Vintage Frankensguar project
Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:13 am
After replacing the ol mangled neck of my 65 Jaguar for a 65 Mustang slab neck I got the idea of building a mostly original 65-66 Partsguar. Once GAS hit hard enough, I started hunting for parts. I've got on ebay a vintage body with several layers of paint. It came with the original tremolo, hardware, shielding plates and some wiring. I got a hefty discount on the body once forum member Will told me that it he had repaired a crack in this body a few years back. So thanks to will I got it on the "pretty good deal" realm All this was a few months ago, the body got sent to my friend in the US who brought it to my country just yesterday. So here it is, with the aforementioned mangled Jag neck for a mockup (the neck is a 65 slab musicmaster neck that I'll be getting in the next few weeks):
From what I gather, tremolo, shielding plates and knobs are original. Not sure about the control plates although they do look worn. Pots and switches are newer, neatly soldered. Wiring is clothed but looks too new to be original.
Body is kinda of a beautiful mess. The belly cut is a dead ringer for my 65 JM and Jag, so I'm fairly sure is from this era. Ht re-re-re-refinish is a ordinary goopy red that is definitely not nitro but doesn't feel like poly either. It feels somehow "waxy"? Maybe polyester? And there are about 8 layers of paint underneath! At least, if it was painted so many times over, the body wasn't sanded probably more than once. The shapes look really nice.
I wet sanded a small spot until I got through the wood and counted 9 layers! Red, black, grey, orange sparklish/metallic (looks nice!), brown, gold, black, red and brownish.
This body was going to be refinished without question, but then again, that orange metallic does look very nice in person. It's close to a very faded Candy Apple Red. I might try to sand it down to this layer first. It also looks like the thickest layer and will probably hold up alright. Other than that, I'm entertaining a burgundy mist, IBM or greened LPB refin.
As the rest of the parts, in about month I should get together with a vintage tort guard, a 64 neck pickup I bought from a fellow forumite and a 65 slab musicmaster neck. The tuners will be donated by the Jag mangled neck. Still a bridge pickup and neckplate to go. I will be posting here as this 60s Frankenguar project progresses.
From what I gather, tremolo, shielding plates and knobs are original. Not sure about the control plates although they do look worn. Pots and switches are newer, neatly soldered. Wiring is clothed but looks too new to be original.
Body is kinda of a beautiful mess. The belly cut is a dead ringer for my 65 JM and Jag, so I'm fairly sure is from this era. Ht re-re-re-refinish is a ordinary goopy red that is definitely not nitro but doesn't feel like poly either. It feels somehow "waxy"? Maybe polyester? And there are about 8 layers of paint underneath! At least, if it was painted so many times over, the body wasn't sanded probably more than once. The shapes look really nice.
I wet sanded a small spot until I got through the wood and counted 9 layers! Red, black, grey, orange sparklish/metallic (looks nice!), brown, gold, black, red and brownish.
This body was going to be refinished without question, but then again, that orange metallic does look very nice in person. It's close to a very faded Candy Apple Red. I might try to sand it down to this layer first. It also looks like the thickest layer and will probably hold up alright. Other than that, I'm entertaining a burgundy mist, IBM or greened LPB refin.
As the rest of the parts, in about month I should get together with a vintage tort guard, a 64 neck pickup I bought from a fellow forumite and a 65 slab musicmaster neck. The tuners will be donated by the Jag mangled neck. Still a bridge pickup and neckplate to go. I will be posting here as this 60s Frankenguar project progresses.