Members 6down1togo Posted March 16, 2020 Members Share Posted March 16, 2020 I picked up an Electra Omega 220 that was in pretty nice shape overall. Near mint on the front side, numerous dings, rubs and gouges around the back edges, a deep thumbnail-size ding in the back and few shallow dings in the neck. A couple spots on the back rim were scraped to the bare wood. I filled the dings and gouges with CA including the deep "thumbnail", followed by scraping and sanding. The deep scrape pictured required I build it up to match the original contour. I used masking tape with the edge sticking up almost even with the back as a "dam" and filled in with CA Gel. I filed and sanded to get the get it back to the original contour. I used Mohawk brand Amber and Deep Red aerosol lacquer toners for the burst and Mohawk Ultra Flo Clear Lacquer aerosol for the entire back. The finish is flawless without even wet sanding and buffing. I used to use Deft and Watco clear aerosol lacquers and the difference using the Mohawk/Behlen product is like night and day. I used to spend hours wetsanding and compound buffing the "hardware store" lacquers and the Mohawk/Behlen lays down and flows out perfectly flat with no "edge", even when I blended a repair in the middle of the neck. The guitar came with generic Chinese pickups and altered wiring w. 3-way toggle but honestly sounded really good. As-is, it blows away the Epiphones and Hagstroms I have owned by a mile. The Omega 220 originally came with a single volume & tone, 2 coil split toggles below the V/T (the holes are larger for the switches) and a 5-way rotary switch wiring scheme. I located a hand-drawn wiring diagram for the original 5-way but honestly couldn't make heads or tails out of it as it was very poorly drawn. I have a 5-way rotary switch I will use for series/parallel wiring and 2 toggles for coil splitting to give it an original style appearance. I was able to source an original style pointer knob that is slightly smaller and will fit a standard poker chip that will look better but resemble the original. These originally had a poker switch the size of a Gibson Varitone plate and n oversize pointer knob.The original pickups are long gone were pretty crappy anyway, as I recall. They were a mismatched pair of Maxons (covered neck and a cream bridge pickup with an open ring and odd, square magnets). I've run across some used originals but they were rusty and not worth what people are asking for them. I picked up a set of GFS Fat Pat Zebras on sale to use in it which should look the part and sound good too. I am debating about a 2V/2T w. push-pulls for coil splitting so I can compensate for the volume drop when combining a split and full humbucker. I just finished up repairing the back and neck and am happy with the result. Front: Back (Already scuffed for staining): Refinished Back: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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