|
Examples of our work
Click the pictures to view larger
versions
(Latest additions always at the top) GM Vintage Scratch Burst Here
is the latest GM Vintage project... a burst built totally from scratch.
We started with a lightweight one-piece Honduras mahogany body and mated it to a top of beautifully flamed maple. Great pains were taken to get this as close as possible... including period correct routes and long neck tenon, correct color bindings, Brazilian rosewood board with original 50's inlays and holly headstock overlay. All facets of production were done in-house, including pearl inlay and silkscreened logo. Many of the parts are original 50s ...including tuners, nut, truss rod cover, knobs, switch tip, pickguard, wiring harness and case. It's loaded with Sheptone PAF tribute pickups and they sound great. Very thin nitro faded cherryburst/ teaburst finish with realistic lacquer checking. The back and neck are done in a faded cherry finish utilizing the correct pore filler to capture the proper look. I
built this guitar to show that a) GM Vintage can handle any facet of
Les Paul restoration and b) because I've always wanted a cool
burst-style guitar...sorry, but we are not able to make Gibson-style
guitars for customers. I hope you like it!
      59 Les Paul Conversion This is a LP conversion that I just
finished for John Heuring of New York state. John is a great guy
who specified a finish close to the "Thelma burst" ...a 59 owned by Tom
Keifer of Cinderella. It's a cool look... a faded Ice tea burst with a
fair bit of green in the upper part. The back is a faded cherry with darker red pore filler
that nails the original look. John has all original parts including
double white PAFs in this baby.... he says when it's played through his
Marshall plexi stack it will give you a " facial peel"!!
      1952/59 Gibson Les Paul Conversion Here is a 52-59
conversion we did for my friend Bill Pandolfi of Florida. Bill wanted a
very faded teaburst similar to the Peter Green burst. What looks to be a once piece top is
actually a very well matched off centre seam. This one was a lot of fun
to do and the finished product plays and sounds like a dream!
     1956 Fender Stratocaster
This is a 1956 Strat I did a body-only refin on for Dave Westerbeke of California. This was a difficult one because I had to blend to the original finish which was still present under the pickguard. It turned out real well...Dave says I "hit it right out of the park" ...I like that! I guess this proves a GM Vintage finish is "out standing" in it's field ! ( I never claimed I was a comic)  1955 Gibson Les Paul Here is a
beautiful 1955 tuneamatic / stop Les Paul we restored for my good buddy
Tom Benson. Tom has great taste in guitars and motorcycles ( he
restores old Indians). This one turned out real purty and is a killer
player!
      1954 era Gold Top Replica Here is a '54 era Les Paul goldtop we built totally from
scratch. Sorry, we can't build a Les Paul for you... I've posted these
pictures to show you that we are capable of building necks or bodies
for authentic Gibson restorations, and well as doing inlay work,
silkscreening and headstock overlays / repairs.
  This beauty started out as a lightweight one piece slab
of honduras mahogany. All the parts are from the 1950's, the
fingerboard is Brazilian rosewood and the bindings and inlays are
period correct in colour and pattern. It's about as close as you can
get to the real thing, and it's satisfied my lust for owning a 50's
goldtop!
   Restored Gibson SG/LP Here is an SG/ LP that we restored for Helmuth Sultanow of Edmonton. Why didn't I take before pictures ?!? ...the whole body was dipped in a burgundy fibreglass resin (including part of the fingerboard) and every original part had been robbed off the guitar except for the pickguard. The fibreglass was removed over many many hours using a small scraper blade...no chemicals would touch it. The finish is aged cherry using the correct red pore filler. We sourced all the needed parts and the guitar is now back to 100% original. Definitely a contender for the most improved award.     1961 Fender Stratocaster If you love custom colour strats, this one will have you " foaming" at the mouth! This is my 1961 strat done in what is arguably Fender's sexiest colour.... foam green with period correct desert sand primer. Just a killer look with a funky green guard and authentic lacquer checking. By the way.... if you're looking at the picture of the knobs... you're looking straight at a large switch hole repair I did. Can you spot it???     Early 60's "Mary Kay" Fender Stratocaster Here's an early 60's Mary Kaye model I built from a bunch of old parts I had lying around.......      1953 to 1956 Gibson Les Paul Conversion Doing a Les Paul conversion is one of the more challenging jobs a restoration shop gets challenged with...it separates the boys from the men, as they say !! The following 10 pictures document a conversion we did for my now good friend Doug Capener of Seattle, Washington. Getting a conversion done is stressful business...Doug has kindly offered to act as a reference for GM Vintage. His contact info is in the customer comments section...give him a call !! #1 - Here's the guitar as it looked when Doug bought it, refinished in cherry red by Gibson back in the 70's.While the neck angle may look okay in this picture...it wasn't! The pickup cavities had been deepened considerably and the bridge had been totally ground down. Eagle eyed viewers will also note that the stop tailpiece was positioned too far back on the body #2 - Here's the body with the neck removed and the pickup cavities filled with new mahogany and maple.The finish has already been stripped in this photo...that red stain is right in the maple . Oh well...I love a challenge. Even though this guitar originally had a trapeze tailpiece, at some point it was also drilled for a wrap tailpeice. ( The holes were hidden by the bridge in picture #1) #3 - Here's the body with all the red stain removed, all the extra holes dowelled and the pickup cavities restored. Now it's time to paint!! #4 - Here's a top view of the finished project showing detail of the lacquer checking and all the original parts Doug chased down. What a cool guitar!! #5 - Looking straight down onto the top. All the guitar's previous boo-boos are totally invisible! #6 - This picture shows the new neck angle and string height in relation to the pickups and bridge...just where you want it!  
