James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

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James’s indiscriminate resto cleanup thread

Post by Single coil »

Today I went down the music shop with my tele, to see if the dude would hire me or whatever to do basic work (optimistic?Worth a try).
He was pretty impressed with the tele, and didn't hire me, but he did give me something that had been previously loved and since neglected, and said, "See if you can make this go again".

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An old Ibanez EX350. Korean made, or so it says. Typical tiny neck, hsh and a 5 way. Cool colour I thought. I wonder who it belonged to.
Whatever the story behind it, I'm treating this like a test. I am going to do my best to make this play well again.

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So on the bench she goes, in preparation for the tear down and mandatory clean.
There is some obvious fret wear, which tells me it plays (or played) well. They all appear to be quite low too, so I am presuming they've been dressed a few times.

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Some more before pictures.

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Lots of gunk lurking in here.

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A ding.

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This ... I don't know what to make of this.

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Anyone know what year it is? I'm picking '91 if this serial follows the older formula.

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Pretty tidy in here really.

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You can see an ... Outline ... Of ... Wtf

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Not sure what this plate thing is but I can't get it out. The bridge is present - We'll get to that.

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More gunk.

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Heeeeeeere we are on the dark side of the ... Thing. Oodles of corrosion and god knows what else. I have a feeling I'll need to replace the pots. Switch? Maybe. Either way it's all coming to bits.

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'60s wiring. I'll swap that to '50s style.

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Spose the way to remember the pickup configuration is the bridge is slightly more corroded.

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Thread tape on a neck bolt. Weird. I'm sure I can work that out.

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Quite a good size thing of rosewood really.

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It must've been a value for money sorta entry level type deal. The inlays aren't the tidiest, so that's the conclusion I'm drawing. More fret wear is evident here too.

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I'm obviously not an expert knob puller, cuz it took quite a bit of goin' at it to get them off . . . and reveal more gunk. I wonder where this thing sat?

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Can anyone see what's on here? Spoiler alert: Made in Japan!

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Bridge is a TRS, going by the stamps on it. Licenced floyd gig.

Rag wasn't cutting it, so I found some old handy andy (I think) in the shed and dealt to it that way.

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Came up loads better. Nice fleck to it. I will give it a real polish in good time.

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Right.
Now.
You trainspotters out there may or may not know that - with the exception of the jazzmaster - my relationship with tremolo and/or vibrato equipped guitars has not been a kind one.
Especially not with floyds.

This is why I see this sorta resto job as such a challenge - I am tearing everything down to the last nut and bolt, and then I have to balance a floyd.

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The horror unfolds.

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So yeah, you can see the bridge is pretty gunky too.
I had a bit of a brain wave ... Years ago, I used to clean tools for a living (cool right?). My most used tools were kero and a brass brush. Brass would root the black finishy shit on it, so I used a nylon brush.

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I think it came up pretty good really.

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Here's the rest of the hardware fan club I saw fit to brush with kero.

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I thought about putting some stuff on the grinder's wire wheel, but then I'd have to seal the parts again. I have black epoxy paint on my side, but I fear it'll simply be too gluggy for the delicate bits of hardware.

Reassembling the floyd, I found why the music shop bloke shelved the project (he did say there was a reason for it being in the state it was in).

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This screw, and its accompanying saddle, are threaded. So, if anyone has a black saddle that'll work kicking about, let me know, let's talk turkey. I want to make this work.

A clean, and almost complete floyd.

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Now the made in Japan thing is lots clearer.

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... And that's where I've left it for today. Tomorrow I will polish the body up, and begin partial reassembly. May well grind back some of the hardware and paint, but ... Yeah, I'll see. It'll add time to the project, and I'd like to get it back to the dude within a reasonable time frame.

So yeah - Black floyd saddle. Help me out here :D
Last edited by Single coil on Wed Nov 01, 2017 7:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
werdna wrote:Well at least I can still make toast in the bath without anyone telling me it's unsafe.

