#8 - Early 70's Japanese Les Paul Special Restoration

Facebook market can be an interesting place. For the princely sum of $20, just picked up a Early 70.s Pre-Lawsuit, judging by the shape of the head stock, Les Paul Special copy. Body with attached neck and plastics, no electronics. Put some pics up later.

Plan at the moment is to strip it back, do it in TV Yellow Nitro, and try my hand at some relic-ing. Has a few dings as you would expect of a 45+ year old guitar, so no use trying to make it pristine.

Looking forward to trying something with P90's

Nice score!
I never have that kind of luck! Can't wait to see the before & afters.

I did up a Epi LP Special II (MII, 2009) that I got for a hundred bucks off Gumtree. More than I really wanted to pay, but it was worth it to me in the end, and technically everything worked.
I'll find a photo later too.

So this is what you get for $20.

Cimar is an Ibanez brand that came out of the same Factory in Japan. You can see them in old Ibanez catalogues. Cant really see in the picture but headstock is full on Gibson open book shape.

Neck looks straight, fingerboard is nice, probably need a refret. Pickup covers are broken, but I'll get the multi meter on them and see if they are salvageable.

The sticker on the back of the neck is Theos music Perth WA. it closed June last year after 53 years in operation, going to try and save that on the rebuild as a piece of history.

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Onto sanding, everyone's fav pastime....

Whole thing came apart really easily, which was a surprise. Hand written serial number on the neck heal which I'll have to try and track down.

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Bridge bushings out. Good to go, fire up the orbital sander.

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Noice Rossco, Noice.

Came off ok, think the edges by hand are going to be a pain.

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So with the finish off the front and back, not nearly as dinged up as it previously looked. Could do an as new finish I think, so conflicted, New or Relic.......

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It was a real shame about Theo's, I think everyone involved in music in W.A. knew their name. On the actual topic of the thread, looks like a nice score there mate. Should come up nice. In regards to new or relic, your guitar = your call. Personally I'm not really a fan of most of the relic stuff.

A shame indeed.
Got my first decent saxophone from there in the late 70's.

I'm with Wolz. If it's a decent player it will become naturally reliced.

cheers, Mark.

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Originally Posted by king casey

A shame indeed.
Got my first decent saxophone from there in the late 70's.

I'm with Wolz. If it's a decent player it will become naturally reliced.

cheers, Mark.

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Yes, now that the finish is off and it's actually in pretty good nick, probably won't relic.

So, with the finish off its actually in good nick, except for a couple of small dings. So probably not going to Relic. What are the recommendations on fillers, I see mention of timber-mate shrinking under paint. I'm doing a TV yellow Nitro finish, so it may be somewhat translucent.

Cheers

Long time between drinks, but with a couple of weeks off over Christmas, back to this build. Have all new electronics and a set of Tonerider p90s. Only thing I'm missing at the moment are new machine heads. Was hoping to get the 3 on a plate style to keep it in line with the early Gibson models but I think the measurements are just a few mm's out, so will end up being singles.

First coat of Nitro sealer has just gone on, pics as we progress.

Look forward to seeing some updated pix!

Have a look at my 'Emicaster' refinishing post as I did a 'TV yellow' style nitro refinish on that.

https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...ead.php?t=9888

With TV yellow, the base colour goes on before the grain filler. However the body does need to be mahogany or an open-pored wood to do this. But your guitar body looks to be mahogany (or a closely related wood) with a nice grain pattern that should highlight nicely.

For the first Juniors, the base coat was white, with 'clear' lacquer over the top. But the 'clear' lacquer of the time was a bit yellow. And both it and the white went off more with UV. When they finally got a clear nitro, they started using cream/pale yellow base coats. But they still went darker and more yellow with age.

So I used a coloured base coat, plus a few coats of light amber tint over the top before clear lacquer for protection.

Cheers Simon, sounds like I've stuffed up already, oh well only one coat of sealer on.

So back to this one, didn't realise it had been sitting for 4 months. Time flys.

After Simon's comment above I went and did some investigation and looked at old originals, as he described grain certainly visable through the TV yellow.

So, Sanding sealer, a coat of white undercoat, and just for the hell of it a thin coat of yellow nitro, and a wet sand with 400.

If you think something is flat, spay a coat of nitro, you will soon find out it isn't.....

Its now been grain filled with some mahogany timbermate and sanded back with 400 again. Not worried about the edges going through at this stage.

Far to windy today to do any spraying so progress is now down to the weather.

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Rant on | Bugger. Sanded through an edge one time to many.......bloody things getting reliced, and that's the end of it! | Rant off.

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Originally Posted by king casey

A shame indeed.
Got my first decent saxophone from there in the late 70's.

I'm with Wolz. If it's a decent player it will become naturally reliced.

cheers, Mark.

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Particularly with a nitro finish.

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Originally Posted by Rossc0

Its now been grain filled with some mahogany timbermate and sanded back with 400 again.

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If you attempt to paint over Timbermate it will sink.

cheers, Mark.

So first attempt at relicing anything. Reusing the old bridge, strap hardware and pickguard now so as it matches my attempts at age.

Still needs a final wet and dry through the grades to get rid of the orange peel in the clear, but wanted to see how it was going to look. Still need to age the visible mahogany. Then it will be time for the hairdryer and compressed air to crack the nitro finish.

Isn't a copy of, but inspiration was taken from Gibson Collectors choice #8

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Oh man. Ive been following this one and cant get my head around what you paid for it. Total score....
And it is really pretty now.


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That's come up great! The relicing is at a good level, and the colour is ace

Cheers gents.

Circular scratch marks around the tuners add a realistic ageing vibe. And worth putting on a rough belt buckle when it's assembled to get some authentic buckle marks on the back as well as wear.

Getting there. New nut slotted, and electronics done except had to order a new toggle switch as the one I have is too long. Ordered some ages pickguard screw at the same time as they weren't in the bag of bits that came with the body.

Some ugly chisel work in the pickup cavities to get the Tonerider p90s to fit.

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All in one-piece for the moment, a set of sacrificial strings on to get the setup right. I've got a couple of jars brewing, one with tea the other with vinegar and 0000 steel wool to do the aging of the bare wood.

Got a strange issue with the electronics, which I think is going to result in me stripping them out and rewiring, oh well.

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Got a strange issue with the electronics...

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What's happening?

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Originally Posted by McCreed

What's happening?

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Many many weird things. Its actually hard to explain, not a big deal, I've stripped it all out and redone most of it already and will finish it all today. Just annoying