Ernie Ball Music Man JP6 Restoration Project!

[Morbid]

So today was a pretty constructive day. I did a boat load of sanding and got most of the excess wood filler off. This allowed me to inspect the defects/flaws in the piezo cavity.

Immediately you can see some little dimples from air pockets in the filler, and some rough or uneven edges around the piezo cavity. But compared to what it WAS, I think it came out GREAT!

But I'm a glutton for punishment, and OCD as can be, so I added some more filler to fix these issues. I also added filler to the screw hole area to fix that.

I did a bunch of sanding to the front.

Obviously still some more to go on the selector switch area, but I waited and I'll show you why.

The top image is a closeup of the piezo switch hole. Nice and smooth, and recently rerounded (the wood filler overlapped a bit).
The bottom one is the outline I made for redrilling the selector switch...THAT'S why I waited on the sanding. That also gives you a pretty good idea of how off center the hole I filled was!
Unfortunately, I didn't have a drill bit that was the perfect size...it was either a little too small or a little too big. I went with the smaller one, as you can always make a hole bigger, but I wasn't interested in filling another one.

So I had to sand the hole a bit, so it's not perfectly round, but with the switch in, you'll never know.

I added some more wood filler to a few spots I missed. Little ones, but they were necessary to fill. Tomorrow I should be done with the filler for good and I should be able to do the final sanding fiasco.
should...

 

[the24thfret]

Absolutely awesome.

 

[sickindian]

Totaly agree!Alchemy

 

[KungFu Grip]

Great attention to detail. Very nice work.

 

[bkrumme]

This is looking really good.

 

[Morbid]

Today was another nice and productive day. It mostly consisted of sanding, but some careful cutting with an exacto knife also.

The piezo cavity isn't perfect, but it's about as close as I can make it. The majority of any other flaws should be rectified with the primer.

With the new pickup selector hole redrilled, everything lines up right as rain with the plate in it!

From this point on, it's pretty much sand sand sand, followed by primer and paint, provided I don't run into any more flaws that I can't live with.

PS: The light areas on the body that are obviously not wood filler, is where I've managed to sand past the nitro celly, not damage.

 

[Dizzy]

Great stuff !

 

[ScoobySteve]

WOW Morbid this is looking great?

Still finished and decided on what paint finish to give this baby?

 

[BobMac]

Great work man!!!!!

Cant wait to see it painted!!!!!!!!!

 

[envy-guitars]

This thread is brilliant!

 

[agt]

Awesome thread. I love this kind of stuff! I've kind of become addicted to the daily update.

 

[MusicManJP6]

Great work man!!!!!

Cant wait to see it painted!!!!!!!!!

For sure!!!!!!! Such an awesome job you are doing. Your attention to detail is second to only EB themselves!! Whoever marred this guitar up before you got it has real issues!! ISSUES i tell you!

Thanks for all the awesome pics. Your hardest decision will be what color to choose after all this work!!! Very exciting...

 

[Morbid]

Thanks for all the encouraging and inspiring words fellas.

To answer Scooby and JP6, I am still decided on the color of the guitar, and feel pretty confident that once it's painted, I'll still like the design.

I still intend on posting the mockup, but not just yet! Once it's ready for paint, I'll post it up.
For now, I've still got much sanding to do. I don't think I can make the piezo cavity area any better without taking a risk on screwing up what good I've done thus far, so I'm just gonna push my OCD aside and leave that one alone. I feel pretty good about the rest, though.

 

[ScoobySteve]

Update! Update! Update! Haha

You've got a lot of fans in this thread. Can't wait for more pics!

 

[envy-guitars]

I think the work you have done on the guitar is outstanding, its nice to see someone who cares about attention to detail.

I did a similar job on an old Tokai GoldStar Sound a few years back and found it to be really rewarding when it was finished, I actually finished mine in Silver Sparkle, a colour that I worried about applying but it worked out really well.

I wish I held onto that guitar, I loved that to bits.

I took in a Sub guitar about a fortnight ago and by the time I had convinced myself I wanted to mod it and refinish it - my colleague had sold it - thats what I get for sitting on the fence!

 

[Clonexx]

Great progress man, I really appreciate this thread more and more every time I read the updates.

You are doing some amazing work, keep it up!

 

[Morbid]

Thanks for all the kind words fellas.

I'm at a stand still with the project at the moment, as we've been getting an abundance of rain here in Florida. Today is the nicest day we've had in a while, and I'll actually be spending my time on something a little more important at the moment.
But I don't want to be a fool and rush the project through the rain and humidity, so I'll just wait it out patiently. I'll likely be able to do some sanding this week. After that it'll just be a matter of primer and finding a suitable place to have paint the guitar. Of course, after the guitar is primed, the mockup of my paint idea will be posted.

Speaking of that idea, I originally intended on buying black polls for the 2 Petrucci pickups in this guitar to go with my finish idea.
That was until I found out that want $10 per pickup. I'll more than likely be alone in this thought, but I think that's outrageous! Looks like I'll be sticking with the chrome polls.

 

[envy-guitars]

DAMN IT! I can't take it any more SHOW US THE MOCK UP!

I am threatening a partition here (seemingly the most English thing to do)

 

[Ernieballplayer]

urrr! this is killing all of us, ahhh i have been keeping an eye on this post for somewhat a month, fifteen pages is allot! can't wait to see!

 

[the24thfret]

Deserves a bump!