About a year ago I bought a used Epiphone Dot. It quickly became my go-to guitar (turns out I'm a semi-hollow body kind of guy, and I've always been a sucker for a set neck)
Early this winter I noticed a slight crack in the finish on the back of the neck; the painful downside of a gig bag, I suppose. Well, I tried to ignore the problem but it slowly got worse, to the point where something had to be done. I sanded off the area and while exploring the wound, the head came off of the neck entirely. It was a pretty ugly horeshoe-shaped crack that just barely left the nut intact on the end of the fretboard. So I figured "This can't really get any worse" and decided to have my way with a guitar that I already loved.
I (sort of) had a plan for the thing, but I wasn't going to get upset over a guitar that was already useless. I glued the head back on and played it for a week or so to see if it would hold, and it did. So I stripped out the hardware and sanded the entire thing down to bare wood. The hardware was brushed down with a wire wheel in a drill and emery cloth, and I took the sheen off of the pickguard and other plastic with 600 grit sandpaper, leaving a flat finish to anything that couldn't be otherwise distressed.
Then I took several different torches and I pyrography iron to my favorite guitar and finished it in satin. It ain't "pretty" but I dig it.
I dig it! There's something about personalizing a guitar, even if the end result isn't the same as a really fancy finish or woodgrain. My Number 1 has things carved right into the back of the body from my own hand. I recently saw a video on YouTube of Dweezil Zappa showing a Strat that his father had recieved from Jimi Hendrix. It wasn't pretty, but it just had some serious mojo.
"He's the electric horseman, you better back off!" - old sKool making a reference to the culturally relevant 1979 film.
bassist_25 wrote:I dig it! There's something about personalizing a guitar, even if the end result isn't the same as a really fancy finish or woodgrain. My Number 1 has things carved right into the back of the body from my own hand. I recently saw a video on YouTube of Dweezil Zappa showing a Strat that his father had recieved from Jimi Hendrix. It wasn't pretty, but it just had some serious mojo.
I think the Strat that you're referring to is the one that Hendrix set on fire on stage. It definitely has some character.
Pour me another one, cause I'll never find the silver lining in this cloud.
