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Huhnit-Dollah Sheraton II NPD


Lefty Bill

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Lefty model made in China VS finish, serial 110215..defaced and the neck is marked USED. Sheraton II $81 plus USPS $29 s/h, eBay auction.

 

All my other guitars are solid body models, and this faulty "top of the line" semi-hollow body was cheap enough to qualify as an interesting project.

I had studied various methods of removing fretboards previously, and have tools, so we'll see how it turns out.

 

Seller stated that it had a broken truss rod.. so, heat the neck from back side (to avoid burning the inlays and neck binding) and lift the fretboard off the neck.

Weld or replace the truss rod if needed.

Re-glue fretboard.. how hard could it be? (commonly heard on the TV show Top Gear).

 

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All electrical components and basic hardware had already been removed (strap buttons, post bushings and trc supplied though), but I have the parts to complete the project.. however, the hardware will be all chrome or nickel, not gold.

 

The seller stated in addition to the broken truss rod there was a backbow in the neck.. both were present.

The truss rod is a newer dual-action type (although a weld broke), and was likely broken when trying to adjust the neck to counteract/compensate for the backbow.

 

I'll need to straighten the neck to reduce/eliminate the backbow as I don't believe the truss rod will be adequate to adjust away the backbow.. maybe I'll try some moist heat and clamping to a rigid steel beam.

 

One quality issue regarding published specs/features is that the neck sure doesn't appear to be maple or a hardwood.

The necks are 3-piece maple on the natural transparent finish models from Korea and Japan, but this neck is painted black.

This neck appears to be one piece of mahogany.. soft and very rubbery/noodly without the fretboard (pictured along side a mahogany Epiphone bolt-on Les Paul neck).

 

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I fabricated a cutter to make separation lines in the polyester clear finish coat so the fretboard could be lifted without breaking up the finish all along the neck seams.

It's a little wooden sled with a scoring blade which rides along a guide bar clamped to the fretboard over the frets. The guide bar maintains a straight cutting path, parallel to the fretboard.

 

A considerable amount of heat was carefully applied to the back of the neck with a Corning science lab hot plate, and the separation was started with a big X-acto knife at the nut slot.. after a little separation was attained, a thin putty knife was used to push thru the glue bond.

As the fretboard was lifted, a section of flat 1/8"x3/4" aluminum was gradually advanced behind the putty knife to maintain a gap.

 

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A heat gun was used briefly at the heel end, since the hot plate wouldn't be effective at trying to get heat thru the body and neck heel to heat the fretboard.

The hot plate worked well to get to the 15th fret, but the heat gun applied to the fretboard was needed for the heel end, holding the putty knife as a heat shield to protect the last fretboard inlay.

 

I'll have more info regarding the dual action truss rod in another posting.

 

Bill

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Thank you.. Yeah, it's a bit of a gloat combined with some additional adventurous project experience. I was surprised to find numerous online projects related to warped or otherwise damaged necks, and removing a fretboard isn't particularly difficult.. although I suspect that reattaching it may be a bit more fiddly.

 

I didn't get involved with measuring the temperature or other technical details.. just heat and careful coaxing of the join area.

It would be great to see more DIY and Make It Yours projects in the forum.

 

Bill

 

 

Fantastic find, and thread......Belongs in the DIY section for sure..........[thumbup] [thumbup] [thumbup] .....

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Thanks Rob, I'm glad you're liking it too. I really enjoy this kinda stuff.

I forgot to mention there are more Sheraton II pics and details shown in my Flickr sets.

Epiphone Sheraton II

 

Bill

 

Nice project Bill, and great explanations and pics to describe each step, I'll be following with interest. Got it for a good price too.

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Thanks, and I'm glad to see that others are interested in reconstruction projects too. I'll mostly take anything apart.. been doing it since I was a wee pup.

Getting to the point where this reject Sheraton II may be playable isn't just ego for me, I really enjoy being involved in projects that keep me inspired and enthusiastic.. I've found guitars to be very interesting projects for these reasons.

 

Bill

 

Fantastic - an inspiration to `do it yourself`.

[thumbup] [thumbup] [thumbup] [thumbup] [thumbup]

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