The Unofficial Official (etc) so you dick about with your Les Paul Thread.

[Udonitron]

I hope those are 15* grain lines on the sides!
Did you refinish the back or left it?
It is a beauty man, sad she's gone?

[UITA]

Took the top of my Greco yesterday!! There is no way I'm doing any more, I'd forgotten how much of a PITA it was (very much like a woman forgetting the pain of child birth I would imagine). Photos later tonight for some advice and by advice I mean the freedom to say what the hell you like about it....or me.

[slapshot]

Heat gun

[twchua]

Originally Posted by UITA

Very nice, what does the tea do, or is that just for your breaks? Looks like an easy strip.

The strip was relatively easy. I was thinking of sandind it but found the poly peeling off quite easily. A bit of heat from a hair dryer softened the poly a bit and i stuck a thin strip of metal underneath to get it to come off.
Tea was used to stain the top before i put the oil on.

[slapshot]

did you go down to bare wood or leave that sealer on there?
yeah the colour comes of easy enough

[twchua]

Originally Posted by Udonitron

I hope those are 15* grain lines on the sides!
Did you refinish the back or left it?
It is a beauty man, sad she's gone?

I stripped the back, sanded and oiled.
Yes, miss it sometimes. But i got a good price for it so i let it go.

I really like what you did to the back of yours.
Can you explain a bit on what you did?
Did you stain it before you applied the oil?
What's your application method?

[UITA]

Originally Posted by slapshot

Heat gun

Yeah did that but as it's a chambered it didn't feel good at all...like it was acting like an oven.

[twchua]

Originally Posted by slapshot

did you go down to bare wood or leave that sealer on there?
yeah the colour comes of easy enough

I think most of the sealer came off with the poly. There were a few small patches of red left on the wood which i sanded off. The oil soaked into the wood especially the end grain so i guessed i must have removed the filler.

[twchua]

Originally Posted by UITA

Yeah did that but as it's a chambered it didn't feel good at all...like it was acting like an oven.

Try using a hair dryer at high setting. It takes a while longer to heat up the finish but it gets it just hot enough to soften it and you can stick a strip of metal under it to peel it off. I used 0.15mm thick metal strip.

[slapshot]

you don't mind me posting relevant pictures of my own work in response to a question raised in your thread do you UITA?
Last time I did that they were vanished into cyberspace in the back of the waaaahmbulance
before

colour comes off lickety split like a strippers bra at midnight
but usually it's a 2 step process.with the greco's I've done the colour will come off but leave a nice smooth appearance of the sealer.not so with ze orville here.

and here you can see the totally nude & rude bare bum wood in contrast with the sealer still on.



probably not the best pics to showcase it but with factory finish the top looks like it's got about as much action on it as yer grannies couch
then after a quick strip
quite a bit of granular action comes into play.
but not enough to show through a nice olivebronzeygreenygoldytop

[UITA]

Originally Posted by slapshot

you don't mind me posting relevant pictures of my own work in response to a question raised in your thread do you UITA?
Last time I did that they were vanished into cyberspace in the back of the waaaahmbulance

I'll think about it and if I don't like it I'll ask the mods to delete them giving you no explanation as to why. Is that alright? Not that you have a choice.

[Udonitron]

Originally Posted by twchua

I really like what you did to the back of yours.
Can you explain a bit on what you did?
Did you stain it before you applied the oil?
What's your application method?

Yeah sure man, no problem.
UITA, hope you don't mind freedom of speech?
I sanded the wood with 220 then 320, using 600 on the end grain so it would absorb less oil than the rest of the guitar.
I applied the 1st 3-5 coats with a foam brush and a 1/3 diluted with mineral spirits to allow for initial absorption and then moved on to full strength Tung using a soft lint free cloth.
I am up to around 12 coats now and it feels like it almost has a hard nitro like coat on it and the last 3 or so coats I have used 0000 steel wool to apply it.

