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Back at the end of 2010, I bought an early PC Archtop which had some nasty clearcoat issues on the neck.
Initially I'd considered stripping / oiling the neck, but having shown the pics to various people who know about such things, the concencous was that it could well have had a headstock break. But of course, without stripping the paint off, nobody knew for sure.
I kicked around the idea a bit more, and got to discussing it with Sully. He suggested I talk to Mike Learn about a refin, which I did and Mike was super cool to talk to, and so the guitar was shipped out to him in mid January. I asked Mike to 'assess' the guitar before he did much work to it, just to make sure that it was worth spending money on (i.e. the trussrod was good, the frets weren't dead etc). He said everything was good and the guitar was solid but he did think it was likely that the headstock had been broken at some earlier point. When he stripped the neck, he confirmed that this was the case, and that the clearcoat mess on the back had made this impossible to see. To be honest, I've lost track of whether Mike had to do more work on the head break or not, but it's rock solid now. Also, the binding at the tip of the headstock was cracked, and we discussed the options - Mike was in favour of prepping it and painting it, rather than ripping it out and redoing the binding again. So that's what he did, and it looked great!
What was super cool was watching Mike paint the guitar live on his webcam:
Unfortunately, the shipping monkeys had their wicked way with this guitar, so it had to make the return trip to Colorado for repairs
Fortunately, that was all covered by the insurance, and the guitar is good as new now. Thankfully this damage happened on a guitar which was already a refin - I'd have been beyond pissed it it was something all original!
Anyway, that's enough of the back-story, so here's the pics
I know this shape isn't everyone's favourite, but I strongly recomend you try one - they are super, super comfortable to play!
Mike and Diana were absolutely fantastic to deal with - when I told Mike about the shipping damage he sounded every bit as disappointed as me! And straight away they took ownership of the problem, dealt with the insurance etc etc So thanks very much Mike - I just need to think about the next project now
Initially I'd considered stripping / oiling the neck, but having shown the pics to various people who know about such things, the concencous was that it could well have had a headstock break. But of course, without stripping the paint off, nobody knew for sure.
I kicked around the idea a bit more, and got to discussing it with Sully. He suggested I talk to Mike Learn about a refin, which I did and Mike was super cool to talk to, and so the guitar was shipped out to him in mid January. I asked Mike to 'assess' the guitar before he did much work to it, just to make sure that it was worth spending money on (i.e. the trussrod was good, the frets weren't dead etc). He said everything was good and the guitar was solid but he did think it was likely that the headstock had been broken at some earlier point. When he stripped the neck, he confirmed that this was the case, and that the clearcoat mess on the back had made this impossible to see. To be honest, I've lost track of whether Mike had to do more work on the head break or not, but it's rock solid now. Also, the binding at the tip of the headstock was cracked, and we discussed the options - Mike was in favour of prepping it and painting it, rather than ripping it out and redoing the binding again. So that's what he did, and it looked great!
What was super cool was watching Mike paint the guitar live on his webcam:
Unfortunately, the shipping monkeys had their wicked way with this guitar, so it had to make the return trip to Colorado for repairs
Fortunately, that was all covered by the insurance, and the guitar is good as new now. Thankfully this damage happened on a guitar which was already a refin - I'd have been beyond pissed it it was something all original! Anyway, that's enough of the back-story, so here's the pics
I know this shape isn't everyone's favourite, but I strongly recomend you try one - they are super, super comfortable to play!
Mike and Diana were absolutely fantastic to deal with - when I told Mike about the shipping damage he sounded every bit as disappointed as me! And straight away they took ownership of the problem, dealt with the insurance etc etc So thanks very much Mike - I just need to think about the next project now
. Congrats 
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