Guitar
I got this project instrument a few weeks ago and just started working on it.
This poor Junior had two Les Paul baby humbuckers installed instead of the old dog-ear P-90 - though they were installed next to each other, so the neck joint wasn't cut into.
And then things got ugly ....
Maybe the "junior scientest" working in this guitar was trying to simply enlarge the control cavity to add two more controls and a selector switch and they broke through the thin top of the SG - or maybe they just had a butter knife to work with and decided hacking a huge hole in the guitar was the easiest way to modify the guitar - anyway, the sad result was what you see below !
The major task obviously is plugging this massive hole and then rerouting the control cavity for two controls and an output jack. After that, the enlarged pickup routing will have to be filled and rerouted as well.
On the plus side, the neck and heel of this Junior have never been broken and this guitar has the fat neck profile of the earliest Les Paul and SG Juniors. And the fretboard and frets are in good shape - well-played but still plenty of meat on them.
To start with, I straightened out the edges of the hacked hole - and then I cut a large plug from a block of mahogany. The block was then glued in using Titebond wood glue - with the top surface slightly above the rest of the guitar face to allow for some shrinkage of wood later.
Once the block was glued in, I drilled in at three points to pin the plug with long maple dowels - securing the block in place.
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- 1971 Gibson Eb-3 - Basketcase Redemption
I finished this project roughly 5 years ago - but I think its an interesting one as it demonstrates a pretty extreme headstock repair and also inlaying wood into a top to repair "artistic" carving. The subject was a 1971 Gibson EB-3 bass,...
- Mystery Gibson Les Paul Junior - 1950s? 1970s?
A few years ago I purchased a very beat-up and modified Les Paul Special/Junior. It was hanging in Cambridge Music, in their Boston Store and was marked as a 1970s Les Paul Special. I played it and loved how it felt - it had a HUGE neck and was very lightweight...
Guitar
1965 Gibson SG Junior Rescue & Refinish
I got this project instrument a few weeks ago and just started working on it.
This poor Junior had two Les Paul baby humbuckers installed instead of the old dog-ear P-90 - though they were installed next to each other, so the neck joint wasn't cut into.
And then things got ugly ....
Maybe the "junior scientest" working in this guitar was trying to simply enlarge the control cavity to add two more controls and a selector switch and they broke through the thin top of the SG - or maybe they just had a butter knife to work with and decided hacking a huge hole in the guitar was the easiest way to modify the guitar - anyway, the sad result was what you see below !
The major task obviously is plugging this massive hole and then rerouting the control cavity for two controls and an output jack. After that, the enlarged pickup routing will have to be filled and rerouted as well.
On the plus side, the neck and heel of this Junior have never been broken and this guitar has the fat neck profile of the earliest Les Paul and SG Juniors. And the fretboard and frets are in good shape - well-played but still plenty of meat on them.
To start with, I straightened out the edges of the hacked hole - and then I cut a large plug from a block of mahogany. The block was then glued in using Titebond wood glue - with the top surface slightly above the rest of the guitar face to allow for some shrinkage of wood later.
Once the block was glued in, I drilled in at three points to pin the plug with long maple dowels - securing the block in place.
- Concrete Bass Prototype: What Is Heavier Than Metal ????
Last spring, while in the middle of creating some small concrete countertops for a tattoo shop build-out (Pumpkin Tattoo in Jamaica Plain) the question came up, "would it be possible to build a concrete body for a guitar"? I decided to give it a shot...
- Updated! 1966 Gibson Thunderbird: Gluing Back Together The Bits And Pieces!!
< This is one of the most ambitious rebuild projects I have undertaken yet - perhaps THE most ambitious - and it remains to be seen how it works out in the end. This is a project for a client - my friend David from New York, who owns the Guild Starfire...
- Musicmaster Disaster !! Another Daphne Blue Fender Bass
Here's an example of a rebuild project that honestly doesn't make a whole lot of sense in terms of "effort" vs. "value" - but what the hell. Its fulfilling to take an instrument someone has managed to destroy and bring it back to not only being...
- 1971 Gibson Eb-3 - Basketcase Redemption
I finished this project roughly 5 years ago - but I think its an interesting one as it demonstrates a pretty extreme headstock repair and also inlaying wood into a top to repair "artistic" carving. The subject was a 1971 Gibson EB-3 bass,...
- Mystery Gibson Les Paul Junior - 1950s? 1970s?
A few years ago I purchased a very beat-up and modified Les Paul Special/Junior. It was hanging in Cambridge Music, in their Boston Store and was marked as a 1970s Les Paul Special. I played it and loved how it felt - it had a HUGE neck and was very lightweight...