[Varjo]

Hello fellow ss.org’ers!

Today in Doctor T’s workshop-hospital we have a very seroiusly injured patient. He’s a 39 year old patient with nothing but trouble. But have no worries, we will fix him good as new!

The patient. Yes. A 1969 Ibanez Soundmaster II, forgotten in a garage. The whole story in short: My father was born in '57 and pretty soon he got into guitars. He played around with some, until came the year '78 and he bought a guitar from his friend. "It's a really good guitar, almost pro-class" he was told. The manufacturer was Ibanez. Well, he liked it. Played with it. Until time passed by, he got a family and - what often happens - hobbies went short and the guitar ended up in the garage, where it remained for quite a while. Several years.

Time passed on and I was born and got the guitar as a "toy" (that's gotta hurt). Played with it a while, and again to the garage, this time for at least 9 years. The garage had barely any insulation and no heating. And as the winters in Finland are pretty cold, you might guess that the climate in such a garage isn't ideal for guitar storage.

That's the story of the guitar so far. Just a couple of days ago I was visiting my father when I remembered that old wreck and thought I'd give it a look for fun. And what did I notice, now having played with guitars for quite a few years? Well well, the lacquer was cracked in some places and there were dents and wears here and there, but the wood was essentially in good condition. Neck straight. All parts were of course beat up and rusted, electronics were busted but I thought I'd give it a go and try to fix it.

Which I did, pretty much. Of course since the original parts were pretty much wasted I had to get new ones, making this not-so-authentic vintage, but the woods remained the same. After some ferocious googling I found out that the guitar was a 1960's model 1755. I checked around some more and after looking in an old catalogue seems that this is an Soundmaster II, model number 1755 in the '69 catalogue. The backplate also speaks of 1969 - no serial number, only the word "JAPAN".

Right now the guitar is pretty much fixed and it plays wonderfully. I was lucky that the pickups were still functioning, so they are still the original ones. The pots had to be changed, though, but they work and so do the pickups. Also the old bigsby-style tremolo works, after I scrubbed it free of dirt and rust...

Now I realize that vintage guitars aren't exactly the main love of modern guitar enthusiasts, but you like pics so have them - besides, you just might learn something



But how did we all do this – check it out, and no secrets will be left untold!

Here’s the patient in all it’s glory:





I dis this shit.




But will have a go. First, though, let’s zoom in for some gore.



Yes, that is the headstock. Yes, the nut is missing. I KNOW.





I can see the paint chipping. Can you? Yes you can, because it’s fucken’ ugly.




Those tuners are shook up worse than a freshman on the second day.




I swear, even in the army I had cleaner underwear than this fretboard.




Not even the body escapes unscathed!




Place your bets – will that pickup work?




Now this plexi could be in shape, but the dents, scratches and yellowness just doesn’t show up in this pic.




And how about that bridge? Hell, one of the saddles is missing!




What rust. I deny any rust. You lie with the rust.




Doctor T does not approve, but he will work his magic.

-------------- DAY 1 --------------

We’ll begin our operation with cleaning the fretboard. I mean, you can be dead, injured, vile and disgusting, but you can also be clean. So let’s hit it.




Acetone, a toothbrush, and work. Throw up them horns!




Well well, I think I can see some difference…




Time for lemon oil, now that the acetone took out the worst AND dried the fretboard pretty much totally.




Change of clothes, change of workspace, change of the wind!




Yes honey I KNOW it smells like lemon. It is lemon oil, after all.




Now that does look nice, for a change. Except for those frets. We’ll have to do something about them…




Words to actions!




I have seen this before. It’s a change!




Throw up them horns!

Okay, let’s move on. Time for that bigsby-style tremolo, it was in rust so let’s take care of that. So, we have a rusted bigsby…







Then we add some steel wool…




And hey presto!




Same thing for the pickups, see any differences?




There. And now…




The easy part - simple superficial work - is complete. End of day one. Next post, next day! Hooray!

Nurse, let the patient sleep overnight. Tomorrow we’ll go for his guts. He’ll need the brake.

[Psychoface]

good job doc!

[Justin Bailey]

that's pretty cool man, are you gonna keep it with you after its done? Cause it'd be a cool gift to your dad, after its like new again.

