I bought this Performance ages ago - it was pretty beat up but the price was right! I actually sold it to a friend of mine in the UK who was 'definitely going to learn to play', but of course she never did, so last summer I bought it back from her. My initial plan was just to strip it and leave the whole thing raw / oiled, because the neck is pretty dirty and has a chunk out of the back at the tip of the head so it didn't seem worth the effort of a proper refinish. That did seem a bit of a shame because the body is one piece mahogany and the top has some awesome figuring to it, but at the same time, it was never going to be a show-piece.


Then I was put in contact with a guy who does refinish work here in Vancouver and I decided to go for a 'faded jean' finish as per PRS and Suhr, with a satin clear. I really like that look, plus I figured the 'weathered' look would work well with the worn neck. After 6 months of me lazing around, I finally put it together. The neck pickup never worked and from what I can tell with my limited skills with a multimeter, it's broken. So I put a hotrails in the neck, and had zebra Custom lying around, so decided that would both sound and look cool in the bridge.
I actually took my time for once, rather than rushing in like a bull in a china shop. It didn't need a ton of work, but it wasn't quite a case of just screwing it back together: I had to fill the screw holes on the back of the head from the original right-handed tuners then align and drill new holes, then I had to figure out how best to direct mount the bridge pickup so I could still adjust the height WITHOUT drilling out the thread from the legs (I ended up filing the upper threads off the screws) and so on. Anyway, I wired it up today and amazingly enough, everything worked first time (virtually unheard off with me, especially as I didn't have any diagrams) and here it is:

One piece mahogany body. It looks like there's a ding in the bottom edge, but I can't feel anything so I guess it's just a figure in the wood:


Then I was put in contact with a guy who does refinish work here in Vancouver and I decided to go for a 'faded jean' finish as per PRS and Suhr, with a satin clear. I really like that look, plus I figured the 'weathered' look would work well with the worn neck. After 6 months of me lazing around, I finally put it together. The neck pickup never worked and from what I can tell with my limited skills with a multimeter, it's broken. So I put a hotrails in the neck, and had zebra Custom lying around, so decided that would both sound and look cool in the bridge.
I actually took my time for once, rather than rushing in like a bull in a china shop. It didn't need a ton of work, but it wasn't quite a case of just screwing it back together: I had to fill the screw holes on the back of the head from the original right-handed tuners then align and drill new holes, then I had to figure out how best to direct mount the bridge pickup so I could still adjust the height WITHOUT drilling out the thread from the legs (I ended up filing the upper threads off the screws) and so on. Anyway, I wired it up today and amazingly enough, everything worked first time (virtually unheard off with me, especially as I didn't have any diagrams) and here it is:




One piece mahogany body. It looks like there's a ding in the bottom edge, but I can't feel anything so I guess it's just a figure in the wood:

Comment