Here's a "Lead Player" Les Paul-style solidbody that came in for fret leveling & dressing, nut rebuild, pot/jack
upgrade and rewiring. I'll let the pictures do the talking :)
Friday, September 23, 2016
Squier California Series Tele | Teak Oil Refinish
The owner of this red Squier California Series Tele wanted it refinished au naturel. We agreed that the best way to achieve this would be to strip it down to bare wood, stain it lightly, and refinish in teak oil. I must say that the results were pleasing to the eye. Besides the refinish job, I also put in a new 3-way switch, full-sized Alpha 500K pots, Sprague "orange drop" cap, and output jack.
Thursday, February 25, 2016
1984 Ibanez RS130 | Part 5
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Rewiring
This post is the last of a five-part series on a gloss black Ibanez Roadstar II RS130 Strat-style guitar. In this post, I shall focus on what was done to get this guitar's electronics up to snuff.
For starters, allow me to opine that Ibanez of old really had the inside scoop on vintage "strat tone," so to speak. I tell you, even through my crappy 10W practice amp, the Super 5 single coils chimed and quacked their way into my heart. I mean, bell tones by the truckload!
I've played too many old strats to remember, and this unassuming Roadstar II would've given any one of them a run for their money. The icing on the cake was that the middle pickup was (I presume) RWRP, as positions 2 and 4 were hum-cancelling. All this in 1984? Bravo, Ibanez!
On the downside, I have to admit that this guitar exuded loads of hum and noise in positions 1, 3, and 5; more so in high-gain settings. To make matters worse, the master tone control was behaving weirdly: 0 was full treble while 10 cut off all the highs. Besides this, the pots and switch were scratchy and/or noisy, even after servicing.
It was definitely time to look at the innards, and what I discovered was not pleasing. Someone had replaced the full-sized master volume pot with a smaller one, and while rewiring, hooked up the master tone pot backwards. On the whole, the wiring was rather gnarly and needed to go. Thus said, I ended up doing a complete rewire, which included replacing all the components; save the original pickups. I also had to replace the Sure Grip II control knobs, as they could not fit the CTS pots.
I'm thankful to report that the rewiring job took care of the pre-existing hum and noise problem; much to the owner's delight.
For starters, allow me to opine that Ibanez of old really had the inside scoop on vintage "strat tone," so to speak. I tell you, even through my crappy 10W practice amp, the Super 5 single coils chimed and quacked their way into my heart. I mean, bell tones by the truckload!
I've played too many old strats to remember, and this unassuming Roadstar II would've given any one of them a run for their money. The icing on the cake was that the middle pickup was (I presume) RWRP, as positions 2 and 4 were hum-cancelling. All this in 1984? Bravo, Ibanez!
On the downside, I have to admit that this guitar exuded loads of hum and noise in positions 1, 3, and 5; more so in high-gain settings. To make matters worse, the master tone control was behaving weirdly: 0 was full treble while 10 cut off all the highs. Besides this, the pots and switch were scratchy and/or noisy, even after servicing.
It was definitely time to look at the innards, and what I discovered was not pleasing. Someone had replaced the full-sized master volume pot with a smaller one, and while rewiring, hooked up the master tone pot backwards. On the whole, the wiring was rather gnarly and needed to go. Thus said, I ended up doing a complete rewire, which included replacing all the components; save the original pickups. I also had to replace the Sure Grip II control knobs, as they could not fit the CTS pots.
I'm thankful to report that the rewiring job took care of the pre-existing hum and noise problem; much to the owner's delight.
1984 Ibanez RS130 | Part 4
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Bodywork
This post is the fourth of a five-part series on a gloss black Ibanez Roadstar II RS130 Strat-style guitar. In this post, I shall focus on the work done to repair finish damage on the body of the guitar. As you can see from the pics, the body had been finished in black poly, and whole chunks of had chipped off in two major locations: the rear of the lower horn and the area below the output jack. There were also other areas that had suffered dents, cracks and chips; but they aren't really visible in the pics.
To repair the damage, I started out by sanding the edges of the affected areas and roughening up any exposed wood surfaces. Devcon 2-part epoxy was then applied to these areas, and after sufficient hardening time, sanded down. The process was repeated several times until the epoxy layer was flush with the existing finish. Following this, the entire body was roughened with sandpaper to improve paint adhesion.
I then sprayed on three coats of black, wetsanding in between coats. This was followed by three coats of clear, with the mandatory wetsanding in between. Wetsanding is a real chore (especially when you accidentally burn-through and have to respray), but well worth the effort. Finally, after two weeks, the new finish was waxed and polished, and hand-buffed to as lustrous a shine as I could manage.
