'65 Musicmaster project

[chnlone]

First off, I'd like to start by saying, I'm not 100% sure that this won't end up needing to be in mods/projects..

I just purchased this guitar the other day, with the intention of restoring it to a more reasonable state. It's not impossible to play or anything, it just currently looks more like an artistic statement than an instrument. That said, here are the pictures of it as it looked when I brought it home:







The owner previous to the one I bought it from had, at some point in the 70s, been a huge Pink Floyd fan and obviously more of a painter than a musician. Apparently, he'd painted the entire neck, the body and the pickguard. He then proceeded to stick it in a closet and apparently completely forgot about it for a good 30 years... Probably upon realizing the horrific mistake he had made. Anyway, the person I bought it from got the paint off the business portions of the neck and it currently plays quite nicely, but I'm looking to completely overhaul it. Just as a closeup of the way the paint looks:



Now, I've dealt with paint on a body before, but I have NO clue what the safest method for dealing with paint on the neck is aside from carefully sanding for days. Would your standard paint remover be a reasonable thing to use or would it just destroy the neck?

Anyway, at this point I have the pickguard most of the way restored back to its' original red tort and it is looking quite good, but I haven't gotten any good pictures yet... I'll try to get those later, I just really wanted to get this posted for now.

[Stereordinary]

I Music Masters.

[Cymbaline87]

I Music Masters.

+1

Musicmaster/Duosonic are awesome project guitars! Good luck!!

[chnlone]

I'm definitely very excited about my purchase, and despite the paint job it really sounds quite amazing... I have NO clue what kind of pickup that is(it has the bar magnets and for all intents and purposes appears to be like the $5 ones you see from china on ebay), but it is super warm sounding with pretty good definition.

Yeah, I'm really on the fence as to whether I want to make a Duo out of it since I'm going to need a new decal... If I do, I'm probably going to end up switching out the pickguard, because it's one of the nicest torts I've seen and I'm afraid to cut it up, lol.

[ohm-men]

I'd say get a enviorement safe paint stripper prior to any sanding for both body and neck. You'll get a cleaner result imho.
paint looks laquer based from the pics and evident brush strokes (from painting a second layer when the first wasn't dry yet)
Original paint may still be under it.

great looking project you got there.

[noisepunk]

If it weren't for the paitjob being brushed on and therefor obnoxiously textured, I'd say leave the back, cause that's pretty awesome.

My love of soundwaves aside... what color(s, if you wind up doing a duo and switching out the pickguard) are you planning on doing if the original is in fact gone?

[chnlone]

Well, I know that the original paintjob is definitely under there from taking the pickguard off, but I'd say the labor involved with getting to it and whether it is worth salvaging are probably prohibitive. It's oly white underneath, but I think I'd probably be going for Daphne blue with red tort just to be obnoxious.

[Cymbaline87]

Well, I know that the original paintjob is definitely under there from taking the pickguard off, but I'd say the labor involved with getting to it and whether it is worth salvaging are probably prohibitive. It's oly white underneath, but I think I'd probably be going for Daphne blue with red tort just to be obnoxious.

take a look at my 68 mustang in the vintage section...I stripped the guitar off its black refin quite succesfully

[chnlone]

I saw that! I just recently refinished a Mustang as well, and it was also white underneath like this one, but that ended up being a pain in the ass even using paint stripper.. I think that's the main reason I'm afraid I'll end up spending two weeks sanding and still not end up with something I want to keep, besides I was pretty dead set on making this Daphne Blue right out the gate anyway, to match my MM bass, and to contrast my orange-stang. Also, I may inadvertently be trying to get every color of the rainbow in guitar form.

[chnlone]

Okay, so, I'm still working on getting some more pics, but I wanted to update everyone on my progress. The pickguard is still 99% done, I need to clean up/sand off the rest of the paint from the beveled edge. I've removed the awful paint from the neck, and could not even attempt to finesse it enough to keep the decal, which I assumed would be the case. I've got some fresh coats of nitro on the neck as we speak, which is a plus. The body, on the other hand, is apparently painted with what can only seem to me to be tar/asphalt roofing goop. I've come to this conclusion because of the way the drips in the routs look, which are shiny, brown and from a long time ago, despite the body appearing black. The other reason I believe this is because the stripper is softening it at best, and when I run a puddy knife across it, it peels and looks exactly like rubber. What kind of animal would do such a thing? Also, the original finish is ONLY under the pickguard and in the neck pocket, so no real salvaging that anyway, though the "paint" strips off from over the nitro quite easily.

I'm going to let the stripper try to do its' thing for a while longer and we'll see where I get.

Any suggestions would be quite lovely.

EDIT:This stuff is what I'm almost 100% certain it is: http://www.homedepot.com/Building-Mater ... ogId=10053

From what I can tell from the data sheets, kerosene, paint thinner and mineral spirits can be used for cleanup, but would it still be solvable with those at this point?

[chnlone]

Okay, well I got 99% of that black rubbery crap off of the guitar, but there were little splotches where it seems like it got into the original grain filler and then into the grain far enough to have to sand little bumps into the guitar, so I left then and decided to just fill/sand&seal over what I had. So far, so good. The neck is really looking pretty good, I'll post some pics of that tomorrow. The body, in its' current state is just completely fugly, so I'm going to wait until I've got it primed before I think about taking pictures, lol. Let's just say it took a LOT of sanding and scraping it get that black crap off. I was really regretting deciding to refinish it, but I don't think there was a lot I could've done to get it to a respectably smooth finish as it was. Besides, it was really getting on my nerves how bumpy it was. I am slightly missing the pulse on the back, but the prism on the front isn't missed at all.

Anyway, hopefully by about 24 hours from now, I will be looking at a primed body. Hopefully.

[chnlone]

Okay, the body has a can of paint on it now and is drying as we speak. Hopefully I'll have the color wet sanded tomorrow and the clear started...

Meanwhile, I've gotten the pics of the neck from my phone and here they are:







I'll get pics of the body tomorrow.

[chnlone]

Okay so it is finished..here are some cell phone pictures.




I'll get some better ones later today..

[fullerplast]

looks great, nice work!!!



Edited to add: If you like that pickup, I suggest getting a white or cream no-holes cover to preserve the original look... just my .$02

[chnlone]

looks great, nice work!!!



Edited to add: If you like that pickup, I suggest getting a white or cream no-holes cover to preserve the original look... just my .$02

Honestly, I hate that pickup... not necessarily the sound of it, but it has the bar magnets on the bottom and it causes the pickup to be just under the strings, like waaaay too close. I'm considering just replacing it with an ri pickup or going duosonic...