Granny's makeover

costafonix · 2011-10-04T20:08:30+00:00

This guitar has been in the family since before I was born, and belonged to my late father. It's a no-name brand, estimated to be in the region of 60 ~ 65 years old. My brother and me decided it would be cool to restore her into her former glory (i'll be doing the elbow grease stuff and he'll supply any parts from overseas) so that we could do something special in memory of our old man who passed away 10 years ago. We all learned to play guitar on this 3/4 size axe which was so badly used and abused it almost landed up in the dump. This restoration project is still in progress and is in no way on the level of detail/expertise of Slyds rebuild nor Neon Gecko's Tokai repair (watch this space as Neon Gecko collaborates on this project later on), I apologise up front for the poor quality of some of the pics taken from my cellphone. ok, so here goes, dusty, battered and bruised with a missing 12th fret and some wood hacked out of the fretboard, with no nut and a really really bad 'varnish' job attempted over 30 years ago....let the fun & games begin

slyd

CostaFonix wrote Enter NEON GECKO................
(and a 6 pack of beer in another.........don't ask me why, I just thought its customary if you meet a fellow GFSA'er that you hand over a 6 pack of beer ? )......

? of course, . . hehe

VellaJ

CostaFonix wrote (and a 6 pack of beer in another.........don't ask me why, I just thought its customary if you meet a fellow GFSA'er that you hand over a 6 pack of beer ? )......

Gotta soften 'em up periodically, eh? ?

costafonix

Slyd/VellaJ, agreed,
although I must state at this point that Wayne doesn't drink, so I was forced (nudge-nudge-wink-wink) ? to drink the beers myself anyway, my Telkom line is still down, so I am still unable to upload pics, but they will be uploaded as soon as I can

Norman86

All i can say is that its gorgeous ?

Well done Neon Gecko, Spectacular job done ?

Costa, She is mighty fine ?

Squonk

Need some Pics.

@ Costa my Telkom line has been down for 6 weeks, we have resorted to Neotel

costafonix

@Norm, thanks man,, you, Joe Moore and Camba have had a sneak preview which is a couple of steps ahead of the pics coming up ?

@Squonk,,, I think thats the way to go,,I've had intermittent service since taking out my ADSL contract,,, time to review the 'consumer protection act'. ? its now 6 days down and counting,,,,,,

Neon-Gecko

@ Norm, why thank you sah! :-[

costafonix

Telkom line UP........... :dance: :goodtimes: :bopping: ?arty: :woohoo:
and so the story resumes....
Wayne (in deep thought, thinking "don't worry, this won't hurt a bit") masks the fretboard and does some further preparations on the wood

Wayne , feel free to add any comments of what you did at this point ?

jeremy-Budgen

Looking good so far.

Are you going to make the ribs dark as i see that they still have colour on them.

Does the guitar have a ply top or is it solid..

Anyway keep up the good work.

Neon-Gecko

jeremy Budgen wrote Looking good so far.

Are you going to make the ribs dark as i see that they still have colour on them.

Does the guitar have a ply top or is it solid..

Anyway keep up the good work.

I can't remember if the top was ply or not, best to ask Costa. :-\

costafonix

@Jeremy - yes the ribs will be dark, Wayne has selected a traditional, vintage dark brown which suits that guitar era perfectly. The top is solid. ?

slyd

I can't wait ! . . . . . :dance: ? :dance: ?
Give us mooore ?

costafonix

@Slyd - :roflmao:
Ok so in my haste to share these pics with you I jumped the gun somewhat on the sequence of events,,, so lets just backtrack a notch to a time just before going to Wayne's place (with the 6-pack of beers),,,,
I had made enquiries far & wide to get a thin brass fret, searched the internet as well and had very little success (one overseas dealer wanted to sell it to me by the kilo :? ),,, and as I never really had an open-ended budget I figured I'd just buy a nickel fret from my good friends TerryD.
The frets arrived (in the usual efficient manner from TerryD) and I started with the repair work on filling the gash on the fretboard.

at this stage I must again apologise for the poor quality pics,,,,but they do improve as the project matures...
so if I can give any advice to anyone planning a rebuild project - GET A DECENT CAMERA.... ?

deefstes

CostaFonix wrote so if I can give any advice to anyone planning a rebuild project - GET A DECENT CAMERA.... ?

Or just don't take the pictures too close up. Notice how the background is perfectly in focus. I think this is just a case of your Nokia E63 not being able to focus on such close range. I'm not sure if it has a macro function (probably not), but this pic would have been better if the camera was held a little further from the neck.

aja

How are you filling the gash in the fretboard? Im curious how you will prevent the filler from cracking or pulling away from the wood over time.

aja

Did you expose fresh wood or just add the filler to the gash as is?

(forum wont let me edit the previous post! ? )

costafonix

I mixed very fine sawdust with the glue and also added some colouring to match the wood colour

costafonix

deefstes wrote
CostaFonix wrote so if I can give any advice to anyone planning a rebuild project - GET A DECENT CAMERA.... ?
Or just don't take the pictures too close up. Notice how the background is perfectly in focus. I think this is just a case of your Nokia E63 not being able to focus on such close range. I'm not sure if it has a macro function (probably not), but this pic would have been better if the camera was held a little further from the neck.

@deefstes - you're right, sometimes I got the close-ups spot on, other times they're horribly wrong,,, and I've used my nokia, blackberry and digital camera,,,
I think I was also in a rush to continue with the project,,
so ,, going forward I need to improve on that ?

costafonix

quick progress update on the fretboard repair and fret installation, top left to right, followed by bottom left to right..
I have purposely blurred the body on the bottom mid & right pics so as not to reveal Wayne's handywork just yet ?

I have subsequently done a bit more touch up on the fretboard...
but next up more from Wayne's World...........

NorioDS

Wow that's impressive! Loving it ?

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