To repair the damage, I started out by sanding the edges of the affected areas and roughening up any exposed wood surfaces. Devcon 2-part epoxy was then applied to these areas, and after sufficient hardening time, sanded down. The process was repeated several times until the epoxy layer was flush with the existing finish. Following this, the entire body was roughened with sandpaper to improve paint adhesion.
I then sprayed on three coats of black, wetsanding in between coats. This was followed by three coats of clear, with the mandatory wetsanding in between. Wetsanding is a real chore (especially when you accidentally burn-through and have to respray), but well worth the effort. Finally, after two weeks, the new finish was waxed and polished, and hand-buffed to as lustrous a shine as I could manage.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
1984 Ibanez RS130 | Part 3
Neck Refinish
This post is the third of a five-part series on a gloss black Ibanez Roadstar II RS130 Strat-style guitar. In this post, I will focus on the neck refinish job I had to carry out. Readers might remember that my last post was about refretting the neck. Well, having done that, it was time to remove the masking tape I had used to protect the fingerboard from files and such.
So I carefully peeled off the tape segment by segment. Mind you, I'd previously "de-tacked" the tape by sticking it onto my t-shirt. But, as luck would have it, I'd seriously underestimated the fragility of the lacquer. It just peeled off in strips along with the tape. It was a total disaster, with finish flaking off the fingerboard face, edges, and even the back of the neck. I'd worked on old guitars before, but this was the first time something like this had happened.
Resigning myself to my fate, I gingerly removed all the tape and cleaned up any glue residue with lighter fluid. Then I realized that tiny slivers of semi-decayed maple had come off with the lacquer. "Way to go," I thought to myself. That settled it. I'd have to refinish the whole neck, and here comes more scraping and sanding!
Subsequently, the fingerboard was scraped clean with a razor blade, while the back of the neck was sanded down to bare wood (I stopped at 600 grit). The face of the headstock was left untouched, to avoid removing the patina or damaging the decals. I decided on a superglue finish for the fingerboard face and edges because it would soak into the wood, halt the decay, and fill up the numerous craters that had appeared.
Thus began the tedious process of applying a thin layer of superglue (trying my best not to get any on the frets), waiting for it to dry, wetsanding, applying the next layer, wetsanding, ... you get the picture. As I had feared, superglue did get onto the frets. It was a total PITA removing it and repolishing the frets without scratching the fresh fingerboard finish. For the back of the neck and headstock, I decided on a teak oil finish, which gave it a smooth, sensuous feel IMHO.
In retrospect, I should have been more thorough in assessing the condition of the fingerboard before refretting the neck. I should have scraped off all the lacquer, refinished the fingerboard, and then only carried out the refret. This is one painful lesson I'm not likely to forget!
So I carefully peeled off the tape segment by segment. Mind you, I'd previously "de-tacked" the tape by sticking it onto my t-shirt. But, as luck would have it, I'd seriously underestimated the fragility of the lacquer. It just peeled off in strips along with the tape. It was a total disaster, with finish flaking off the fingerboard face, edges, and even the back of the neck. I'd worked on old guitars before, but this was the first time something like this had happened.
Resigning myself to my fate, I gingerly removed all the tape and cleaned up any glue residue with lighter fluid. Then I realized that tiny slivers of semi-decayed maple had come off with the lacquer. "Way to go," I thought to myself. That settled it. I'd have to refinish the whole neck, and here comes more scraping and sanding!
Subsequently, the fingerboard was scraped clean with a razor blade, while the back of the neck was sanded down to bare wood (I stopped at 600 grit). The face of the headstock was left untouched, to avoid removing the patina or damaging the decals. I decided on a superglue finish for the fingerboard face and edges because it would soak into the wood, halt the decay, and fill up the numerous craters that had appeared.
Thus began the tedious process of applying a thin layer of superglue (trying my best not to get any on the frets), waiting for it to dry, wetsanding, applying the next layer, wetsanding, ... you get the picture. As I had feared, superglue did get onto the frets. It was a total PITA removing it and repolishing the frets without scratching the fresh fingerboard finish. For the back of the neck and headstock, I decided on a teak oil finish, which gave it a smooth, sensuous feel IMHO.
In retrospect, I should have been more thorough in assessing the condition of the fingerboard before refretting the neck. I should have scraped off all the lacquer, refinished the fingerboard, and then only carried out the refret. This is one painful lesson I'm not likely to forget!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)