NRGDTIPFWTL: New Refinished Guitar Day That I Procrastinated For Way Too Long

So I put a thread about this in Finely Finished, but figured only a few people would see it there. And it's worth more people seeing (I think!).

http://www.tdpri.com/threads/shell-brown-the-new-shell-pink.653274/

Long story short: I have a bunch of Teles, but love Gretsches as well. Have several Electromatics as well as several Pro-Line Gretsches. The best Electromatics have the "Dearmond 2000" pickups in them. They're USA-made single coils that just have amazing clarity/power/punch. Really awesome pickups.

I had one of these Gretsch Special Jets before, but ended up swapping the pickups out of it into a Pro Jet I used to have...then I got rid of them both (sold the Pro Jet, gave the Special Jet to my nephew).

Anyway, I always kinda missed the Special Jet. So about 3 years ago I ran across one at a stupid-low price and bought it. I mean stupid low. I decided to refinish it...so I used a heat gun and roughly stripped it....and then it sat. For years. Until a couple of weeks ago.

Finally got around to sanding 'er down and refinishing her in hand-wiped shellac.

Pretty awesome guitar, period. Stupid/crazy/ridiculously awesome for the price I paid.

Here's where it started: boring old typical glossy sticky thick "cherry" polyurethane. Ugh.



Here she is now:

 

Thanks y'all. I do like a nice cherry finish...and the finish on this one was OK, but to me a nice cherry finish is one where you can really see the wood grain and figure, and the cherry just brings a different tint to it. In this case, as is often the case on more affordable guitars, the finish appeared really thick (though honestly it was quite thin) and the wood was far too obscured.

Looks and feels much better now.

Per usual, the hard part was getting the old finish off. And maybe that's why I waited so long. Once that step was 90% done I was kinda frustrated with it. But I certainly shouldn't have waited SOO long lol.

 

I have a Corvette (before the switch to CVT nomenclature) that is a FSR natural mahogany finish.



I considered taking off the finish and doing this one too, and may someday. But all the contours would be trickier for sure. The slab body of the Special Jet is a little more forgiving.