Pantera X350MA Restore

Westbone wrote:Post a picture of your crack.

Seems alot of work for what?????

Sorry eh- but this

neck is cracked eh

sarcaster wrote:

I'm keeping a clamp on it until I get it glued

YIKES!! Not the minor finish fissure you had hoped for, eh Pat? How far around the neck radius does that extend? Almost looks like a poorly set scarf join.

Mine had only a finish crack (in nearly the same spot) due to the fingerboard seperating. 2 different viscosities of SuperGlue and a buffing wheel got it back on track though.

I cannot recall the auction listing at the time having detailed the wear & tear (especially the frets) to any degree. Did it?

I just retraced your earlier posts and noticed your comment on the headstock logo. Did it seem to be a decal or just some sort of paint?

Whatever it is it certainly represents itself as inlaid MOP. I suppose the x390's are the same then...

Black logo with black hardware will look very sharp if you are heading towards the color I am imagining you are considering...

sarcaster wrote:

Westbone wrote:Post a picture of your crack.

Seems alot of work for what?????

Sorry eh- but this

neck is cracked eh

Sad days eh!

Not so sad, It's good practice too fix it. THe crack itself is mainly under the fingerboard, a lot of the bad look is the finish cracks. It should be an easy fix.

I am a bit disappointed that the logo was not an inlay, but hey- no big deal.

This bird is gonna look amazing when done. I just hope some of the dings in it aren't too deep to pull up with water and heat, we shall see

<---- a naked lady. So sad, but so... exciting, eh? ;-)

Here's a good shot of the crack as it looks on the other side of the neck

All done with the rough sanding on this one. I gotta say the 390's and 350's are a lot of work. The Spectrum took about 40 minutes to sand, and this one took over 4 hours total and I still have some finish sanding to do.

The real tough spot is where the neck meets the body - hard to sand the body without getting the fretboard too much. I need to make a good flat sand stick to get in that corner.

No more dings or dents in the body or neck, I got them all out either by sanding or dampening the wood, placing a hot iron on a wet cloth to lift the grain, and then sanding smooth - works great.

I'll probably do another hour at least on the finish sanding to get all the little sandpaper scratches out so the stain or dye doesn't stand out in them.

dang this is a purty guitar

Neck is all glued up and is drying. I stuck a small wedge in there to make more room for the applicator. Made sure glue covered all I could and clamp it down.

You don't have to plane the board to get rid of the furrows. I have used a method several times involving a sharp blade, superglue and wood dust.

I have restored about half a dozen Matsumoku guitars using the same method with excellent results.

Hoax

hoax wrote:You don't have to plane the board to get rid of the furrows. I have used a method several times involving a sharp blade, superglue and wood dust.

I have restored about half a dozen Matsumoku guitars using the same method with excellent results.

Hoax

hmmm - do you mean using the dust to fill the furrows? Do you have any before and after pics - would be a great post to show your method.

I have a cheap Mako guitar that has just as bad of a board and terrible frets that I am going to "practice" on. If I can get that board looking nice, then I think I can get any board nice

hoax wrote:You don't have to plane the board to get rid of the furrows. I have used a method several times involving a sharp blade, superglue and wood dust.
I have restored about half a dozen Matsumoku guitars using the same method with excellent results.

I'm sure this will work just as well as the solder-in-the-frets trick.

Pour ya 'nuther pint Graham?

Since all is going well on this one - i just put in my order for the stain and clear coat materials



this is gonna look goooood

Barry wrote:

hoax wrote:You don't have to plane the board to get rid of the furrows. I have used a method several times involving a sharp blade, superglue and wood dust.
I have restored about half a dozen Matsumoku guitars using the same method with excellent results.

I'm sure this will work just as well as the solder-in-the-frets trick.

Pour ya 'nuther pint Graham?

I can't show a before picture as I did not take them. I can't show an after as you really can't see the repairs (they are that good!!)

Here is the link

http://fingerlakesguitarrepair.com/fender-jazzmaster-fretboard-wear/

I can tell you that Damian also uses this method.

Damn doubting Thomas !!

Hoax

Well, ya learn summit new every day eh? I suppose if the frets are already out...And it makes sense to build UP rather than sand DOWN...And it looks OK (sort of). But I still gotta wonder how long it'll withstand string impact and scraping before yer back where ya started.

Barry wrote: But I still gotta wonder how long it'll withstand string impact and scraping before yer back where ya started.

A lot longer if one is to go with jumbo's I guess.
so a good fix for rosewood, what about maple?

The point is that you don't need to take the frets out. Also, I can assure you that a superglue/dust mix is rock hard and much harder to sand than the original board, so there are no issues regarding longevity.

Not really any good for a maple board as the colour doesn't match for some reason.

I use my original scraping dust from cleaning the board as the filler.

This method really does work extremely well.

Hoax

Hoax

hoax wrote:The point is that you don't need to take the frets out...

Can't see doing a badly mucked up board with the frets still in. 'Twould be really annoying methinks. But for a couple of spot repairs, perhaps...

