Greco

[Jumping@Shadows]

Hi all, while I normally concentrate on '50s/'60s Gibson guitars to restore, with a particular focus on '50s Les Paul 'Burst' conversions, I wanted a cool single cut with vintage features to keep as a beater, yet still with enough nerd value to satisfy my inner (and outer) geek.

With that in mind I sought out one of the estimated only 500 Greco EGF1200 Super Real Les Paul's hand made in Japan between '79-'81, with BRW boards, supposedly old Honduran Mahogany bodies and the infamous 'DRY Z' PAFs made using NOS '50s PE wire.

While the bones are all one could want from a vintage Les Paul, the construction deviates in the fact the body is multi piece, the finish a kinda poly/nitro hybrid, and the top a very thick cross banded laminate veneer:

This example was greatly reduced in price as the top was severely cracked, so I immediately about removing it, hoping to reveal an acceptable centre seam (if plain) solid maple cap, but while it initially appeared that'd be so, it was actually a 5 piece block board..

I decided to try and make the most of what I had, and sanded and bleached in order to even out the pieces, but it just wasn't acceptable for the sunburst I had in mind:

 

[Jumping@Shadows]

I briefly toyed with shooting a translucent cherry, but I've never been a great fan of that look, so decided to attempt fitting a killer flame eastern maple veneer I've had saved for a couple years, and rigged up a vacuum bag press Wacky Races would be proud of..

I used hide glue for a brittle and super thin bond, and was really pleased with the results:

I moved on to finishing with vintage correct pure nitro and aniline dyes, and aimed for a NOS '59 cherry sunburst, to fade naturally over time.

I started with a golden yellow base coat:

Then onto the burst:

I built up the lustre and colour with amber clears, and it's now ready to hang and cure before polishing out and assembling ready for ageing:

The veneer flame shifts in the light, and has all the depth of a solid top, and you'd not know to question it in hand from appearance alone, and I'm really pleased with the result.

I intend to keep this as my beater, but the success of this process gives me confidence to consider veneer tops for really trashed '50s conversions, and there's really no reason to have anything short of spectacular results regardless of the original condition of the guitar.

 

[frazettafan]

This looks great, JAS. I can't see you after spraying photos unfortunately. Any chance of re-posting them. The top you've put on there looks stunning and I'd love to see the final job. I'm pretty amazed that a guitar held in such high regard would have a blackboard top like that. Were you surprised when you found that Out?

Cheers

Mike

 

[Jumping@Shadows]

Thanks Mike- I actually reposted this in the vintage Les Pauls section with full pics.
I was a bit puzzled by the multipiece top, but i guess if the intention was always to veneer (just like '52-'57 Les Pauls were destined to be gold..), they made no effort to match or use two piece tops- has zero effect on the tone tho!

 

[frazettafan]

Great I'll check it out over there!

Thanks

Mike