[slapshot]

you are as adverse to grain filler as some members are to the truth

[Udonitron]

Grain filler can bite my shiny metal ass.
Using grain filler with Tung oil would be the biggest mistake ever lol...it would not blend with the oil well and the oil does fill the grain.

[slapshot]

some form of tokai made Greco plain top I guess from the early 90s?No serial
take note of appropriate power tool.
none of this arts'n'crafts by hand martha stewart nonsense

someone took over the paint table and made himself at home in the morning sun

snap taken on a cocaine break ... didn't take anymore pics

[Udonitron]

You smoke?...for shame!
Nice carve on that git

[slapshot]

sort of.tapers pretty flat just after the waist

[Udonitron]

OK here we go
Decided to refin the Greco SE800 today.
Going for a nice dark oak finish with 3 coats of lacquer once the oil stain has dried.
I intentionally sanded about 1+mm off each side to expose more of those cool circular grains that Sen Ash tends to get.
Going to fill the PG holes and re-drill for a proper Fender layout so PG's will be easy to swap and adapt.

Here it is stock (top) and sanded ready for stain (bottom):

[GammyBird]

Ok...now I have to get a project guitar!

That's a fine looking guitar Udo

[Udonitron]

Yeah it is a blast, almost more fun than playing them!
Cheers man

[GammyBird]

Ok...I'm thinking this Special



Into this....or some reasonable facsimile

[twchua]

Originally Posted by slapshot

sort of.tapers pretty flat just after the waist

Area between the pickups look flat. I read somewhere that's a '59 trait. Modern Les Pauls has a curve on that area too...

Looks like the sealer came off nicely with the poly.

[slapshot]

Buy
A
Cheap
Tele

[twchua]

Originally Posted by Udonitron

Yeah sure man, no problem.
UITA, hope you don't mind freedom of speech?
I sanded the wood with 220 then 320, using 600 on the end grain so it would absorb less oil than the rest of the guitar.
I applied the 1st 3-5 coats with a foam brush and a 1/3 diluted with mineral spirits to allow for initial absorption and then moved on to full strength Tung using a soft lint free cloth.
I am up to around 12 coats now and it feels like it almost has a hard nitro like coat on it and the last 3 or so coats I have used 0000 steel wool to apply it.

Thanks.
I only sanded mine to 220 all around so I guess that's why it drank up so much oil and the side look like it came straight from the timber mill.
Lesson learnt.

I used foam applicator too but had a lot of tiny bubbles trapped in the oil.
I had to sand it down after every 3 coats or so...

[GammyBird]

Originally Posted by slapshot

some form of tokai made Greco plain top I guess from the early 90s?No serial
take note of appropriate power tool.
none of this arts'n'crafts by hand martha stewart nonsense

someone took over the paint table and made himself at home in the morning sun

snap taken on a cocaine break ... didn't take anymore pics

Do you use the heat gun everytime you remove the finish? Would you suggest I use it to strip my Orville Special?

Ha ha...cocaine break!

[Udonitron]

1st layer of ebony stain for grain pop applied and sanded.
All done for today but tomorrow will be the Jacobean stain 1st and 2nd coat hopefully

[twchua]

That's gorgeous... just leave it at that....
On second thought, we won't know how good it can get with the Jacobean stain...

I can't wait...

I have to get myself a strat to try that.
The grain on ash is just mind blowing....

[Udonitron]

Yeah it will look damn fine with the Jacobean and a nice parchment 1 ply pickguard, trust me
Ash in general has a nice grain pattern to it for sure but Japanese Sen Ash is straight up psychedelic shit, love it!

[wulfman]

Nice stuff, I plan to steal all your techniques for my Greco Early Sixties strat.

[slapshot]

Originally Posted by GammyBird

Do you use the heat gun everytime you remove the finish? Would you suggest I use it to strip my Orville Special?

Ha ha...cocaine break!

yes
it's the only way to treat Polly.burn that bitch like a witch!