ErickC Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 It's got a 490R/498T pickup pair, CTS pots, orange drop caps, a switchcraft switch, Gotoh tuners and stopbar, and his ML's original bridge, which we saved after we put a Nashville on it. It's also finished in Nitro. It arrived sans headstock. Underestimating the amount of work that'd go into making a new one, I plowed right ahead and did it anyway. It got the Gibson style because it's simpler and I think it looks better. It was also much, much easier to bind. If it offends the Gibson purists, I couldn't be happier since I can't stand Gibson purists. They're the reason people assume the rest of us Gibson owners are pretentious gear snobs. With all the work I put into it, I decided to give it a new serial... the VIN of the car it's painted to match (long-since scrapped :( ). It's obviously not a professional job, but I'd never done this before, so I think I've earned some waffles. I think I'm confident enough to do the same repair on his Riviera now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'Scales Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Looks great to me. I'd prefer they came with that headstock for the reasons you mention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gearhead Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 SWEET! Looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pesh Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Dude, that looks boss! Love the Pelham-ish Blue finish, and that job on the headstock looks proper good! Nice job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Wow.. nice work. Like to see the front. It looks like u did a great job with the detail but the picture dosent show it all that good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekster52 Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Very nice!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve112 Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Great job, I too like the Gibson style headstock. I wish that this style was available on Epiphones sold in North America. It's my suspicion that had Squier used a different design headstock other than the Fender style, their sales would have been substantially reduced. That said, despite uneven quality control issues over the years, Epiphone, producing a wide range of models including some unique to the brand, do make some fine instruments. I very much enjoy my completely stock Epi ES339 every time I pick it up, which is daily. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratty Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 That is one good repair, your brother is a lucky guy. And by the way, what is it with him? Snapping the headstocks from his guitars. One is bad luck, TWO is shears carelessness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErickC Posted May 21, 2015 Author Share Posted May 21, 2015 This guitar was DOA, I bought it for parts for something like $125, then decided to try to repair it to learn how. The previous owner had attempted to repair it and failed, using metal in an attempt to create splines which did more harm than good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 for a learning process, I must say you did an outstanding job Erick! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Zeplin Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Nice repair. Do you have any before pics and maybe a pic of the front of the headstock. Again, nice job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve112 Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Yes, I too would love to see any "before" shots you may have, as well as a front shot of the headstock! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErickC Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 I didn't really take any shots of it when it was a hulk needing work. I wasn't sure I was ever going to be able to do anything with it. But I do have this: I initially wanted to do a scarf joint, but the previous repair used metal plates and epoxy, which created a cavity and a weak spot. You can spot the long, horizontal crack in the neck where one of the plates was located just below the binding. On this side, a scarf would have still been possible, but the plate on the other side was just below the binding and just inside the edge. Removing the plates removed a big, square section of neck. So I copied a repair I saw done on an ES335, and replaced the last three inches or so of the neck. In retrospect, I could have rebuilt the end of the neck and then done a scarf joint. Oh, well. It was actually strung up and in regular use in the five months or so before I finished the headstock overlay and started paint, because we wanted to see whether or not the repair would hold. I gave my brother strict instructions to be abusive. The repair is strong enough that I can flex the entire neck with pressure on the headstock, and it has not shifted the barest fraction of a millimeter. The repair area is visible here. This was kind of a throwaway job, and I wasn't expecting the repair to even hold, so I just used some spare maple lying around: The headstock is visible here: And here is what it looked like before final assembly, after level sanding and polishing: As to the other requests, well, it just so happens: I was servicing my Orville yesterday and had the Epi next to it, and I took some pictures. Here is some detail of the top. You can see a small nick in the finish near the treble pickup ring. I will blame this on one of the cats, either that, or I hit it with my file when I was levelling the frets. A small excursion can be seen in the cutaway where some paint was rubbed away during polishing. Dan Erlewine I am not. This colour is an old Toyota colour and is somewhat hard to photograph, also, my camera is lousy. Coloured balls mean proper, D'Addario 11-49 gauge strings. There is some discolouration around the Epiphone logo on the headstock veneer, somewhat hard to make out among the reflections in this photo. Lesson learned: even black fibreboard should be dyed! I am slightly proud, however, that my inlay work is neater than Epiphone's and Orville's. Original headstock visible here. This will become half of a napkin holder, with the Riviera headstock forming the other half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve112 Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 I didn't really take any shots of it when it was a hulk needing work. I wasn't sure I was ever going to be able to do anything with it. But I do have this: I initially wanted to do a scarf joint, but the previous repair used metal plates and epoxy, which created a cavity and a weak spot. You can spot the long, horizontal crack in the neck where one of the plates was located just below the binding. On this side, a scarf would have still been possible, but the plate on the other side was just below the binding and just inside the edge. Removing the plates removed a big, square section of neck. So I copied a repair I saw done on an ES335, and replaced the last three inches or so of the neck. In retrospect, I could have rebuilt the end of the neck and then done a scarf joint. Oh, well. It was actually strung up and in regular use in the five months or so before I finished the headstock overlay and started paint, because we wanted to see whether or not the repair would hold. I gave my brother strict instructions to be abusive. The repair is strong enough that I can flex the entire neck with pressure on the headstock, and it has not shifted the barest fraction of a millimeter. The repair area is visible here. This was kind of a throwaway job, and I wasn't expecting the repair to even hold, so I just used some spare maple lying around: The headstock is visible here: And here is what it looked like before final assembly, after level sanding and polishing: As to the other requests, well, it just so happens: I was servicing my Orville yesterday and had the Epi next to it, and I took some pictures. Here is some detail of the top. You can see a small nick in the finish near the treble pickup ring. I will blame this on one of the cats, either that, or I hit it with my file when I was levelling the frets. A small excursion can be seen in the cutaway where some paint was rubbed away during polishing. Dan Erlewine I am not. This colour is an old Toyota colour and is somewhat hard to photograph, also, my camera is lousy. Coloured balls mean proper, D'Addario 11-49 gauge strings. There is some discolouration around the Epiphone logo on the headstock veneer, somewhat hard to make out among the reflections in this photo. Lesson learned: even black fibreboard should be dyed! I am slightly proud, however, that my inlay work is neater than Epiphone's and Orville's. Original headstock visible here. This will become half of a napkin holder, with the Riviera headstock forming the other half. Excellent work, ErickC. Thanks for the followup pics and explanation of the various steps and your before and afters. You can rightly be proud of the work, I know that I would definitely be intimidated by that type of repair. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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