Mustang restoration

Bringing your older offset back to life.
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GGJaguar
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Mustang restoration

Post by GGJaguar » Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:07 am

I thought I’d share this guitar restoration story. My wife’s late father played guitar and was in a bar band for most of his adult life. I’ve seen photos of him playing inexpensive archtop guitars (Harmony, etc.) in the 1950s, but in 1965 he bought a blue 1964 Mustang. We’re not sure if he bought it new or used, but my wife thinks he would have been frugal and bought it used. Here are a couple of photos from the early 1970s – one with my wife, as a young teen, playing the Mustang and one with her dad (I’m digging the Ampeg Gemini amp he used!).

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GGJaguar
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by GGJaguar » Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:11 am

After her dad passed away, this guitar was the only memento she had of her dad (evil stepmother kept everything). I owned a blue ’66 Mustang at one time so I was looking forward to seeing it. That’s when she warned me that sometime in the 1980s her dad decided to strip the guitar and stain it. Of course, being a vintage guitar fan, my reaction was “Nooooooooo!!!!!!”. When I opened the case, all I could see was a hot mess. Not only was the body stripped of finish and then stained, but the neck was stripped as well (bye-bye headstock decals). And if you know vintage Fenders (and you do!), you know that the “economy” models like the Musicmaster, DuoSonic, Mustang and Bronco often had mismatched, multi-piece bodies. You can clearly see the body is constructed of 6 pieces of alder in the photo below. To add insult to injury, he shellac’d or varnished the rosewood fingerboard like you would do on a maple fingerboard (or Rickenbacker).

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Last edited by GGJaguar on Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
See my offset guitars at www.ggjaguar.com

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GGJaguar
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by GGJaguar » Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:16 am

We had the guitar for a few years and the last time we had it out of the case, my wife opined that she hated the brown stain and loved the guitar when it was blue. I asked her if she would like to have it restored. She didn’t realize that was a possibility and enthusiastically asked me to make it happen. There are many people out there that can do competent restorations of vintage Fenders, but I reached out to Rich Rice at Rice Guitars (check out his Osprey model!) because I knew this one was going to be challenging and he had done a beyond-incredible restoration of a mutual friend’s Gibson ES-335 severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Rich doesn’t always accept restoration work, but he agreed when I told him the backstory and how this guitar has such high sentimental value and would remain with our family.

First, the neck work was tackled by hand-scrapping the nasty goop from the fingerboard. The “clay” dots on vintage Fenders will dissolve in solvent so manually removing the finish was the only option.

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See my offset guitars at www.ggjaguar.com

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GGJaguar
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by GGJaguar » Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:20 am

Next, an attempt to reduce the mineral stains in the wood was made by separate treatments of wood bleach, lemon juice and salt, oxalic acid paste, and finally white vinegar. This photo shows the mineral stains.

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The cleaned neck was given clear and tinted coats of nitrocellulose lacquer. A super accurate 1964 Mustang repro decal was applied (I cannot divulge my source, sorry).

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See my offset guitars at www.ggjaguar.com

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GGJaguar
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by GGJaguar » Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:23 am

Now on to the body. It was cupped from when it was originally stripped and stained so it needed to be planed flat.

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Once flat, it was sanded and sealed with marine epoxy, then shot with primer.

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See my offset guitars at www.ggjaguar.com

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GGJaguar
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by GGJaguar » Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:28 am

The body was then sprayed with several very thin coats of ReRanch Daphne Blue nitrocellulose lacquer. After all the necessary wet sanding, the guitar was assembled. It plays and sound just like a mid-1960s Mustang should. My wife was thrilled by the final product and is over the moon to have her dad's guitar restored to how she remembered it.

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See my offset guitars at www.ggjaguar.com

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GGJaguar
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by GGJaguar » Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:29 am

And finally, here is the Mustang next to its distant cousin, my G&L SC-2.

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The End. :)
See my offset guitars at www.ggjaguar.com

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raphaël
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by raphaël » Sun Feb 27, 2022 6:29 am

Thank you for sharing, super nice story to read and a well deserved restoration.

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Scout
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by Scout » Sun Feb 27, 2022 7:44 am

Awesome work, love them both!

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tequila_in_teacups
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by tequila_in_teacups » Sun Feb 27, 2022 11:51 am

Nice save! Looks like the original hardware and especially the pickguard were in great condition, so that's something of a blessing.

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andy_tchp
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by andy_tchp » Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:52 pm

Most excellent! Great resto and wonderful backstory.
"I don't know why we asked him to join the band 'cause the rest of us don't like country music all that much; we just like Graham Lee."
David McComb, 1987.

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tdksa90
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by tdksa90 » Sun Feb 27, 2022 6:13 pm

Great restoration! Makes me want to refinish my Squier CV in Daphne Blue... I've always liked that more than Sonic Blue.
My Music: https://keithhanlon.bandcamp.com/

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CROSS_guitars
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by CROSS_guitars » Sun Feb 27, 2022 6:32 pm

Nice save!

Could have been way worse, he could have gone to town on the cavities with a chizzle and drilled gross Grover tuners into the headstock, added a second string tree or even a Locking nut.

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Caddy65
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by Caddy65 » Mon Feb 28, 2022 8:49 am

tdksa90 wrote:
Sun Feb 27, 2022 6:13 pm
Great restoration! Makes me want to refinish my Squier CV in Daphne Blue... I've always liked that more than Sonic Blue.
Exactly the same here.

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WSquires
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Re: Mustang restoration

Post by WSquires » Tue Mar 22, 2022 11:39 am

GGJaguar wrote:
Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:29 am
And finally, here is the Mustang next to its distant cousin, my G&L SC-2.

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The End. :)
It turned out really well! Nicely done!

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