Question About Restoring Finish

[cold95]

hi, my friend has a, i don't know 82, 83, gibson silverburst. well if any of you guys have seen one, unless it was taken care of really well. its kinda turns to a green-ish color. theres a piece of lacquor that got chiped off on the head and its silver underneath. so im guessing its the lacquor that has turned color over the years. i was just wondering if there was anything that could be done to get it silver again, short of stripping it and competely re-finishing it.

[unclej]

i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say no..i don't know of any way to bring an aged finish like that back to the original color.

on the other hand there are people out there spending tons of money to get their new guitars to look old like that so tell your friend he just saved some major bucks on a relicing job.

[cold95]

yea i know what you mean. it would just be nice if the silverburst was actually silver, instead of green

[Prostheta]

Any chance of pictures? I'm kinda curious.

[cold95]

ok this isnt my friends but that same thing happen to this one.

and this is what it should look like.

[WezV]

Let it age naturally, if we are calling 70's gibbo's vintage now it wont be long before the 80's ones are as well.

[Prostheta]

It's a shame you can't have the best of both worlds really. I appreciate the monochrome qualities of the original finish, but the vintaged look gives it character. I would actually replace the hardware with gold myself, but that's just me.

I presume that the lacquer has just yellowed naturally then. No going back from that unless you refinish, as I believe has already been suggested. That would be more hassle than it's worth really.

[marksound]

Yellowed lacquer is (to paraphrase Microsoft) a feature, not a defect.

If it's an 82 model it will be 25 years old next year. Have your friend look around and compare what original vintage LPs are selling for compared to non-original refins. There are stories all over the web of guitar owners with refinish remorse. He'd do well to leave it alone now so he won't be kicking himself in the arse in another year or two or 20.

[Drak]

i was just wondering if there was anything that could be done to get it silver again, short of stripping it and competely re-finishing it.

Unfortunately, no, there isn't.

[cold95]

ok thanks guys. i thought it would be worth a try to see what you guys thought.

[Prostheta]

Gold hardware for definite. You'll feel like you've spent some money for some reason then ;-)

Hell, I think it looks awesome cool.