firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

[sully]

hey kids, thought you may enjoy seeing some before and during pix of my current restoration project. the camera's not the greatest, but some of these pix are not for the squeamish; this is one beaten guitar. i think that it may have belonged to ike turner at one point.

anyway, here ya go:

http://www.sullyguitars.com/site/pag..._firebird.html

[Evol]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

Originally posted by jsullysix:
i think that it may have belonged to ike turner at one point.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Damn he must have beat the hell outta Tina with that thing [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Seriously though ...kudos to you for taking on that project,looks like it's coming along nicely!
[img]graemlins/toast.gif[/img]
You going to do a solid color or graphic or?

[sully]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

gonna refin it back to original, so it'll get a fresh coat of black.

sully

[Budman68]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

2 questions for ya sully.

1-Was that the original floyd nut on there?

2-What's your binding and binding glue of choice?
Actually, I guess that's 3 isn't it? [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

Looks like you're doing a very nice thorough job. [img]graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

Dave-&gt;

[Evol]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

Originally posted by jsullysix:
gonna refin it back to original, so it'll get a fresh coat of black.

sully

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Are you going to paint the back of the neck too?

[sully]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

back of the neck most definitely will be painted; i'm trying to get it back to as original as i can.

the binding that's on here is from stewmac; it's their rippled ivory. i'm using the binding cement (which can get messy, but you can scrape it as soon as it starts to cure) instead of superglue; i've noticed that it gets a better hold on it. i dunno, it just feels different. perhaps a krazy glue gel would work.

i've got the binding tips/fret ends done on the treble side all nice, smooth, and round. gonna stop here for the day.

oh, and it's got the thru neck holes for the floyd. and let me tell you that i was nervous as hell when kevin and i had to heat press it; we had to twist the headstock and clamp it, and i was more than a little worried about it holding up under the pressure.

sully

[ February 09, 2004, 07:55 PM: Message edited by: jsullysix ]

[mm2002]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

Nice job on the binding around the frets Sully! That's tedious work for sure. Can't wait to see the finished product. [img]graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[StukaJU87]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

Sully, that is some job you took on there. It looks like it is turning out sweet. Nice job.

[zeegler]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

So that is what is meant by "binding over the frets". Funny, I don't remember ever seeing that before. It looks pretty cool, but I don't understand the reasoning behind it. Anyone care to enlighten me?

[sully]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

thanks guys....the treble side is done, and you're right, it's tedious work, but it has such a nice feel when it's done.

zeegler, binding over frets is a custom option, and the only real benefit to it is that you have no sharp fret ends. i like the feel myself; i've filed the binding with a nice rounded shoulder which feels pretty awesome.

sully

[Evol]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

So you glued the binding onto the fret ends then sanded between them? Did you have to cut a new binding channel? Also,how did you take the old binding off? Am I asking too many damn questions? [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[RacerX]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

"The only stupid question is the one not asked"

[sully]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

here's what i did, step by step:

after the refret, i needed to remove the old binding and redo it because there was missing binding at the head, and i wasn't able to find binding that was an exact color match. the guitar had also been refretted poorly, and the old tips were gone. since brett wanted it restored to as original as possible, it was coming off.

removing the old binding was no problem, it was pulling away in one spot. (if you're going to replace binding and you don't have any that's pulling away, i'd start at the butt end of the neck, as you'll have a better chance of finding a seam to start at. anyway, all i had to do was place a razor blade in the area where it pulled away, open it up a little more, and then carefully put another blade in there to move more binding away... use one as an intial wedge, and the other moves forward down the path.

it comes off pretty easily, but you have to be careful because you may pull some of the fretboard away, too. removing frets isn't the only way to make a fretboard chip. i had one chip on the side, but it was going to be filled with glue and covered with binding, so that was no big deal.

once all the binding was off, i scraped the channel with the razor blades to get off all the residual glue in there, and then squared it back up with a mill file. no major filing, just a fast cleanup. the dot markers are drilled all the way into the fretboard, and there was a bit of the dot markers left in the fretboard, so i drilled that out.

i saved the old binding, especially the dot side; i used it later as a jig for the new dot placement. more on that later.

as far as the replacement binding goes, if you're doing binding over frets, you want something that's not only taller than the fretboard, but taller than the frets.

i glued the fretboard edges in first, and taped it tight (on the frets, not the fretboard, so i could keep the tape from pulling the binding in at an angle) and clamped the upper frets b/c i couldn't get enough tension in that area.

it cured overnight, then i took the tape off and then did the headstock. if you're ever going to do this, get a hairdryer to heat the binding up around the corners. that was a pita. i got the headstock bound, clamped and rubber banded, and let that sit overnight, too.

now the filing. it's not as hard as it may seem, but you have to focus and take your time. i took the edge of the file and made a groove on each side of the fret, and focused on filing the area between those grooves flush to the fretboard. it's a good idea to tightly tape the fretboard before you start filing, btw. get the binding close to flush, and you can take the rest of it down with a razor blade. i used mill files and hobby sized files for the upper registers, using flat sides, and half rounds too. i'd do 5-6 frets at a time and stop, so i wouldn't get too overzealous, and usually left shaping the tips for last.

once that was done, i had to drill for the dot markers... i took the old binding, poked the old dot markers out (which was way easier than i thought) and taped it over the new side binding. once i got it into postiion, i used the holes in the old binding as a new dot position jig. easy as pie. once that was done, i put the new dots in, and scraped them flush.

you'll see in some pictures a bottle marked "binding sludge" this is a mixture of methyl ethyl ketone (M.E.K. - you can get it at home depot) and binding chips. you use this to build up binding tips if you need to, and it cures invisibly. i also used it to cover the seams at the butt of the neck, and to build up the headstock tip. it's awesome.

anyway, sorry for the tolstoyesque post, but that's how i did it. thanks if you read this far.

sully

[Budman68]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

Well described sully, can't wait to see her when she's done! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]


Dave-&gt;

[VulfgangPfuck]

Re: firebird restoration/resurrection with pix

Major Kudos Sully me boy! [img]graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

I will soon be undertaking a similar project on my (formerly) EDS Warrior in the next few weeks.
Mine will be a little different whereas I don't have to replace any binding...but there will still be a lot of touch up steps before the new finish goes on it.

BTW...where'd ya find US Firebird in that condition?! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]