Guitar Makeover

As a way to while away the dark January hours, I decided to try my hand at taking a junk electric guitar and refurbishing it into something more respectable. I have sort of done something similar, yet on a much simpler scale before by purchasing an Epiphone Special 2 at a pawn shop and replacing the bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan Invader. That particular exercise worked well, so I thought I'd try it again, only this time, I would redo most of the guitar.

So, on New Year's Eve, my son and I went around to three different pawn shops in Brunswick, Lisbon Falls and Lewiston. It was at the last stop, in Lewiston, that I found the guitar I wanted to makeover. It was a Shane, and the following picture pretty well approximates it. (I neglected to take a picture of it before taking it apart)

The guitar cost $59 plus tax. The first thing I did, when I got it home, was have my son, Ryan, a pretty good guitarist, play it for a bit. We determined that the single coil neck pickup would remain, but the humbucker bridge pickup had to be replaced. I also noted that the neck was not part of the original guitar as it didn't fit snugly in the body as it should AND it was actually a neck from a left-handed guitar instead. Probably the biggest clue there was that the writing on the headstock was upside down.

So the neck and a pickup will be replaced. I will also replace the tone and volume pots as one of them is broken anyway. Haven't decided if I want to use 250K or 500K for replacements yet. The switch can stay.

I've taken the guitar apart, but left the electronics in for the time being. The reason is that I don't know what the wiring schematics are, so keeping everything intact for now will be helpful.

The bridge is a floating tremolo style bridge. The spot where a tremolo bar would be screwed in is cracked though, so it won't be able to be used as such unless I replace it with a new one, or a good used one.

I'm am bidding on a Dimarzio D Activator bridge pickup on Ebay as well as Grover tuners. If I find a neck that has decent tuners, I can always use the Grovers in the Epiphone which need an upgrade there.

The paint on the body was an off-white color. I have scraped the majority of it off and, in the course of doing so, dinged the wood a bit. It will take some sanding to smooth it out. You can see the stripped body in this picture:

The color in the neck recess is what the whole body was. The wood is a laminated hardwood. Don't know what kind, but early indications reveal a nice grain. It should stain well if I go that route.

That's where the project is at right now. Waiting on auctions to finish and parts to come in. Working on the wood on the body and thinking I may go pawn shopping again to find a suitable neck replacement guitar.

I will update the progress on this as it becomes apparent that it's time to do so.