[Varjo]

------------- DAY 2 --------------

Okay, so let’s get jiggy right away. First to school, then took my 1527 to be set up with a pro, and then shopping. The shopping list went as follows:

1 set of tuners (Vintage style, 3+3)
1 nut (Plastic)
1 Bridge, vintage style
4 pots, 500 K-ohm, series A
2 ON-OFF switches
1 input jack
Couple of feet of wire
1 set of strings, 9-48
1 sheet of plexi, white

And then let’s hassle. No of course as you can guess, the modern bridge, vintage-style as it may be, was just a tad too big. Correct, the holes were too wide apart. So we’ll have to work on that too, Doctor T won’t be put down by shabby second-rate instruments!




Lacking a functioning clamp, duct tape will fix it well enough. I first drill a hole next to the original one, wearing my safety goggles in case of flying metal debris…




…and then connect the holes and “grind” them bigger…




… to make the holes just big enough to make a tight fit for the original bridge poles.

After that we’ll make new plexis and pickguards.




After drawing, we’ll get to the action. My superbly working tactique: Draw the outlines with a marker using the old plexis as shapes. Then outline the marked lines with a carpet blade, softly, then again, again, again, gradually adding pressure and then just.. bend. You’ll hear a snap and voila, the rough shape of the future pickguard is in your hand. Take your sanding paper and make it complete. The process works as such:




Not too bad. Now that I have the new pickguard, let’s start soldering. Everyone loves soldering.

First of all, the setup beer.




The soldering gear




Okay, let’s do this!




But how to solder? It’s actually somewhat simple. I’ll show you. First make sure that your iron is hot.




Notice that I’m not touching anything with the iron yet. I have the wire-to-be-soldered attached to the pot on both ends, I’m pressing it with my fingers. I could use some clamp or such, but I didn’t have any so I had to improvise with my hands.




Now I press the iron to the part that I’m going to solder. In this case, right in to the spot where the wire and the pot core connect. Notice that I’m pressing ONLY the iron now – not the wire yet. That’s to preheat the area. It’ll ensure a good sold. I hold it for 3-7 seconds, depending, maybe easily tip it with solder, just a little bit to tell me whether it’s enough or not.




And now comes the soldering lead. Just the right amount, not too much, not too little. Experience will tell you – a couple of good soldered connections and you’ll get it.




And the result: A nice, easy grounding connection. Notice that the shape of the soldered melted lead is a slope – not like a drop of water on the surface of your table, that would indicate a bad sold, because the surface wasn’t warm enough – but more like if you were pulling it from the surface. That’s how it’s supposed to look. Sloped.




The doctor himself, performing demanding open-circuit surgery on the patient. Observe the new transplant pots and switches, replacing the old broken ones. Also notice – pro tip – the headlamp. Guaranteeing proper lighting, which is essential.

Let’s recap that soldering part. First, no touching nothing, then…




Only the iron…




… and after 3-7 secs followed by the lead…




…leading to the nice, good solder on the right.

Okay, that’s it for day 2. The patient may rest, tomorrow we’ll continue saving the life and the music.

Hope you enjoyed so far!

------------ DAY 3 ----------

Another day, another operation. Our patient can be taken from the ICU to the regular care unit. This morning I woke up and tested the electronics – yup, I finished soldering the last night at about 1:30 AM and I knew I couldn’t handle a single setback, so I went right to the bed.

And what happened? You got it, electronics didn’t work. Couldn’t locate the shortcut. What to do, what to do?

I’ll give you a golden hint in guitar repairs, life, everything. The simplest way is often the best. Result: I ditched the original circuit planning, did some surfing, came up on a MUCH simpler way to handle the exact same result and soldered again. Checked for short-circuits. Testing…

Work! Hoorays!

Never again am I going to do hi-fi-stuff unless I now how to. The simple circuit took about 30 minutes to solder from scratch and works perfectly, just like the original as far as I know. But it works, so anyone who bet that the pickups weren’t going to work – you lose. They do.

Anyway, we have work to do, so let’s hit the bench. Remember the missing nut?




Eat it, scum!




Eat it, eat it more! Harder! There… Better. Starting to look again like a guitar instead of the toy of a 5-year old rascal

Now for the tuners. They need new holes for the screws, so let’s do it.





Drilling…




Hooray!




Let’s attach them and make this baby true.

