James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Pickups, Pots, Caps, Wiring

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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by Single coil »

Here's the brunt of today's efforts: My new project ... But it has a lovely feel to it, so, hmm... :lol:

3 guesses.
(These are pre- cleanup)

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Yeah, ok. Heaps too easy.

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2001 korean studio model, with a massively pissed up tuner.

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Of course the whackass one looks like it's a replacement (???)
People are weird.

I think this is a graphite nut. Sure doesn't feel like plastic.

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Not a hell of a lot of fret wear.

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It has some dings - I expect this was someone's only guitar for a while.

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... And a whole bunch of guff on the neck reverse.

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Has quite a thin body. Not sure if this is normal for studios. The jack panel is also quite slim, and isn't the usual square.

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It uhh... It has a switch.

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Oddly enough, the switch is a pluggy inny job rather than the usual ... Ya know, wired in one.

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Right, let's start operating. Doctor, hand me that scalpel.
Good whack of dust on there, as well as god knows what on the pickups.

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... And all over the bridge.

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One would expect that by now, I am an expert knob puller. But alas, these ones were tricky. Pots are surrounded by areolas of gunk.

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Typical muck outline on the not quite bell. Tidy underneath though.

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Now, this is where I got real clever: Labelling the pots before they come out. :lol:

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No long neck tenon. Bg will not be impressed, and it will sound like old spaghetti.
Maybe due to the slim thing, it has the usual eroded river style rout. Hang on, these things don't have a separate cap, do they?

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Special edition HOTCHG pickups ... :lol:

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Treble nipple thing was a bit of a task to get off thanks to the prophelactic lookin' sticky tape.

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Ah. Right. Ok. I see how it is.
Switch is super easy to pop out with the wee pluggy thing.

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Now I'll 50s-fy it before I put it all back together.
As it sits, I'm not entirely sure it'll work, because of how the switch is wired. Hmm. Ahh well.

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Ok, sweet. Now we've got that out the way, let's refinish it in an attractive sky blue, like some dude everyone loves. What's his name? Dechne?

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... Just kidding. Put the knife down.

Tried a different method of masking this time. Straight up and down, and slice the frets out (as it were), rather than across and look like I do heaps of drugs from biting the tape off.

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After a polish, the wear became a little more evident. It isn't bad, it's just sorta ... There.

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FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK.

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Hmm, wonder if this'll polish off like it did on the goldtop.

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(it didn't)

Now, here are some saddles, and a spring.
Why are they here?
Because I put the whole unit on the buffing wheel thing.
It ate the spring and chucked it somewhere - I have no idea where :mental:
Fortunately, I have the bridge and stop end from the goldtop kickin' about, so I have a spare of both. Never seen anyone break a stopbar though.

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Now, moving along to the pissed up tuner.
I often wondered if you could pop these things open and tighten them up. I wasn't averse to buying a new set if I buggered one of them.
Turns out you can, and straightening it out wasn't that hard.

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Close enough.

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All the bits waiting to go back on after being polished up.
I don't like the chrome hardware very much. Nickel is loads nicer. But ya know, work with what ya got etc.

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Box o' guitar porn:

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Let's oil the neck up before I buff up the body, rather than have lemon oil running all over a newly waxed surface and arsing it all up.

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Needed to give it a pretty good scrub to lift all the shit out, but I got there. Aaaaaand wax on.
Employing my new found hanging technique, which I really quite like.

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Neither the cut nor the wax can hide my shame.

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... Or someones love bites from an overzealous pick.

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I had to use the entire bridge assembly from the goldtop - Can you see why?

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Yip. Spring hole things are in different places. How bout that.
Bonus round: Ingenious idea to get switch pluggy thing back through. :D

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As she sits in the shed:

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FOR SHAME

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I forgot about the small town thing where nothing's open on a sunday, so once again, she should be all set up and playing by tomorrow evening.

... I guess then I'll decide if she's a keeper or not.
Last edited by Single coil on Mon Nov 06, 2017 6:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
werdna wrote:Well at least I can still make toast in the bath without anyone telling me it's unsafe.

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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by Molly »

Looking very tidy. Good job.

With all this impressive stuff just posted I can't be arsed to show-off today's wiring effort.

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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by Single coil »

Impressive?
It’s a bloke in a shed with a buffer.
Post your wiring.
werdna wrote:Well at least I can still make toast in the bath without anyone telling me it's unsafe.

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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by Single coil »

Welp, here's the slim body proof thing.

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And some whore shots.

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And of course, the idiocy:

werdna wrote:Well at least I can still make toast in the bath without anyone telling me it's unsafe.

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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by higainer »

Another great thread man.

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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by jeremyb »

Wow, turned out amazing! Nice work James!
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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by Single coil »

Dawww, thanks guys.

I’ve found it quite hard to put down since I got it in playing order.
Having given it a good strum (oh my), it would benefit from a complete set of tuners and decent strap buttons or locks.
werdna wrote:Well at least I can still make toast in the bath without anyone telling me it's unsafe.

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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by Single coil »

What have we here?

A twist on one of my favourite guitar designs ever.

