Guitar Restoration

The fret shack in Baton Rouge

Yeah, I bet Fret Shack should be along shortly. I believe he told me/us in a thread that he sends out some refin work. Not that it's a bad thing. He was mainly talking about a spray booth and big stuff like that.

You are in BR and he's in BR.

However, if it's a guitar you gave up on, meaning even Fret Shack gives you a number that makes your balls draw up, do it yourself. Electronics? Screwed. You are starting over there. But that can be fun and cheaper than 3 grand. Sand the whole damned thing and go nuts. I love wood refinishing though.

Neck bent or neck joint is shot? Probably time to walk away.

check out dave’s guitar shop on the web. you’d have to ship your guitar but they are the largest prs dealer in the country. they rebuilt a crushed neck on my sg and it cost me $150. very knowledgeable and friendly folks.

Thanks for the call-outs and kind words. If you're local, feel free to contact me through my website and we can schedule a meet-up and assessment. As alluded to, I currently farm out full refins - I have painters in different parts of the country in different specialty areas (nitros, polys, relics, flakes and graphics, etc.) who do stellar work at very fair prices.

As for flood guitar restorations in general, it's a case-by-case thing, depending on how the individual guitar reacts and recovers from the water's effects. I've seen some that were hopeless basket cases and some that came through relatively unscathed with minimal resto efforts and investment. You just don't know.

Case in point: Here's a tele that sat on a stand in about a foot of water during that last big flood event we had in BR. Flood water seeped inside the body via the butt strap pin hole (even with the pin there), swelled the body and split it. The mounted bridge kept it from splitting all the way up.



All electronics below the water line (between the pickups) were trashed. The neck pickup metered and was just fine. We eventually got this one back up and running. I can't find an "after" photo, but the body shed the excess water over several weeks and the crack closed itself up for the most part. We didn't do a refin - we left the hairline crack in the finish left behind as a cool reminder of where it had been.

My point is don't write it off just yet and keep the chin up. I've seen more guitars recover from floods in a satisfactory way versus written off entirely and scrapped.