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J40 Restoration Complete


RusRob

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I thought some of you may be interested in seeing the finished project. Picked up this J-40 for next to nothing a while back but it was in need of some serious help. When I got it the neck was off, half the frets had been removed and someone "tried" to fix a broken brace by smearing glue all over the inside of this poor guitar.

 

I decided it would be easiest to remove the back to fix the braces and clean up the glue. Since I had it open I decided to scallop the braces to reduce the stiffness which really opened up the sound.

 

Since the finish was falling off of this guitar and it needed a complete refinish I decided to do a burst on it and paint the headstock black.

 

I didn't finish documenting the complete project because I got busy with other work, but I finished it in between jobs and I am very happy with the results.

 

I also decided to make a "bat-wing" pick guard in place of the teardrop.

 

I have had it done for about 2 months now and it plays and sounds really nice.

 

 

The old thread with in-progress pictures can be found here:

 

http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/100779-project-j-40/page__p__1363098__hl__j-40__fromsearch__1&do=findComment&comment=1363098

 

 

 

Enjoy

 

 

 

 

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Thanks guys, I wasn't sure how this one would turn out since it was in such bad shape when I got it but it all came together pretty well.

 

The pin-less bridge was the original one. The early 70's J-40 had the pin-less and the later ones had pinned bridges. I have a really nice block of ebony that I was going to cut a new bridge from and make it a pinned bridge but since the original was in really good shape I decided to just use it instead.

 

 

....do you have any sound bites???

 

Not as of yet... I am working on a setup for my pc and I just recently bought a Focusrite Scarlett 2-4 interface but my low impedance mic doesn't have a hot enough signal to get a good recording.

 

I will work that out and get a good clip of this guitar as well as my X-braced LG-0.

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Extremely fine artisanry - and one of the most intriguing threads ever seen on this Board (includes the original, which I missed in April).

That revoicing - no it's more than that - is just radical, , , one serious move.

 

If we'll ever need to hear a sample, it is now. . .

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This is quite a transformation! Did you keep the double "X" ? Thanks for showing us the skills, amazing work. [thumbup]

 

 

Yes I did keep the double X but since I had the back off I decided to scallop the braces and lighten things up and give it more breathing room.

 

 

The bridge seem to be original.

But are you sure about that truss rod shield ?

 

Yes the bridge is original. It was in really good shape so I decided to use it.

 

The truss rod cover is Stew Mac. I didn't have the original and this one had the correct hole spacing.

 

 

I am working on getting a decent recording of it so you can hear how it sounds.

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Very nice looking job!

 

 

Where have I seen those pinless bridges?

 

 

Taylor? Larivee?

 

 

BluesKing777

 

 

 

 

 

It came to me where I saw pinless bridges recently - I was looking in Guitarist UK magazine at a Patrick James Eggle custom guitar with pinless bridge:

 

 

http://eggle.co.uk/products/383/Saluda-Florentine-Bocote.htm

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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