Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello everyone,

Just got this Gibson B-45 12 on my shop the other day. The guitar is in a really nasty condition. Some spilled some cement (translation check?) over the instrument and then decided to rip all the finish and then "refinish" it with the mighty paintbrush over the fretboard, over the frets, over the pickguard, over the bridge, over...

The top is cracked in two spots, one of them already (poorly) repaired. The top is also detached of the repaired section.




I decided to create this thread to show you the progress of the work, and also to look for your input about this kind of situation. For example, would you refinish the guitar and then try to mimic the usual wear and tear of an instrument with 30+ years?

I'm pretty excited about this guitar. I hope it'll make a great addition to my shy acoustic repairs/restoration portfolio.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Oh, and a great 2010 to you all. Cheers!

Thanks for this, I await the first update.

I recently worked on a pre-war martin that had a similar level of abuse, (this owner thought that black spraypaint was the answer, over the fingerboard, bridge, even inside the box. A real shame.)

Best of luck.

Celso,

You did not say exactly what the goal of the owner is: Restore to what level? I see no Gibson logo, so will one be added? Do you know the original finish scheme (natural or sunburst?)

How much money will you charge the owner?? The value of this guitar on the open market is not very high IMHO - making a major restoration very economically questionable in my mind, unless you are doing this mostly for your resume and not your income?? There looks to more work than the guitar is worth. In other words, the cost of refinish and repairs on the open market may be as much or more than the value of the guitar on the open market. A refinished vintage guitar's value is MUCH lower than the same model/year with original finish. A refinish knocks 60% to 70% off a guitar's value typically. How many hours of work do you plan to spend? What's the detailed plan?

Would I mimic wear and tear? No. I would not bother on a guitar that needs a complete refinish like this one. I might mimic an old look on a repair on an original guitar already showing wear and tear and I wanted my little added work to blend in.

Just my 2 cents.

Ed