american_jesus

wow...that looks amazing...great job on that...it really turned out stellar...

the guy who owns it contacted gibson about it, they said the best they could do is fix it for a mere $600, plus shipping back and forth, and depending on the condition of the break and any possiblity for a refinish it'd cost more.

and i've test fitted everything together, it all fits right together...nothing too bad. the maple is a pretty clean break, probably right with the grain or something, it just snapped out...no shards or anything. and i checked back, there is SOME glue on the tenon, but seriously not much...it's pretty bad how they did this one up...oh well, he's happy it's not going to cost him $600, and i'm happy becuase i'm probably gonna be walking away with 100 or 150...depending...

that's cool...did you not fill the grain so the paint would sink in? cool effect...

alright, cool...just keep everything how it is and just press it all on...sounds like a good deal.

the guy who owns the guitar doesn't want anything done other than the neck reset, so there's no need to touch up the finish(thank god!) or anything else, so...cool.

nice suggestion too idch.

thanks guys.

sorry...this should work...the les paul album

please work...

alright, here's a couple pics of the guitar, it'll show you exactly what broke, and exactly what needs to be done.

here

well, my friend, being the idiot he is, dropped his les paul and snapped the neck off at the joint. there's a little bit of the maple that ripped off, but otherwise everything else is perfect. the tenon and the hole it sits in are both in perfect shape.

since i do most of his "tech" work, he asked me if i could reset the neck for him, well...i said yeah because i'm pretty sure i can, but i just need some basic info.

1. what should i do about the maple that broke off(i'll get some pics up tomorrow to show you what happened exactly, and some good pics for you all to see exactly what i need to do)...should i attempt to get it off(how?) and reglue it into place in the pocket, or leave it on the neck how it is, and just glue it back on when the neck goes back in?

2. what kind of glue do i need to get a tight hold?

3. where does the glue go? because it looked to my like there was only glue on the fingerboard where it meets the body, and nowhere else.

that's pretty much it. everything fits nice and tight into the right spot, so i dont need to do any work to get a new neck angle or anything, it'll just slide right in and be right. so...it's not going to be too aweful tough i dont think.

any other tips and tidbits are greatly appreciated. i dont really want to screw this up, and it's my first real big bite into actually repairing a guitar.

foamy around the mouth eh? that could be a cool finish...

black with some white bubble looking spray down the bottom...

should be a unique guitar tho...

if you're selling a peavey classic 30 for a good price i'd be interested in buying from you drak, but if not...

that really looks nice. how does everything sound?

i really like grovers...have em on all my guitars..they're good quality, pretty cheap, and if you use the mini's...light...

...rings are like 5 bucks...it's not going to kill you to buy rings.

definately use an ebony board...

Hey, BigD. You should move to the northwest. That stuff grows on trees up here!

ba dum tishhhh...

anyways, looks like a nice piece of wood, and yeah, that's a pretty good deal!

sheesh, i'd buy it from you if that's a "mistake"...

if you've got 5A choice flamed lumber, i definately wouldn't chance that on your first carved top...way to much can go wrong...definately...try it on scrap first before you do anything to nice wood.

naw, i'm not gonna sell it. i really like it...it sounds really good, it just dont look so hot...

i might have to take into consideration building a replica of it though, but doing the stuff i said before, top routed etc...maybe do a different neck size too...the neck is extremely thin on this piece, and i really like a more substantial feel to the neck.

thanks for all the suggestions though guys, and thanks for talking me out of completely butchering this thing.

and hell, i might even just skip the veneer and do it up like it is again, the burgandy with the cream...it does look really cool...but this time around it'll have the grain filled and everything...

thanks again guys

I -RARELY EVER- (I get flamed for this every time ) ...see someone make their -first big attempt- anything to write home about. It's usually more like, 'damn, I sure learned a lot on that one'...that's not a guitar to learn how to do refinishing on.

And it's even more rare I see someone do their very first veneer job with NO problems.

So, well, you gettin' my drift?

It's called 'get some experience on the pawn shop cheapies first'.

well, it's not like i've never done finishing stuff like that, i've helped my friend refinish one of his guitars and it came out well, so i'm confident that i'll be able to refinish it well. if the veneer doesn't work out well, i can always rip it off and do the body in a solid color too, but this was a cheapie. i got it for 185 with shipping, bought with the intent to refinish it, so it's not like it'd be the worst thing to happen.

but, the only thing i'm going in blind on this project is veneering,but i think that if i keep my cool and just take my time, i'll be able to do the veneer right..and i think i've decided i'll just keep everything how it is, except for the paint.

well, it's already been screwed with...the body had been chopped up under the pickguard, attempted to be refinished, and in overall bad condition...if you look around the edge of the body you'll notice that there was no sealer when the person painted it, and the paint seeped into the wood. also, the back and everything else is rough...

so, no matter what, it's going to be refinished...it's just in too bad a shape to not be. i might just leave all the rest how it is now tho...

that's probably a good idea to get a cheap strat body and work on that first.

and the reason i'm taking off the pickguard is becuase i just think it's obtrusive. i think a piece of plastic taking up half the front just looks really clunky, so i'd like to keep it simple/.

alright, before we get started with what i want to do, this is the piece i'll be working with...it's a jackson JTX, pretty uncommon piece...not too many were made.

ok, now that that's out of the way, i can get into the details of what i want to do.

first off, it's gonna be refinished, i'm most likely going to add a quilted maple veneer, and stain it red, then spray the back and sides either black, or white. havent decided yet.

Since i'm hopefully going to get a nice looking veneer, and do a nice stain job on it, i dont want a huge pickguard to cover the whole thing up. so i was thinking that i could fill in the top routes, and make seperate pickup routes, maybe go hum/hum, or stay hum/single.

that brings me to my question. this is my first real decent amount of modification, and well, i've never really had much practice with this kind of stuff. i'm fairly sure i could do what i've described, but i've never worked with a router, and i've never refinished anything. am i getting in way over my head here, or do you guys think that it'd turn in to a disaster because of the amount of work that would be required? i do believe that i have the patience, the time, and i could develop the skills to make this work, but i'm not completely sure...so anythinf you guys think on this would be cool.

oh, and any suggestions would be cool too.

guiterry, no, i have NO idea what the name of the stuff is. after i used it i chucked it, because i didn't trust keeping it in the house...

and idch, trust me, i'd tried 4 or 5 other strippers on my jackson(which had a massive thick polyurethane finish on it). nothing had worked even remotely, then i tried this stuff on a reccomendation of a guy online...it took it off right quick...

do yourself a favor, go to home depot, look for those orangish buckets that home depot has, one of them will be labeled paint stripper, get it. while you're at it get some heavey duty gloves and some goggles, and a plastic window scraper, that should have you covered.

i really like that maple on there...nice character.

how does the walnut and maple sound?

that guitar is actually pretty classy! i like it a lot, and i like the stained finish rather than a paint over that, gives it a little more...i dont know...something extra.