 #7 - Another side view of the top showing neck angle #8 - I didn't want to give this guitar back!! #9 - Detail of headstock restoration and lacquer checking  #10 - Proud father Doug Capener holds his new main squeeze!! Fender Baritone Jaguar (owned by Bill Frisell)    Custom Colour Custom Strats     Wow....great
family photos. Pre CBS teles bask in the B.C. sunshine,
awaiting reunion with their loving owners ! 1950 Fender Nocaster Here's a 1950 Nocaster that we restored for our good friend Joe R. of Tacoma. This is the oldest Fender I have worked on so far...I could almost feel the presence of Leo Fender peering myopically over my shoulder , saying " Ah yes...I remember this one"!! This one was a neck and body restoration , with subtle wear and lacquer checking.We were even able to help locate an original bakelite guard for the guitar. Enjoy it Joe...you deserve it !! Gibson 1954 Les Paul Reissue     Here's a Gibson custom shop '54 reissue that we aged for a customer. While it was a nice guitar, it just didn't have the vibe. The lacquer checking on top is an EXACT reproduction of a well used real 54 goldtop, including the forearm wear. We also dyed the fingerboard darker, aged the inlays, truss rod cover, and all metal parts, and added a conservative amount of belt buckle rash. This guitar has major mojo now ! 1957 Fender Telecaster Here's a 57 Tele we redid for all around great dude Martin D. Moderate forearm wear and light checking make for a classic Tele look. 1957 Fender Stratocaster     Here's a 57 strat I restored for my friend Greg Johnson 1955 Gibson ES-295    I'm a fan of Rock-A-Billy, so I've always loved ES-295s. I scored this guitar pretty cheap off ebay because it was refinished and the headstock had been broken. The neck was replaced with a late 60's ES-175 neck... unfortunately, whoever did the job in England set the neck at much too steep of an angle... the bridge was almost 2 inches off the top! Since the neck had to come off anyway, we decided to reshape the headstock to 50's contours and remove the ugly volute. We dowelled the tuner holes, redrilled to 1950's spacing and reshot the headstock in black lacquer. You can't tell it was done. The body was stripped of its poly finish and reshot in the nitro lacquer using the correct bronzing powder to produce an authentic aged 50's goldtop look. I sourced an original tailpiece and tuners... now she's back to 100%. Pretty cool, huh? Gretsch Anniversary -> 6120 Conversion I've always loved orange Gretsches with DeArmonds. This guitar left the factory as a sunburst Double Anniversary. When I got it, it sported a metallic green finish. When I stripped it I was in for a nasty shock... both the headstock and the heel had been cracked and repaired with a dark epoxy. The neck was stable but looked like hell! This one was a challenge... to mix paint to match the bare maple and then painstakingly paint in the grain lines with a tiny brush. I'm really happy with how this turned out - the repair is invisible under the orange stain. We added an NOS 6120 headstock overlay and bound it as per factory specifications, along with the F-holes. After finishing with Gretsch orange lacquer, we installed the DeArmonds and the 1950s 6120 pick guard I acquired. Add an old Bigsby and jewelled cowboy strap and voila... a Rock-A-Billy classic! 1958 Gibson Les Paul Special This guitar was another ebay bargain... mostly non-original parts and a cherry sunburst polyurethane finish. Yuck! Gibson's TV finish is a hard one to do... it's a challenge to get the proper look to the grain and to capture that distinctive green/yellow/brown hue. Many people have told me that I really nailed it with this one. This guitar sports some very authentic-looking wear and lacquer checking, and the parts are back to 100% original. You gotta love P-90 Les Pauls! 1955 Les Paul Junior Project Guitar   About a year ago, I was poking around a local music store and found an early 50's Gibson neck lying behind the counter. It had a huge rounded profile, Brazilian rosewood board with pearloid dots, and gold silkscreened logo. It was screaming to be made into a Junior. There was just one problem: a Junior has 22 frets and this neck only had 18. We actually grafted a new long-tenon heel on the end of the neck and fitted a Brazilian rosewood extension onto the end of the existing fingerboard. The job was pretty much undetectable (see photo). We then built a beautiful Junior body out of single lightweight piece of Honduras mahogony and glued the neck on as per 1950's specs. The body was finished in a thin nitro lacquer Junior burst, with the new finish blending in with the original neck finish. All parts are original 1950's and the guitar weighs 6 1/2 pounds. With a screaming 8.7K P-90, this guitar has all the sound and vibe of any real Junior. 