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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by Bg »

yeah I bought a second hand one when I came to nz, first guitar purchase here. It was;t bad actually :) I may have a saddle or two as well, I'll have a look.
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by AiRdAd »

It definitely needs a Les Paul headstock!!
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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by Jay »

Go Jimmy!

When you'r done, play us a James Blunt song with it please.
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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by AiRdAd »

If you want a really easy way to tidy up the back of the neck, gently sand it to get the staining off, and finish it like a Wolfie neck. Wipe it with tru-oil, wipe it off straight away, and then repeat. Once you have done that you can wax it with gunstock oil, or even something like briwax. If you don't want to do that, you could just sand it and Tru oil it with more costs of Tru oil.
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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by dayl »

Nice, I remember when these things dropped. They were indeed made for the entry level market but what that meant back in the 80's - early 90's is completely different to what it is these days. The trem is the TRS 101, jap made. Pretty much on par with the quality and stability of a genuine floyd rose. Pretty good trems. No idea about the pups etc but these are fun lil gats.

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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by Single coil »

No reproduction of any james blunt song shall be entered into.

The neck will be hit with a scouring pad if the usual suspects can't move the gunk.

Having done a quick search, it's probably cheaper to buy a chong floyd off eBay for 20 bucks than the saddles.
Shortly after putting it back together, I remembered they're set to the neck radius.

Fffffffffffffffff.
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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by dayl »

Single coil wrote:
Having done a quick search, it's probably cheaper to buy a chong floyd off eBay for 20 bucks than the saddles.
Shortly after putting it back together, I remembered they're set to the neck radius.

Fffffffffffffffff.
If thats what you're looking at doing I'll look at buying the trs

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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by Single coil »

Any other guitar I would, but it isn't mine to part out just yet.
If I can fit it in tomorrow, I'm going to go to the local engineering shop and see if they can a) rethtead the saddle and b) replicate the hex bolt that goes in.
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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by dayl »

It can be rethreaded reasonably easily, then have the new thread brazed onto the old bolt for the sake of uniform etc

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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by H671 »

Single coil wrote:Any other guitar I would, but it isn't mine to part out just yet.
If I can fit it in tomorrow, I'm going to go to the local engineering shop and see if they can a) rethtead the saddle and b) replicate the hex bolt that goes in.
What you call a bolt is actually a cap screw and would most likely with a metric thread.
Most engineering supply shops should be able to help you with that.
If you are lucky, the internal thread might be ok - have you tried one of the other screws in it?
Sometimes running a tap through will be enough to clean out the rubbish from the old screw, otherwise you'll need a thread insert.
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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by Clanger »

Where do you find the motivation. I put off putting on new strings for months.

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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by Single coil »

dayl wrote:It can be rethreaded reasonably easily, then have the new thread brazed onto the old bolt for the sake of uniform etc
There are a bunch of russians at this particular shop so they'll probably make a new one with that weird glowing box they keep out the back.
I do own a tap and die set but I fear I'm a touch too ham fisted to do this one without buggering it.
H671 wrote:
Single coil wrote:What you call a bolt is actually a cap screw and would most likely with a metric thread.
Most engineering supply shops should be able to help you with that.
If you are lucky, the internal thread might be ok - have you tried one of the other screws in it?
Sometimes running a tap through will be enough to clean out the rubbish from the old screw, otherwise you'll need a thread insert.
Nah screw and thread are both bollocksed. Explains why there was thread tape on it.
Go go gadget engineering shop.
Clanger wrote:Where do you find the motivation. I put off putting on new strings for months.
Uhh ... ya know.
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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by Single coil »

Right. So. That floyd is basically toasted - It'll cost me twice what it will to bring in a complete replacement with locking bits to have it repaired. So, once the bene pennies come in, I'll buy a floyd.
Bit of a shame given I cleaned the thing up though. Ahh well.

