1963 SG Junior Restoration

Another eBay find. This time i'm in the process of restoring it back to its original glory.

I got it looking like this. An extra pick up cavity was routed in the neck position,

 and the control cavity was enlarged to accept the selector switch and the additional volume and tone pots.

 

I filled the pickup and control cavity routes with mahogany and  reshaped the control cavity

back to its original size.

The Jr is now ready for grain filling, sealer and paint which by the way will be "Polaris White" an original custom color offered by Gibson in 1963. I also completed re-fretting the neck.

You can see the control cavity has been returned back to its original shape.

Week of May 13th

Managed to take advantage of the good weather we have been having. After finish sanding the Jr, I gave it  washcoat of lacquer and after that dried I grain filled the body and neck. Grain filling is a process where a heavy bodied paste with suspened solids is brushed on the wood and after it  "hazes over" you either use an old credit card, plastic spatula or a piece of burlap and rub the paste at a 45 degree angle to the woodgrain to pack the filler into the grain and let it dry for one or two days. Than you sand the wood with a 320 grit paper to remove the excess filler leaving it only in the grain.

 

 Once that was done I taped off the fingerboard and sprayed on several coats of Sanding Sealer. I let that dry out for two days. It needs to sanded smooth and its ready for paint.

 

1967 Melody Maker Converstion

This Melody Maker is being converted in a SG Special. Why you ask ?

I got a great deal on a pair of Lindy Fralin P-90 pick ups  and I needed a guitar to put them into.

 Necessity is the Mother of Invention !

Again another eBay find !

After measuring everything out, I made up a routing jig and routed out 2 perfect squares in the body

and glued in pieces of mahogany to fill out the oversized holes.

After the glue dried, I attached the P-90 pick up routing templates and routed out the pick up cavities.

Next came the job of routing the edge of the neck to accept the binding.

Fingerboard edge before and after routing the edge.

After the edge routing was done I fretted the neck and filed the fret ends flush with the fingerboard

and got ready to glue up the binding.

Once the glue had dried I got started on the tedious task of filing down and shaping the binding

to match both the fingerboard and the fret ends just like Gibson does it !

 After the neck work was done, I turned to finishing off the headstock.

Headstock before

Reshaping

Resized and Shaped

Being this MM is being transformed into a SG Special, it needed a Mother of Pearl Gibson logo inlay. I got this off of eBay and it's a perfect match to the early to mid 60's Gibson logo.

 I drew out the outline onto the headstock and routed out the rough shape of the logo.

I than mixed up a small batch of "Quick Set" Epoxy, added some black coloring and filled the inlay caviy with the epoxy. I positioned the inly into the epoxy and coverd the inlay with the remaining epoxy. After the epoxy hardened I used a file to remove the excess epoxy and to level the inlay close to the surface of the headstock.

All that was left to do was to positoin the "dot" over the letter "I". With that done, a little finish sanding with finer grit wet/dry paper and the headstock is done. This is as far as I have gotten on the Melody Maker. As soon as the weather warms up i'll be ready to finish sand, grain fill, seal and paint the guitar !

STAY TUNED !

Week of May 13th

The Melody Maker was also finish sanded, grain filled,shot with several coats of Sanding Sealer and I also shot two light coats of White Nitro Primer on it. After sanding with 320 grit paper it is also ready for its finish coat of paint.

 

Here is what she will look like when completed !

UPDATE

Week of July 9,2005

Both SG's are finished being painted, the lacquer has been drying for over a month and both have been wet sanded out and they are ready for the tinted clear coats. Pics to follow shortly !

Week of Aug. 8th

Well the white is good and dry. Time to add a "Vintage" look to the stark white color ! I tinted a quart of clear lacquer with 4 drops of a transparent yellow dye,mixed it up and sprayed both bodies. I tried to concentrate on getting the edges and certain area's of the center of the body a little darker that the rest to make it look like the clear had naturally yellowed over a 30 year period. I came pretty close and I'm pleased with the overall look of the "Aged White" ! I'll let this now dry out for several weeks and begin the process of wetsanding and polishing out the finish !

Stay Tuned !

 

Finished

The 1963 Jr is still in my collection.

 

This has been SOLD