Stupid things you've done to a perfectly good guitar

[pblossom]

I got in touch yesterday with an old friend that I went through grade and high school with in the '60's and '70's. We'd lost track of each other and I hadn't talked to him in years. We were talking about guitars because we used to play together in high school. He gigs regularly with a blues band in San Francisco and I still gig regularly in Connecticut. He told me has about 30 guitars and then brought up a story I had forgotten about.

He had a '72 SG (the one with the control panel on the front and the triangular pickguard) that had fallen over and had the headstock broken off. We took it to Brian Guitars in New Haven and he traded it and $150 for a '66 Tele.

Here comes the stupid part. One afternoon, just for the hell of it, we stripped the finish off.

Recently he took it to a vintage dealer somewhere in the Bay Area and the guy said do you know what this would be worth if it had it's original finish? Then he told him it was only worth about $1500 now. I told my friend it was worth a lot more than that and that the dealer was just trying to get him to sell it cheap.

Then there was the '69 Les Paul Custom that I stripped the finish off of the back and sides using Zip Strip and melted the binding. This was back in the mid '70's when lots of people were doing that kind of thing. Who'd of thunk back then that they'd become worth so much money?

Anybody else want to admit to wrecking a perfectly good guitar?

[ddewerd]

oh you bring back such terrible memories

So in 1972, I'm a junior high school wanna be rocker and I start taking guitar lessons. I buy a guitar at a garage sale for $75. Oh yuck, what a sissy blue color! Gimme some sandpaper. Hmm what's that screw thingy on the bottom of the neck - I better tighten that thing up, wow it really turns a lot. What's Dad got in the garage? Hmmm some oak stain and an old can of varnish. Well better stir that varnish up good, hmmm, aaahh don't worry about all them bubbles, just slop it on. I wonder why my neck is warped after I put it back on....

Well, that is a true story, done on my now-pride-and-joy 1963 Tele. It took months for a guitar guy to gradually straighten out the neck. It's been my #1 since then (and actually the only Tele I've ever owned). I have the original case, pickups, electronics, bridge - the only thing I don't have is the Top Hat switch.

Pictures of it here Doug's 63 Tele

I don't even want to think how much value I sanded away, but what the hey, it's made to be played and that's what I do with it :D

Cheers,
Doug

[pblossom]

Doug-

Even with the refin that's a purty guitar.

Oh, the mad impetuousity of youth!

—Pete

[Oster]

If you go to my photo gallery, you'll see my '71-bodied Tele. The night after I acquired it (a trade with my brother for my MIJ '57 RI Strat), I came home late and decided that the finish looked a little hazy and needed some polishing.

Out came the rubbing alcohol.

The next morning (don't ask me why I didn't notice anything during the whole debacle), I took out my new prize to see, by the light of day, huge messy swipe patterns all over.

So began my obsessive polishing to hopefully undo the damage I had wrought. The finish was so old and the topcoat so unstable that even a drop of sweat or water would dull it. Most worryingly, the more I polished it seemed that I was actually removing the top coat; the polishing rag was turning yellow.

Over the months, it became an obsession. Finally, in a fit of exasperation during one of the hottest days of Summer a few years back - when the lacquer was so soft, I could gouge it with my nail - I took everything apart and brought it into my local pro shop.

What they did was 'reseal' the lacquer by heat-buffing (I think some naptha was involved too). Whatever they did
it worked like a charm. The top coat is close to how it was when it was first finished by Fender themselves (albeit with honest nicks and dings and my tell-tale patches - the most obvious being on the upper bout).

I did learn from all this - With old guitars, it's often better to just let things as they are...or take it to a professional (there's also an implied lesson about not tackling something like this after a night out on the town).

[Blazer]

There's a reason why my 1989 Squier Stratocaster has the nickname "the veteran" The only original Part of that guitar that remained is the body. I now wish that I left it the way it was.

[mr natural]

Got it for Christmas when I was 14. One time I put a pack of firecrackers inside it with the fuze sticking out the F-hole. Set it off with a cigarette for my big finale. One time I wanted to be like Jimi and burn my guitar. But I couldn't afford another guitar so I came up with an alternative: Had a pair of wirecutters in my back pocket and when I hit the last chord of the night, I let it build up feedback until it was screaming and then cut all the strings. It sounded really cool but people thought I was a freak. Then one time I was getting good enough on guitar that I was getting very frustrated with the sound and action on the Harmony so I threw it out the window. It landed on its back on the sidewalk and I swear there was absolutely no damage other than a few scratches (something to be said for a plywood body and a neck as big around as a telephone pole. A few years later, I got sick of looking at the stickers, burn marks and everything else that was all over it. So I took it apart and sanded all the finish off of it and did a really bad job. I still have it somewhere. It's got pickups from a Fender Coronado, tuners from some mystery Guild electric, 4 completely different knobs and an orange cat painted on the headstock. If only I'd kept it stock. Who knew that a $75 pawnshop dollar guitar would be worth so much now. Later.
-Mr. N.

[jonzer]

bought it and let someone like me play it.

