Refurbishing an electric guitar

specialman

specialman

Suspended / Banned
Messages
8,193
Name
Pat MacInnes
Edit My Images
Yes
Just wondering if anyone has experience of refurbing a guitar and how they got on with it?

I have a telecaster that's dinged and chipped and it's screaming out for a lick of paint. But I'm also thinking about getting a cheap axe off ebay to dabble with.

I've read a few things about sanding, priming and painting the body and it sounds like it could be fun.

Share your info if you've been there and got the t-shirt :)
 
Used to do this as a hobby - buy broken/damaged/poorly advertised basses on eBay and do them up. Not done it in years as I had to stop playing through injuy.

Whatever you want to do, there will be a great tutorial online somewhere - from which primer to use to how to install LEDs on a fretboard. I used the Ultimate-Guitar.com Building forum, which has a great sticky at the top of the page.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=53

For parts ; you may want to get them sent from America, Warmoth and StewMac were the best sites when I done it years ago. AllParts and AxesRus were the two best UK sites (AxesRUs were my personal favourites).

It can be fun, other times you just want to give in. Some of the wood grain fillers used on the Chinese bodies was more like a hard, dried in plastic that would destroy your sander. The other problem for me was I could never let a project be complete - there always had to be an extra couple of hours getting the frets right, or messing with the electrics.

In the end, I sold up my tools, wood and parts and just bought a brand new bass that I never even tried to tamper with.

Priming, painting and coating was never my strong point. I really struggled to get a clean, even finish. Some say that's the easiest and best part of doing them up. I always enjoyed the electrical side of it - making flashing LEDs that lit up when you pressed down on a fret or adding an active EQ. I'd spend hours writing schematics online for others but I doubt I even have them anymore.

You'll soon learn how to do some fixes for instruments that will be useful in the future and you'll get a better understanding of how simple they really are. I say go for it.
 
I picked up a Epiphone X-1000 (late 80's metal shredder) guitar in 1990 with a smashed Floyd Rose trem.

I stripped it down and got a lovely kahler USA trem which needed a bit of woodwork to fit due to the size. Now it's black and despite having owned a few nice guitars over the years I've kept this one.

Excuse the crappy pic and the finger marks.

7800964056_6622108736_c.jpg
 
Last edited:
It's easy enough to take the guitar to bits and put it back again, so don't worry about that part.
Then it's just a case of stripping the paint (depending on the existing finish you may find a paintstripper chemical is better than sanding to get the bulk off). Reapply the finish to end up with something good is the hard part (and not something I've done myself although I did spend a week working with a luthier) - as far as I know spraying the paint will give you the best finish but this requires equipment you might not have.

A friend of mine had a cheap strat copy that weighed an ton, so he stripped all the paint off and went at it with a collection of different size hole saws. He then sanded to get a good finish and varnished it. It looked like brilliant, like a piece of swiss cheese; and best of all it made it more playable as the weight was no longer an issue.
 
I bought my mates old P Bass, a nasty Encore thing. Took it back to component parts, modified a few things (High mass through body bridge) and put it all back together as a vastly superior instrument that is my go to guitar.

I didn't mess with the paint, though I don't expect it to be any more difficult than DIY spraying car parts for example.
 
What age is the Tele? Could reduce its value a LOT if it's a vintage one and it gets refinished!
 
Nod said:
What age is the Tele? Could reduce its value a LOT if it's a vintage one and it gets refinished!
Click to expand...

It's nothing classic - it's a Squire affinity I bought about 14-15 years ago. Plays well, although I need to set it up again (it sounds a bit pish at the moment) but it's got some big old chips in the paint and is covered in specks of black paint for some reason... think I must have painted something near to it... whoops! :lol:
 
No problem then! Far easier than a Gibson to refinish and/or strip down.

Might be worth a small test patch to make sure the new paint doesn't react with the old but I can't see Squire using anything silly.
 
Just leave it.. maybe add some more abuse to it and go for the road worn look?

Also they're covered in thick poly.. its a bitch to get off, heat gun, scraper and shed loads of elbow grease, I did it once.. never again and if its a red guitar.. forget thinking about a natural finish..I've never seen one were it worked.

Disassembly and reassembly are easy but if you do paint it make sure you mask off the neck pocket and cavaties/screw holes/string holes/ferrules.
 
iancandler has it right. It'll be a polyurethane finish which will be a right pain in the fundament to remove. Leave it as it is and enjoy playing it.

Some people actually pay extra for dings and scratches :cuckoo:
 
I took it apart last night, cleaned and polished it, removing all the black specks easily. Plus I fitted some long overdue 0.10 Slinkys and reset the bridge back to somewhere near normal... plays better now, much tighter sounding so in terms of mods I think I'm gonna change the pick guard (it's white on a blonde body) to either tortoiseshell red, or a 3-ply black with white edging and just leave it at that. It'll freshen up the looks.

I've found some great guitars, some real oddities on fleabay from the likes of Dean, Cort and Ibanez but as is the case with ebay, I either missed the auction, realised it was too good to be true or couldn't get it delivered. Still got my eye on a few but I have a new plan...

Looking around the net I came across quite a few DIY kits and although they'll never make amazing guitars, I've been after doing something as a hobby that I can dip in and out of when I have pare time so I'm going to build a guitar.