Toughest spot to sand on the guitar for me is where the body meets the neck, specifically the fretboard. Its tough to get into that corner, so here is the solution I used yesterday. Tape the fretboard and the one side of the block, and only have sandpaper on the bottom side of the block - it worked really good.

The repair to the neck is all done as well, sanded it smooth and I am ready to stain this guitar - come on UPS, hurry up, get that stain here!

Liking this.... a lot!

greenburst, blueburst, or just a boring old wood colour?!

OIY!... OIY THERE!!

BLACKburst or go home...

Sorry folks, no bursting to be done on this one. Gonna be a one color deal. I hope I can get the flame to come up a bit stronger than it was originally. I may lay down some black first and then sand out the high points and then do the color, sand the high points lightly, and possibly another coat of color. We'll see - I haven't stained a guitar before so let's hope it comes out good.

sarcaster wrote:...I haven't stained a guitar before so let's hope it comes out good.

Lookin' mighty fine Sarc. You should consider a sealer first to prevent excessive "wicking" of the colour into the raw wood. Also makes it a tad easier to make corrections or changes.

Barry wrote:

sarcaster wrote:...I haven't stained a guitar before so let's hope it comes out good.

Lookin' mighty fine Sarc. You should consider a sealer first to prevent excessive "wicking" of the colour into the raw wood. Also makes it a tad easier to make corrections or changes.

I didn't use sealer figuring that the maple would not be very pourous. Now on the mahogony neck pieces may be a different thing, but we will see as the staining has begun!

First I gave the wood a bit of water to raise the grain a bit.

After drying I used some 320 Grit very lightly to knock down the grain and make it even

Next up was mixing some Black stain - about 1 1/2 oz to 1 pint of stain. Yes that is gonna be dark, but I want to start dark, then lighten it up pretty good before adding the color.

Here is the darkest looking 350 I've ever seen - You can really see the flame under it all - let's hope it still pops after the color:

Ooooh... pretty!! Think just how cracking this would be with a trans black finish... maybe with a little purple pearl in the black.... yummy!!

The black would look good I agree but......

This is how it looks after sanding lightly with 320grit to take off the top of the black, it is also wet from a thinner to help remove the dust - Has a unique look to it as it stands

Next up is adding the first coat of color and see how it turns out.

Blue it is.

Very good.

Going to look the dogs bollox with the lacquer..

How's the back and the neck looking?

The back looks pretty plain since it isn't flamed. I'm starting to think a coat of blue with some black in it so it is darker, like a burst, but not one that creeps to the front - Basically the back is boring. The back of the neck I may do the same - but I'm going to give the front a bit of sanding tonight to bring out the brightness of the high spots on the front, and maybe the maple laminates of the neck. So some tweaking still to be done with the color.

But I agree - the lacquer is where it will really shine - no pun intended.

Sprayed the Sanding Lacquer on the guitar - it's not a shiny finish but I guess more like a filler. After a night of drying I will sand a bit and add the headstock logo (I think it might look better without it). Then this weekend the glossy lacquer goes on.

The pic of the body is a little overexposed looking - it is darker blue in person - but dang, the flame looks a lot stronger than the original amber.

This pic shows the color more like it looks in person:

Oh, mate; that is gonna be just a bit special, eh!!

Ok, I put down some of Stewmac's sanding lacquer, and then sanded and applied the logo



not a great pic but it was dark in my garage when I took the pic. It's slightly crooked, and not very noticeable which I am fine with.



But, after that I used the Stewmac clear lacquer and what a waste of time that crap is. First time using it, and it dripped, spit, sputtered all over the place - I followed their recommendations (shake for at least a minute, soak the can in hot water blah blah) and after a few shots, I had to move to another can as it was that bad. I tried 4 different cans and they all were terrible, so I had to let it dry and, then sand back down to color, then spray a new brand (which is awesome) tonight. Night and day difference.

I have bought a lot of stuff from Stewmac, but will never get lacquer from there again - keep away folks - it really sucks.

Bugger! Still, no real harm done, eh?! I've used Cabothanes clear gloss on the U 60 on the recommendation of 4 individual tradies, and its worked out just fine!

That flame is just the ducks guts; like it!

the ducks guts?...that's a new one to me, but hopefully it means something good

Flame is looking great. Looks like the new product works well indeed. Great work.

sarcaster wrote:the ducks guts?...that's a new one to me, but hopefully it means something good

You'll find them just above the duck's nuts.

Looking really good Sarc. The flame. Not the nuts.

Ok, did all of the wet sanding tonight and then as I was getting some of the light compound done I took these pics. this is Not the final buff, but damn, it is looking good if I do say so my self. It's the best refinish I've done to date, and I now I HAVE to redo my x390 now that I have learned so much since that one. Final buff tomorrow, then put her back together this weekend.

O crap - where did I put the truss rod cover?

Sweet jeebus, that's nice!!

Hope you find the TRC....

I was kidding - I got the TRC - although it really would suck to lose it.

but I did forget to wet sand it - at least that should go pretty quick