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A potential customer contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in restoring his 61 SG that he purchased as a husk. After a couple of emails and seeing the pictures I decided why not..I love a challenge !

Here are the pictures I got:









So, to quote Ozzy : " Let the Madness Begin "

That entire neck joint area is shot. No way to salvage it so I planned my attack and got started.
First off, band saw the entire neck joint area out:





After removing all 6 screws and heating up the tenon I was able to remove all of the surrounding wood .
Tenon is intact with nothing broken. Thank God for Hide Glue !




I'll deal with those holes in the back of the neck tenon later !

I had a friend of mine CNC me a Male / Female template with a 3/8" radius corners so I can route out the cut portion of the body and also make a matching, tight fitting plug.




Routing done, nice fit !




Drilling the plug for Maple Dowels:




A little Hot Hide Glue and lets clamp it up !





I let it dry for 3 days, removed the clamps and milled the plug flush with the body.




I also plugged the bridge and stop tail piece holes. This SG is getting ut back together the way it was !




Lets begin to reshape the plug along with the rest of the body shall we !








Neck Mortise routed out....nice snug fit !







Pick up cavity done, body, bevels, etc, block sanded to bring back the crisp edges !










I also doweled the sides of the plug for added strength. As you can see it's doweled inside of the pickup cavity.



Hmmm, That's strange ? No hole drilled for the ground wire. Looks like I'll have to take care of that!




On to the headstock. The face was so over sanded and the edges rounded over that i had no choice but to remove the inlays, sand the face FLAT and put another piece of Holly on it.







That's what I'm talking about ! Nice crisp, shape edge !




Frets removed, FB cleaned and sanded. Got 95% of the divots removed and still have plenty of material left.






Since these picture were taken I sanded a bit more and got just about ALL of the divots out with the exception of the real deep ones in the first 2 or 3 frets.

Some knuckle head got a little crazy with the drill and went right through the board ! I cleaned out the light colored filler, packed it full of Rosewood dust and a drop of Water Thin CA Glue did the trick !





Lets Inlay something !




I had a nice tight cavity routed out for the inlay and when i decided to go back and clean up the top edge I slipped with the Dremel and oops, slightly larger than I wanted !



Taking care of those nasty screw holes in the heel of the neck.





here she is so far.




New period correct Inlays are in place.











Inlays are in, frets seated and filed flush with the binding route.





Binding done. !





Fired up the Glue Pot, mixed up a small batch of fresh Hide Glue and the neck is now back where it belongs.






Neck all glued up, heel blended into body, finished sanded up to 300 grit and a sealer coat of Nitro SS sprayed to keep it clean . Also fitted and adjusted the Vibrola.















1 Step Closer.....Neck Filler piece and Cavity Cover made and fitted.


































Some before and after pics:

WOW, quite a write-up and looking great. Thanks, very interesting.

Incredible!

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Great write up.

I'm curious about the holly. Why use holly if it isn't going to stay white? Also, how did you make the plate black and still show the inlay? I don't know much about painting or dyeing wood. I'm curious about the process on the headstock.


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Well done, sir. It wasn't dead, but it was headed to the graveyard very soon. Glad you got it sorted out. Is that Pagan Gold lacquer?

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

Les Paul Gold Top Gold

American Holly was used on all of the Gibson Les Pauls and Specials, Standards and Custom SG's during the late 50's and into at least the late 60's if not early 70's. The reason being , it has a very close / tight grain pattern that does not require any type of grain filling, similar to Alder. I don't remember exactly when they switched over to the Fiber Overlay which is still in use today.

Holly is glued to the headstock face and then shaped. Inlay cavities are routed into the face of the HS and the inlays were glued in with a black dyed glue. I use black colored quick set epoxy.
Once dry the inlays are sanded flush. Then the entire face was dyed black. Being the inlays are MOP they will not absorb the dye. the reason for the black dye was to save a painting step.Once the guitars got their final clear coat and polished out the Les Paul Script was silk screened on the face of the headstock with gold ink. No decals were ever used. Again, this process is still used today in the Gibson plant.

I hope this clears things up for you

Very very Nice. And thanks for posting. Its nice to see someone to do something beautiful.

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You just pick up a chord, go twang, and you're got music. -Sid Vicious

Great job!

Holy cow! Iommi would be proud. That's a beauty..

One more question about the holly:

Did you reuse the existing head plate or did you source new holly? If so, what is your source for holly (I can't find it anywhere locally)?

I used a new piece. I had purchased several 3/32nd thick pieces from a vendor off of ebay a couple of years ago but my supply is down to 2 headstock sized pieces. The guy I purchased them from is no longer around so I too have to find a source. I am actively looking for a supplier and if I come across someone I will let you know