Ayrton
New member
I thought I had started a thread on this guitar way back when I first got it, but I guess not.
Brief backstory; I bought the guitar through a friend from Bo Bice (of American Idol fame), and it was a bit of a mess, but the price was right (or so I thought at the time).
The guitar was originally clear, and someone had painted over the original finish with white enamel rattle can, and then tried lacquer over that. The lacquer never fully cured so the whole guitar had this soft, sticky feel to it. The frets were baked entirely, and there appeared to be a slight twist to the neck.
I figured I could just refinish the body, install some new frets and be done. That was my first mistake... I don't have a too many pics, but enough that you get the idea.
I started wiping off the uncured lacquer thinking the white could be saved, but I realized the original clear was still on. I decided to strip all the finish at that point.
I then turned my attention to the neck. The original poly finish was brittle and flaking off, so it was easy to remove.
The original board radius was 7.25" of course, and I figured I could even out the anomaly and flatten the radius at the same time. This is where things went very wrong.
I tried to remove just enough material to correct the neck, and have a 9.5" radius. That was not enough and inadvertently removed too much making the neck thinner than I wanted and I still had not corrected everything. Frustrated I put the guitar on the back burner, and that is where it sat for a few years.
Fast forward to 2014 and I did some work on a '70's strat that had a Rosewood board, and I got the idea that I could add back the neck thickness I wanted if I converted my neck from a Maple board to a Rosewood. I would have to flatten the radius to 12" to correct everything and I could only remove so much before I hit the truss rod washer.
Now, I had a neck that was straight and needed a veneer fretboard about 3/16" to get back to just over 1" thickness at the heel. The challenge became how to get a fretboard with a concave 12" radius on the underside or be able to bend such a thick board onto the neck. While exploring a solution for the neck, I turned to the body. I removed all the original clear poly and retained the original contours. I refinished the body in Olympic White lacquer and added some black covers for that Richie Blackmore look.
The pickguard is original, and I only replaced the saddles on the original bridge. The pickups are Fender Custom Shop '69's (seemed like the right match to me!).
Brief backstory; I bought the guitar through a friend from Bo Bice (of American Idol fame), and it was a bit of a mess, but the price was right (or so I thought at the time).
The guitar was originally clear, and someone had painted over the original finish with white enamel rattle can, and then tried lacquer over that. The lacquer never fully cured so the whole guitar had this soft, sticky feel to it. The frets were baked entirely, and there appeared to be a slight twist to the neck.
I figured I could just refinish the body, install some new frets and be done. That was my first mistake... I don't have a too many pics, but enough that you get the idea.
I started wiping off the uncured lacquer thinking the white could be saved, but I realized the original clear was still on. I decided to strip all the finish at that point.
I then turned my attention to the neck. The original poly finish was brittle and flaking off, so it was easy to remove.
The original board radius was 7.25" of course, and I figured I could even out the anomaly and flatten the radius at the same time. This is where things went very wrong.
I tried to remove just enough material to correct the neck, and have a 9.5" radius. That was not enough and inadvertently removed too much making the neck thinner than I wanted and I still had not corrected everything. Frustrated I put the guitar on the back burner, and that is where it sat for a few years.
Fast forward to 2014 and I did some work on a '70's strat that had a Rosewood board, and I got the idea that I could add back the neck thickness I wanted if I converted my neck from a Maple board to a Rosewood. I would have to flatten the radius to 12" to correct everything and I could only remove so much before I hit the truss rod washer.
Now, I had a neck that was straight and needed a veneer fretboard about 3/16" to get back to just over 1" thickness at the heel. The challenge became how to get a fretboard with a concave 12" radius on the underside or be able to bend such a thick board onto the neck. While exploring a solution for the neck, I turned to the body. I removed all the original clear poly and retained the original contours. I refinished the body in Olympic White lacquer and added some black covers for that Richie Blackmore look.
The pickguard is original, and I only replaced the saddles on the original bridge. The pickups are Fender Custom Shop '69's (seemed like the right match to me!).
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