Drak Rehab: 2016 Eastman HE-222 ReSpray/ReBuild

[Drak]

This will be a relatively quick thread. The guitar is nearly done, I'm up to 2400 MM now. It's actually been done for probably almost a year, it just needed the finish finished and put back together and I've been either too lazy or otherwise focused to finish it up.

So, this is an Eastman HE-222 CE, which is basically a re-named Eastman AE-222. There's not much info out there on the strictly HE, so I need to jump you to the AE for more exposure. The single only difference is the pickguard, the AE came with a Tort guard, the HE came with a solid Ovangkol guard (which I hated and threw away immediately). I also ripped out the cheap on-board electronics as I have a much better system ready to be installed.

I got this at a steal of a price, I should be held in shackles for what I paid for it. The issue was a crack running down the top from the bridge to the edge, and the owner was honest enough to post very clear pics of it up front, so it wasn't moving for him. Acoustic owners are basically scared shitless about these kinds of things, and I know that. I lowballed an offer and he took me up on it, done deal, no case.

They can sell used for ~$700.00, and in this comparison YT I'm posting, against a Taylor 314, which run about ~$1000.00 used. So if you don't hear a difference in the comparison YT listed here, or even like it better, let's just say I got a $1000.00 guitar for $300.00 shipped. -Ish. With license to do as I pleased to it, which I most certainly have done.

Here is a YT of my actual stock model: Eastman HE-222

Here is a YT of an AE-222 (same thing) vs a Taylor 314: Eastman AC-222 vs Taylor 314

So there's them basics. OK, on to the pics, there won't be too terribly many.

As on arrival and just unboxed. Is that pickguard ugly Or What?

The Crack (Oh My!)

Pre-Surgery

Most of the finish removed from the back, pretty much raw wood now

Ready to shoot (I didn't bother taping off the binding, I'm a very good binding scraper, and lazy too)

HEY! What happened to That Crack? Hahaha!

Oh damn, looka-that! I sprayed 2, maybe three coats of straight pure lemon yellow transtint on the top.

Not too heavy-handed, and not so light as to not make the effort worthwhile.

The back and sides got (IIRC) 2, maybe 3 coats of red.

Again, not so heavyhanded as to look stupid overbaked red, but it doesn't look pure brown anymore either.

The concept was to take a bland-looking tan-over-brown and make it cosmetically sexy yellow-over-red.

Because...well, there are other accents coming.

 

 

 

[Drak]

A quick second post. I was doing this at the same time I was doing this here other acoustic re-hab, the LaPatrie nylon string that I 'Cowboyed' up and distressed.

 

So I found a place on-line that sold slide-on rosette decals, which I did to the one above, and this one.

See, in this pic the yellow top doesn't look as flagrant as the pic above,

I think this would have been after the color coats and 3-4 clearcoats, but before the final clearcoats, so its in a sanded/prep state

So the yellow isn't quite smacking you in the face as hard.

Now it's got a little jazz going on, yellow, red, flashy rosette, with more coming.

The slide-on decal went right over top of the original.

 

[Drak]

So, I had 'the plan' pretty well formed in my head before I even got started.

I knew the red, I knew the yellow, and I knew what the new pickguard was going to be to kick off those colors.

So I designed the pickguard shape I wanted, made a router template, and cut it out.

Hello sexy green leopard!

 

[Drak]

So now we have a yellow-ish top, red-ish brown back and sides, a sparkly silver rosette, and a sexy green leopard pickguard.

Hopefully you can see I'm steering this thing out of the land of the mundane acoustic look and into Drak-Land.

So...I ripped out the stock cheap Fishman Sonitone undersaddle pickup.

This is going to have two pickups, one a much better version of the Fishman.

The other is a Lawrence soundhole pickup.

This will plug straight into my pedalboards, so I can add chorus, delay, reverb, etc.

I'm going to wire it into a separate jack as it will be a semi-permanent install and I don't want the cord drooping out of the front of the guitar.

The old ones, the early ones (for about a year)...were red.

Bullseye! More color to my color scheme.

[Drak]

So, what would kick the hell out of that color combination even further and sexy it up a little bit more?

GOLD.

[Drak]

I cleaned up the fretboard as I normally do, Naptha scrub followed up with fretboard finishing oil.

