Bridge cleaned

I got most of the paint of the front of the body. A few dents still have emulsion embedded in them.








Those tricky horns.










Bridge before cleaning.










Bridge after cleaning. Better than it was anyway.

Began sanding

I sanded most of the paint off the back of the body, but this was only one layer of emulsion thick. The front has at least two layers of emulsion. Inside the 'horns' is going to be tricky too.







And not forgetting Gav's doodle in permanent marker.









These scratches were underneath the emulsion; they might even have been underneath the tobacco sunburst finish.








I put the bridge with its seized up saddles into a bath of release agent. I'll leave it overnight. Hopefully it will dissolve some of the emulsion and the various other crap too.







Nasty rusty stuff. The Union flag must have been painted in crimson acrylic paint because that's what's embedded in the lettering on the bridge saddles and on the springs and bolts. This is never going to be like new, but it's got to look better than this.

The guitar

Bandmate Gav's guitar is knackered. It was bought about thirteen years ago by Gav's bro, and for many years served as his main guitar. Then he got an Epiphone Les Paul and this one eventually got passed to Gav.







It's a Vester 'Tradition Series', with an 'Original Concept Body'. Basically, it's a Strat copy. It used to look like the guitar on this page. Except it has a white scratchplate. Over the years the guitar got several custom paint jobs. It's been covered in stickers, sellotape and pictures from magazines. It was completely coated in yellow eggshell emulsion paint, and finally a coat of matt white emulsion. The scratchplate (I think) was painted with a Union flag at some point. The neck only had a bit of emulsion where it bolts on to the body. The headstock had a few stickers and the tuners were badly tarnished/rusted. In this photo I've already given the tuners and neck a good clean.


The guitar is in bits because when Gav painted it white, he realised that it didn't work any more. He completely dismantled it. It's in a bad way. The bridge part is rusted and the screws have seized up. The switch and pots are very dodgy. The pickups might work but they have been painted too at some point. All of the white knobs and the switch tip are missing. Half the screws are missing. The pickups screws and springs seem to be too few.





The output jack is covered in white emulsion.









I am going to do the body first. Then the hardware. Then the electrics. After sanding the multiple layers of paint off I will do a new paint job.