1962 Stratocaster Project Guitar This is a Strat I put together around a bunch of early 60's parts I had kicking around. The body is a lightweight alder one from Allparts, finished in a faded Sonic Blue nitro lacquer with lots of cool checking and forearm wear. The neck is a beautiful flame-maple sample from Allparts. We dye the fingerboards to make them appear aged and install genuine clay dots. All parts are original pre-CBS and it plays as well as my buddies real '63 Strat. 1965 Fender Jazz Bass    I bought this Jazz Bass from Southworth Music about 6 months ago. The headstock finish is an original heavily-ambered Olympic White, but the body had been stripped and stained an ugly brown color. We sprayed the body to match the headstock and did some heavy checking and edge wear consistent with the condition of the neck. This one turned out really nice. 1952 Fender Telecaster    Wow, was this guitar a mess when it arrived! It had been sprayed with 30 coats of poly back in the 70's, and the finish was a full 1/16th of an inch thick! The neck had also been sprayed with poly, and it was a challenge to redo the front and back of the headstock and blend it with the old fingerboard finish. In addition to having much more vibe now, this guitar is a full pound lighter! 1956 Fender Stratocaster This guitar was a neck and body refin we did for my friend Charlie from Seattle. Charlie wanted a look with less wear that was still lacquer checked. I also had to work around a few big dings that we found in the body. We did a minimum of fingerboard wear to recreate the look of a well cared for 50-year-old guitar. Our 2-tone-sunbursts are actually 4 different colors sprayed on the body to create a subtle graduated sunburst. I was never a big fan of the "bulls-eye" bursts Fender often did in the 60's... I think the colors should seamlessly blend together. Our 3-tone sunbursts are pretty nice too! Sean Kilback Flame Maple Custom P-90 T-Style Guitar   Once in a while we have to deal with one of those weird people who want their guitar to look new instead of beat-up... to each his own, haha! This semi-hollow guitar was made by my good friend Sean Kilback here on Vancouver Island. Sean is a guru of amp mods and circuit restoration, and you should check out his website in my links section. Sean wanted a 50's Gibson archtop vibe with natural binding, ambered top, and a faded cherry back. This one turned out really nice! Trimmed + Burning Reso Tele This guitar is a custom resonator Tele build by my good friend Shannon Coberly at Trimmed + Burnin' Guitars and Amps in Washington State. Shannon sends a lot of his Reso Teles to Nashville. He is a consummate craftsman and demands very high quality in his paint jobs. He was my first steady customer and we're still going strong. This Tobacco Burst looks really gorgeous out in the sun. Trimmed + Burning Flame Maple Amp Cab   Once in a while Shannon gets an order for an exotic wood amp cab... this is a flame maple one that we sunbursted for him. Gordon L5CTS "George Gobel" Project Guitar   Here's an interesting one. A few years back, I picked up a homemade archtop at a garage sale. The neck was crap but the body was really good. I've always been intrigued by the thin-bodied L5 George Gobel model... this started my most ambitious project to date! I removed the back of the guitar and cut down the sides to the new narrower dimensions. After putting in proper kerfing, I reinstalled the back and bound the top and back with 7-ply black and white binding. I had to make a new neck so I decided to go whole hog and do a proper L5. This was my first experience with pearl inlay and multiple-bound headstocks and I'm pretty happy with the results. The headstock logo is a tongue-in-cheek nod to Gibson, I obviously borrowed their font but if you look closely you'll see that it is actually my name. The spruce top is finished in ultra-thin cherry nitro lacquer with ambered bindings. I added a gold Bigsby to satisfy the rocker in me. This was a huge project I won't be repeating anytime too soon! Bill Johnson 1963 Fender Strat   1957 Fender Stratocaster Here's a 57 strat I redid for John Morrow - a great guy with a great guitar collection. John bought it from the original owner who bought it new. Somewhere along the way, this misguided soul (first owner- not John!) decided it would look better in metallic copper spraypaint...wish someone had told him the guitar could be taken apart before being painted....it would have made my job a lot easier!! I
matched the refinish to what was left of the original finish under the
pickguard, and removed overspray from the original finish neck. I
think it turned out pretty good......
|
