Epi LP restoration

[pablopepper]

As I've got no active builds going on at the moment, I've turned my attention to some old guitars. This one is a bit special. My Epiphone LP100 was the first guitar I bought new and the first guitar I owned that wasn't a heap of crap. It took me more than 6 months to save up the $500 and it was my prized possession for many years. In the late nineties I gave it a rather hamfisted makeover and painted it silver.
http://i.imgur.com/7LffgBP.jpg
Yuck.

It had a few issues after a bad setup 9 or 10 years ago, I was playing bass pretty exclusively so it went into it's case and has hardly been out since. For a fairly low end guitar it played surprisingly well and I realised a few days ago that I bought it at the start of 1994 meaning this is it's 20th anniversary. Time for a revamp.
http://i.imgur.com/hzPalf2.jpg

I started sanding through 20 years worth of paint expecting to find rubbish wood and paint a solid colour over it. Instead the first bits of grain poking through looked quite nice.
http://i.imgur.com/WR5UCbz.jpg

Holy crap! It's mahogany! This bodes incredibly well.
http://i.imgur.com/kduDNzn.jpg

After a couple of dusty hours all of the icky paint is gone and I'm in to fine sanding.
http://i.imgur.com/L93WrAn.jpg

After I've finished sanding to 240 grit I'm going to stain and replace ALL the hardware, hopefully bringing this sentimental favourite back to something I might actually want to play again.

Stay tuned. :D

[wokkaboy]

nice project Pablo, that mahogany grain looks sweet, what colour you got in mind, presume you will stain it ?
must have taken a few hours sanding to get it to this stage

[pablopepper]

Looking at a red mahogany stain to (hopefully) get a deep wine red finish. The first pic is all hand sanded and, yeah a few hours....after that the orbital sander was brought in. Got to listen to the new Dead Letter Circus album a few times over, so it was time well spent.

[AJ]

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from pablopepper on January 28, 2014, 11:53
Looking at a red mahogany stain to (hopefully) get a deep wine red finish. The first pic is all hand sanded and, yeah a few hours....after that the orbital sander was brought in. Got to listen to the new Dead Letter Circus album a few times over, so it was time well spent.

Good choice of color pablo, will look a million bucks

[kells80aus]

I'm gunna make you cry Pablo.
I bought my epi p100 cherry burst for $80 off ebay. it's the only Gebuine store bought store thought guitar I own. I did look at doing a retro upgrade from Chrome fittings to gold, but after buying 3 supposed epi scratch plate sets off ebay that didn't fit, I sort of chucked in the towel. But I did get it serviced and the frets leveled.

Your refurb looks pretty nice. good luck with that and keep us up to date with whats going on.

Cheers PK

[pablopepper]

Thanks AJ. I'd be lying if I said your red LP wasn't an influence.

[pablopepper]

Yeah thanks Paul. These things only sell for about $250 new these days, but back in the day.....I sound old haha.

[Analyst69]

Nice one Pablo. Look forward to seeing what you do with this.

My Epi LP Standard turned 20 last year (93 model, and if you got yours at the start of 94 it may also be the same age...you can tell by the serial number).

For mines 20th birthday I gave it a much needed full rewiring and replaced the pickups with some GFS power rails (jury is still out on whether I am happy with these for the Epi, great sounding but a bit on the powerful side and not much subtlety left in its sound).

Fabulous idea to celebrate its significant years with a refinish and with all new hardware it will no doubt end up like a new one (or even better :) )

Cheers

Darren

[pablopepper]

Finally I've managed to get a stain on that I'm happy with. On the third attempt. I have learned some valuable lessons on stain and sanding sealer in the hardest possible way.

Just after the first sealer went on, I dropped it from head height on to the concrete. Came through with only a few major spots of gravel rash and some colourful language, but luckily was pretty easy to fix.

A bit of a rub back and I'm on to clear coat. My hardware order is waiting at the post office to be picked up tomorrow. My arms are numb from two weeks worth of sanding, but things are looking good.
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/4o8ib-20140213_125653.jpg
http://www.pitbullguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/b5ngd-20140213_125700.jpg

[AJ]

looking sweet there

[Brendan]

Looks nice! Love the colour!

