This is a little more of a clean and tidy-up than I’m used to, more of a restoration job really.  It’s not seen any playing action for quite a while, so I’m not sure where I’m starting either?

The head had a mod’ some time ago, three extra heads to make it a 9 string.  I’m going to do my best to fill the holes although I doubt I’ll be able to hide them completely.  The face of the head looks like it’s got an ebony veneer.  You can’t get wood like that anymore, and I don’t have the skills to age it if you could!

I tried tobacco stain on some dark wood, which is probably the closest I can manage.

The back of the head isn’t much better either!  I don’t know how many different heads it’s had, but there are quite a few extra holes.  I’ll plug those as well while I’m at it.

Dark wood plugs for the front, light for the back.

The holes are a little ragged as well so I’ll have to do a little more as well.

I’ve cut a square(ish) section for the torn part of the third hole.

Very carefully level the tops of the plugs..

and mix up some fine dust from sanding with wood glue to fil the rest of the gaps.

A little more colour tint and that’s about all I can do.

Much the same with the back.

The next problem is the floating bridge. It doesn’t seem to fit the body?  If it’s the right bridge it’s either warped or didn’t fit in the first place?

With some low-tac drafting tape and sticky back sandpaper on the face of the guitar I ground down the bridge to make it fit.  That’s where the dust came from for the head repair!

There was also an accumulation of roughly 50 years of grime on the frertboard.  Usually very fine steel wool is enough but this took a cabinet scraper to get it off..

and a sharp scalpel to get into the edges of the frets.

With that done a little lemon oil to reinvigorate the wood.

The electrics sounded OK but to make sure I pulled the pots out and gave them a clean.

The pick-guard was minus it’s original arm so I glued in a new one.

After that all it needed was a standard setup and it’s ready to go

To see what else I can do for you check out www.guitar-george.co.uk