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Reconstructing a 1982 ES-335


craigr726

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Hey guys- I bought an old '82 ES-335, or what was left of it, anyways. It was really just the neck and body, sawed apart at the joint. It was for a good price, so I figured I'd take the risk of a) it not actually being a Gibby or =D> the reconstruction project not coming out well.

 

I think it came out great, and I'll leave the authenticity to you guys. The things that seems a bit off to me are the "S" in the Gibson name on the headstock, the angle of the neck to headstock and that the body didn't have a sticker in the upper F hole. But, it still felt and now even sounds great too.

 

I found a great luthier for the body work- you can barely see any seem in at the neck/body joint in the back and a great mom and pop (really just pop) music store here to work the electronics.

 

Let me know what you guys think!

 

Old pictures:

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New: (apparently I forgot to get a close up of the back of the neck joint)

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Actually, he was very reasonable. A nice retired gentleman who does it for a hobby- gives him something to do, I guess.. Agonizingly slow turnaround, but the product was well worth the year+ wait. If I remember correctly, it was only a couple hundred ($200, maybe).

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Actually, he was very reasonable. A nice retired gentleman who does it for a hobby- gives him something to do, I guess.. Agonizingly slow turnaround, but the product was well worth the year+ wait. If I remember correctly, it was only a couple hundred ($200, maybe).

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Wow, can't imagine why someone would saw the neck off that way!

 

But it looks good! Congrats on it...

 

Maybe you can relic the chrome pickups, bridge, etc a little... make it look age appropriate...just a suggestion. Or just play it hard for two years and let it age naturally.

 

=P~

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Very nice, always glad to see an old instrument brought back to life. Can't imagine why someone would do that to it in the first place, but not the strangest "unnatural act" I've ever seen performed on a great guitar.

 

How did your luthier replace the neck tenon?

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Unfortunately, with a break like that, you can't fully replace the tenon. At some point, you either need a) a new neck with tenon, or :D you're going to have a glue barrier in there at some point. In this case, there was actually about an 1/8th of an inch of wood missing from where the saw went through, so he had to make a blank bit of wood, attach that to both the neck side and the tenon/body. So, I'm sure I lost a bit of sustain, but I knew going in that I wasn't going to have a brand new '82. The guitar still has more sustain that I'll ever need, sounds great, and looks great.

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