The Aristocrat has landed!

[dklsplace]

It's gorgeous, Don.

I'd just do either a gold/walnut or vintage cherry type translucent finish and call it a day as far as color.

How is it in terms of structural issues and what all will it take to address them?

I hope we can get some sound clips when everything's said and done.

No structural issues thus far, other than the big hole cut out around the input jack. Should be a simple enough fix, either scabbing in a new piece of mahogany, or making a slightly larger jack plate.

The fretboard will take some work. It's pitted pretty deeply down in the first position, but having to do a refret will help. Probably just sand & re-radius the fingerboard before installing new fret wire.

This is what I was hoping for. Perhaps if I can bring the burst in a few steps & get a correct pickguard, all will be well.

 

[AfterDarkMusic]

I was looking at that guitar not more than 2 hours ago. I almost posted about it. GORGEOUS burst. What would you expect that guitar to ACTUALLY sell for? I can't imagine it fetching the >$4000 they're asking.

I'm glad to hear there aren't any serious issues with your's. It looked in the pictures as if the wood you'd mount the pickups to (I don't know the technical term, can ya tell?) are in rough shape.

What type of mounting system do they use? Now that I look a bit more closely I see 4 corner holes and it appears that the centered holes, top and bottom, weren't used for mounting the pickups to the body after all.

On the subject of finishing, the only spot that really jumps out to me is the oversanded area in the upper bout just below the cutaway. Other than that it just looks like 50+ year old wood. It seems to me that you should be able to at least camouflage, if not completely conceal it with a burst finish. And, as you said, if nothing else a pickguard should hide it rather effectively. I look forward to further progress reports.

 

[dklsplace]

I was looking at that guitar not more than 2 hours ago. I almost posted about it. GORGEOUS burst. What would you expect that guitar to ACTUALLY sell for? I can't imagine it fetching the >$4000 they're asking.

I would be surprised to see it go much, if any, over $3000.

It looked in the pictures as if the wood you'd mount the pickups to (I don't know the technical term, can ya tell?) are in rough shape.

Nope, they're solid. Just hard to see clearly in the pic.

Now that I look a bit more closely I see 4 corner holes and it appears that the centered holes, top and bottom, weren't used for mounting the pickups to the body after all.

The holes you see in the center of the right rail is just a drilled out notch for the pickup wires. The pickups are simply mounted by the 4 corners. Pickup covers installed over top of the screws.

 

[Default]

Not too shabby for something that almost went out in the trash. I'm really looking forward to seeing it when you have it done. :mrgreen:

 

[coastie99]

Such dear, pretty old things those old Aristocrats !

Good luck with the project. Look forward to seeing lots of pics.

 

[Guildmark]

Dang, Don! Nice project! Especially if this is what you can look forward to!
http://cgi.ebay.com/1955-Guild-Aris...yZ118985QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Somebody sure thinks it's worth something!!

 

[dklsplace]

Hans found one of these with the simple G inlay at the Arlington show last year & knew I had to have a look. It was in ok condition, but the guy wanted $4500 for that one. It didn't sell that weekend as far as I know. :shock:

 

[guildzilla]

Nice progress, Don. Just curious, but how many hours do you have in the project at this stage? And can you walk us through the process you used to remove the old finish?

 

[dklsplace]

Just curious, but how many hours do you have in the project at this stage? And can you walk us through the process you used to remove the old finish?

Just a handful of hours so far. Probably no more than 5 with hardware removal, but that includes some more time this evening.

I used a brush on gel stripper, careful not to get any on the binding, & a putty knife to scrape the old crud off. Like I said........it was very thick :shock: After that I went at it with some steel wool & some of the stripper to get the trouble spots. Then hand sanded, initially with 100 grit to knock off additional trouble spots, then to 220. From there I've gone at it several times with steel wool & lacquer thinner. Scrubbed the crap out of it tonight & tried to bleach it again.

It's better still, but not good enough to get a good tobacco burst. Unfortunately the more stain I get out of the pores, the more sand throughs I'm discovering. Looks like someone took a palm sander to this once upon a time. :?

 

[dklsplace]

Here's the latest. Since I couldn't get the dark spots out of the grain, I simply stained the top brown & followed with an amber for sort of an antique look.
Also trying to clean the gook from the pickups & will pot them while I have them out like this.
The tail piece was another story. Stripping off the crud off revealed that someone had taken a little dremel type grinder to it before & there were many spots & lines ground into the metal. Took it to the belt sander to clean up as much as I dared, down to clean brass. It's amazing what a little amber trans tint will do to brass eh?

http://s295.photobucket.com/albums/mm138/dklsplace/strip/finish work/

 

[danerectal]

Wowsers. That's one heck of a turnaround. It's pretty choice to see the whole process step by step.

 

[AfterDarkMusic]

Looks like you're making great progress.

 

[Walter Broes]

That looks GREAT Don!!

 

[guildzilla]

Thanks for sharing more of your progress, Don. Looks terrific.

 

[jp]

Very exciting, Don. Great job so far.

 

[AfterDarkMusic]

In related news, this popped up on eBay. Thought I'd let you guys know about it over here in case you didn't make it into the eBay forum.

 

[Default]

Any progress since then?

 

[Default]

Bump.

 

[dklsplace]

Any progress since then?

Ah...........sorry I missed this. Progress yes. Completion, no. Finish is done, pickups cleaned up & potted, new harness, pots, caps ready to go.

The hold up? I ordered new fret wire before sanding & re-radiusing the fingerboard due to the deep spots worn in a few positions, so now the fret slots aren't as deep as the wire on hand. I set it aside while working on a few other projects (among other honey-do stuff & man cave expansion) & need to complete a handful of customer guitars before getting back to it. Then there's the X-350 project, then the S-90 project, then........... 8)

 

[Default]

Heheheeheh!