As a kid, pre- actually having any real knowledge about anything guitar related, I referred to them as blues guitars.
I got confused when I saw a picture of slash with one.

Anyway - it's a twist, because it isn't the usual cherry with ivory type binding.

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Epiphone dot studio. Seems to be a bit of a recurring theme here.
These are all before pictures.

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It has been quite well cared for. Fretwear is evident, but all it says is "I've been played a fair bit". Good amount of crap on the fretboard too, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Saddles are ... Worn off, sorta. Won't be able to rescue those.

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About the only dings I could find.

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Grovers. No writing. Pretty standard.

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Model: Dot Studio WC.
Why have they named it after a toilet?
China, 2008.

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Ahh, hmm. Right.

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Some of the satin has been arm'd off. Generic play wear.

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Green frets. Right. Uhh.

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Hmm, ok. So. Non conductive paint? Lots of bare wood is a good sign.

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The pickup names aren't very imaginative.

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Funny way to get the wires through. Spose it's sorta tidy.

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Right. Let's crack on into it.
... Sort of.

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Surprisingly small amount of gunk in there.

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Oh, ok. Fine. Two more dings.

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The grain pattern is pretty cool. These things are backwards versions of the usual dot - Normal dot has maple body (and block) with mahogany neck. Dot studio has mahogany body (with maple block) and maple neck. Bit weird but whatever.

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It appears to have been owned by someone with a single channel amp :mrgreen: (there's wear around the volume knob.)

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... Alright. FINE. A third mark.

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Let's deal to the one on the headstock - Carefully.

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I don't think the truss cavity has ever been looked at.

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... And one with the flash.

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Ehehehe, magnets.

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Fretwear more evident after steel wool and a bit of a buff.

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Boys... It's time to... Oil up. #moneyshot

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Good size slab of rosewood for the fretboard too.

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Cleaning a satin finish has always irked me. My quick but "nah, that one looks like a shit idea" type of research returned "slightly damp cloth".
It ... was a bit crap, but the lemon oil came through again.
Tuners: Left is before, right is after.

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Caaaaaaaaarefully buffed up the hardware. Nice and quick.

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Fretboard dealt to, frets all cleaned up and yummy, and black plastic bits all clean ready to go back together.

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Ding touched up pretty well I think.

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Plonked this back on after a quick twist.

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Ok, the contrast is kinda cool I spose.

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Now we're ready for strings. But, ya know, sunday, small town, rah rah rah. So I'll get those on (and put up the idiocy video) tomorrow.

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I like to think I got these bits as good as I could without reaming the finish.

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... This is how she sits, in a poorly fitting case.

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... Zing!

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It's actually quite a cool looking thing ... But I want the more classic looking one. :mental:

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So, as promised - idiocy video, strings, shit like that all coming tomorrow.

Price probably coming tomorrow too, and I think I will have to part with the black LP studio above if I want a nicer dot ... :(
werdna wrote:Well at least I can still make toast in the bath without anyone telling me it's unsafe.

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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by Single coil »



werdna wrote:Well at least I can still make toast in the bath without anyone telling me it's unsafe.

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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by GrantB »

Nice work. Check out this info below re steel wool. Better to use 3M polishing cloth.

http://www.lollarguitars.com/blog/2016/ ... eparation/

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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by AiRdAd »

That's good advice.
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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by Bg »

Yep... never use that shit on frets man, it can get under them if there's any gaps and yeah anywhere near the pickups is a thumbs down. Use your dish cleaner thingy. or proper 3m like grant says.

I know its recommended in lots of youtube stuff, but the 3m stuff is just as good, lasts longer and no metal filings to worry about.

Wish I could find the drunken luthier guys rant about the stuff on youtube, its funny as fuck ;)
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by GrantB »

Bg wrote:Yep... never use that shit on frets man, it can get under them if there's any gaps and yeah anywhere near the pickups is a thumbs down. Use your dish cleaner thingy. or proper 3m like grant says.

I know its recommended in lots of youtube stuff, but the 3m stuff is just as good, lasts longer and no metal filings to worry about.

Wish I could find the drunken luthier guys rant about the stuff on youtube, its funny as fuck ;)
I think that's the guy that works on the Ricky bass? He's totally shozzled and whining on about how shitty the guitar is.
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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by Bg »

GrantB wrote:
Bg wrote:Yep... never use that shit on frets man, it can get under them if there's any gaps and yeah anywhere near the pickups is a thumbs down. Use your dish cleaner thingy. or proper 3m like grant says.

I know its recommended in lots of youtube stuff, but the 3m stuff is just as good, lasts longer and no metal filings to worry about.

Wish I could find the drunken luthier guys rant about the stuff on youtube, its funny as fuck ;)
I think that's the guy that works on the Ricky bass? He's totally shozzled and whining on about how shitty the guitar is.
Yeah he's really great :) Takes the piss out of stewmac gear constantly too. Must find him again.
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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Re: James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by Single coil »

The scouring pad is what I have been using, but I’ve sort of worn them out.

I won’t use steel wool on frets from now on. Hardware shop usually has those pad things for fuck all.
werdna wrote:Well at least I can still make toast in the bath without anyone telling me it's unsafe.

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