Howdy,
My name is Gord Miller and I’d like to thank you for checking out my company website, GM Vintage Restorations.
I love vintage guitars. They are my passion and my business. I love the way they sound. I love the way they feel. I especially love the way they look. The delicate spider-webbing of lacquer checking… the way the topcoat ambers up and wears through to original color on the edges. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a beat up old maple neck Tele tells a glorious tale of smokey honky tonks, one night stands, spilt beer and endless hours of Merle songs!
Gord Miller with some Pre-CBS and McCarty-era driftwood he collected at the beach
They say that necessity is the mother of invention… in my case it may also be the mother of creativity. I’ve been into old guitars for about 20 years, but I’ve never been a particularly “well-heeled” collector. So, while my buddies were bragging about the original-finish Goldtop they scooped, I was the guy who ended up with the stripped Strat with the Floyd route! I taught myself to paint because I wanted my guitars to look original… I learned to age them because I wanted them to look old. I painted with Nitro lacquer because it was easy and I knew that’s what Fender and Gibson used in their glory years.
Well, 20 years have passed, and just like everybody else, I’ve gotten a lot better at what I do. My finishes are a lot thinner now, and I pride myself on being able to do really authentic sunbursts, Goldtops, and aged Fender custom colors. I’ve been told by vintage dealers that my aging and lacquer checking techniques make my refinishing look 25 years old, and dramatically increase the value of a stripped guitar. We also offer many other specialized services like binding restoration, route repair, and case and amp restoration. Click on the links to check out some of our work.
What started out as a hobby and passion has become a business and passion (special thanks to my #1 supporter Rick King at Guitar Maniacs!). My work is really rewarding but the biggest reward is when the customer sees their restored guitar for the first time. I’ve seen a burly biker get teary eyed when he saw his restored Paisley Tele bass, and I’ve seen people go quiet as they revisit a time when they first bought that Strat or Les Paul… a time when cars were big, gas was cheap, and a PAF was just a used Gibson pickup!
That’s magic. At GM Vintage, we look forward to creating a little magic for you!
Sean Kilback, Don Peterson, and Samantha Miller (photographer extraordinaire!)