The Electra Forums

Since I listen to guns n roses I wanted a Les Paul. I built one when I was finishing school. I had some problems with the neck so I haven`t play that guitar for some years.

last year I bought a Gibson Les paul Studio 60 tribute gold top, the best of the guitar is the plek system. but it has P90 pick ups and I play metal increasingly heavier, single coils are a no no.

gibson quality have dropped considerably and do not really need an original 56 so I started to look for an old Japanese guitar to replace it

browsing ebay I found this guitar
http://www.ebay.com/itm/310698517050?ss ... 1439.l2649

was cheap, on one hand I was sorry and secondly I love fixing things so I bid and win it.








[B] restoration [/ b]

as you can see in the photo the guitar had several things that need repair. I do not want a new guitar, I want a guitar which I can work without worrying that it could damage the finishpaint. this is an old guitar that was played a lot, a guitar sounds better the more you play in the early years, the resins are accommodated in a points that allow the wood to resonate more freely. the scratches give character to the guitar I don`t want it to look as new. I want to keep all the scratches that give character and bring out only those that are very ugly.

to start the finish had a fairly thick layer of tobbaco I tried to clean it with a wet cloth even with a little alcohol but was very hard, finally opt for using polishing compound. I worked well.

another problem was the inlays, some of them were loose on one side, they had a cuve in the back part.
here there is an inlay viewed from the side.


I glue a match to the sides of the inlay in order to apply pressure with a press exactly at the edges, I use hot glue because it is easy to remove. I was careful to not touch the guitar finish with silicone to avoid damaging the paint.



after making sure that the inlay fit easily I glue them with cyanoacrylate using a press and a piece of metal to apply pressure on the matchs.




I use a scalpel used as a scraper to remove the leftover cyanoacrylate. after removing the frets and stay rectify any level.



the guitar also had 4 holes, surely the guitar was mounted on a pillar or wall in a bar for many years.





I cover these holes with wooden dowels, the holes were froma some fast screws so I tried to give the shape of the screw to the dowels using a drill and a file.



then I cut the dowels with a saw using a plastic protection.




then with the scalpel used as scraper I level the dowel a bit lower than the level of painting. cyanoacrylate was used as fill in some parts, my idea was to use as similar materials to wood to not crack the finish eventually, that is why I didn`t use bondo for example.



some time ago I bought a car paint repair kit, I use that paint to fill and paint the holes.






one of the holes had the top layer of wood missing so I bought a layer of wood and I glue it with cyanoacrylate.





once the paint had the desired level I started to remove the excess with the scalpel with adhesive tape on the edges. this way I didn`t scratch the old paint just the new paint, then followed up with sandpaper and then polished .


I'll keep up the progress. remains to be done. missing pegs are on the way, once set I will put strings and check the neck, then remove the frets and I will put new extra jumbo frets. the fretboard is loose at he nut and the binding in that are is also a little loose. then I will put some new strings and I will play some chords from hell lol.

best regards
Rafael

Nice to see you are bringing this one back. I am working (very slowly) on an X310 that was in even worse shape.

Love to see projects in action like this, thanks for taking the time to post photos. This is helpful information. Great job so far!

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"GREAT Googiley moogilie Jack...jumpin jehosephat, hot dang and all".
- jdwhealton

Always happy to see an Electra brought back to playing status and Thanks for letting us all share in the process.

_________________
Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

even worse ufff I want to look that! I tought that this one with 4 screw holes could be the worst ever.
you can always get off all the hardware and use it as oar haha
best regards
R

This is a great thread, thanks for posting and showing the many pictures of it's condition before and how it progresses! It is almost always more expensive to refurbish a guitar than just being patient and finding someone down on their luck, and many of us can relate to the uphill battle you are undertaking, but like car enthusiasts, there is something about taking something that has been written off and making it useful again that has its own reward! Best of luck and tell us if there are any parts you may need, Mike.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

Thanks for posting - I too am happy to see another Electra saved from the scrap heap. As stated - you can easily spend more money in parts and labor to get a guitar up and running again - but the satisfaction you get from a restoration job is priceless.


Keep us posted on your progress.

Ok, here is an update.
I have been working on the paint of the old holes.

the bad new is there are some bumps in the wood near the old holes. I was specting that.
the good new is that now I have a very flat surface for a future retouch, provably I will spray some layers of black paint in the future just in this area. anyway at this point look a lot better for me.

I add a piece of dowel at the tip of the headstock to fill the missing wood. I will have to paint that too.

I already cut the dowel to the correct shape but I don't have pictures of it.

the missing tuning pegs arrived today so I clean them. First I tried with alcohol but finally just a rag was a better solution.

I have seen a lot of gibson les paul youngers than this Electra with problem at the tuners, I have to say that I like this tuners not a big radio but it react easily when tune up or tune down. it remember me gotoh tuners.


I had to fill the old holes with some matchs and glue, the holes were too big. I usually preffer a piece of maple or other hard wood but for this application I think it is ok.

finally all the tuners in the headstock.

now it's time for some strings.

yep they are extremly cheap strings. I just need to put some tension in the neck for some days or weeks. this guitars provably had no strings for many years so I have to check how it react, how it make the curvature. if I can get a perfect straight neck with the truss rod then I can get off the frets and install the new ones. if not I should be able to correct the shape of the fingerboard before installing the new frets.


at this point I was able to test it and hear it. it have a looooooong sustain, the action is not high, even with the frets in a very bad shape I can play it. the frets are too low to my taste so it`s not so easy to play bends.

I would like to know what exactly does the two switches, the catalog say color switch. it is not a single/humbucker switch isn`t? it have a cap but it add or cut a lot of bass.

best regards
Rafael

The two switches are as stated are just color switches and simply add a bit more tone to each pickup. The bridge and neck pickups bot have there own switch and it adds a bit more bottom to the tone from each pickup.

_________________
Always give thanks for everyday, It may be your last so Rock On Semper Fi!!

provably what it does is cut bass, I can`t imagine a way to add bass with a passive network, it is imposible unless you get the bass from other source. I would like to see a schematic of this guitar.