I don't have the tools for cutting my own body from a lump of good wood so I'm going to buy a pre-cut, pre-drilled body that I can mate to a neck and then customise with the pickups and metalware of my choice. I'm not trying to create a work of art and I'm not in the market for spending a fortune, it's more something that I can say "I did that" when people see it. Seen some really interesting finishing techniques and it means I can create the kind of guitar that no manufacturer actually makes. It'll probably play like a bag of spanners but that's not the point....

There are some great suppliers who sell what look to be high-quality bodies and necks but I think I'll go for something cheaper and then add in some half-decent components. Think PRS or LP-style body with an unorthodox neck and headstock, maybe flying-V or Charvel/Jackson style. Lots of black bits, lots of ink and sanding back....really looking forward to the challenge.
 
Last edited:
If it's getting a bit battered how about going for the road-worn look (I know yours is a tele not a strat, but same idea):
preview.jpg
 
Although I've seen some nice roadworn guitars, I'm a lovers or those patterned tops, the ones where they put down a layer of black, sand it then put colour over the top so the grain has black in it. I also love day glo colours
 
Stratman said:
Have you considered swirling it?

th
Click to expand...

Even to my 1980s sensibilities, that is a bit mental :lol:

I've seen swirling tutorials and TBH, it's a nifty technique but not one I could live with I don't think.

I've actually gone and ordered a PRS-style body and neck through flea bay - it looks pretty much a copy of a 24-fret SE, although it's only 22 frets. It has bird inlays on the fingerboard but is solid wood with a maple top (not bookmatched quilted maple unfortunately) but looks pretty bang-on and also features a good looking, PRS-style headstock. For £110 delivered from China I doubt it'll be amazing but it'll be fine for what I want.

Been researching the kind of look I want. Was going to go for a dark stain on the rear and then something like a dark green burst on the top if the wood grain is good, but I'm liking the idea of black hardware and think some white gloss will work over the entire body, especially as the fingerboard is dark rosewood. Really looking forward to this project, especially the staining and the nitrocelulose coating to give that awesome shine. It's gonna cost more than a cheap guitar what the hell :)
 
Last edited:
Ha, I got a bit caught up in this whole DIY guitar thing and ended up ordering another body - an alder Telecaster that been routed for strat pickups/guard and neck so I'll be working on a 'strat-o-tele'. Doing it to make it pretty much like this:

fts.jpg


Same colour (Gretsch orange) with black hardware - oooooof :)
 
specialman said:
Did you have any issues re-assembling?
Click to expand...

Sorry for the delayed response, only just saw this. No problem putting back together, pick guard is just screws, the neck just screws back on, whilst I had it stripped down, I put my name on the back of the neck with a felt pen, this was where you could not see it, where the screws that hold the neck on goes, should it ever have been stolen it would have made identifying it simple.
 
Epic thread revival, but I've managed to get one toe over the finish line with my first of two guitar projects...

DSC5306.jpg


Still got to string it up and sort out the action, but I feel I've achieved something and it's taken my mind off other more serious concerns in my life of late.
 
Stratman said:
iancandler has it right. It'll be a polyurethane finish which will be a right pain in the fundament to remove.
Click to expand...

Even if you are going to re-paint it, don't strip the finish off. Just fill the dents, sand it, prime it and paint it. Lots of coats using fine wet or dry in between. And lots of drying time.

Stratman said:
Some people actually pay extra for dings and scratches
Click to expand...

Some people are idiots!

And don't spend too much time on it, it's only one of those new-fangled solid body things. They will never catch on.

Hollow body guitars is where it's at!


Steve.
 
specialman said:
Epic thread revival, but I've managed to get one toe over the finish line with my first of two guitar projects...

DSC5306.jpg


Still got to string it up and sort out the action, but I feel I've achieved something and it's taken my mind off other more serious concerns in my life of late.
Click to expand...

Nice work! :clap:
 
specialman said:
Same colour (Gretsch orange)
Click to expand...

Yes... but it's not a Gretsch!!!

It does look good though. I like the Strat shape with Tele scratchplate and controls but not the other way round.


Steve.
 
Last edited:
specialman said:
... it's more unique than a common old bit of Gretsch lumber :lol:
Click to expand...

I challenge you to find another one with the same finish as mine!!

For every one with an amber maple finish (like mine) there are about seventeen million in orange.

I have a quite nice Squire Affinity Tele. It is a light mustard colour and has a Gibson type humbucker in the neck position instead of the usual Tele pickup. It was in a music shop window and for several weeks I looked at it every day on my walk to work. Eventually I just had to have it.


Steve.
 
Last edited:
This is something I really ought to look into learning. I've been playing guitar for 22 years now, but I've never really done much more than basic care and maintenance.
 
Steve Smith - that sounds nice, I do like Telecasters with different pickups.

What is your Gretsch? I don't know much about them, I take it that it's a semi-hollow, with those f-holes :)
 
andy700 said:
Is that a Vox AC30 in the background?
if so, that is a lovely sound combination
Click to expand...

Alas, its only a baby VT15 valvetronix. Needed a new amp but didn't want to spend a fortune and needed a combo so there weren't wires and effects pedals all over to trip my little boy up. Only cost £50 on ebay, brilliant sounds and benefits from valve goodness
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top