[Workingman]

Nice work.  I don't thin you have to worry that you stole the first one.  A pro would charge a minimum of $300 to repair it and it still would show.  The value of the work you are doing exceeds the re-sale price on the instrument.  So I think you and the seller did well.

[Drak]

7 minutes ago, Workingman said:

A pro would charge a minimum of $300 to repair it and it still would show. 

Thanks!

Well, I did do the top 'finish' repair, and it came out flawless.

However...I noticed when I removed the Fishman pickup, there is a hole drilled in the bridgeplate.

That allows the pickup braid to come up and through to sit under the saddle.

And that hole lines up Exactly with the crack, ...so they are related.

And I suspect a patch of some kind will be needed underneath or it will most likely re-appear someday.

No worries, I have a guitar tech I take anything I can't handle to, and acoustics are not my forte.

I know my limitations and gladly work within them and seek more superior assistance when it's called for.

He'll be having a professional look at this one sometime soon.

[Bizman62]

9 hours ago, Drak said:

And I suspect a patch of some kind will be needed underneath or it will most likely re-appear someday.

I suppose they're called cleats and if you have the proper clamps they're not too difficult to make and attach.

Simply take a piece of stiff wood, thin it down to a couple of mm's or 1/16" if you prefer. Cut it to diamond shape pieces of 15x15 mm or ½" making the grain direction go from tip to tip. Bevel the edges on one side just for neatness. Glue and clamp one or more of them cross grain over the crack. I'm confident that you have the skills, tools and materials needed.

 

[ScottR]

17 hours ago, Drak said:

So, I had 'the plan' pretty well formed in my head before I even got started.

I knew the red, I knew the yellow, and I knew what the new pickguard was going to be to kick off those colors.

So I designed the pickguard shape I wanted, made a router template, and cut it out.

Hello sexy green leopard!

 

I'm pretty sure I've seen Peggy Bundy wearing those more than once....

SR

[Drak]

On 6/25/2021 at 7:59 AM, ScottR said:

I'm pretty sure I've seen Peggy Bundy wearing those more than once....

We're not going down that road again, haha!

On 6/25/2021 at 3:28 AM, Bizman62 said:

I suppose they're called cleats and if you have the proper clamps they're not too difficult to make and attach.

Well, you have a good point there, except I don't have any super-long jawed (acoustic) clamps. But, it was worth the investigation, if I really needed to, I can come up with something. So I did a little recon this morning, which I probably did a year ago too when I started this and just forgot. There is really nothing I see on the underside that tells me any attention need be paid to it.

If I saw Anything that would alarm me, I would do something about it. But I got nothing, nothing at all, looks clean to me from the underside. The pickup hole that I suspected is on the right, sitting 'up front' of the bridge pin holes, closest to the X brace. I see absolutely nothing to suspect there, not a thing.

And I repaired the top with a thin bead of thin-bodied CA glue before the refin, so it should be sealed up pretty well now.

From the top, you really can't see a thing anymore, looks new now. Maybe the guy didn't keep it cased and it was the start of a humidity issue, so I think if I just keep it cased and humidified like all my other acoustics, should be OK.

[Drak]

So, nearly done now, all glossied up.

You can see the yellow isn't overbearing at all.

Blends in quite nicely I think and gives the green guard the correct background color from which to pounce.

I thinned down the pickguard to about 1/2 the original thickness.

And any hint of that crack is history.

[ScottR]

Nicely done sir, she looks great!

Tasteful with just a touch of tacky to add mystery to the evening,

SR

[Bizman62]

From 'meh' to 'yeah!', good job!

3 hours ago, Drak said:

except I don't have any super-long jawed (acoustic) clamps.

Just so if anyone ever needs to, one option is to put a snugly fitting temporary supporting post inside and clamp from the outside - even weights will do if there's no clamps available. Just make sure that the post isnt too long to bulge the top and bottom. And of course neither too short.

[Drak]

Great Idea!

[Bizman62]

Just now, Drak said:

Great Idea!

I must agree. It's not mine but I can't remember where I saw it mentioned.

[Drak]

I was shooting for a sort of Bowie-Glam look...Maybe play some Rock-N-Roll Suicide on it.

Now, where did my leopard spandex pants get off to?

Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth
You pull on your finger, then another finger, then cigarette
The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget
Ohhh, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide

[Workingman]

If you can't get a clamp in place, I have used magnets with good results.