Decided to try making a jack plate rather than hacking into the electronics - I will play with them another day.

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Newspaper for getting the holes right, bit of wood for temporary plate . . .

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... Screws to hold it on (once I've found a jack).

[imgur had too many gins - it's just a box of screws]

... And my "this'll probably work" formula to making sure I drill holes in the right spot. Substituted toothpaste for polish because a) it won't hurt the finish (it's getting polished up anyway) and b) it's what was there :D

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Erm ... Alright. I did say probably.

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I have a feeling Kerri would be impressed with the effort, but not the finished product. So I canned this.

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... And had a hoon at molesting a piece of aluminium to do the job instead.

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Folded it over cuz it's quite thin stuff. Not exactly square though, so, hmm. Let's sort that out.

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Better, I guess.

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Fired up the grinder and took all the sharp bits off. Seems lots of work for a temporary piece, but it's more fun than clicking a few buttons and buying one.

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Me being me, I couldn't leave it there though.

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We interrupt this broadcast to bring you BREAKING NEWS from the bloke in the van









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A big box turned up. I thought I'd be really careful.

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Hullo. What have we here.

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Heyyy ... It's my first "can you do this for me?" :mrgreen:

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An agathis body which began life as a standard series squier tele. Finish is kinda cool, but that's all coming off.

Ok back to the ibanez.



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Got the hard stuff out. I mean, it's black, it'll work. Seems reasonable, right?

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I quickly got bored of waiting for that to dry, so I assessed my first client's order, and ripped into it.

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She's a bit dinged up, but all the damage is to the finish. Look how thick it is.

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So thick, that the poor heat gun only managed to get through the top layer. I thought I'd roasted the lot off, but it turns out it'd been finished really weirdly.
The blank wood spot in the next picture is most of the horn. The peachy colour you see on the body is everywhere, except the horn. Not sure what happened at the factory that day.

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lol what a mess

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It managed to bubble a little of the big chunky layer off, but not as much as I'd have liked.

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Welp. This can't hurt.

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Looks like it's working, but only in the neck pockety bit.

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Hmm.

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Turns out she's doin' sweet fuck all.

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aaaaaaaand back to the ibanez :D

I don't remember if this was pre or post cut (or polish), but the flake is there.

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I expect this is post buff. Never really liked candy apple red until now.

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You can still see the score marks from where someone's loved playing it. A good cut won't get that out apparently.

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Here we are, post buff and everything.

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So by now, I expected the paint stripper to have done at least something.
It hadn't.
So I took all the gunk off.

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I tried my palm sander with the 100 grit pad thing.
It made lots of dust and smelt good, but didn't really do anything. So, I moved to the 1/3 sheet sander and whacked on the roughest shit I could find.
Same deal.

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So after a fair whack of that (and painting everything in the shed with polyunicorn dust), it was time for the big guns. Out came the belt sander and a 40 grit belt.

... Which it promptly ate.

The rest were all 60 and 80; I think I did quite well with the 60.

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It managed to eat through the absolutely immense coating of poly and finally get down to bare agathis.

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What a tart it was to get it that far. Fortunately the sander is what. 2 inches wide? It made fairly short work of the sides.

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... and then there was only wood.

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Actually quite a good lookin' bit o' wood innit? Some of these will be post- 180 ish grit with the 1/3 sander.

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There are some sorta claw marks I will need to get rid of. Nothing too drastic (accentuated by whack job lightning and sawdust), just annoying.

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The last bit on the horn shouldn't be too difficult to fill and sand back and keep natural looking.

That's all I managed to do today. Fair whack of progress I think. More news at 11.
werdna wrote:Well at least I can still make toast in the bath without anyone telling me it's unsafe.

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Re: James is blummin' well at it again

Post by Bg »

what a fanny around, but yeah looks like epoxy grain filler. PITA that stuff.
So, is that low alcohol or no alcohol at all? mmmm, no alcohol, do you want to try it? Noooooooooo.

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