1982 Sustainblock Special rehaul project

[zenmindbeginner]

Well, I purchased a 1982 Special on the Bay a little while back. It is solid black with the sustainblock bridge and a pair of 4 conductor Bill Lawrence XL500 pickups. It is extremely light when compared to my 1981 Special, which is peculiar because the bodies both have the same thickness.

The neck is flippin' tiny though, much more close to my 1985 Scarab then to my 1981 Special, which is good for me because I am only 5 foot 7 and have hands like a girl. The guitar has been re-fretted and they seriously shaved down the fretboard when they did it (I think, unless Hamer made some real skinny fretboards back in 82?) . I'm not happy about the fretboard, but I think that I am gonna live with it. I've had the guitar for about 6 weeks and have just now noticed that the fretboard was rather thin, I never thought to compare fretboards to my other guitars until a few days ago. !

The black paint absolutely has to go... there were chips, dings and some serious buckle rash on the backside. I had originally planned to leave the back of the guitar black, but the finish was too screwed to salvage. I fully intend to re-create the serial number and logo to a "T".

So it was off to the shop and Lowe's for some sandpaper...

The guy I bought it from assured me that it had a maple top on it and sure enough there was maybe a 3/16 veneer that surprised me with it's inherent flame. I applied some mineral spirits to the existing maple veneer to see the flame and was both impressed and let down. The flame is killer on the right hand side of the "top" but is rather pathetic and non-existent on the left hand side. The headstock flame is bitchin' though! The bottom row of the pic below shows the flame.

I was inspired by BCR Greg's oceanburst series... I haven't been able to get those images out of my head for the life of me! I intend to add a quilted veneer top to the body to more closely match Greg's oceanburst finish. I was going to do that before the grain filler went on, but have decided that I won't want to be flipping the guitar over on my veneering with all of the rubbing and sanding that will take place during the grain filling. So it's off to get some burlap and to get started filling in the grain before the veneering. I am going for a dark blue backside and will be tinting the grain filler with some blue mixol dye. It's a beautiful and dry day, so the work will be done outside to avoid killing too many brain cells. I'll post some pics when I get to another stopping point.

The guitar is ultimately going to be finished by Stike by the way.

[backinit]

Can you build the neck back up some? Maybe add a veneer then sand it out some to blend it.

[gorch]

Although the headstock top sanded seems to have some nice grain too, I would have kept the old black top with its checkerboard logo. It might have been an idea to save the original serial number upon a black rectangle.

It will look stunning at the end I'm sure, but may have lost some originality. Anyways good luck with your project. I am waiting to see the result.

[iownit4]

cool project I bought a white beat up 82 special about 5 years ago and rehauled it I left the headstock/serial # untouched though ,I put crown inlays new frets and top on the guitar ,I left t6he sand unfinished in the back ,all work was done by Aaron Henderson of Lowel guitars in Ohio and Maggio music in Bklyn NY . I think the color and flame is great .. This flame was under the white stock paint ..enjoy

[zenmindbeginner]

cool project I bought a white beat up 82 special about 5 years ago and rehauled it I left the headstock/serial # untouched though ,I put crown inlays new frets and top on the guitar ,I left t6he sand unfinished in the back ,all work was done by Aaron Henderson of Lowel guitars in Ohio and Maggio music in Bklyn NY . I think the color and flame is great .. This flame was under the white stock paint ..enjoy

That is one amazing refurbish project iownit4! The body and neck binding is just phenomenal and the fretboard inlays... WOW, HOLY CRAP! The 12th fret inlay is CRAZY, I have never seen that before! You really had some good work done on this guitar. I can't believe that Hamer went to the trouble to bookmatch the maple top for a guitar that was gonna be white. The top that was on my 1982 Special was one piece and had the kind of flame that one usually paints over... man, I got cheated compared to you on the top. My top is just depressing compared to yours. I can't say enough about how magnificent your axe looks now.

So, I got the grain filled with the tinted blue grain and the results are rather striking! lol! I had originally planned on Stike shooting a trans dark blue on the backside of the body, neck and headstock and that is what the tinted grain filler was for. But, I might just have him just paint a dark blue instead. I'm gonna let him decide on what he thinks would work best for the guitar.

Filling grain the way that was described to me in various web articles on the internets was frustrating and slow going. I just decided to slap the grain filler on with my hands and work it in with my fingers and palm. That technique saved me some serious time and I highly recommend it to anyone filling grain with an oil based filler. Using mineral spirits helped the filler stay pliable longer and I didn't have any problem taking the excess off as it dried. The downside to using mineral spirits is that it takes the wood much longer to dry out before finishing, those in a hurry should use Naptha instead I suppose.

The guitar is now VERY smooth and the blue tint shows just how much the grain needed to be filled to achieve a piano like finish on this guitar. I suppose that one could seal the grain with multiple coats of vinyl sealer or sanding sealer, but I kind of enjoyed the process as soon as I threw the credit card and squeegee aside and started to use my hands.

Here's the stepped sheet of logo decals that I ordered, I worked from a high res file that I created basically from scratch.

Needless to say, I am very pleased with the logo decals and how good they turned out.

