Post by rcuda on Jan 2, 2007 21:16:47 GMT -6
As some of you may know from some of my other threads on the forum, I was refinishing/repairing my badly mistreated acoustic guitar. It was a cheap old Yamaha acoustic, your basic no frills dreadnought. It was in disrepair when it came into my hands, and suffice it to say, I wasn't exactly ginger with it either. But it played well and had good action and decent tone. It also became my guinea pig for installing a piezo pickup. After several months of playing after the piezo upgrade, the guitar got knocked over while I was doing a little recording, putting a large hole in the side of the guitar. Long story short, the repair called for a total strip down and refinish. And to make another long story short, I just completed it. And despite a few cosmetic blemishes, it's in much better shape than it was before. And some upgraded electronics and new sealed have really improved my guitar. But it is still an ugly guitar.
Here is a picture of the finished guitar. I appologize for the low quality, I think my old digital camera is about to bite the dust. it's been taking really poor quality pictures lately. And the flash only works about half the time.
So, I vowed after embarking on my journey to repair my acoustic that as soon as I finished with that project, I would begin working on my Les Paul. And well, here it is, one day into the project. I've stripped the sealer off of the back, front and part of the sides of the body, and I've shaped the headstock. I must say that despite the particular complications that sanding the carved veneer top of the guitar posed, it was much easier to strip this one than the saga Strat I built a year ago. Sanding was fairly uneventful, but i did opt to strip the mahogany veneer off the back, partially to be different, partially because I don't think it would look very good as cherry red. I tried several methods of stripping including citrisstrip, heatgun and chisel and an abrasive sanding wheel, but ultimately I ended up hand sanding it... oh well.
It seems like everyone was copying the Gibson headstock, and being the type to march to the beat of a different drummer, I designed my own. I drew it on a 3x5 card, traced the outline and then used my dremel to cut it. I used a sanding drum to rough it out and various grinding bits to smooth it out and finesse it into shape.
I'll keep you all posted on my progress.
Here is a picture of the finished guitar. I appologize for the low quality, I think my old digital camera is about to bite the dust. it's been taking really poor quality pictures lately. And the flash only works about half the time.
So, I vowed after embarking on my journey to repair my acoustic that as soon as I finished with that project, I would begin working on my Les Paul. And well, here it is, one day into the project. I've stripped the sealer off of the back, front and part of the sides of the body, and I've shaped the headstock. I must say that despite the particular complications that sanding the carved veneer top of the guitar posed, it was much easier to strip this one than the saga Strat I built a year ago. Sanding was fairly uneventful, but i did opt to strip the mahogany veneer off the back, partially to be different, partially because I don't think it would look very good as cherry red. I tried several methods of stripping including citrisstrip, heatgun and chisel and an abrasive sanding wheel, but ultimately I ended up hand sanding it... oh well.
It seems like everyone was copying the Gibson headstock, and being the type to march to the beat of a different drummer, I designed my own. I drew it on a 3x5 card, traced the outline and then used my dremel to cut it. I used a sanding drum to rough it out and various grinding bits to smooth it out and finesse it into shape.
I'll keep you all posted on my progress.
