New vintage Gibson day, my wallet says ouch

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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finboy
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1869
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:31 pm
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Re: New vintage Gibson day, my wallet says ouch

Post by finboy » Thu Jan 11, 2018 12:51 am

Sorry for the lack of updates all, it is -25 in calgary, my furnace crapped out and I caught the mother of all colds that is going around. Before we shut the water off and escaped to my parents house until the furnace is repaired, I grabbed this guitar and my j100 so they wouldn’t freeze in the house.

Final note on the ordeal of the pickup, I understand used guitars come with issues, and his is a gamble that didn’t play out in my favour. Reflecting on it, I still have a great guitar, and even though it annoys me that some clearly present issues weren’t disclosed, I am enjoying the process of bringing this guitar back to what it should be.

Back to some notes, juan did the best he could with the pickup, but isn’t 100% satisfied with the pickup, even with some 500k pots to help mellow it out. I brought the guitar home, hoping to try it out, then the furnace broke. I am thinking this weekend I willl get a chance to try it out and see if I like the sound, or if I need to send it to throbak for a rewind.

In better news, the pickguard is straight! Unfortunately I don’t have the bracket for it, the allparts one I found at l&m was not a match so I will be tracking a vintage one down online.

Realistically, the refret will be a March update, along with a new nut. From that point I need to decide what to do with the varitone, as I have all the parts but one of the large caps is cracked in half and can’t be salvaged.

Finally, I’m looking to sell the vintage waffle back tuners, they are missing one bushing and the screws. Prices are all over the place for these, anyone know fair market value to ask for them?

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Despot
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
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Location: Wexford, Ireland

Re: New vintage Gibson day, my wallet says ouch

Post by Despot » Thu Jan 11, 2018 1:06 am

Finboy - a word of caution on the pickguard.

I'm glad you've managed to save the original - my advice would be ... sell it. Use the money to buy a repro from Pickguardian.

Those old nitro guards will gas off like nothing else I've seen. I know it's unlikely that you'd leave the guitar in the case ... but if you ever did you'd notice it starting to have an effect after a week or two ... you'll find a sort of greasy film on the guard which is the result of the guard off-gasing.

If you leave it there for two long it'll eat the covers and pole pieces as well as any metal (screws etc) that's close to it. The stuff made by Pickguardian looks pretty much identical to the old tort anyway, and it's not going to gas off so you never have this worry.

I had an ES355 from 1976 - it usually lived outside the case, but when I bought the ES345 it was cased for a while before I sold it. I was surprised to see that being cased for a few months had led to enough gas to completely rust the unwound strings, and to start to rust the bracket!

User avatar
finboy
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1869
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:31 pm
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Re: New vintage Gibson day, my wallet says ouch

Post by finboy » Thu Jan 11, 2018 2:49 am

I’ve been warned a couple times about the offgassing, definitely keeping an eye on it, and considering aftermarket solutions if I see any signs

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