1966 Jazzmaster Restoration
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2020 5:25 am
Hey OSG,
it's been about three years since I posted, as I've been trapped in the synthesizer wormhole. If you haven't yet started with synthesizers: Don't! It's a trap!
But now I'm back in full glory with one hell of a renovation project. I was very, very lucky to find what I assumed to be a 1966 Jazzmaster. The pre CBS Klusons and the B&B neck were the giveaway. It came from a friendly old fellow who bought it new in about 1969/1970 for 1700 Deutschmarks (!) and he played it most of his professional career. Once sunburst, but now, no more. He told me he was playing it so much the finish was flaking of... So he sanded it down to bare wood and stained it brown. Thing is, old guy didn't even bother to unscrew the hardware and all. Fairly heavy handed sanding and quite liberal use of brown wood stain, the type you normally use on outdoor benches and picknick tables. Adding to that, most metal parts was sanded over as well and covered in very thick gold lacquer, including the pickguard and pickup covers. Then, at some point the guitar was again sanded and left as is.
Once it arrived in the mail it was good fun doing all the detective work. And I was right, it's a Oct 1966 guitar, original pickups from mid-66, most if not all screws original and only a handful of them missing.
The pickguard is going to be a major pain to rescue. It has a bad crack and also is covered in very hard and thick gold paint. I don't really know what to do, same with the pickups. Acetone bath worked perfectly for all things metal, but it's a no-no on the plastic. Same goes with heat.
Any ideas? I heard about oven cleaning spray, but has anybody tried?
The paint is so thick I haven't been able to even tell whether it's tort or white. Telling from the wide bevel it appears to be an old pickguard, but I scratched the bevel and I first found a layer of black paint, then solid white plastic, not the typical white-black-white trim. Was there ever a fully white pickguard for the JM? I doubt it's a tort guard, but I hope I'm wrong. We'll see. Any ideas how to proceed? Sanding? Chemicals? Or just buy a new one and be done?
Minor shrinkage and the wide bevel let's me think it is indeed a cellulose pickguard.
I hope it's tort, but we'll see shortly...
Here's what's underneath:
Look, it's the infamous ES stamp. My offsetology is a bit rusty and the search function failed me on this.
What was that supposed to mean? Exhibition Showcase? Export Something? Extra-long Sustain?
Replacement switch? Yes?
I spent some good time getting all the gold gunk off the trem plate, the screws and get the gumified stain off the tuners with acetone.
Pretty happy how it turned out. Unfortunately the trem plate looks pretty bad. It seems that the gold paint was put on after the fact that the whole guitar was sanded before staining without taking it apart. I tried to polish it up to 12000 grit sanding pads which helped a lot, but maybe it's better to re-chrome it. We'll see, it's definitely looking relic, but I don't know if in a good way.
Before:
After:
Yay, more gold paint to scrub off!
Also, it's amazing how much dead skin and organic matter can be in a guitar this old.
Frets are in pretty bad shape. They look like original, but well used. It will need a refret and it will be my first go at it. Kind of anxious about it, but there will be a lot of firsts on this renovation for me.
Ordered the correct 1966 decal from the states and also have some Inca Silver and vintage tinted clear nitro coming my way. A couple of years ago and with the gracious help of our very own Despot (still around?) I bought a AV65 in Aztec Gold, my number one to this day. It will be a perfect match, I'm sure. Goldie & Silvie. Dream team!
I'm sure there will be a lot of questions and hopefully not so many hickups along the way, but I'm really looking forward to this.
It'll be a slow project, but will update whenever there's progress.
Hope you'll enjoy the process as much as I do!
it's been about three years since I posted, as I've been trapped in the synthesizer wormhole. If you haven't yet started with synthesizers: Don't! It's a trap!
But now I'm back in full glory with one hell of a renovation project. I was very, very lucky to find what I assumed to be a 1966 Jazzmaster. The pre CBS Klusons and the B&B neck were the giveaway. It came from a friendly old fellow who bought it new in about 1969/1970 for 1700 Deutschmarks (!) and he played it most of his professional career. Once sunburst, but now, no more. He told me he was playing it so much the finish was flaking of... So he sanded it down to bare wood and stained it brown. Thing is, old guy didn't even bother to unscrew the hardware and all. Fairly heavy handed sanding and quite liberal use of brown wood stain, the type you normally use on outdoor benches and picknick tables. Adding to that, most metal parts was sanded over as well and covered in very thick gold lacquer, including the pickguard and pickup covers. Then, at some point the guitar was again sanded and left as is.
Once it arrived in the mail it was good fun doing all the detective work. And I was right, it's a Oct 1966 guitar, original pickups from mid-66, most if not all screws original and only a handful of them missing.
The pickguard is going to be a major pain to rescue. It has a bad crack and also is covered in very hard and thick gold paint. I don't really know what to do, same with the pickups. Acetone bath worked perfectly for all things metal, but it's a no-no on the plastic. Same goes with heat.
Any ideas? I heard about oven cleaning spray, but has anybody tried?
The paint is so thick I haven't been able to even tell whether it's tort or white. Telling from the wide bevel it appears to be an old pickguard, but I scratched the bevel and I first found a layer of black paint, then solid white plastic, not the typical white-black-white trim. Was there ever a fully white pickguard for the JM? I doubt it's a tort guard, but I hope I'm wrong. We'll see. Any ideas how to proceed? Sanding? Chemicals? Or just buy a new one and be done?
Minor shrinkage and the wide bevel let's me think it is indeed a cellulose pickguard.
I hope it's tort, but we'll see shortly...
Here's what's underneath:
Look, it's the infamous ES stamp. My offsetology is a bit rusty and the search function failed me on this.
What was that supposed to mean? Exhibition Showcase? Export Something? Extra-long Sustain?
Replacement switch? Yes?
I spent some good time getting all the gold gunk off the trem plate, the screws and get the gumified stain off the tuners with acetone.
Pretty happy how it turned out. Unfortunately the trem plate looks pretty bad. It seems that the gold paint was put on after the fact that the whole guitar was sanded before staining without taking it apart. I tried to polish it up to 12000 grit sanding pads which helped a lot, but maybe it's better to re-chrome it. We'll see, it's definitely looking relic, but I don't know if in a good way.
Before:
After:
Yay, more gold paint to scrub off!
Also, it's amazing how much dead skin and organic matter can be in a guitar this old.
Frets are in pretty bad shape. They look like original, but well used. It will need a refret and it will be my first go at it. Kind of anxious about it, but there will be a lot of firsts on this renovation for me.
Ordered the correct 1966 decal from the states and also have some Inca Silver and vintage tinted clear nitro coming my way. A couple of years ago and with the gracious help of our very own Despot (still around?) I bought a AV65 in Aztec Gold, my number one to this day. It will be a perfect match, I'm sure. Goldie & Silvie. Dream team!
I'm sure there will be a lot of questions and hopefully not so many hickups along the way, but I'm really looking forward to this.
It'll be a slow project, but will update whenever there's progress.
Hope you'll enjoy the process as much as I do!
neat project, and what a steal... excited to see where this goes.