CJ's Guitar Project Tread

[cjvictoria]

Alright, this is my Gibon/Epiphone Les Paul project thread. Here you will see my progress in sanding/stripping the old finish off all the way to refinishing my baby.

Not too sure if this is the right place, but I wanted to document every stage of my project.

Here's some pics from while I was stripping
it down and getting it ready for sanding:

my baby

scratches on the side --from being dropped.. multiple times, while drunk

sicknasty gouges in the back, must be fixed


Yesterday I started sanding. Got some blisters after about an hour. Used the power sander for half an hour. Then I searched all over the shop for some coarser sandpaper. I did not find any so I called it a day.


Here's what I have right now:





Like I said, I began just with hand sanding today and ended up whipping out the power sander to no avail, grit was too fine to take off all the lacquer efficiently: and now I have mad blisters

I'm going to the hardware store tomorrow for some coarser sand paper. Then when I have some more results I'll post em up.

By the way if you want to paint your guitar, you should wrap your pickups up so that no dust gets all up in them; and for that matter you should wrap up anything electronic so as not to have dust infiltrate them. It will make it easier when you go to paint, as there wont be dust falling out the pickups.

 

[phyregod]

Should have chemical stripped it and saved yourself the trouble.

Hindsight 20/20.

 

[UNDR8D]

If you are refinishing a guitar shouldn't you remove the pickups from the body completely? I have never seen a refinishing where the pickups were left within 10 feet of the guitar. They are a sensitive sound conversion device and any damage, grime, dust, paint or otherwise will effect their overall tone and quality.

 

[cjvictoria]

well yes thats a good idea but i'm not sure they can be removed.... but i'll check.

if i'm going to need a solderer to re attach them i may just wrap em up with some plastic during the painting.. any suggestions would be appreciated

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chemical stripping on guitars is not a good idea cuz the shit can penetrate the wood and f it up

and i think im going to go with a nice stain instead of paint, so i might need it to look its best

still havent decided on a color yet so.. i duno

i'll have some more pics in a few days or maybe even tomorrow

 

[AlterEgo]

Of course they can be removed. Pull the two attatching screws out. Presto.

 

[cjvictoria]

Of course they can be removed. Pull the two attatching screws out. Presto.

note the two larger gauge wires, red and black


red wire also has a smaller white wire that branches out of it
both of these are soldered to the tone dial


and here is the big black wire, which is also, you guessed it, soldered onto the tone dial.


no screw(s).

 

[teggyguy]

If you are refinishing a guitar shouldn't you remove the pickups from the body completely? I have never seen a refinishing where the pickups were left within 10 feet of the guitar. They are a sensitive sound conversion device and any damage, grime, dust, paint or otherwise will effect their overall tone and quality.

Not so much...
pickups are actually rather simple and not quite as sensitive as you say:

 

[UNDR8D]

I understand. They just fail pretty often or begin to sound shitty. Oh and he has hummers. Don't really want to get dust in those.

 

[cjvictoria]

man its been a while since i updated here and still dont really have any update to give ya,i been workin hard and nonstop for the past two months, so.. yeh in a few weeks i'm gonna hit it again

 

[MthaFuknGreen]

i think you should paint it green with a dark red stain on the neck.