Every
guitar has a story. The story can be read through the surface
scratches, dings, dents, missing hardware and worse. This Gibson came in
the shop after it was discovered in the attic of a house after an
intense fire. The smoke and other particles had settled on top of the
finish and stayed for years. It was almost tossed but the owner decided
to bring it in to see what could be done to make it playable again.
In
the eyes of its owner, an old guitar is a trusted musical partner, and
at the same time it is full of questions which are never fully
understood. Over the course of time, most musicians develop a deep and
intuitive kind of interaction with their instrument, yet as soon as a
decision has to be made about repairing their favorite guitar, there are
more questions. For many years we have helped musicians around the
world as they look for ways to improve their guitars or fix a problem or
restore it to an earlier time. The "Patina" or top thin layer on the
surface is considered valuable by many guitar collectors if left
completely alone to age naturally. When deciding to help a player
restore an old instrument it's best to try and take that into
consideration. The least "invasive" way of repairing it is always a good
first choice. The decision was made on this old Gibson to just remove
the damage and preserve what was left. So-after the fire damage ash
"cloak" was removed a beautiful Sunburst was revealed and the value was
restored to an old trusted friend.
1) Clean with rubbing compound and 6000 grit wet & dry and polish entire guitar body
2) Clean and sand fret board and polish frets with diamond file
3) Level and re-crown frets
4) Straighten neck
5) Add new: nut, arch top guitar bridge, new tuners, tail piece, and knobs
6) Oil fret board
7) Re-wire electronics, test, clean and re-use original P-90 pick up.
Add new volume, tone pots, jack and capacitor.
8) Add new 10-46 electric guitar strings
10) Photograph results:
