hey hey,

So I'm in the midst of a restoration project of an Ibanez SG lawsuit guitar, yes i know its not a strat, im but looking for your expertise and help. I will start taking photos and documenting soon.

What I want to know is after I've stripped the body (paint stripper is working as we speak) want to know what the best kind of "thinskin" finish i could apply would be. It originally was a heritage cherry stain, but I'd like a red stain thats leaninga little more towards brown. What do you suggest I should apply given im new to finishing. I do have access to a spray gun if need be.

I want a finish thats gonna wear real nice.

Cheers,
Jack

Hi Jack: well, the very best thing you could do would be to pick up a copy of the Guitar Player Repair Guide and study the chapter on finishing in it, which will give you all the info you require at this stage:

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Rep ... 740&sr=1-1

The bible is Guitar Finishing Step-By-Step, but honestly unless you are already fairly familiar with the subject you will find that bewilderingly too much information. Very hard to sift the bits you want from all the extraneous detail:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Books,_plan ... -Step.html

Quick Overview:

You can color your guitar in one or both of two ways.

1. You can stain the wood.

2. You can tint the lacquer, either with a semi-transparent tint where you can still see the wood through the color, or with an opaque color as on solid finish guitars.

3. You could stain the wood and then put tinted lacquer over the top too. That is how Fender sunbursts are done: the light amber color is an all-over wood stain and the darker edge color(s) is (are) tinted lacquer.

There really is tons more to be said about that. Rather than write you a small novel on the subject here, better that you ask some questions and folks can answer them one by one. Just for example, if staining the wood you may be wondering whether to use spirit based stain or water based...

Etc.

Cheers - C

alright, theb ody is still being stripped as we speak (i have a partner in crime), but my next step right now is refretting the neck and what is next is removing the nut.

Heres some shots of what it looks like, I'm debating weither i should put a standard bone nut, ear vana style compensated nut, or a roller nut (do they make them in gold ? ^_^), I will be putting a meastro tail piece on it so there will be some tremolo action going on.

Anyways let me know how you think I should attack it.







Also I'm debating sanding down the black on the headstock, but its got this plasticy border thing going on, Should I mask the white stuff during sanding or do you think it will be better to keep it flush with the rest of the headstock ? ORRR leave it as is ??

Cheers,
Jack

Hi again Jack: yikes - that "plasticy border thing going on" is your nice ABS binding. You will find it pretty much impossible to mask it during sanding, and in any case you want a smooth surface across both wood and binding.

When finishing in the factory they sometimes mask the binding, sometimes not. Either way, once the lacquer is on they then scrape overspray off the binding using a cabinet scraper or razor blade type tool. That is a highly skilled job: there are people who do nothing else all day long for months just to get good at it.

I'm beginning to think this might not be the ideal guitar for a first shot at refinishing. Even if you decided to have a go at it I now strongly, strongly advise you to look at one or both of the books I mentioned earlier. They are not expensive and will save you very much misery down the line.

I just feel we're not going to be able to cover a job like this adequately from the ground up on an internet forum...

Be interested to see the body though!

Good luck - C

Well then It might just have to stay as is, which might not be a bad thing.

Either way, I'm still clueless as to how to go abouts remove the NUT

ok the easy way to remove the nut is to take a scalpel and accurately slice between where the rosewood of the fingerboard meet. Whatever you do dont cut the fingerboard.
Do that a couple or three times to ensure you've cut through any glue that may be joining the nut to the rosewood of the board. Take a nailpunch or flat headed screwdriver, place it on the fingerboard side of the nut and gently tap the other end of the punch/screwdriver until the glue on the nut breaks.

Be carefull its very easy to take a chunk out of your fingerboard.

_________________
No no and no

It depends on how that nut was applied the last time it was installed. Normally you can tap on the ends and they should loosen up and pop right out. Now if someone super glued it on, then don't attempt to get more agressive because all you will do is then is make damage. Look at some spots where you can get leverage, like under the area where the truss rod screw is, to lightly tap at the underside of the nut to see if it will loosen up. Once it comes out, you will need to do some housecleaning there, but be careful not to take down too much original wood. You will be cutting a new nut so you can set the string height for the 1st fret then.

Nut material does become a matter of preference. SRV liked bone because he believed in its tonal qualities. LSR or roller nuts are nice because they last longer but you have to shim the undersides to get the correct height. One thing is key and that is that it also takes some skill to correctly cut a nut. If you haven't done it before, I would recommend taking it to a luthier who will know the correct angles and will cut the nut to the string gauge you plan on using. Many people increase string gauge and don't realize that the nut slots are too narrow and that is what causes 95% of tuning or intonation problems in a guitar. It's especially true with tremolo since the string will be moving slightly through that nut slot when you use the bar. A decent luthier should be able to cut you a nut for less than 50.00 USD. (at least they do around my area)

In the middle photo of the headstock I'm seeing a rather crude repair to the edge binding and what looks like some damage to the fingerboard just beside that spot. I think a previous nut has been removed rather brutally by someone who didn't know what they were doing.

And that means there is just no knowing how this present nut has been secured. Could be any kind of glue in there, and maybe just a dab, maybe a huge messy dollop on the bottom and up the side.

I'd want to get some moderate heat in there, such as a heated parting knife. Maybe some steam too, if you could fashion a way of directing it to the right spot. Say, a rubber hose running from a kettle or similar. Then if it didn't seperate easily just with a palette knife type tool I'd take a wide chisel and with the flat side down start gently, gently working it in from the headstock side. Very careful: we don't want to split wood fibres if it can possibly be helped.

That process would gradually reveal whether the nut is held by glue on the side as well. If so there will be nothing for it but to gingerly slide the chisel in between the nut and the fingerboard, with the flat edge towards the 'board.

I'd do all of this very slowly and carefully, because once you've damaged the wood where the next nut has to sit it will be a very tiresome repair to make it good again ready for a new nut. Really, we're trying to seperate glue here, not chisel wood.

If none of that seems to be working to get the nut off without hurting the timber then it will be a case of excavating the nut itself, bit by bit. Let's get to that only if we need to, 'cause it is very tedious. But essentially, anything we have to do to avoid damaging the wood at this end of the fingerboard. We don't want the replacement nut to go on closer to the first fret...

Far as new nuts are concerned: I find making them is not so tricky. Either cut from a good sized bit of raw bone, or from a bone blank bought from a luthier's supplier, or from one of the synthetic alternatives. Worst that can go wrong is you spoil one nut blank and have to move on to another. Not a tragedy.

But if that seems too much, ready-made, ready-slotted nuts are widely available - just for example, here:

http://www.wdmusic.com/nuts_saddles.html

I have no very strong feelings on material, but for what it's worth I've always found the TUSQ ones good. Here are lots of pre-slotted ones to choose from. Minimal adjustment work to make these do the job nicely:

http://www.wdmusic.com/nuts_saddles.html

Oh and lastly, before you sand that headstock front, Jack, in addition to the binding just have a think about that inlaid logo. How would you go about refinishing around that?

Cheers - C

Reranch.com
Help you get everything done. Follow it exactly like it says and you'll come out with a great looking guitar.

Re Ranch is cool just ordered some paint and clear from them.

Hey all,

thank for the info, really appreciate the hand! So I'm still stripping the body, will take a shot when I get a minute, it's almost all the way down. Neck has frets removed and planning to refret soon after nut removal.

As for the headstop...I think I'll keep it as is, maybe touch up the black a tad, nothing more then fill the excessive tuner holes drilled into the finish





Oh and Ceri what did you mean by that I'm not familiar with the terminology.



- Jack

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bindings,_t ... nding.html check here, to see.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

That's the one - thank you.

Sorry, I shouldn't have used an abbreviation without explaining it. Bad manners - apologies.

Cheers - C

hey!!

I'm back...been busy with school but I've been reading up on what the next steps are going to involve. I was thinking the ReRanch method with their custom ReRanch Orange...but the bloaks don't ship to Canada

Soooo...products from woodessence


1/2 pint of light grain filler
https://www.woodessence.com/Bartley-Gra ... 90C18.aspx

I want the grain to come out fairly dominant, again Ceri I'll be putting up photos of the body for you as soon as its been properly stripped.


As a trans colour I'd like to use a combo of their Orange and their Sienna Burst (or Natural Aged Cherry), suggestions as to what would mix better to get a darker orange tinge that still holds the punch of the colour ORANGE!!
https://www.woodessence.com/ColorFX-Dye ... 46C12.aspx


Then hopefully a nitro seal ontop of all this....the neck will probably be stained and given a satin finish.



What I'm wondering is the important steps inbetween each phase that I'll probably be missing without your insight. So maybe give me a rundown as to what i should be doing with all these products??

Cheers,
Jack