'65 SG Junior

My own guitar. I bought this in 2006 from Guitarworks in Reading. The guitar had previously had a headstock repair and neck refinish that I was far from happy with. The head had been repaired with two steel rods and a lot of car body filler, two materials that I feel don't belong on a vintage instrument. In addition the finish, which had become rather opaque on the back of the repair and lumpy on the headstock face, had been given a razorblade faux checking job and the logos were wrong.  My task was to remove the filler and rods and replace them with mahogany, re-spray the neck with the correct finish and replace the Grovers with some original 60's Klusons.

 

Before

 Here the dodgy logo (note the dot on the i doesn't touch the G and "Les Paul Junior" was only found on the SG Jr up until 1963) replacement Grover tuners and lumpy finish can clearly be seen.

 

 

Razorblade checking job. Real checking is quite straight, generally running perpendicular and parallel to the grain.

 

Ouch! With the finish removed the extent of the damage becomes apparent. Here I've removed the filler and the two steel rods, there is very little wood holding the head to the rest of the neck. During the previous repair, the headstock thickness has been reduced significantly

 

My intention is to remove two sections of wood from either side of the neck (avoiding the truss rod) from around the 2nd fret all the way past the first machine head hole. The two channels will then be filled with mahogany running in the same direction.

 

 

A simple headstock jig made from 1/2"ply holds the head and neck securely while the 3/4" wide channels are routed.

 

This is quite a severe procedure, routing down through the back of the neck to the bottom of the fretboard and maintaining that plain all the way into and through the headstock face

 

 

One side routed.

 

And filled, now I need to tackle the bass side.

 

Both pieces fitted, I can start to reshape the area.

 

Rough shaping with a chisels and a rasp.

 

After smoothing with sandpaper my attention now turns to the area across the back of the nut (a 1mm wide glue line from the previous repair) and the oversize tuner holes.

 

A filler piece of mahogany across the old epoxy glue line.

 

And  10mm slant grain plugs for the Grover tuner holes.

 

Back and front filled and sanded. The old wood is darker partly due to the aging effect of UV light, and partly due to the imbedded grain filler. The former I will struggle to replicate but I hope to darken the new wood down a little when I get to the grain filling stage.

 

3 pieces of mahogany veneer  and a small insert of maple veneer tidy the front and thicken the head whilst retaining the impression of a 3 piece head. I now have a nut ledge of the correct depth.

 

Tuner holes drilled and vintage 1960's Klusons test fitted. All ready for some finish.

 

The cherry grain filler is applied, the head painted black, then it's multiple coats of cellulose lacquer.

 

The logo silk screen and it's jig and the finished logo.

 

Hear, a pair of new reflector knobs have been aged to look yellowed and worn in the GuiTardis.

 

The finished guitar ready for a trip in the GuiTardis time machine.

 

The GuiTardis does a fine job of reproducing the aged checked finish.