[BB]

You mean like removing the original stop tail piece on a pristine 57 Les Paul Special, having the holes doweld and a tune-o-matic bridge and new stop tail piece installed.....and while I'm at it, remove the stock tuners and drill the headstock to accept a set of Shallers.......or, route the body of a 72 tele for a middle strat pickup.......or, take off the origianl vibrola unit on an early 60's SG and replace it with a tune-o-matic.....while once again dolfing the original tuners for a set of Grover Imperials? Are those the kinds of things yer asking about?

[mark norwine]

Don't even get me started.....

My router & I have quite a history together.

[zombywoof]

Well, right off the bat, removing what was left of the finish from my 50s Tele was not the smartest move I could have made. Only defense, it was done when the guitar was just used not yet "vintage."

What qualifies me for the hall of idiots however, is what I did to me very first guitar. Given to me by an old black lady who was a friend of the family on my 8th birthday. An old archtop acoustic that had been her husband's. Over the years, I drilled holes in it to mount a DeArmond pickup and painted flames on it. Hey, I was a kid, didn't know a pre-war Martin (which is what is was) from a can of tuna fish.

[David Barnett]

Originally Posted by BB

You mean like removing the original stop tail piece on a pristine 57 Les Paul Special, having the holes doweld and a tune-o-matic bridge and new stop tail piece installed.....and while I'm at it, remove the stock tuners and drill the headstock to accept a set of Shallers.......or, route the body of a 72 tele for a middle strat pickup.......or, take off the origianl vibrola unit on an early 60's SG and replace it with a tune-o-matic.....while once again dolfing the original tuners for a set of Grover Imperials? Are those the kinds of things yer asking about?

'

That sounds like my friend's "transitional" '65 Firebird. It was a reverse body but had a non-reverse headstock, two P-90s, a zigzag wraparound bridge, and a Vibrola. He had the banjo tuners replaced with Grovers, dowelled the stop-bar holes and mounted a tune-o-matic, put a stop-bar where the Vibrola had been, and replaced the P-90s with LP Deluxe-style mini-humbuckers. At least the pickup replacement didn't require any irreversible modifications.

But a transitional instrument like that, with that mix of old and new features, would probably do well on the collector's market today.

When I was in college, a friend on my floor in the dormitory had a '50s Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120, in pieces in a box under his bed. He had decided to refinish it because the orange lacquer was checked, so he removed all the hardware and electronics, stripped the finish with some sort of nasty chemical, then varnished it with a brush. Whatever varnish he used never quite dried, the guitar remained a sticky unplayable mess for months, so he just stuffed it in a box under his bed and tried his best to forget about it. Oh, and he sanded the top so much that he wore almost all the way through the top layer of maple laminate on the plywood.

Personally, the worst thing I've ever done to an instrument was to install a second string tree on my '66 Telecaster.

[chickenpicker]

The stupidest thing happening to perfectly good old guitars is people imagining that they are somehow superior to perfectly good new guitars, and being prepared to pay a premium for owning one.

I'll quite happily modify any instrument I own if it makes it work better for me.

[bigericplatt]

Easy -
My first bass, purchased in '81. A late '69 to early '72 J- Bass. No date but the "code" on the neck, no body numbers. Purchased for $300. Heavily worn LPB (or maybe Sherwood Green).

Stripped the finish with Zip Strip. Put heavy epoxy on the entire body and headstock. Looked terrible. In college had a friend strip the body and refinish it metallic white. Looked good when I traded it off a few years later.

BTW, the late Pete Alenov (sp?) (of Pete's Guitars) told me I overpaid for the bass at the time. He had turned it down at that price.

One thing of interest, the headstock was a matching cap. Underneath was a second decal under the first finish.

I've also modified the daylights out of other guitars, but that was the worst one.

[Five Finger Fender Fiend]

I've probably done every stupid thing that could be done to a guitar over the years. If i had a dime for every silly thing...
You live and learn..

[BB]

Originally Posted by zombywoof

Only defense, it was done when the guitar was just used not yet "vintage."

Exactly! at the time I did these mods that was the case. Many players were doing these things. At the time, the LP was my only gutiar and it was a bear to keep in tune and properly intonate it. I had these things done by a professional, so the job was done very well and it did make the guitar better. Spot on intonation and no tuning problems. The sad thing is, a short ime after I had it done, the Leo Quann "Badass" bridge was introduced! DOH!!!

We live and learn. At the time these guitars ( as you said ) were jsut considered used and could be readily found at cheap prices.

[David Barnett]

Originally Posted by BB

Exactly! at the time I did these mods that was the case. Many players were doing these things. At the time, the LP was my only gutiar and it was a bear to keep in tune and properly intonate it. I had these things done by a professional, so the job was done very well and it did make the guitar better. Spot on intonation and no tuning problems. The sad thing is, a short ime after I had it done, the Leo Quann "Badass" bridge was introduced! DOH!!!

We live and learn. At the time these guitars ( as you said ) were jsut considered used and could be readily found at cheap prices.

One of the best-intonated guitars I've ever played was a friend's modified '55 Les Paul Jr. in college. He had stripped it to bare mahogany, removed the pickguard, and replaced the P-90 with a humbucker. But it still had the original angled stop-bar wrap-around bridge-tailpiece. No zigzags in '55, just a smooth bar. That guitar played in tune anywhere on the neck.

