RoyB Posted April 19, 2008 Posted April 19, 2008 Well some of you were looking at 0734 (the zebra nightmare) when it was on ebay, so I wanted to let you know what showed up and how thankfull you should be that you lost if you were bidding. First the auction photos. So many people thought it looked cool, but that's just photo magic because in short this guitar is junk pure and simple. The seller sent it uninsured from Canada even though I asked him not to and offered to pay the difference. Well went it showed up the first thing I saw was this sad asses paint job (Pro lacquer my hairy ass) that was clearly a rattle can job and was so sticky that it was attached to all the packing paper in the box, and finish quality so bad you could see waves all over this thing. I figured well I'm in for $1500, so I might as well see what I can do, so I started stripping it with a mind stripper and found melted and missing body binding filled with bondo. and a whole guitar skinned with bondo and grey filler primer. Again this was listed as being a pro thin lacquer refin. A bit more stripping and I found out why after "having the tone sucking Kahler removed and filled it was Pro retopped" it was painted zebra. It's because Ray Charles was the pro who put the top on. So the binding is trashed and the top is shot, so I started removing the veneer. Oh and that Kahler fill is plywood turned the wrong way, so a Mahogany fill will be in line soon. Before I forget the bridge was in the wrong place and all the hardware was junk Korean stuff, so that's more holes to plug and parts to buy. Well I removed what was left of the binding and cleaned up the top. I'll finish cleaning up the back later this week, but the sad thing is just how nice this guitar looked a very short time ago. Oh and the neck that could have been shaved was not shaved that I can tell because it's still just as large as my 82 Standard's necl if not a bit bigger. I think the finish was just removed. That and the fact there are no breaks are the only two bright spots so far. I'll be updating this topic as the project goes, but after it's all done I hope this guitar will be back as good as ever.
MCChris Posted April 19, 2008 Posted April 19, 2008 Dear Christ what a nightmare. I won't say what I usually say in situations like these. I will, however, wish you luck with the restoration. If you can turn this turd into a treasure, that'll be very satisfying.
prototype-fan Posted April 19, 2008 Posted April 19, 2008 It sucks that it wasn't as represented by the seller, but it looks like you're making good progress towards bringing it back to its former glory.
Guest pirateflynn Posted April 19, 2008 Posted April 19, 2008 Great bench report and pics so far. I'm looking forward to an update.
kizanski Posted April 19, 2008 Posted April 19, 2008 Dear Christ what a nightmare. I won't say what I usually say in situations like these. I will, however, wish you luck with the restoration. If you can turn this turd into a treasure, that'll be very satisfying.Well, I'll say it: "Ebay Sucks." And that's coming straight from an Ebay addict.Please tell me you shipped a big bag of shit to the seller (I can help you with this if you like).Good luck with the resto. It looks like you're already on the right track.
BubbaVO Posted April 19, 2008 Posted April 19, 2008 That's just offensive. Seems like you're off to a good start in bringing her back to life.
LordOfTheThighs Posted April 19, 2008 Posted April 19, 2008 It looks like your off to a great start on the restoration. After an "Extreme Make-Over", I'll bet this thing will look sweet. Good luck to ya!
RoyB Posted April 19, 2008 Author Posted April 19, 2008 Really I've done much more extreme restorations, but it's just rough to find so much wrong on a guitar that was made out to be so well done if ya know what I mean. I would have bought it even if I'd known it was this bad or even if it were worse, but not for that much money.
Jeff R Posted April 19, 2008 Posted April 19, 2008 That guitar has heart and soul on the inside - the rest is fixable. It can be enjoyable work, knowing you'll have something to really be proud of with your fingerprints "in" it when you're done.Another positive: You'll always be at least a Top Three finisher when threads akin to "Tell us about your eBay nighmares" come up.
