Jump to content
Hamer Fan Club Message Center

1984 Standard 0734 in the house w/ lots-O-photos


RoyB

Recommended Posts

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.

1196_1_sbl.jpg

1257_1_sbl.jpg

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.

DSCN2865.jpg

and a whole guitar skinned with bondo and grey filler primer.

DSCN2836.jpg

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.

DSCN2837.jpg

DSCN2866.jpg

DSCN2870.jpg

DSCN2869.jpg

So the binding is trashed and the top is shot, so I started removing the veneer.

DSCN2881.jpg

DSCN2882.jpg

DSCN2883.jpg

DSCN2884.jpg

DSCN2885.jpg

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.

DSCN2886.jpg

DSCN2888.jpg

DSCN2887.jpg

DSCN2889.jpg

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.

hamer2001.jpg

hamer2002.jpg

Oh and the neck that could have been shaved

hamer2003.jpg

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 179
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

hamer2001.jpg

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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. <_<

DSCN2889.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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. <_<

DSCN2889.jpg

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

repairing1.jpg

then I plugged the bridge and tailpiece holes and cleaned up the route and plugged it with mahogany (as it should be).

repairing.jpg

I even found a factory mark in all the cleaning.

repairing2.jpg

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...