Les Paul Junior refinish

[Greg M]

I had an LP Jr build from years ago that needed some adjustments and I wanted a sunburst on it, so...


Didn't have a solo pic of that guitar but it's the one on the left obviously.

And here is the almost totally stripped body.

Bridge holes were plugged too, and moved back slightly. A couple of the saddles had been moved back as far as they could go so this should work better.

One big problem was the headstock shape (wish I had taken a "before" pic). I built this thing back when the internet was a new kid on the block and guitar building forums didn't exist (as far as I knew anyways) so I didn't even have the good sense to make templates. Well, I plugged the tuner holes and I cut off the offending edges and glued on the ears. NOTE: I realize this is not a Gibson. I did this a long time ago and won't be putting that back on when it's done.



And here I'm flush-cutting the plugs. Notice the dowel in the strap button hole which had those counter sunk strap locks.


More to come...

[guitarzan13]

Interesting....

[Greg M]

Here is a good representation of the look I'll be going for. Don't really know how I'm going to achieve it just yet, and advice from anyone who has done one of these sunbursts is welcome.



I was looking for holly headstock overlays yesterday and all I could find was $22. Then I remembered I had a cigar box with a couple of veneers of (I'm assuming) some kind of cedar in it. This wood was a good color match, although since it will be painted black, it won't matter . But I glued it on last night. I'll get some pics on later tonight.

[Greg M]

The pics I promised.

Here is the cigar box veneer. I have since brushed on some CA glue to stiffen it up (that worked very well btw) and I'm working on spray painting it black.


Here is the guitar after stripping and before grain filling.


And here is my attempt at a vintage Gray Tiger capacitor. I just printed the text on an old piece of paper. Just a little something fun to try .


Still trying to figure out how to get a good yellow inner layer on the top burst. Just have to do some tests and see what works.

More later.

[Greg M]

Finally got a little more done on this thing. Filled pores, sprayed with shellac, sprayed black lacquer on the body edges, and sanded it all smooth. Then I mixed up some butterscotch blonde-ish lacquer to use for the first layer of the burst. Looks more like lime green in the pic but it isn't really that color.



I like those Mixol tints. Next up is mixing a passable red and brown.

[Greg M]

That last pic was a little too lime yellow in person so I got a better mix and resprayed. Then I made a little paper teardrop to keep the overspray from landing in the middle.



The thing about a Preval is that it tends to spit.

Never too early for a mockup .

[Greg M]

And another pass of the dark brown to make it less "Clownbursty"

And the back turned out pretty well but it doesn't show so well in the pic.


I used some 0000 steel wool to get the little specks out of the yellow section. Now I'll be spraying clear for the next week or so. More to come.

[Greg M]

Got some pics of the finished product. Burst doesn't blend as well as with a HVLP gun but the Preval did an acceptable job. I'm happy with the guitar.





A departure from a Gibson: abalone dots

The back looks very dark brown until the camera flash.



I need to get some thin pg material but otherwise it looks okay. You know that part about not putting the Gibson logo back on? (Arnold Swartzenegger voice): I lied. I couldn't find a better alternative so I used a waterslide decal. It won't pass for a Gibson and I don't want it to anyway, so no big deal imo.

[Greg M]

Originally Posted by guitarzan13

Interesting....

Yeah, to both of us.