BrotherJack
Junior Member
- Messages
- 80
So, some time back, I ended up with an Ibanez RG120 for $30, which I repaired and later traded for a battered old Epiphone Dot Studio. It had at one time been painted rattle can black, had obscenities written on it, all of which was later sanded off (in some places none to carefully), and it had a chunk cut out of the lower F hole (I presume because a previous owner wanted easier access to the electronics). It was a dubious trade for a $30 guitar, but I liked the hollow body better than the purple Ibanez, so I took it. I played it as-was for a while, and decided I liked it enough to spruce it up and make something (in my view) cool out of it. :icon_jokercolor:
I started by replacing that $diety-awful mostly-tone-dead zinc tune-o-matic that was on it with a Wilkinson brass bridge that actually had enough range of motion to intonate correctly on this guitar (which the TOM did not). Those $diety-awful no-tune-holding tuners also had to go, so I appropriated some Grover locking tuners I had laying around for that purpose (drop-in-replacement with the screw holes w00t). The nut it came with was also $diety-awful, so I replaced that with a Graphtech, and for a nice touch I swapped the truss rod adjustment cover with one labeled JLCustom (the name I put on all my own guitars). :icon_thumright:
I also found that huge 'Emperor' headstock something of an eyesore (and prone to me smacking it into things, it being longer than any of my others by a good bit), so I broke out the power tools to cut it down to something more pleasing to my eyes and less likely to meet a mic-stand unexpectedly mid performance. In hindsight, I would have left it about 1/2 inch longer than I did, but at the time I was looking to avoid repainting the headstock, so I took it down enough I could remove the Epiphone logo entirely. it's no big deal - if i didn't mention it, I doubt anyone would look at this and think 'wow, that headstock is about 1/2 inch too short, I think'. :doh:
The stock pickups had more mud in them than a monster truck mud bog rally, so I swapped them out for a Pearly Gates bridge (very appropo, as you'll see later on), and a Duncan Designed 102N (Duncan Jazz knock-off) that'd had an Alnico 3 mag swapped into it (so far, my all time favorite neck humbucker, strange as that my be to some of you). I stuck some unfinished and unpolished nickel covers on them to spruce things up a bit. :icon_smile:
Now, what to do about that abused body and the chunk missing. My original plan was I was going to patch the missing chunk and get an artist buddy of mine to do an American flag in chalk paint style on the front of it, but time kept going by without me getting that done, and after stumbling across a pic of a Texas flag on a guitar that inspired me, I later decided I'd rather have a Texas flag on this one (I'm from Texas originally, so it suited me). It was also a bonus that I thought I could probably manage to do the flag myself, which appealed to my DIY side. :hello2:
So, I grabbed me a chunk of Mahogany from a local specialty wood store ($0.99, w00t), and with a little help from a wood cutting wheel and my high speed rotary tool, I carved out a bit I could slip in place where the missing piece was that had wings on the underside I could use for structural support when I glued it in. A little Gorilla Wood Glue later, and it was solid enough that I could tap it fairly decently hard with a rubber mallet without dislodging it, so I sanded it down flush with the body, filled the cracks, and called that Good to Go(tm). :guitaristgif:
Then I carefully masked all the things I didn't want painted, and went to town on it. I started by lacquering the headstock where I had exposed wood by cutting it down. Once that dried, I laid down a coat of Krylon Rust Tough matte black on the front of the axe ('matte' does not do this stuff justice, it's almost sandpaper-ish when dry - great surface for anything else to adhere to, and nicely flat black to boot). I left that to cure for a week, during which I went and picked out my flag colors from yee olde Home Depot's spray paint section. Took a lot of looking to find 3 colors that were all in the same kind of color-tones as each other, that also would match with the tones of the matte cherry finish that was on the rest of the guitar. But I eventually found what I was looking for, and got to work. :icon_scratch:
Giving it about 12 hours between sections, I systematically masked and painted the blue, the red, the white, and finally the star. When I sprayed, I was careful to hit the middle of the guitar with a full coverage coat of paint, but feather my way out to the edges with a thin enough coat so that the flat black would be peeking through. That gave it a nice kind of worn look, without going all the way 'relic', also also gave some variation to the individual colors which I thought made it look pretty professional (LOL - as if - I am a hack, and I know it!). :dontknow:
A pic after the last bit was sprayed on - I was very pleased with how the colors matched up tone-wise with the original cherry finish.
And so now today, here I am, just waiting for it to cure. The paint is enamel, which is notorious for taking a looooong time to cure up (though it should be hard as nails once cured), so despite the manufacturer of the paint saying 'fully dry in 24 hours', I'm going to leave it be for probably a month before I do anything else with it. Without clear-coating the whole thing, it may chip a little over time, but I'm cool with that - this was intended to look somewhat rustic, and that would just add to the effect. I am 100% pleased with how it's all coming together. I added up the cost of all the parts, and I'm right at $200 in to this project at the moment, which hey, anytime you have an axe you like that was only $200, w00t w00t, right? :headbang:
Which brings us to here. There's a slight bit of bleed on the star that I wasn't thrilled with, but you really wouldn't ever notice it unless you were inside of 3 feet or looking at the pic below, and I can live with that.
