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RusRob

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Everything posted by RusRob

  1. Hell's Bell's Ksdaddy!!!! Nice job saving a guitars life. Although some would say you stripped off all of it's "mojo" and destroyed a guitar. I say you gave it "A New Life" @tpbiii, Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It is nice to hear from an actual collector. And What A Collection It Is! Very nice.
  2. Thanks for all the replies, I was actually expecting a lot of negative comments about it. I know over the last few years it has almost become taboo to say that I will refinish a guitar and since I officially just started advertising I have had mixed feeling about even saying anything about offering refinishing. Although I have done a lot of different things with guitar repair and I fancy myself as doing high quality work I don't claim to be a luthier, I am just a guy who fixes guitars. Because of my 20+ years working as a body shop painter I can lay down a mean coat of lacquer. I have a real soft spot for buying neglected guitars. I think it started with the first guitar I ever owned. I think It was here that I posted my story of finding my very first guitar in the trash with a broken top. I asked the owner if I could have it and took it home and fixed it and made it playable and that is the guitar I learned how to play on. Ever since then I have been finding old worn out guitars and fixing them up. I almost feel as though I am saving each one from certain death by neglect. I actually write inside them "A New Life" It is usually really small and in a place where no one would look for it but its there and I know it. So if you ever run across a guitar with those words in it... you know where it came from. Anyway, I really appreciate your comments, either for or against. I have worked on a few vintage guitars with lots of "mojo" and I would never think of stripping something like that down and making it new, but there are a lot of guitars out there where the "mojo" has been lost and they have become totally unplayable from neglect or abuse. This is my latest project, it is the J=40 I am working on. I have a friend who asked me to keep an eye out for a cheap Gibson so I bought this and will fix it up. He may or may not want this one but I feel I am giving it "A New Life" and someone will enjoy having it. I know I will actually loose money when I sell it if I count my hours but that is not what is important to me. This is how I got it. Neck off... Loose braces inside, But no serious cracks.
  3. I have a curious question. I have been fixing and repairing guitars for a number of years. For the past 20 or so years I have fixed guitars for friends, and friends of friends and friends who send people to me. I have never been a "business" but I just decided to make it official. You probably have seen I am sporting a new logo and a new web page. So as a repair guy who fixes guitars I have always had people ask me to find them some kind of guitar and fix it up for them. They usually want it to look like new so I have done a fair amount of refinishing. I have never been into the "collector" frame of mind although every guitar I have bought I have taken exceptional care of them. I know that collectors always say that if you refinish a guitar it cuts the value in half. But my experience has been the opposite. I have fixed up old $200 guitars and sold them for $400. I never deceive anyone about what was done to it. I do hear the occasional "you destroyed it by refinishing it" but those are usually not the people that I deal with. Most of the people I have sold guitars to are delighted to have an old guitar that plays really well and looks new. Back in the 60s and 70's I worked in a body shop as a painter and being an artist I did a lot of custom painting. In the latter part of my body shop days custom and restoration is all I did. That is part of the reason I think I get requests to do finish work. I have also done a number of custom paint jobs on electric guitars and even some keyboards. So with that in mind, I just picked up this 70's J-40 that is in pretty sad shape. Loose braces, neck is off and needs a reset, needs new frets and the finish is falling off... literally falling off, I took my fingernail and popped off a strip of clear about 4" long and can do that anywhere on the guitar. So I am in the process of redoing it now and I am thinking of putting a typical Gibson black burst on it (they didn't offer the J-40 with a black burst). I have done my share of "luthier" type repairs where fixing a crack is just filling it with hot hide glue and let it show for all to see the "battles scars" of being played. I can see that on a 1930's Martin or Gibson but that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about taking a guitar that no one wants and giving it a new life. I would be very curious what your thoughts are on this subject.
  4. Thanks for the replies, @jedzep, I have actually gotten to really like the sound of the original ladder braced Gibsons. Since I started this project I have listened to a lot of Youtube videos and there is something about that old time blues plunk that they produce (given the proper guitar player is playing it). @bobouz, Yea it sure seems to creep up on us... @onewilyfool, I am not sure I could sell it now... but if the right offer came to me... who knows? @j45nick, I like your thinking... @milod, Thank you for the compliment Here is a shot of the whole family. Everything except my LG-X, my Tele and the little Crestwood on the right could be bought. From left to right Back Row- My old trusty (cheap) Yamaha - Martin EMP1 (Limited edition #147 of 620) - Giannini 12 string - Gibson LG-X Front Row Fender Tel (Love it) - Fender Jap Strat - Rickenbacker 360 - Dean Resonator - 1966 Crestwood (the first guitar I ever bought) Not in the picture is my Martin D-18 I am rebuilding and a little no name telecaster I loaned out to a friend.
  5. Hi All, I have been lurking aroun the forum for some time now and finally decided to become a member. This seems like a very friendly place with a lot of knowledgable people. I got my first guitar at 8 years old, I picked it out of our neighbors trash and asked them if I could have it. The top was pulled half off of it and I took it home and fixed it. I am 60 years old this month and have been fixing and playing guitars since then. I never called myself a luthier but I have fixed just about every kind of problem there can be on a guitar. Last year I came across this little sad Gibson LG-0 for sale. It looked like it spent most of its life in a closet with no case. The finish was literally falling off, The back was split from head to tail and was flapping in the wind and almost every brace was loose or gone. But the neck was nearly perfect, the frets had almost no wear and was straight. So I made the guy an offer for it and he said "its yours". I brought it down to my shop and started on it. I was going to just fix it up and sell it but as I started to work on it I could hear it talking to me.... I could hear it saying how it had been locked away in the back of that closet and after all these years it wanted to feel loved.... Well something like that.... Anyway, I started this project just to make some money and ended up in a love affair... I had about half of the ladder bracing cut and shaped when I decided to put X bracing in it. I found an old drawing of a 1940 L-00 and decided to use that as the basic pattern with the addition of scalloping. Since I had the back off I also decided to try my hand at tap tuning. I put a maple bridge plate in and made a new ebony bridge with bone saddle with individual compensation for each string. I stripped everything except the peghead face since that was about the only thing that wasn't peeling off and was in great shape. I finshed the body in Behlen Stringed Instrument Lacquer and left the grain partially open. The top is gloss and the sides and back are satin. The neck and back of the peghead was done in an oil finish. I completed it a few months ago and I am finding that this is the only guitar I keep picking up. With the addition of the forward X bracing it has a wonderful sound that has a lot of sustain and some beautiful overtones. It doesn't have the plunky mid tones that an LG-0 has so I decided to give it the designation of LG-X Here are some shots of it in-progress and finished. Thanks for looking Click on image for full picture
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