Look wot I dun!! (Explorer make-over)

[gingataff]

Looks sweet, a huge improvement.

[gwEm]

yum yum!! great work :) :) the idea came off really well!

[dave_mc]

very nice :D

[FernandoDuarte]

Very very cool! :D

[Johnny Mac]

Looks nice Andy. Give us a solo to Free bird on it!

[AndyR]

Looks nice Andy. Give us a solo to Free bird on it!

:lol: Funny you should say that. I'm not as skinny as I was, but my hair's a lot longer than last time you saw me - I do seem to look like Mr Collins when axing away with it now.

Haven't played Freebird recently, but there's been quite a lot of "Working for the MCA" coming out of it.

[Denim n Leather]

Dude, that looks killer.

[gwEm]

i wonder about doing this to my faded V now..

how easy was it to avoid stripping the headstock paint? does the back look equally as nice?

:)

edit: just read your post regarding the headstock

[Philly Q]

how easy was it to avoid stripping the headstock paint?

See first page of thread!  :P

[AndyR]

I believe that the Faded's finish will come off very easily. So I think the headstock-dangers are reduced. I hit my problem when I was removing the thick clear-coat. This required heavy-ish application of Nitromors and use of the scr@per (and moving the body around without due-care-and-attention!)

I think the Faded finish could possibly even be done with

a) a light coating of Nitromors
b) rubbing with wire wool (possibly dipped in Nitromors) instead of a paint scr@per

If you can do it without the scr@per, you should also avoid all "slight gouges" brought about by fatigue and frustration with heavy lacquer not moving fast enough :lol:

Just make sure you have the white spirit (poured out ready!) and clean rags to hand.

And yes, the back is equally as nice :D

[gwEm]

in fact i removed a little of the finish on the back of the neck with 30-45 minutes wire wool rubbing a while ago.

it is thin - but not /that/ thin. i like the wire wool and nitromors idea.

will have to decide if i want to do it. but it is tempting looking at the great results you've had.

[AndyR]

Yeah, I've worn the finish a bit thin on the back of my Faded SG's neck.

There is one thing to think about if you do go for it - the Fadeds (or at least the ones I've handled) have not had their surfaces completely flattened like a guitar that was given a full finish.

My Explorer is pretty much "smooth" after this refinish, except from previous dings and the odd scratch I put in it (I decided to leave these as "character" rather than try to repair/fill and possibly mess up the whole thing!).

My Faded SG has a definite grainy feel. If I were to do my SG (I'm not going to, I like the cherry on the SG), I would personally live with this feel. I'd expect to probably lose some of the grainyness with the oiling, but I wouldn't be worried about eradicating it altogether.

I think, if I had Faded V, I would be considering an attack of some sort - mainly because the red looks a bit brighter or more pastel-like than I'd fancy. However, rather than stripping off the existing colour, there is another possibility - I found that the dye and oil goes over the existing finish quite well (I left a bit under the scratchplate). This would seriously darken that colour scheme...

EDIT: Dear oh dear, I'm talking like some sort of expert here... :roll:

Bear in mind I'm just a guy that lucked out on this over the last week or so... what I'm suggesting is what I'd be "prepared to experiment with next..." - at my own risk... Hopefully Wez or someone as experienced is vaguely monitoring what I'm saying here!! :lol:

[gwEm]

yes, the grain is fairly deep - from my little knowledge of wood grains ;)

i already buffed up the matt finish to a shine, but as you say the colour is still a little cartoonish.

[DemosKratia]

Love it! I'm a big fan of natural finish explorers

[WezV]

nitromors is usually fine for stripping gibsons... but you do have to make sure its all gone before any respray.  anyway, with the headstock i would be extra carefull if you want to keep it stock.  bag it with a food bag whilst stripping the rest of the guitar then do the sides and back section by hand with scr@pers (razor blade) and sandpaper, it wont take long.

generally oil finishes dont fill the grain, but if you have stripped a lacquered guitar there will generally be a bit of lacquer remianing deep in that grain... and mahogany does have a lot of it.   an important step in my method is wetsanding with the oil.  not only does it really help work the oil into the wood whilst keeping it thin on the surface.. it also creates a slurry which helps to fill the grain.  with tru-oil you can almost fill it completely like this, with danish it just reduces it a bit.   either way, it feels a lot more natural than a faded finish because  when you spray lacquer it will make the grain seem larger by building at the edge of the grain and rounding off the edges.  its not flattened off at any point with the fadeds so it stays that way