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Yep, we're watching. I always like to share some details on techniques in build/repair threads and really like it when others do too. I too like artist pastels idea and will have to get some.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Very nicely done and a sincere pleasure to watch as you bring this nice old girl back to Life. Very well done Bob!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I love watching these repair threads.

Thanks guys, I have been posting updates here along with the thread I have at Luthiercom thinking it may interest someone. I have never documented any of my repairs to this detail so I figured I would just duplicate it here. I was surprised to see this one has over 1000 views.
It is quite a bit of work to take pictures of every step and then sort them out and try to write up what you did (and at my age try to remember...)

@ Hesh, I appreciate your comment and a little surprised you have followed this, so thank you for looking.

OK, Back on track...

Now that the neck fits on the body and I am confident it will be square and straight the next step is to install the frets.

A bit of history for those who don't know how Gibson did their bound fret boards. Because they are a production shop they decided it was more efficient to install their frets before the Fretboard was installed on the neck and before it was bound. With the frets installed they glued the board on the neck and then bound it. The frets stop at the edge of the fretboard and the binding was butted up to the frets, it was also proud of the fretboard top and frets. What they did then was scrape the binding between the frets and create a "Nib" at the end of every fret. The frets were dressed and the nib was treated like the fret end. Gibson has been doing this for almost all of their history except for the last few years.

So to make this guitar historically accurate I am going to recreate the typical fret nibs. I am using the existing binding so it makes it a bit more difficult to do but I would rather keep the old binding than remove it and install new.

So here is a cad drawing I did to show what I am talking about and the following pics are just doing the fret install. I will do the nibs after the neck is on the guitar and I have leveled, crowned and polished the frets.



This is my fret jig. It is a simple piece of wood that I drilled a hole in that fretwired just fits into. It has a slot that the tang of the fret fits into so it doesn't move when I am filing it down. This mainly for removing the tang fro the end of the fret where the binding is.


You can see here how the fret is locked into place.


I can also use the top of the jig to hold frets to just clean up the ends.


In this shot I have filed down the tang about half way to show how much I am removing of the tang. I pushed the fret out from the jig just to take this shot. To cut the tang I only expose as much of the fret as I need and use the face of the jig as my guide.


And here I am filing it flush with the bottom of the fret. The reason I am cutting the tang off is if I were to leave it flush it may end up pushing the binding out and it would be quite visible. This gives me a little play to adjust the fret to the exact position and not worry about the binding.

And here is the fret end done. I did finish the end of the fret by sanding it with 600 grit sandpaper to take off any sharp edges. Since the nib will be butting up to the end of the fret I don't want to have to try and remove sharp edges after the nib is on.


This is my setup, I will do each end of each fret as I go. The fret has to stop right at the edge of the fretboard and the tang has to stop short of the binding so I have to measure and cut very carefully so I like to stay organized.


You can see I need to keep all of the ends perfectly in line or it will not look correct.


I am also checking for level as I go. Just prior to starting I double checked that the fretboard was perfectly level so as I work the frets should be level as well.


I really do not like gluing in frets unless I absolutely have to. I prefer to have them fit correctly the first time. That is one of the reasons I put lemon oil on the board after I remove the frets. After installing them I apply another liberal amount of oil to each fret using a small artists brush. I let it soak in until I see it starts to get dry spots and then buff it off.

Here you can see my neck jig and how I use it. I am getting close to install the frets over the heel and fretboard extension. You can see I have a shim under the heel to support the neck and not allow any flex.


Frets are all installed and you can see I have a pretty straight line right down the binding. I did have a couple of them off but was able to use a needle file an file it back flush with the binding. I won't install the nibs until after I install the neck on the guitar which will be after I finish the top so it will be a few posts from now before I finish the neck up completely.


I did however clean up the back of the neck. Because this was played hard the finish was off the back of the neck and it was a bit rough where some of the finish had chipped back. I decided to pretty much leave it as is but just clean things up. I lightly sanded the bare spot down with 600 grit paper and rubbed out the finish that was still there. I then applied a light coat of tung oil to just seal it up a little but still leave the bare wood feel (which I really like).


All for now...

Cheers,
Bob

I also forgot to mention about gluing frets in. I said I only use glue when absolutely necessary but I do use it on occasion and this neck had a couple of slots that I had to use it. There were 3 slots that were chewed up on one end so the fret wouldn't even grab even after I used my tang widener (it is a Stu-Mac tool that crimps the tang and makes it wider). So how I deal with those frets are to push some sanding dust into the offending spot in the slot and then apply super glue on the tang of the fret. I insert it into the slot and press it there with the handle of my fret hammer until the glue sets up. I then tap the rest of the fret in and it is usually good to go. The only thing I do is make sure I have enough dust in the slot and enough glue on the fret to not get any voids or the fret will just pop back out. I usually use my X-acto blade to try and lift the end of the fret up to make sure it is seated before I tap the rest of the fret in. I also over bend my frets to make sure the ends don't pop up but I do that on all of my frets.

So there ya go... That is when I do use glue but I usually try to avoid it when I can. Some guys glue all there frets in but I don't and have not had any come back because of loose frets (at least not yet...).

Cheers,
Bob

Its been a while since I updated this thread. I had a couple of setbacks and was sidelined for a while. I started finishing the top and then ended up getting pretty sick so I was down for a couple of weeks and just when I was on the mend I got sick again. But I am pretty much back to good again so I will catch up this thread.

