by Jimi Hendrix at Monterey.

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• BillDL Frets: 8169

  July 4 edited July 5

  You've made a really good job of cleaning it up.  For lifting veneer I would be inclined to make a very fine slice in the bubble, squirt some slightly diluted wood clue into it, and then "clamp" it down with something that conforms to the slight arch (if there is one), a piece of greaseproof paper, and a very heavy book.

  
  

  If the black bits down near the bottom are still there and can't be shifted with a polishing wheel, I would sand through it with something like P200 wet & dry paper until it got to the veneer, then use finer paper like P600, then dye and seal it.  Spirit dye in a dark blue could be used undiluted for the dark edges, then really diluted for the lighter burst area.  I wonder if fountain pen ink would work also, but that's water based and would raise the grain of the veneer so it needed sanding smooth again.  If you have sanded through the lacquer layer, your sanded area will be in a very shallow dip allowing it to be gradually filled with something hard like clear 2-pack epoxy or superglue wiped on finely in stages rather than just drop-filled where it could run beyond the confines of the sanded down area.  Either of those is harder than cellulose laquer and can be carefully sanded level and then polished with T-Cut a day or two after application.

  
  

  I would love to have a go at that myself, and I'm quite envious you managed to get a nice wee project like that.
  

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• ICBM Frets: 73540

  July 5 edited July 5

  I second BillDL's detective work - it's been in a bin bag on fire . That sounds like a joke way to destroy a guitar, but the great benefit of "poly"(ester) finishes is that they're tough!
  
  The whole thing looks very restorable to me - although it will never be pristine it will certainly be possible to make it into a playable, fully functional guitar for little more than the effort of cleaning it all up.

  "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

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• rsvmark Frets: 1425

  July 5

  @billdl thanks for the advice. The bubble is about the size of a £1 coin. The other area that’s slightly lumpy is the area under the gunk which is less obviously lifted but still not level. I will take a view once I have finished cleaning it off because it’s not immediately visible. I have a bunch of polishing wheels for my Dremel but wondered what polishing agent/paste I might use to remove the rest. I have a bit of lighter fluid left which is shifting it a bit. Is T cut sufficiently abrasive or would wire wool be better? (I have limited experience in this sort of thing so would prefer to get it down to the laquer if I can) or should I get some P600 and just try to get down to the poly?
  
  I need to get some nut files. Tracking down the ibby specs, these were strung with 9s and I usually play 10s. It may have been changed post factory but I doubt it so I just need to get some on order. Can anyone recommend a retailer/brand?
  

  An official Foo liked guitarist since 2024

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• rsvmark Frets: 1425

  July 5

  thermionic said:

  Sell it to Essex Recording Studios, tell him it was played by Jimi Hendrix at Monterey.

  Utter bullshit
  
  
  
  
  
  it was played by Eric Clapton at Woodstock

  An official Foo liked guitarist since 2024

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• BillDL Frets: 8169

  July 5 edited July 5

  I think that if I was trying to get rid of the remaining areas of stuck-on crud that seem to have damaged lacquer underneath I would be inclined to carry on using something like T-Cut, either hand-rubbing with a folded cloth or maybe on a Dremel buffing wheel (most kitchen roll when dry equates to about 1,500 grit abrasive paper, although it's obviously not as resilient).  I would go as far as I could trying to buff it off with that kind of compound until I reached the point where all the stuck-on stuff was off and I could assess what lacquer damage remained, or until it became apparent that the stuck-on stuff was actually melted into the lacquer.

  
  

  Fine steel wool might be better at gently scrubbing off the bits of black stuff, but it's messy and you get tiny fragments of swarf coming off it as you work, and you don't want them near the pickups.  What you don't really want happening is a buffing wheel or wire wool impregnated with a buffing compound to go through the lacquer and start buffing the compound into the raw veneer that's become exposed, because that might make it harder to refinish the raw wood.  I don't know how thick the veneer will be, but I'm sure it will be quite thin.
  

  
  

  IF the black deposits are still sitting proud of the surrounding lacquer surface you could try using a scraper.  One of those single-edged safety blades can be used, but to prevent the entire width of the blade from scraping everything across its width you can wrap some strips of masking tape around the outside edges to act as spacers so that only the exposed blade in the middle will scrape off whatever is above the thickness of the masking tape spacers.

  
  

  

  
  

  The idea is to hold it vertically or even slightly trailing to scrape rather than tilting it so that the blade is facing forward and trying to slice like a wood plane.

  
  

  I am not sure whether the figured wood veneer will have been stained to create the burst effect or whether it was created by spraying on lacquer with differing dilutions or hues of blue tint in multiple passes before then applying a few layers of clear lacquer.  I'm pretty sure all the lacquer coats will be "poly" (very hard urethane lacquer).  Sometimes those last few thin coats of clear laquer can delaminate from the underlying layers that carry the tint and leave those layers intact and still with colour, but on other occasions the coating just chips off in thicker pieces back to bare wood (or opaque base coat if it's an opaque laquer).  If the outside clear coat layer has bubbled due to heat you might be able to buff or scrape through that clear layer while still leaving a protective and tinted layer of laquer that can then be touched up with suitable clear lacquer or other hard and clear compound like superglue or clear epoxy.

  
  

  Hopefully you can get to that stage and find that the base layers of tinted laquer and veneer haven't been darkened by heat.
  

  safety-blade.jpg 24.9K

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• Dave_Mc Frets: 2427

  July 5

  Wow that looks a lot better, excellent work!

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• rsvmark Frets: 1425

  July 6

  Its pissing down here so I had an hour or 2.
  
  As good as I could get it with lighter fluid. Assumed heat damage:
  https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53837596662_55f1bc56aa_b.jpg
  
  Cleaning up the headstock. Note movement underneath:
  https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53838929350_4f7fb50cb5_b.jpg
  
  And now buffed:
  https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53838839039_d6757cc787_b.jpg
  
  Oh shit. Overdid it with the dremel and T cut. 2 small white spots below the bridge. Oh well, its a freebie so live and learn:
  https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53837596812_ac9378346e_b.jpg
  
  Fret polishing is a messy business:
  https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53838929405_2bab572703_b.jpg
  
  Frets polished and fretboard oiled:
  https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53838929530_997928100e_b.jpg
  
  Bobbled finish for extra Hendrix inspired heat stories:
  https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53838749778_6fb41481ed_b.jpg
  
  Final clean up done:
  https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53838929540_64448f9d30_b.jpg
  
  If it carries on raining I'll string it up this afternoon and have a play

  An official Foo liked guitarist since 2024

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• BillDL Frets: 8169

  July 6

  I think you've made a remarkable job considering how it started out.  I would now be inclined to just leave it with the scorch mark and consider it part of the guitar's history, and make it as playable as possible.
  

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