JonnyFriendly
Well-known member
Hello Chaps,
I've just been putting the finishing touches to a Silver Star I've been trying to restore to (nearly, or as near as I can manage) it's original state. The parts and hardware used (pickguard, pickups etc) are not accurate, but I am quite pleased with how I've got along. I've been taking pictures along the way for my own amusement more than anything, but I thought I'd share them with the good people of this forum. Apologies for what could potentially be quite a long and boring post, but any thoughts or comments would be welcomed.
Anyway, I got the guitar from a forum member who had Silver Star for sale for a reasonable amount - just what I was after - the only problem was it had been refinished a slightly unpleasant yellow colour, and the fact it had a humbucker installed at the bridge meant I was probably in for a routed hackjob horror. Here it is as it arrived to me..
The picture does not really convey the full horror of the paintjob - hardware had been mounted on still wet paint and, well, it was yellow for heavens sake. All credit to the seller though, he did warn me (and, for the record, he was not responsible).
Despite cosmetic problems, however, it played well and had a very nice acoustic tone. I decided to proceed, and took off all the hardware, bracing myself for what I knew was coming.....
Yup - not a professional job by a long shot then.
Armed with a heat gun and sandpaper, I spent one long and lonely and evening getting it back to the wood. Using car body filler ( and I know this will not get me awards for craftsman of the year) I crudely (very crudely) tried to fashion a more respectable looking body cavity, and shielded it and the neck joint. Here it is hanging ready to be painted in the wardrobe of my spare room that would serve as it's home for the next 3 weeks.
A lot of sanding a few coats of primer later
And the first coat of olympic white (well, Halfords 'Ford Ivory') spraypaint down.
Between this photo and the next photo just imagine a week long period which involved spraying, sanding, resanding, and clearcoating x20.
It stayed this way for about 2 weeks while the paint gradully got hard enough to wet sand and mount hardware, and then...
Finished, or so I thought - for a couple of days at least, at which point I decided to start all over again, do it a totally different colour, and overhaul all of the electrics/wiring in the process. At this stage, my girlfriend thought I was losing it. Anyway- here is the finshed result as of today- I am pretty pleased with it, and will not be doing any more refinishing for some time.
I've gone for a slightly Gilmour-esque look with thewhite pickup covers, and dropped a Seymour Duncan hot rails I had kicking around into the bridge for a bit versatility.
Here's the original guarantee card..
So, I'm pretty sure that no-ones going to mistake it for a pro job, but I've really quite enjoyed doing it, and am looking forward to a lazy bank holiday beer and a few hours with my new(old) guitar.
I've just been putting the finishing touches to a Silver Star I've been trying to restore to (nearly, or as near as I can manage) it's original state. The parts and hardware used (pickguard, pickups etc) are not accurate, but I am quite pleased with how I've got along. I've been taking pictures along the way for my own amusement more than anything, but I thought I'd share them with the good people of this forum. Apologies for what could potentially be quite a long and boring post, but any thoughts or comments would be welcomed.
Anyway, I got the guitar from a forum member who had Silver Star for sale for a reasonable amount - just what I was after - the only problem was it had been refinished a slightly unpleasant yellow colour, and the fact it had a humbucker installed at the bridge meant I was probably in for a routed hackjob horror. Here it is as it arrived to me..
The picture does not really convey the full horror of the paintjob - hardware had been mounted on still wet paint and, well, it was yellow for heavens sake. All credit to the seller though, he did warn me (and, for the record, he was not responsible).
Despite cosmetic problems, however, it played well and had a very nice acoustic tone. I decided to proceed, and took off all the hardware, bracing myself for what I knew was coming.....
Yup - not a professional job by a long shot then.
Armed with a heat gun and sandpaper, I spent one long and lonely and evening getting it back to the wood. Using car body filler ( and I know this will not get me awards for craftsman of the year) I crudely (very crudely) tried to fashion a more respectable looking body cavity, and shielded it and the neck joint. Here it is hanging ready to be painted in the wardrobe of my spare room that would serve as it's home for the next 3 weeks.
A lot of sanding a few coats of primer later
And the first coat of olympic white (well, Halfords 'Ford Ivory') spraypaint down.
Between this photo and the next photo just imagine a week long period which involved spraying, sanding, resanding, and clearcoating x20.
It stayed this way for about 2 weeks while the paint gradully got hard enough to wet sand and mount hardware, and then...
Finished, or so I thought - for a couple of days at least, at which point I decided to start all over again, do it a totally different colour, and overhaul all of the electrics/wiring in the process. At this stage, my girlfriend thought I was losing it. Anyway- here is the finshed result as of today- I am pretty pleased with it, and will not be doing any more refinishing for some time.
I've gone for a slightly Gilmour-esque look with thewhite pickup covers, and dropped a Seymour Duncan hot rails I had kicking around into the bridge for a bit versatility.
Here's the original guarantee card..
So, I'm pretty sure that no-ones going to mistake it for a pro job, but I've really quite enjoyed doing it, and am looking forward to a lazy bank holiday beer and a few hours with my new(old) guitar.
