S
SandyRavage
Member
Thought you guys might be into this guy. I've been working on finishing / restoring this guy for a little over a year here and there and haven't compromised on anything yet. The parts were in seriously rough shape when I got her and almost everything needed a complete re-haul.
OG BODY
Specs;
1988 Alder Strat body with the previous owner routing for a licensed Floyd and a DIY drill job for the "swimming pool weight relief?" route. I was able to clean her up with a chisel, re-doweling, and some sanding and the pickguard covers the damage done but she has some really nice harmonics and almost perfect relicing and fading on the Olympic white. Had her rerouted for a gotoh floyd, re dowelled and redrilled for gotoh posts, and copper shielded the cavity to help make her look a little nicer under the hood.
1980's Tak Hosono ESP Lynch neck. Mr Hosono was ghost building a lot back then and I picked this up for a steal on reverb but it needed a complete re-radius, all new hardware, and a complete refret (she had at least two before I picked her up). Put some period correct Schaeller tuners, re radiused to match the gotoh floyd and had her refretted with stainless steel 6100 fretwire. Refinished the neck in tung oil and dropped an incorrect ESP logo on the headstock on there so no one can try to fake it if I end up moving her one day. Its almost as thin as an original wizard but with slightly wider shoulders.... When I was sanding through the paint on the headstock I went through about three layers and three different headstock logos. One ESP, one J.Frog, and another different ESP as well as black, white and black paint. Definitely a players neck that had seen more than a few owners.
For the rest I dropped an old warmoth single humbucker pickguard I picked up, a bareknuckle ceramic warpig, and a new R3 nut and gotoh floyd. Still need to work out the neck angle and some shims to get the action a bit lower as well as correct the string spacing on the bridge but I left all the artifacts of the restoration and tried to bring her just back into playable condition without focusing on fixing too many of the cosmetic issues.
Now that shes done I find myself in love and playing her more than the other guys in the stable.....looking forward to the next build.
OG BODY
Specs;
1988 Alder Strat body with the previous owner routing for a licensed Floyd and a DIY drill job for the "swimming pool weight relief?" route. I was able to clean her up with a chisel, re-doweling, and some sanding and the pickguard covers the damage done but she has some really nice harmonics and almost perfect relicing and fading on the Olympic white. Had her rerouted for a gotoh floyd, re dowelled and redrilled for gotoh posts, and copper shielded the cavity to help make her look a little nicer under the hood.
1980's Tak Hosono ESP Lynch neck. Mr Hosono was ghost building a lot back then and I picked this up for a steal on reverb but it needed a complete re-radius, all new hardware, and a complete refret (she had at least two before I picked her up). Put some period correct Schaeller tuners, re radiused to match the gotoh floyd and had her refretted with stainless steel 6100 fretwire. Refinished the neck in tung oil and dropped an incorrect ESP logo on the headstock on there so no one can try to fake it if I end up moving her one day. Its almost as thin as an original wizard but with slightly wider shoulders.... When I was sanding through the paint on the headstock I went through about three layers and three different headstock logos. One ESP, one J.Frog, and another different ESP as well as black, white and black paint. Definitely a players neck that had seen more than a few owners.
For the rest I dropped an old warmoth single humbucker pickguard I picked up, a bareknuckle ceramic warpig, and a new R3 nut and gotoh floyd. Still need to work out the neck angle and some shims to get the action a bit lower as well as correct the string spacing on the bridge but I left all the artifacts of the restoration and tried to bring her just back into playable condition without focusing on fixing too many of the cosmetic issues.
Now that shes done I find myself in love and playing her more than the other guys in the stable.....looking forward to the next build.
glad I was able to salvage her but keep some artifacts of her past lives.
