1970S LES PAUL JUNIOR REFINISH

Dang!! I wish I would have saved the “BEFORE” photos of this guitar…

A customer wrote and asked if I worked on guitars other than Rickenbacker. Well, if it’s interesting enough, of course! He sent photos, and although the instrument was not that intriguing, the idea of resurrecting it presented a challenge that I could not resist.

Here’s why: Sometime, somewhere, on a planet far, far, away, somebody had painted it with flat red house paint. With a cheap house-painting brush, judging from the brush marks.

So, it underwent our routine process of deconstruction: remove all hardware, making notes and taking photos where necessary, mask off any areas that needed protection (namely, the headstock), and strip the finish. It should be noted at this juncture that these Gibsons are soldered together in place, so there’s a fair amount of unsoldering before the electronics can be removed from the body. Stripping the body of its crude paintwork, we uncovered an unblemished mahogany slab with very open grain. This body required more applications of grain filler than any other guitar I’ve ever done.

A week of days later, after much filling and sanding, the body was ready for its sealer coats, after which a light amber tint was applied, and then three double coats of our special premium catalyzing clear coat. I do a lot of boasting about this clear coat, but it’s a fact that I’ve been using it since 2005, and Rickenbackers that I refinished in that year, including several in my collection, still look as new as they did back then. So, why change a good thing?

The resulting refinish can be seen in the photos. Although it came to us without a pick guard, a new Gibson part was installed, and this budget beauty was sent back to its owner. In all, a very rewarding project!