Last I left off I was just getting the top prepared to finish so I will pick up there:

I sanded the top and sprayed the sealer coats on. I sprayed 2 coats and then sanded it with 400 and resprayed it with another 2 coats. I am spraying Behlen Stringed Instrument Lacquer so the Sealer is their Vinyl Sealer.


I block sanded it down just until all the imperfections were filled and then sprayed 2 coats of lacquer on before doing the burst.

Here I have tinted the clear with a bit of yellow/brown to warm up the center of the burst. I also taped off the rosette and bindings.


Then I sprayed the red layer. I don't show it here but I first sprayed a brown under the red layer just to tone it down a bit. You will see it in one of the next couple of pictures but I have a picture of a Gibson Burst on the wall that I am using to match the colors.


Next I sprayed the black on.


And here is the picture I am matching.


Next will be spraying the clear.

Bob

Love that burst - beautiful work!

Thanks dpetrzelka, But wait till you see this!

Oh Crap!!!!

My fist setback, I forgot to check my spray gun cup... you would think after 20+ years of spraying it would be second nature to check for drips.


So, If you noticed I said before I started I sprayed 2 coats of clear before I did the burst? This is exactly why I do that. I learned when I was spraying custom paint on cars and bikes that if I mess up I can erase mistakes.

Because the layers of the burst are so thin I am able to wet sand each layer off.

Here is the black removed


And part of the red layer removed.


And back to the yellow brown layer. I sprayed that layer with clear mixed in so I was able to get down to that layer pretty cleanly. I am not worried about the very edges where it is black so those will stay. I will then use my air brush to blend in the spot where it dripped and re-apply the burst.

So I redid the burst for the second time. Too bad I tossed out the first colors I mixed up but not a big problem since I have a pretty good eye for color it was easy enough to re-mix them.



And here is a close up of the spot I had the drip. Almost invisible, most people will never see it but I know its there...




So my next setback is when I remove the masking so I can tint the bindings. As I was removing the tape from the sides the clear started peeling off... I knew the sides had been over-sprayed when the last "repair" was done to the top but evidently they didn't bother removing the wax from the sides. In a few spots the clear just came off in sheets so there wasn't much I could do to fix it. I could feel the wax where the clear had come off so it was time to strip the sides. Fortunately the back and neck was not sprayed so they are good.









This was about the time I started getting sick so I don't have any other pictures of stripping or finishing the sides. The trickiest part was mixing up the stain to match the back and neck but I have a lot of experience at making dyes and stains so it went pretty well and I was able to match the color very close. Again, because I did it I know there is a difference but most people will never notice.

I will pick up again when I start tinting and aging the bindings.

All for now,
Cheers,
Bob

The next step is to tint the binding to match the original. I used about a 20% mixture (20% clear to 80% thinner) and tinted it to match the old binding.



Next step is to age the binding using a combination of designer markers and water based markers. I am using a mini dagger brush I made by trimming the bristles to a fine point. The water based color is nice since I can blend it in with my finger so it is very subtle. You can see I just made a mark on the pallet and used water to thin it down so I can use my brush.


The object is to match the binding on the back of the guitar and the neck and to remove the new look.




I went around the perimeter of the guitar and then gave it a couple of days to dry. Since I used some water based markers I wanted to be sure everything was dry. I then gave it a couple of coats of lacquer.



Here you can see the results. I just slipped the neck on to make sure it matched up. This also shows the match up of the stain I mixed for the sides against the neck.


I also added a few scratches on the binding by using my X-acto blade and then tinting the scratch with color.


And here is the original white binding to show the difference.


I gave it another 2 coats of lacquer and let it dry for about 2 weeks. I am just getting ready to wet sand it for the final time and will give the final coats of lacquer. After I sanded it down I ended up getting sick again so it has been sitting for over 2 weeks but that is just fine since I prefer to not rush my finishes. My normal way of spraying lacquer is to give it a minimum of a week dry time between coats.

So this is where I am at this point. The next step will be to apply the final clear coats and then hand buff it out. Then it will be on to making the bridge and putting on the neck.

Cheers,
Bob

Wow looking fantastic Bob!


Tyson k

That does look great - gotta love it when someone cares enough about getting it right to stop and start over

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Feel better Bob - your workmanship is superb and this has been a very cool thread to watch!

_________________
Ann Arbor Guitars

Amazing work.

Thanks for the comments guys,

@Tyson, Good to see you around, Hows that cowboy guitar coming along? I hope you didn't loose interest in it. It will be a great learning experience for you.

@ Steve, That is just how I roll, back when I was doing custom paint on cars I had a few times where I sanded it back to the clear coat and started over. The first time I had to re-do one I learned very quickly to lay clear coats down to protect what I was happy with in case I had to remove something.

@ Hesh, Thanks for the well wishes. I am back to good now. And thanks for the compliment too. I was hoping I would be playing this thing by now but real life got in the way...

Hey Johny, just saw your post, thanks much.

Cheers,
Bob

Yeah I'm still working on it. Just slowly . Now that I'm back from my trip I am just getting life sorted out before fun projects start up again. I also have to many of them but that is just the way I roll. Instead of doing one project quickly I do 4 slowly. Now very efficient but oh well...


Tyson k

Not*


Tyson k