meenahga
Well-known member
Hi all!
I recently acquired a used Silo in need of a refinish. The Silo played great (as all Silos I have ever played do!), It just needed a makeover. The original humbucker pickups had been swapped out to Seymour Duncans, a Jeff Beck TB-4 in the Bridge, and a vintage '59 in the neck. Great sounds.
The poor guitar had seen some hard times and the finish had been dinged up to say the least! Large chunks of the clear coat had been picked away and were missing and I decided to refinish the guitar myself. I took some pictures along the way to show my progress.
Here is the guitar body after I removed the neck and hardware:
You can see large chunks of the tinted clear coat are gone and cracking. The previous owner was pretty rough on this guitar to say the least!
I bagged the hardware I removed in sandwich baggies to keep everything sorted.
You can see more missing finish on the front of the body:
and here:
I was able to remove the string ferrules by pushing them out from the front of the guitar with a small brass rod, maybe the diameter of a coat hanger.
I had researched on the forum and on the web a bit about removing polyester finish and I ended up using a heat gun and a putty knife. I had no problems using this method. The finish came right off. It took a little time and care but overall was a pretty simple process. I then used a disc sander and my oscillating spindle sander (to remove the finish on the iside curve of the horns)to remove the sealer coat, and get down to the bare wood. I then proceeded to sand out the body thru 120 grit, down to 320 grit.
I am a carpenter and have done a fair bit of cabinetry. I decided I was going to use a Danish oil finish. I decided on natural for the Danish oil as I thought it would enhance the beauty of the alder wood body.
Here is some of my supplies:
More pics to follow...
I recently acquired a used Silo in need of a refinish. The Silo played great (as all Silos I have ever played do!), It just needed a makeover. The original humbucker pickups had been swapped out to Seymour Duncans, a Jeff Beck TB-4 in the Bridge, and a vintage '59 in the neck. Great sounds.
The poor guitar had seen some hard times and the finish had been dinged up to say the least! Large chunks of the clear coat had been picked away and were missing and I decided to refinish the guitar myself. I took some pictures along the way to show my progress.
Here is the guitar body after I removed the neck and hardware:
You can see large chunks of the tinted clear coat are gone and cracking. The previous owner was pretty rough on this guitar to say the least!
I bagged the hardware I removed in sandwich baggies to keep everything sorted.
You can see more missing finish on the front of the body:
and here:
I was able to remove the string ferrules by pushing them out from the front of the guitar with a small brass rod, maybe the diameter of a coat hanger.
I had researched on the forum and on the web a bit about removing polyester finish and I ended up using a heat gun and a putty knife. I had no problems using this method. The finish came right off. It took a little time and care but overall was a pretty simple process. I then used a disc sander and my oscillating spindle sander (to remove the finish on the iside curve of the horns)to remove the sealer coat, and get down to the bare wood. I then proceeded to sand out the body thru 120 grit, down to 320 grit.
I am a carpenter and have done a fair bit of cabinetry. I decided I was going to use a Danish oil finish. I decided on natural for the Danish oil as I thought it would enhance the beauty of the alder wood body.
Here is some of my supplies:
More pics to follow...
