I thought I'd do a followup now that I've had the guitar in hand for a bit. I really like it. The sound of the pickups is really muscular and full. They're higher than I'd normally expect them to be, but they sound awesome. It's playing really nice and the neck body combo come together for a very resonant instrument.
Re: the finish, my plan is to leave the body alone. I don't want to put any more money into it.
I'm somewhat considering having Danocaster refin the neck since it's already oversprayed (or refined (how could I tell?)), but again, no huge rush on this.
If I were to go in this direction, how could I do an exploratory job of bringing down the new nitro to see if there's older finish below there? Is there's a subtle, progressive way to remove the new? Wet sanding? I kind of imagine the neck finish was worn/beat when they did the body refin and they might not have actually done any significant sanding. Any thoughts on ways to test this idea appreciated. It's a non-original decal that was applied poorly, so there's not much to loose.
I didn't give a clear synopsis of the work done, so I thought I'd circle back and repost a greatest hits of what happened.
In short:
- Electronics cleaned up - Pickup leads had been cut oddly and fugly wire had been used to get the length needed. Matt redid all of the cloth wiring cleanly.
- Pickguard removed and holes filed to better fit around pickups and bridge thimbles.
- 2 cracked bits of wood were found under the guard and were clamped and glued back into place.
- Lots of glitter was found in the grounding tray for the upper horn for some reason.
- Old foam was pulled, saved and replaced with nice, resilient modern foam.
- All electronics date perfectly and all hardware is accounted for, miraculously.
- No markings were found on/in the body. All of it was refinished when the work was done in the past.
Here's a few pics, some posted before, some not.