The first step was to get the shop ready for repairs and restorations. The second step was putting all the new tools together and then starting on the reviews. Now it’s time to begin the Journey.
While I will be going over setups and repairs, I wanted to find some “project guitars” where I can bring them back to as new as I possibly can. To do this I went searching Facebook Marketplace, Reverb, and eBay. The goal was to find guitars in poor shape and restore them to their glory days. What I learned is people think highly of their broken stuff.
When I searched the different sites I mentioned above I searched on “Poor Condition” to see what would come up. On most sites, many guitars came up listed as poor. Common issues were cracked or broken guitar necks and headstocks. Some would have some or all of the pickups, pots, switches, etc broken. When you look at the price they wanted for them it ranged from several hundred dollars to the thousands for a few. Sure, there may be a guitar or two that is worth a few dollars in any condition, but you would have thought I hit the Fort Knox of guitar vaults by the prices people were asking. I realize they may have paid a good price for their guitar when it was in one piece, but the value declines considerably when the guitars are broken. Especially cracked instruments. But spending the time searching paid off.
For me, Facebook Marketplace paid off the most. I found people listing guitars that were in very poor condition or not working at all. I would offer someone what I thought the guitar was worth and some would sell me their old guitars and some would not respond. One person sent me back an emoji of a middle finger. He could have countered or said no. I guess he wasn’t having a good day. I was able to acquire four guitars for my first projects. Most if not all have damage to the neck or body. Some have rusty pickups and there is fretwork to be done.
Yes, the title does say five. The fifth guitar is one that was one of my son’s guitars when he was first starting out playing guitar. His little brother got a hold of it and jumped on it until the neck cracked in several places. I hung onto the guitar all these years always meaning to take it in and get it fixed for him. What I realized is I was really hanging on to it for such a time as this. So his guitar is the fifth guitar. While the dollar value of the guitar is not very high, the sentimental value is priceless.
Some of the guitars I found come with stories, which I will share in each guitar’s restoration video. The five guitars I will be working on will be an Epiphone Les Paul Junior (my sons), an Epiphone Les Paul Special II, A Fender Stratocaster, A Jackson Dinky, and a Laguna custom-designed guitar. The Laguna guitars were a big deal during the Mars Music days. More on that one at a later time. As you can see from the pictures all of the guitars have some damage to the body and/or neck. One of them has stickers on them and another a back cover missing.
During these five projects, I will use my new CNC router to make the back plate for one guitar and a replacement cover for the guitar jack of another. I may even create a custom pickguard for the Jackson guitar. The jury is still out on that one.
These will be the first five guitar projects I am working on. In between these projects, I will have a couple of videos on some tools I bought and on a massive guitar upgrade from a kit, I put together years ago. To keep up with all that is going on subscribe to my YouTube Channel, like my Facebook Page, and follow me on Twitter. yes, I am on Instagram as well. That is about as many different social media sites as I need.
Thanks for stopping by and I am looking forward to sharing my exploits in my little guitar shop. Take care.