[stan]

back from the dead, Pablo, looks nice - dying to see it glossy!
A good Epi is a very underrated guitar, really only the hardware is the main difference, a lot of these "lesser " axes are pretty well made - Epi, Squire, etc.

[adam]

Looking good PabloPepper. Appreciate that connection with your first guitar, I still have the very first Acoustic I bought. I remember clearly it was $103. This is significant, because it represents a time before retailers discovered price pointing.

[pablopepper]

Clear is coming along well, starting to get a nice shine. Obviously I've been too enthusiastic sanding back the sealer and there is grain visible in the clear but I'm not too worried, it's got a bit of an antique feel. http://i.imgur.com/SOR9MBm.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/h4lr5RS.jpg
And of course, I couldn't help trying something new with the wiring. Two push pull pots, one a master coil split and the other reverses the polarity of the neck pickup for an out of phase effect. Simplified version of the Jimmy Page wiring.
http://i.imgur.com/i5tpqPTh.jpg

[lawry]

This going to be a pretty cool sounding axe Pablo. I like the deep toffee apple colour. Are the pics close to reality?

[pablopepper]

Pretty close Lawry.

[wokkaboy]

well done Pablo, I haven't caught up with this build thread for a while but love the colour and gloss. Wiring mods should sound good too. Once it's complete you won't be able to put this axe down and will have more sentimental value to you. Well done.

[pablopepper]

Cheers Wokka, I'm really quite happy with how the stain has turned out. Considering how close I was to painting a solid colour after the second botched attempt (can of undercoat was literally in my hand), it's a minor victory every time I look at it. As for more sentimental value, I'll be very pleased to have it working again (with the new pickups and hardware, I'd say significantly better than before) and to not be so fugging ugly. So far, so good. :)

[pablopepper]

Almost there. Cosmetically, pretty much done, but there's a few issues to fix up with the wiring.
http://i.imgur.com/vhfxau0.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/wO0PrtR.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/B5e4cjN.jpg
:D

[Analyst69]

Really nice looking axe Pablo.

You've done an awesome job on this restore. Keen to hear how the wiring mods turn out.

Cheers

Darren

[gavinturner]

Wow pablo that's beautiful. Love the gold hardware against the dark red colour. Just fantastic!

cheers,
Gav.

[stan]

great result!

[adam]

Really schmick looking LP PabloPepper. Just needs some Toneriders and it will be an awesome guitar...

[adam]

Really schmick looking LP PabloPepper. Just needs some Toneriders and it will be an awesome guitar...

[pablopepper]

Cheers guys.
http://i.imgur.com/eG3cQjAl.jpg
Very happy with the result.

Adam, I had toneriders in mind, but my budget only went so far. Gfs fat pats meant a better bridge and tuners, and I wanted the gold covers.

[wokkaboy]

wow well done Pablo, what a transformation, gold hardware and cherry body really work well.
So have you replaced the fret dot markers, added a MOP inlay in the headstock and changed the truss rod cover ?
Good way to compare new/old in your photo

[pablopepper]

Ta Wokka. The truss rod cover is the original one, I just scrubbed the 'gibson' silk screening off and polished it. As good as a new one. I might end up engraving into it if I work up the courage. As for the MOP fret dot and headstock 'inlay', they are very convincing decals. I wanted to get rid of the big black void on the headstock and a decal was the easiest way to do it, the guy I bought it off on Ebay also had the fret marker decals so I gave them a go. They are very, very thin and were pretty tricky to get on. I don't love or hate them, so if one ends up coming off they all go and I won't be too upset.

[wokkaboy]

very clever Pablo, thought fitting those new fret marker shapes would be a huge job ! so if the stickers fall off the original dot will still be behind.
Nice to know there's a sticker option, be interested to see how long they stay stuck on the fingerboard and the MOP sticker stays on the headstock

[pablopepper]

The guy who sells them on eBay has some neat stuff, for some reason is a bit hard to find though. Jockomo81.
http://m.ebay.com/sch/i.html?kw=seller%3Ajockomo81&epp=24&pgn=1

[Brendan]

Significant improvement Craig! You must be stoked!