[pblossom]

the early '60's SG Standard with a Bigsby that I had in high school—just like Mick Taylor's on the cover of Get Yer Ya Ya's Out—that I took the bigsby off, drilled holes and put a stop tailpiece on. I saw one recently for sale (the only other one besides mine and Mick's that I've ever seen—apparently they are very rare w/factory Bigsbys) for ridiculous money.

Or the terrible beatings I gave my '79 Strat (see photo gallery). Kicking it across and off of stages, breaking tuning pegs off...Those were Tequila days.

I swear, I'm better now!

[David Barnett]

Sometime in the mid-late 1980s I was doing sound for a local blues jam. One night this fellow came in from the sticks with a stripped '69-ish Telecaster. The odd thing about it was the clear pickguard.

I asked him about the guitar and he said "Yeah, I found this in a pawn shop last month. Some idiot had put paisley wallpaper on it and painted it pink, I stripped that crap right off of there."

I bit my tongue. How do you tell someone that they just turned a $5000 guitar into a $150 one?



On a similar note, a friend's wife was showing me her new jazz guitar. It looked like a stripped ES-175 with humbuckers, nothing special. Until I saw a box full of parts next to the case, containing a pair of white P-90s, a white pickguard with pink flowers, and a trapeze bridge-tailpiece. That's right, she had found an ES-295 and had all the gold paint stripped off.

[RockinCarl]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

Sometime in the mid-late 1980s I was doing sound for a local blues jam. One night this fellow came in from the sticks with a stripped '69-ish Telecaster. The odd thing about it was the clear pickguard.

I asked him about the guitar and he said "Yeah, I found this in a pawn shop last month. Some idiot had put paisley wallpaper on it and painted it pink, I stripped that crap right off of there."

I bit my tongue. How do you tell someone that they just turned a $5000 guitar into a $150 one?



On a similar note, a friend's wife was showing me her new jazz guitar. It looked like a stripped ES-175 with humbuckers, nothing special. Until I saw a box full of parts next to the case, containing a pair of white P-90s, a white pickguard with pink flowers, and a trapeze bridge-tailpiece. That's right, she had found an ES-295 and had all the gold paint stripped off.

Ok everything you just said made me sick... but I think the 295 story really took the cake with me... I love those things.

[CraigL]

When I was 15 I routed out my Strat so I could put a humbucker in the middle position. Except, I didn't own a router so I used a drill and just kept hacking away till the p/u fit in there. Still have that Strat (took the humbucker out and out the single coil back in) and as long as I don't take the pickguard off I try not to think about what I did.

[FMA]

The worst thing I do is play the things...
But a pal, long ago, it was the 80s, OK?, was into hard rock and had acquired, from a family friend, an ancient Gibson Melody Maker, one of the original deals from the early '60s, I believe. Nice guitar. Cherry finish. One single-coil pickup...
Well, he routed it out and put humbuckers and a Floyd on it. Of course, after painting it black...
Made me want to cry every time I saw the thing....

[stevedenver]

sold it

[J. Hayes]

of them...... first of all, in the middle to late sixties I was playing in a band and we decided to do some Byrds things so I needed an electric 12 string but not having much extra cash I decided since I had two electrics I'd make one of them a 12. Since it wasn't feasible on my Telecaster I chose my Gibson ES-225T which was a natural finish guitar with two black P-90's and small plastic button Kluson tuners. It had a Bigsby tailpiece so I bought a cheap trapeze tailpiece and a couple of cheap 6 in line tuners sets with the tuners all on one long strip. I doweled or wood puttied (I don't remember) the old holes and redrilled and installed both sets of tuners and put on a new nut. I sanded the body to rough it up a little and bought some spray cans of a candy apple finish from an auto parts store. It was a two coat process having to paint the guitar gold first and then red after that. It really looked horrible as I recall but it did the job. I still have a picture of the guitar before I desecrated it and I wish I still had it in it's original form, it'd be worth a bunch and be a usable instrument.

The next one was a 1952 Telecaster (serial number 1429 patent pending) which I cut the metal plate behind the pickup and hammered the sides down flat. I then put a Bigsby tailpiece and bridge on the thing. It didn't work so well so I later bought a new bridge/pickup plate and reinstalled it. I sold the guitar around 1972 to a student and bought a used Telecaster which was sunburst with binding and a rosewood fretboard. I played it for a couple of weeks and didn't like the neck that much so I conned the student into switching necks with me and wound up with the 52 neck on the other tele which was a 68 or 69 vintage. It was actually a pretty nice guitar then but in a dumb fit or something I traded it straight across for a Mosrite which was really a mistake............

Last but not least was an old sunburst single pickup Gibson Melody Maker which I decided to upgrade so I took a screwdriver and chisled enough out of the top to install two cheap humbucker pickups. I also got rid of the Klusons and put a set of Grover pegs and a Bigsby Palm Pedal on the thing. I don't remember whatever happened to it as most of my guitar adventures in those days were done under the influence of controlled substances, or maybe not.....I can't remember....JH in Va.