Hopefully you've enjoyed my little adventure in guitar salvage.
Cheers all!
I started by replacing that $diety-awful mostly-tone-dead zinc tune-o-matic that was on it with a Wilkinson brass bridge that actually had enough range of motion to intonate correctly on this guitar (which the TOM did not). Those $diety-awful no-tune-holding tuners also had to go, so I appropriated some Grover locking tuners I had laying around for that purpose (drop-in-replacement with the screw holes w00t). The nut it came with was also $diety-awful, so I replaced that with a Graphtech, and for a nice touch I swapped the truss rod adjustment cover with one labeled JLCustom (the name I put on all my own guitars). :icon_thumright:
I also found that huge 'Emperor' headstock something of an eyesore (and prone to me smacking it into things, it being longer than any of my others by a good bit), so I broke out the power tools to cut it down to something more pleasing to my eyes and less likely to meet a mic-stand unexpectedly mid performance. In hindsight, I would have left it about 1/2 inch longer than I did, but at the time I was looking to avoid repainting the headstock, so I took it down enough I could remove the Epiphone logo entirely. it's no big deal - if i didn't mention it, I doubt anyone would look at this and think 'wow, that headstock is about 1/2 inch too short, I think'. :doh:
The stock pickups had more mud in them than a monster truck mud bog rally, so I swapped them out for a Pearly Gates bridge (very appropo, as you'll see later on), and a Duncan Designed 102N (Duncan Jazz knock-off) that'd had an Alnico 3 mag swapped into it (so far, my all time favorite neck humbucker, strange as that my be to some of you). I stuck some unfinished and unpolished nickel covers on them to spruce things up a bit. :icon_smile:
Now, what to do about that abused body and the chunk missing. My original plan was I was going to patch the missing chunk and get an artist buddy of mine to do an American flag in chalk paint style on the front of it, but time kept going by without me getting that done, and after stumbling across a pic of a Texas flag on a guitar that inspired me, I later decided I'd rather have a Texas flag on this one (I'm from Texas originally, so it suited me). It was also a bonus that I thought I could probably manage to do the flag myself, which appealed to my DIY side. :hello2:
So, I grabbed me a chunk of Mahogany from a local specialty wood store ($0.99, w00t), and with a little help from a wood cutting wheel and my high speed rotary tool, I carved out a bit I could slip in place where the missing piece was that had wings on the underside I could use for structural support when I glued it in. A little Gorilla Wood Glue later, and it was solid enough that I could tap it fairly decently hard with a rubber mallet without dislodging it, so I sanded it down flush with the body, filled the cracks, and called that Good to Go(tm). :guitaristgif:
Then I carefully masked all the things I didn't want painted, and went to town on it. I started by lacquering the headstock where I had exposed wood by cutting it down. Once that dried, I laid down a coat of Krylon Rust Tough matte black on the front of the axe ('matte' does not do this stuff justice, it's almost sandpaper-ish when dry - great surface for anything else to adhere to, and nicely flat black to boot). I left that to cure for a week, during which I went and picked out my flag colors from yee olde Home Depot's spray paint section. Took a lot of looking to find 3 colors that were all in the same kind of color-tones as each other, that also would match with the tones of the matte cherry finish that was on the rest of the guitar. But I eventually found what I was looking for, and got to work. :icon_scratch:
Giving it about 12 hours between sections, I systematically masked and painted the blue, the red, the white, and finally the star. When I sprayed, I was careful to hit the middle of the guitar with a full coverage coat of paint, but feather my way out to the edges with a thin enough coat so that the flat black would be peeking through. That gave it a nice kind of worn look, without going all the way 'relic', also also gave some variation to the individual colors which I thought made it look pretty professional (LOL - as if - I am a hack, and I know it!). :dontknow:
A pic after the last bit was sprayed on - I was very pleased with how the colors matched up tone-wise with the original cherry finish.
And so now today, here I am, just waiting for it to cure. The paint is enamel, which is notorious for taking a looooong time to cure up (though it should be hard as nails once cured), so despite the manufacturer of the paint saying 'fully dry in 24 hours', I'm going to leave it be for probably a month before I do anything else with it. Without clear-coating the whole thing, it may chip a little over time, but I'm cool with that - this was intended to look somewhat rustic, and that would just add to the effect. I am 100% pleased with how it's all coming together. I added up the cost of all the parts, and I'm right at $200 in to this project at the moment, which hey, anytime you have an axe you like that was only $200, w00t w00t, right? :headbang:
Which brings us to here. There's a slight bit of bleed on the star that I wasn't thrilled with, but you really wouldn't ever notice it unless you were inside of 3 feet or looking at the pic below, and I can live with that.
Hopefully you've enjoyed my little adventure in guitar salvage.
Cheers all!