Can it be true? Can we finally be done, just attach the strings and rock on?

Hell naw, remember the headstock. Busted as anything, dents, scratches, everything. Of course that won’t stop me, the patient want’s to talk, so let’s string the demon.

Yes, it plays, it plays good.

Okay back to the headstock. As you remember, the case was this:




And after some work, we get to this




Oh my god how did I do that?

Again, simple. And again, I’ll show you.

First of all, this will be an extremely delicate operation with an unbelievable possibility of screwing up, so two things needed – selfcontrol and the skill to let go – must be acquired before you try this.

Got the warning? Okay, let’s hit it. Look again at the picture before the work. Sure, there are damages to the lacquer and the wood. The lacquer damages can only be fixed by removing the lacquer, which will almost certainly result in the loss of paint, making it a big issue to fix, so for now I’m just gone leave it. The damages going to the wood, though, are a better case.

But we’ll first have to remember that people building this instrument might have used some serious lacquer or solvent-based dye, which probably has been sucked into the wood, which in turn won’t let the dye stick properly, so…







I’ll cut VERY gently, VERY easy in to the wood, removing not two millimetres of wood.

Then I take my dye and add some water, making it clearer…




…then I go get a piece of junk wood and make a preliminary test of the color…




Okay, that seems good. Now to make a real test, I find a spot of wood without lacquer or original dye that won’t show up. Where to find this, you ask? Unfinished wood originally? Under the truss rod cover of course.




And what do we see?




Hey, wow, that actually IS the same color!




And here is the good doctor, giving the patient a new face.

After that all I do is let the dye dry and put some lacquer on it.

STRAIGHT ON? MAN YOU CRAZY! Yes, I would be crazy to put new lacquer on old, unknown lacquer. The chemical reactions might go crazy between them, making the old, vintage lacquer “bubble” which would look just horrible and spoil everything.

That’s why I had to test also for the lacquers being compatible. But where?

Under a covering plexi. This time, again under the large truss rod cover, that also covers some of the originally finished wood. I did that yesterday, but no pics sorry, but it’s really simple – a safe, hidden spot, a drop of lacquer, let it dry overnight and observe – everything remains clear, it’s cool for use.

You can also apply this test, for example, under the headstock – anywhere anyway where it won’t eat your eyes in case it won’t work and goes bubbles.



But can you guess what next?

The guitar is finished. Yes, you’ve read long, you’ve read hard, now enjoy the results and witness the revival of the patient:



















(Note, that's the reflection of the bigsby tremolo)


























And there it is. A vintage guitar restored.

LESSONS LEARNED:
-Soldering and electronics can be a real pain. Keep it simple, find out the simplest way for the circuit to work.
-Modern pots, bridges and other apparel propably aren’t the same size as they were in “the vintage years”, no matter what the standard today is. Take ALL measurements, and if replacing pots or switches, take models of them with you to make sure of the right sizes.
- As you see, I didn't use any fancy tools - so it IS possible to do this with your everyday kit.

-Repairing guitars is fun
-Vintage guitars play nice and smooth

You asked what will I do with it. Will I return it to my father? Yes I will. It plays adorably, it’s now in good shape, and it’s my fathers. He’ll hold on to it, and play it gently, and one day it’ll be mine again. Enjoy, dad.

It’s actually quite nostalgic to think. My dad was pretty much my age when he got that guitar and played with it.

Anyway, thanks for reading. It was quite a project, and quite a result also. Hope you liked to read this and maybe learned something.

[Drew]

Awesome! How's she sound and play?

[Varjo]

She plays good. The strings are a bit high, but they are as low as they get - I guess in the end of the 60's "low action" wasn't exactly the pop. The sound is a bit raw but warm also - not bad for a vintage peace of wire and magnets.

Right, I forgot, if you have any questions about this by the way, feel free to ask.

[Apophis]

Awesome, excellent job

[Crucified]

could you drop the height of the nut to lower the action slightly or would that throw the bridge off?

well done by the way!

[Hellraizer]

Nice work.

[Varjo]

Originally Posted by Crucified

could you drop the height of the nut to lower the action slightly or would that throw the bridge off?

well done by the way!

Thanks! The height of the string at the end of the nut is fine, I'm just used to lower action in the bridge end. They're about 4mm at 19th fret right now.