Refinished my Santana SE

[bigheadood]

Hi guys,

I'm kind of excited about this project.
Two years ago, I started sanding. Then, my daughter was born. So I did not have time to work on this guitar.

I finally finished it last week.

This guitar was always a good player, with a mediocre tone. Bland.
So I stripped off the nearly quarter inch thick poly coat.
Used power sanders, and stripper solvent chemical nastyness.
This took seemingly forever.
While I did not weigh the guitar before hand, It seems like the guitar is MUCH lighter.

I finally got it sealed and finished with a thin coat of poly.
I installed the Custom5 that I had laying around, in the bridge position.
The neck pickup is the OEM POS. 7.5k and I think an A2 magnet. Not ideal, but decent, for now.

This guitar has really come alive, tonally. It's big, fat and loud, but still very dynamic. The natural tone of the guitar has big low mids, and singing high mids, with rolled off bass and treble. The C5 adds the lows and highs, while letting the natural warmth of the guitar do most of the work. Very balanced.

I will be getting a new neck pickup for this in the near future, but I'm not sure what to get.

I would appreciate any comments, or suggestions.

Thanks,

Nick

[cakire82]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

It looks much better than any other santana model I have seen. I am sure it is great player too. A 59N would match that C5 perfect. Great job!

[Surgeon]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

That looks good bro... nice job! Nice figure in the wood too. I kinda like the 3-piece look too for some reason.

Just out of curiosity: what color was it originally??

[bigheadood]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

It was originally a transparent teal green.
It was quite a surprise to me, when I applied the poly coat, the figuring became visible.

I was thinking a '59 could work. Or maybe a Pearly Gates. Not sure yet.
I think an A2Pn will be a bit too tame, but I'll try it anyway, since I already own one.
(will have to remove it from the guitar its currently in).

Thanks

[lex666]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

That looks very cool dude. I like the natural look. That's got an awesome dark shade to it.

Is that a maple top? How thick is it or is it a veneer?

[bigheadood]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

That looks very cool dude. I like the natural look. That's got an awesome dark shade to it.

Is that a maple top? How thick is it or is it a veneer?

No maple. That's the mahogany, or whatever the asian equivalent is called.

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

Love it - and what is up with those inlays?!

[bigheadood]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

Love it - and what is up with those inlays?!

Thanks

These diagonal bar inlays were standard on the 1st generation Santana SEs.
I like 'em.

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

Wow, I never knew!

[JOLLY]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

Nice job!!

[darnright]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

Very cool...nice job!

-dave

[mrfjones]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

that looks great! enjoy

[astrozombie]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

I almost bought one of those, I believe it was red. it was a solid guitar. Nice job man, I like the grain.

[guitarkid4143]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

I was worried at first, when I saw this, but after I saw what happened, I was pleasantly surprised. Nice!

-gk

[bigheadood]

Re: Refinished my Santana SE

Thanks, guys.

What was most surprising, was the fact that the guitar became so much more resonant after the thick poly coat was gone. I always put this in the "myth" category.

"does bad fart gas in a sandstorm kill your tone?"