[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5gGlfz ... e=youtu.be[/BBvideo]I’d been wanting to do this for a long time, and a perfect candidate came up on Reverb for $250. D’Agostino isn’t a well known brand, but they made some really great guitars (I also own one of their DBE-1 models from the 1970s). This one is Korean made, set neck, mahogany body and neck, maple top, and rosewood board.
There are several factors that made this my perfect candidate:
I set out to do a natural wood finish, and I could see the top grain was decent.
Gnarly scratches and missing hardware made it priced to sell, and a no-brainer to refurbish.
I’ve never had a Floyd Rose, so this fills a gap in my arsenal. HSS is a nice bonus. My only HSS is my first pawn shop electric and it’s pretty much unplayable now.
Process:
After removing all the hardware, I started taking off layers of lacquer with card scrapers. Then I sanded with 80-120 grit until I got to bare wood. I’d originally wanted to do it all by hand, but it became pretty tedious, so I busted out my oscillating tool. I still had to do a lot by hand but that sped up the process considerably.
Once I had totally bare wood, I progressively fine sanded all the way up to 3000 grit. The wood felt like glass when I was done.
The rest was easy. I just wiped on thin coats of Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil, which is a mixture of linseed oil and varnish. It’s actually made for gun stocks, but a friend who has built his own guitars recommended it to me, and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. Twelve coats total.
Then I scuffed the neck a little with 0000 steel wool, put all the hardware back on, soldered all my connections, and voila!
Total investment was less than $400, and $50 of that was for card scrapers and a burnisher. I ordered about $50 in parts from StewMac (knobs, screws, FR parts, cavity cover). Another $20 for the Tru-Oil and sandpaper.
This was a great experience, and I now have something that I really put myself into. Hope you dig it!
My buddies guitar refinishing project
My buddies guitar refinishing project
Re: My buddies guitar refinishing project
cool ..... I've been watching that at A&A in between insulting ghost.
I didn't realize there was a vid.
I didn't realize there was a vid.
Re: My buddies guitar refinishing project
Ghost lives? I'll have to rock over and poke him...
That's a really nice looking finished result liv!
- Bubba
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Re: My buddies guitar refinishing project
I could've done without that horrible worrible music. Had to mute it.
Looked good in the end!
Looked good in the end!
Haggard Musician
Re: My buddies guitar refinishing project
The wood looked fine. I'm not a fan of book matched (?) and heavily figured stuff so this guitar looked good to me.
I've tried to do this task but sanding inside the bouts towards the neck drove me to distraction and a premature end.
I've tried to do this task but sanding inside the bouts towards the neck drove me to distraction and a premature end.
Cheers
rayc
rayc
Re: My buddies guitar refinishing project
I like watching refinishing videos. I've been watching a bunch of those cheesy swirl paint job vids lately. Lol. Very cool process, horrible result.
Rebel Yell