Official Luthiers Forum!

hi

I will be starting the repairs on this Gibson lg-0 soon to get it playing again. I have removed the back so I can do the repairs.

will be my first resto/repair

it needs new bridge player and all new braces, there were some horrible repairs done to the side and back using tape and what looks like pine wood. oh and they have slapped varnish over the body!
The neck is also pretty rough but not varnished

it kind of looks pretty good in this rough state because it's old and battered, so if I can get it playing I will keep it

please have a look through the photos and let me know whether you would completely strip it back and re finish the lot.
(positive comments only please no comments about throwing it in the bin please lol )

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

I like to take on basket cases but that is horrible. It would make a good learning tool for you though.

All depends how much time, effort and money you want to sink into it. This one came on with minwax slopped all over it and lots over other issues. Couldn't post all the pics (62) but you get the idea.

_________________
"I've been had again"
Tim Benware
Creedmoor, NC

I did a few restores before... all of them had horrible things done to it. It's why they pay us the big bucks for jobs like these.

In all of the cases the entire guitar comes apart. Every part of the instrument is horrible damaged, top and back all cracked in several places and they have to be glued together. One of them had a prior refinish where someone sanded the back paper thin (as in about .060" -.040") and I put it back together the best I can. Oftentimes the customer will ask that I preserve certain features, for example Stellas have this hand painted rosette that cannot be stripped off. What I ended up doing is spraying shellac over the original finish to attempt to melt it all back in. The back and sides were sanded and re-shellaced (the original finish was shellac).

If you want to refinish your Gibson, make sure you are careful in sanding that you don't end up making it paper thin so use nothing coarser than 150 grit. In many cases what you can do is clean the damaged area, level it if necessary, and spray new finish over it. Watch out for stains or other stuff they put in the wood because new finish will look out of place so you may have to sand it all off and re-stain it.

You will want to patch the side, try to transplant it from another part of the guitar if possible or use mahogany as close to the guitar as possible. Otherwise that patch looks ugly as hell.

DO NOT sand off the headstock finish, there's no way you can get that Gibson logo back again. You can spray a very heavily thinned lacquer with retarder in it to blend the finish back together. Then you can spray more finish so you can restore it.

If someone put Home Depot polyurethane on it, strip it off...

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

thanks, this is the info I need. I think it's going to have to stay looking fairly battered as I probably dont have the skills to make it look new, it has so many aesthetic thing wrong, maybe I will strip back the painted on varnish on the body and see

the neck will need stripping so do you know what sort of finish would be suitable and look fitting for an older Gibson, you mentioned spray shellac.

thanks again for the info

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

No don't use spray shellac on Gibson.

I used spray shellac on the Stella because that was what finish it had originally. Gibsons use nitrocellulose lacquer, so use something like Seagraves.

Strip the varnish but DO NOT touch the headstock. Touch up the black part and clear coat over it.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I would use stripper to remove the old finish - but keep it away from the binding (scrape that area)
I might do an epoxy pore fill and try to fill in the cracks to get a smooth surface. I would go with a satin finish and probably put toner to darken the overall appearance and help hide the cracks and blemishes.
I don't think you could make it look new again, so I wouldn't try.

great advice thanks

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

Are you going to take the opportunity to get rid of that horrible bridge hardware that Gibson put on these models, and replcce it with a standard one like Tim did?
Paul Hostetter (RIP) had a great tute on his website about how to do this:
http://www.lutherie.net/B-25_bridge.html

thanks for the link, really torn as to whether to change t he e bridge, your right it is horrible but its original and when I search Ebay etc for Gibson lg-0 none have the bridge, kind of makes it a completely original, to me it's like ripping the engine out of an old Porsche and putting in a modern engine, yes it's better but it's also ruined the car. just my opinion though, will have to have a think


Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

I commend you for salvaging a guitar that has lived an unfortunate life.
The reason to keep guitars as original as possible is to retain value. As I am sure you know, your LG-0 in its present state has very little value. So, IMO, if you are so-inclined to refinish the guitar then bless you. Any refinish job that is better than what is on there will increase the value.
The bridge is the lowest-of-the low Gibson mistakes. Yours looks like one of the plastic bridges that are crudely held on with 4 screws and no glue. Again, there is so little value in the original condition of your guitar that you might as well try to make it sound good and mount a conventional bridge.
Interestingly, the ceramic saddle has fairly good value in the resale market. Gibson only used ceramic saddles for a short time and players who are stuck with rosewood movable saddles on their vintage Gibsons are quite happy to swap for these ceramic saddles.
I don't think you need to be stuck with ladder bracing, either. This repair is obviously a labor of love for you with no real concerns on the bottom line. I'm not advocating for X bracing. But, it is worth considering if an X braced sound is more appealing to you.
Good luck!

_________________
Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

I X braced a mid 50's LG similar to the one Tim Benware shows. It had a shattered back (with sections missing) and cracks in the sides and a few in the top - a $25 basket case. I glued the cracks and replaced the back, did a quick stain and spray job and when I was done it looked like Tim's "before" picture.
But it did sound good and play well. X braced guitars sound different than ladder braced, so it depends on what you want it to sound like in the end. Having a mahogany top your's will sound different than most anyway, so why not leave it ladder braced?
Changing out the bridge is something I would certainly do if I was fixing that guitar. You could keep the original in the case with the guitar much as they keep the old pieces when they restore items at museums. You could make one with the same shape and footprint, but out of a good quality material.
For doing floating patches in the side many repair people prefer a "football" shaped patch much as you see in plywood, which is a less conspicuous repair than a square edged patch.
Those old beaters can be fun to work on as long as you realize the limitations and don't get too fussy with them.

I have a low end Gibson archtop - another $25 find I need to do something with, so maybe I'll post some pictures in another discussion and see if anyone might know more about it. Someone stripped the finish before I got it so no worries about keeping things original.