Official Luthiers Forum!

OK, folks - I picked up a late 70's Ibanez Bob Weir that has had a hard life. It will need a number of vintage Ibanez parts, and I'm hoping some of our OLF'rs can help me out.

Hardware I need: complete set of gold Velvetune tuning machines (pearl or gold buttons), the nuts for a gold Gibraltar bridge, a new gold slotted tailpiece (the old one is bent), a gold triangular "cloud" with the Ibanez logo, a gold pickup selector switch with the flat-topped cream knob, and a gold "Flying Fingers" Super 70 pickup.

Here's the hard part: Someone removed the fancy Ibanez peghead veneer, and glued on a thin piece of birch with a handpainted nature scene which was sealed with a thin coat of shellac. Any ideas short of making a new one?

Thanks so much!

I have some finish touch-ups to do, and some of the neck binding is gone. Should be an easy fix there. The frets have been played a lot, but the wear is even. Still has the original pots, knobs, and jack. Even the original case is in pretty good shape.

High hopes here for returning this Bob Weir to its former glory.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Looking forward to seeing it Chris!
I'm a super fan of '70s Ibanez, especially the lawsuit stuff.
They knew how to make affordable kick-ass instruments.
Dan

_________________
wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

I'm a big fan of the late 70s and early 80s ibanezes. I've owned about 30 of them over the years. I used to have one of the Weirs with the vine inlay in the fretboard.

Andy of Repro Guitar Parts specializes in vintage Ibanez parts and reproductions of some of the parts. The knobs he makes are indistinguishable from the originals. You can find the bridge nuts there. http://www.reproguitarparts.com/#!/Bridge-and-Tail-Piece/c/1385262/offset=0&sort=normal He also makes a plastic reproduction of the cloud, but it doesn't match a gold plated metal one in appearance. You can find clouds on ebay from time to time, but be aware that there were two slightly different versions that differ in the spacing of the three screw holes. The tailpiece you are looking for also comes up on ebay. Bending was a common problem with those.

My impression is that the Velvetune tuners and Flying Fingers pickups are not easy to come by. When they do come up on ebay, they tend to be pricey.

Are you familiar with the Ibanez Collectors World forum? The forum is less active than it was a few years ago but it's a deep well of knowledge and potential sources of some of the rarer parts. It may be worth your while to join the forum and post there especially about the tuners and the pickup. There are several members with a lot of restoration experience and they may be able to help find what you want and help you get the correct parts. I know some of them would love to see a Weir restored.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Thanks for the help, guys - After seeing the prices of some vintage parts I thought I would be money ahead to part out the hardware that is left, and then refit it with modern stuff and just use it as a great guitar. Ibanez stuff from the 80's was kicking Gibson's butt in quality, and this thing could still be a tone monster of serious proportions with the right set of Duncans, etc.

The tough part is the loss of the original peghead overlay. I wonder what happened to it? I guess I'll scrape off that horrible painted crap, and glue on an ebony overlay and get local OLF'r Larry Ayres to do his inlay magic (Larry is the Kansas version of Grit Laskin).

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Ya got that right Chris. Larry does amazing work. I'd put Larry's work up against anyones.

_________________
Say what you do, Do what you say.

This is an example of Larry's inlay skills.