veneer edgeing headstocks

[neville.sc]

I have bee beavering away for months ,TRYING to get an old Framus strato back to life. the story began nearly 30 years ago, when the guitar fell,breaking the 6th string tuning knob bending the shaft.Years of searching, gave little results, found a engineering shop who could manufacture a copy of the tuner, still left the knob, fan shell, mother of pearl like. Meanwhile I was using an old acoustic tuner on 6. Then I decided to further my playing at a music school, teachers day job, guitar salesman, talked me into reconditioning the guitar, recommended a so called "top man"after 2 years I finally got it back, in a hurry I took it to my 50th birthday party, huge shock, this guy had taken 2 of the original pickups out, replaced them with some old junk. i was told they were Maton, a high end Aussie brand, shock horror, it sounded like a tin can. When I got back home (Brisbane) I went around to have a piece of this guy, his son, told me he had passed away. Years passed, since retired, spent a lot of time restoring a car, the guitar was in the background, A friend offered to help, I said o.k. sand the headstock, he did, with a belt sander! The guy since has been diagnosed with parkinsons, now in a nursing home. I,m thinking how can I save this guitar? Enter HANS PETER WILFER (Warwick music) they have been able to supply pickups, tuners, screws, decals, nut, strings. The old girl is now with a repairer, I managed to build the headstock back to 9/16 from 3/8. I would love to have a timber finish on the edges of the headstock, but told $500,So does anyone know how I could do this myself, at the moment the edges are painted black. love to have the wood back.If it were a car I could just weld it up, not so with wood.

 

[Adieu]

Re: veneer edgeing headstocks

Hint: morons and crooks seem drawn to your guitar.

Don't believe anyone you know, especially if they want money.


Watch youtube tutorials and do it yourself.

 

[neville.sc]

Re: veneer edgeing headstocks

agreed, you can only trust yourself, I have managed a lot myself.

 

[Jacew]

Re: veneer edgeing headstocks

Hope you get the guitar fixed. Sounds like it's taken quite beating along the way.

I didn't exactly catch all the details from that flow of text though. It's interesting how it is impossible to read without hearing the aussie accent in your mind...

 

[Peter Crossley]

Re: veneer edgeing headstocks

Hi Nev,
Pity you are in Qld, I could have fixed that for you..
sandpaper mate, just sand away at that old paint, sooner or later you will get back to timber, with any luck the black may have been painted over the old clear finish, if not, no worries, just take her back to wood.
get that as satiny smooth as possible, then see if you can get someone (or yourself if you are confidant) to spray clear back on..
if its a panel shop, they will prolly only have 2 pack.. not ideal, but OK . you could buy a litre of 3220 from Mirotone and hand it over to the painter, or do it yourself.
if yourself, thin it down by 50%.. and do lots of THIN coats..
sand in between with 600 grit dry paper, get a good quality one..
get that build up nice and slow..
dont rush..
then when you are happy with the final coat..
let it stand for a couple of days..
then hit it with a flash coat 30-40% lacquer..
be careful hers, because you have thinned it to that level, it will want to run..
so thin quick coats..

3 of those thin coats..

let her hang for at least 2 weeks, as its summer in Qld it will be pretty humid, so leave it until you cant smell the lacquer still gassing off..

then 1500 to 2000 grit wet and dry, lots of water, a drop of dishwashing liquid in the water to stop it clogging your paper..

then cut and polish with a cutting compound like Maquires or similar and lots of water..

polish up..

polish again with a ultra fine compound, almost a wax.. and the jobs done..

Pete

 

[neville.sc]

Re: veneer edgeing headstocks

Thanks for that, my problem is there is not much grain wood left on the edges, (like ply) I have built up the thickness of the headstock, after it was sanded away. painted headstock black nitro, ( superb job) though I say so myself. At the moment it is at a guitar repair shop, rewire, new pots, new pickups, new pots. Decided on M.E.C. as the pickups are M.E.C. reissue. Still like to veneer the edges, need confidence & know how, got a bit of a clue, glueing it on tight will be my problem. When it comes back, I am going to play the hell out of it, eventually I will get the edges done. really want to do that,neck has come up well with nitro clear, love German wood. I hear you can buy rolls of veneer, more info, searching to be done. cheers.

 

[Peter Crossley]

Re: veneer edgeing headstocks

better to buy sheets of veneer and cut it into strips with a stanley knife..

use Titebond for the glue, and you can use thick rubber bands to hold it in place while it dries..
you can get big bags of really thick big rubber bands at Officeworks for meagre bucks..

sounds like you are in a good place with it..

 

[neville.sc]

Re: veneer edgeing headstocks

Thats 1 I haven't thought of, I used titebond on the headstock,using 2 maybe 3 pieces of 2mm maple veneer,(just plain stuff), spent a while shaping the truss rod groove. the tuners went on o.k. put strings on,it held up well. the strait edge along the tuners I can clamp, the rest I can use the rubber bands,(thick ones) that is a great idea, thank you.I had some great times fishing the Gippsland lakes in the 70,s. when I lived in Melbourne, back up here since 1980. thanks again, cheers Nev.

 

[neville.sc]

Re: veneer edgeing headstocks

I'm actually a kiwi, just been in oz a long time, sadly I have picked up the Aussie accent, but one or 2 still pick me after nearly 50 years.