El Kabong Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 Damn, it does make Zakk's, 'Tetanus', look like a Murphy. Hopefully you get a few hundred $ back.
murkat Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 Damn shame. If I had won that Auction.... Damn shame. What gets me is that only a few months ago it was stock, then someone did that crap to it? Buy an import next time. Look forward to updates Roy, good luck.
edgar_allan_poe Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 Damn shame. If I had won that Auction.... Damn shame. What gets me is that only a few months ago it was stock, then someone did that crap to it? Buy an import next time. Look forward to updates Roy, good luck. Hold the fucking phone....you mean to tell me someone bought a 4 digit a few MONTHS ago that looked like THIS And did THAT to it? WTF were they thinking? Even with the Kahler, that could NOT have been a cheap guitar to buy. That might be the single stupidest thing I have ever seen...and I have seen some seriously stupid shit.
BTMN Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 WHOA!!! This whole deal is such a twisted tale. Was this a shop or a private deal. I seem to recall it was a music store. What a misrepresentation. Otherside of this is what a person to end up with it. RoyB, I find your addition to the HFC to be real cool. :angry: Thanks for joining in. That Mahogany body looks incredible. May I suggest simple Cream binding and no top should you be able to find a similar grained block of mahogany. Oh and no pickguard.
edgar_allan_poe Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 May I suggest simple Cream binding and no top should you be able to find a similar grained block of mahogany. Oh and no pickguard.+1 Black would be bad assed. IMHO of course. On a trans color that Kahler fill would bug me...but a solid color would cover the route and make that guitar a serious piece of ax.
atquinn Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 Wow! You have some f@cking skills! That is amazing! Given what you've showed us so far, I'm sure that Standard will be awesome when you're done. Too bad about the dumbass scumbag seller though.-Austin
Jason01 Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 I'm glad to see it ended up with someone that has the skills to make it what it should be. All the pieces fit now when you look back at the auction. I was really wondering why they would have binding and a retop under the zebra? I look forward to seeing more of this one as work progresses on it. I can't believe someone did that to that guitar in recent times knowing what four digit standards are worth!
RoyB Posted April 20, 2008 Author Posted April 20, 2008 WHOA!!! This whole deal is such a twisted tale. Was this a shop or a private deal. I seem to recall it was a music store. What a misrepresentation. Otherside of this is what a person to end up with it. RoyB, I find your addition to the HFC to be real cool. :angry: Thanks for joining in. That Mahogany body looks incredible. May I suggest simple Cream binding and no top should you be able to find a similar grained block of mahogany. Oh and no pickguard. Man I should have known not to buy it because it was one of those "as is we sell your shit on Ebay" kind of places, so they were just going by what the owner told them. Since it's got the kahler route and all the bridge and tailpiece holes are wrong the mahogany is out, but I've got the correct binding and some great eastern flamed maple veneer that will go right back on it after I get all this crap fixed. I'm most likely going to get Rick to sign it again just because it was done before. My only debate is cherry burst or Zander unburst. Oh and thanks for your kind words bro.
BTMN Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 Zander Burst but I'm a fiend for Natural looking geets.
formula73 Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 Damn, dude. I am SO sorry to hear about this. Some people, man. Some people.Good luck with it and from what I see, it's well on it's way to better-than-new.
Mindseyes Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 Why why why??????Whoever did that to that guitar should be refinished in zebra!WTF were they thinking...so sad!looks like your going to make it nice once more, good luck!!
kizanski Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 Whoever did that to that guitar should be refinished in zebra!Poetic justice. I like that!
Steve Haynie Posted April 20, 2008 Posted April 20, 2008 This could turn out to be one of the greatest rescue stories of all time.
RoyB Posted April 20, 2008 Author Posted April 20, 2008 I went in the shop today to do a bit more clean up and some route and hole repairs, so here's what I have now. First it's all cleaned up except the face of the headstock that's still original. then I plugged the bridge and tailpiece holes and cleaned up the route and plugged it with mahogany (as it should be). I even found a factory mark in all the cleaning. Tomorrow I'll level out the patch and re route the binding channel. I'm thinking the neck may have to come out to true up the top from all it's past sanding, but I'll know more tomorrow.
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