Members Freeman Keller Posted October 19, 2017 Members Share Posted October 19, 2017 During the 1970's the Japanese guitar industry kind of came out of the closet. Companies like Takamine, Ibanez and Yamaha burst onto the scene with some fairly good guitars at really good prices. Many of us started playing guitar with one of these instruments. Often the guitars bore a striking resemblance to US manufactured guitars, Taks and some Yamaha looked a lot like Martins, some Ibanez (and Yamie electrics) looked like Gibsons. While it is my understanding that none of these actually ended up in a court room, there was some lawyer action - cease orders and threatening letters. I don't think there were any actual lawsuits but these guitars became known as "lawsuit" guitar. My jazz playing friend has a 1977 Ibanez clone of a Gibson L5 - he fondly refers to it as his "lawsuit guitar" [ATTACH=CONFIG]n32085929[/ATTACH] One problem that occasionally crops up with older guitars is that the cellulose acetate or nitrate used for pick guards and bindings deteriorates with age. I've been told this happens to old motion picture film also - apparently it is important to move the old silent movies to new media. Anyway, this old Ibanez had binding that was very literally falling apart. [ATTACH=CONFIG]n32085931[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n32085932[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n32085930[/ATTACH] It was only the body binding and heel cap - the purfling was fine as was the binding on neck, headstock and f-holes. My friend asked if I could help. I spent a lot of time staring at this thing and poking at the binding - every time I touched it more crumbled away. As you can see in the last picture the back of the guitar was separating from the heel block and sides. I thought it was worth a try and figured I really couldn't hurt it much. There were a couple of things going for me - since the purfling was fine on both edges of the binding I had something to work to. The guitar was finished in lacquer so I had a chance of repairing the finish. However the finish absolutely terrified me - it was a beautiful sunburst and was in remarkably good condition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted October 19, 2017 Author Members Share Posted October 19, 2017 First step was to clamp the guitar in my little cradle and route the old binding off. The gizmo that holds my little router floats on the top or back of the guitar following the contours and I use a stepped router bit that follows the side - that lets me control the depth of the cut in both directions. I tried to route right up to the purfling but leave a few thousands of the binding and its adhesive. I was mostly able to clean that up with a scraper and chisels. Next I had to fix the heel - I wedged it open so I could work glue into the crack and clamped it shut. After scraping the channel as good as I could get it I bound it with nice new cellulose binding. Oh, yeah, when this guitar was new the binding would have been white - the amber color now was because the lacquer had aged over all these years (one of the things I really like about lacquer) Binding is always tricky, this was about a thousand times more. With bare white wood I can be pretty sloppy with my glue and I can get it really tight - with this I had gaps and I couldn't let glue ooze out onto the finish. Note too the rotten spot on the heel cap - one more thing to deal with. Once the binding was on I scraped it back as close as I could get to the finished wood. Normally I want the binding to be a few thousands proud of the wood and I just scrape to the wood - this was a lot trickier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted October 20, 2017 Author Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 I guess I didn't take any pictures of the finishing process. Basically I sprayed two coats of lacquer with a little amber dye - that was supposed to give it the aged lacquer look. Then I sprayed five or six coats of clear lacquer with the top and back masked but not the sides. Two more coats on top and back with the tape off just barely hitting the edge (and shooting out away from the center) - I just didn't want to mess with that 'burst. Color sand to 1200, buff with medium and fine but trying not to get the finish too perfect (which is pretty easy for me) - after all the last thing we want is the guitar to look too nice. I'm satisfied and I think my friend will be too. However before I give it back to him I really need to make sure it plays OK. I'll be consulting with my lawyer.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Grant Harding Posted October 20, 2017 Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 Excellent stuff! Great work not messing up the finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members t_e_l_e Posted October 20, 2017 Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 nice work, i really start thinking if i should order another guitaar from you... altough i'm not in need of one, but i would enjoy the build thread so much, that it would be worth it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members crustoleum Posted October 20, 2017 Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 I really enjoy your "show and tells" . Let me ask you , If I may. I have this old thing ...It was refinished to "natural" . I believe the finish was originally "sunburst" . I will ask the Gretsch FB guys , again...to identify the "model" and the finish...A while ago "they" told me "sunburst". So , Freeman, Would you take on a refinish on this (it is presently being rebuilt and restored) . What do you think ? I have to find the original hardware also. I belove it had a "lyre" or "D" shaped tail piece and a "stepped" bridge/saddle thing also. So , what do you think ? By the way , my daughter in law found this i the trash , on "trash day" lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members crustoleum Posted October 20, 2017 Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Les Paul Lover Posted October 20, 2017 Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 Excellent work, as always. Pretty nice guitar too!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Preacher Posted October 20, 2017 Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 Thank you so much for posting this, Freeman! It's beautiful to watch and is a great reminder to get back to my projects. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted October 20, 2017 Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 Excellent work as always my friend!! But.... It's a POST Lawsuit guitar. ( I hate it when sellers get it wrong.....) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted October 20, 2017 Author Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 For what it is worth, building that guitar for you (and getting to know you during the process) was one of the most fun things I've ever done. I would love to do another.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted October 20, 2017 Author Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 There are so many ways a project like that could go wrong that I would have to decline. You would have the costs of shipping it both ways to me, I would want to strip it completely to bare wood, I only work with lacquer and depending on the old finish, whether there was wax or oils (like lemon oil) or other chemicals on it doing a refin would be a crap shoot. Its a cool old guitar however Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members t_e_l_e Posted October 20, 2017 Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 i'm honored and it was a great pleasure for me as well. i love to play that guitar and looking at it reminds me on the process how it came to life, a real one of a kind, my one of a kind i would love to have a real nice accoustic, a dreadnought or even a twelve string, but my two accoustics do get almost no play time at all, when the kids sleep i can just practice unplugged on my strat, when they are awake they make me stop playing and do something else with them so i absolutely can not justify having another accoustic which does not get played at all, altough i would have already some ideas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members t_e_l_e Posted October 20, 2017 Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 and telling the story, how this thing happened, how two complete strangers thousands of miles away of each other met online and such a wonderfull thing came out, is a story for a lifetime, and be sure, the story will be told every time someone asks "what guitar is this?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Outstanding work - and great posts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted October 20, 2017 Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 Amazing save. What causes that kind of deterioration? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Les Paul Lover Posted October 20, 2017 Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 Time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted October 20, 2017 Author Members Share Posted October 20, 2017 Looks like the lawyer is hanging out with a jazzy blond [ATTACH=CONFIG]n32086434[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n32086435[/ATTACH] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted October 21, 2017 Members Share Posted October 21, 2017 With some of the older Gretsches, the binding's chemicals reacted with the finish, notably when left in the case for long periods. No air circulation, so.... rot. I assume it was the same case with the Ibanez. I have a 73 or so, and there's no issue with the binding what so ever. But I don't think it's seen a case.... ever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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