Now, to a perplexing question. I knocked out all of the inlays on the neck using a pin vise and to my astonishment, one of the 12th fret holes was much deeper than the one right next to it (the 3rd fret inlay hole was too deep as well). But the craziest thing is that when I busted out the 20th fret inlay, the hole went all the way down into the truss rod! Here are pics of the 12th fret inlay hole that is too deep and the complete chasm to the truss rod that is the 20th fret inlay hole.

Do I just plug it gently with a dowel that can be removed at a later time? Or do I glue in a more form fitting dowel that will be more permanent? Is there a function for the hole? The inlay was sitting right on top of almost nothing! lol! At first, I thought that the guy who did the inlays was having a bad day at the factory because it was clearly done at the factory (the inlays are were the originals), but I dunno.

So what's with the 20th fret inlay hole going all the way down until the truss rod? I'm confused...

[Jeff R]

The deep inlay holes probably were originally jig/vise/guide/tooling/whatchamacallit holes when the fingerboard was originally cut from raw wood in the factory.

Seems like I read about something similar here, and that the reason a "no inlay" fingerboard costs more is because of the special attention the cutting of a fingerboard requires without those guide holes.

[cmatthes]

I can't believe that Hamer went to the trouble to bookmatch the maple top for a guitar that was gonna be white. The top that was on my 1982 Special was one piece and had the kind of flame that one usually paints over... man, I got cheated compared to you on the top. My top is just depressing compared to yours.

Project is looking great so far - definitely keep us posted!

The top on iownit's restoration was not the Hamer veneer - that was added by Lowel when he had the work done. The Hamer veneers were always one piece on Specials and Sunbursts.

As far as the deep hole under the inlay, you put your WEED in there!

[cornjulio]

AMAZING!!!!

[unfun75]

Just a quick question: Did you intentionally leave out the "USA" from the logo?

[zenmindbeginner]

Just a quick question: Did you intentionally leave out the "USA" from the logo?

You have an eye like a hawk! I have been staring at the logo for a few days and didn't notice it. Thanks a bunch for having such a keen sense of vision, I just got off of the phone with the printer and he was dumbfounded as to how he left that off, so he is gonna send me the proper decals to get me straightened out.

Thanks again unfun75!

[unfun75]

Just a quick question: Did you intentionally leave out the "USA" from the logo?

You have an eye like a hawk! I have been staring at the logo for a few days and didn't notice it. Thanks a bunch for having such a keen sense of vision, I just got off of the phone with the printer and he was dumbfounded as to how he left that off, so he is gonna send me the proper decals to get me straightened out.

Thanks again unfun75!

Cool. That would have really sucked to have noticed it after a few coats of clear had been sprayed!

[gorch]

Just a quick question: Did you intentionally leave out the "USA" from the logo?

You have an eye like a hawk! I have been staring at the logo for a few days and didn't notice it. Thanks a bunch for having such a keen sense of vision, I just got off of the phone with the printer and he was dumbfounded as to how he left that off, so he is gonna send me the proper decals to get me straightened out.

Thanks again unfun75!

Cool. That would have really sucked to have noticed it after a few coats of clear had been sprayed!

Downgraded to MIK would have been terrible, wouldn't it?

[unfun75]

Just a quick question: Did you intentionally leave out the "USA" from the logo?

You have an eye like a hawk! I have been staring at the logo for a few days and didn't notice it. Thanks a bunch for having such a keen sense of vision, I just got off of the phone with the printer and he was dumbfounded as to how he left that off, so he is gonna send me the proper decals to get me straightened out.

Thanks again unfun75!

Cool. That would have really sucked to have noticed it after a few coats of clear had been sprayed!

Downgraded to MIK would have been terrible, wouldn't it?

The OP stated: I fully intend to re-create the serial number and logo to a "T".

So yeah, the wrong logo would have been terrible.

[marantz1300]

Fantastic,great work.Well done.

[gorch]

Since Jol is gone some HFC members seem to get melancholic and start digging in old threads. Which is great.

As we don't know how many Hamers will be build in the future, we need to care for the past. Zenmindbeginner head on with your project. We want to see it shine.

[iownit4]

did the project ever get finished !?!?!?!??!

[hamerhead]

I'd like to see that one too, Geoff!

Rob - the blue one is incredible - I mean 'holy sh!t' incredible. Wow!

[northarrow]

Got to play that swimming pool blue Special today.

Rob was nice enough to bring it along today and it is awesome!!

[zenmindbeginner]

Well, it's been a good while now and I thought that I'd update it with the feeble progress that has taken place this past year or so.

I decided to not put the AAAAA quilted maple veneer on top of the existing veneer. It was too risky of an operation... if I screwed up, I would lose my last two veneer sheets and ruin the existing top for good.

I couldn't take that chance, so I fired up the project again and went back to the asylum to work.

The Papua abalone inlays were not easy to put in... the removal of the old mop ones was the hardest part. I used a pin vise and rubbed my hands f**king RAW I tell you. I think they turned out good considering I don't know what the hell I am doing.

Next, I planned on double (more like triple) staining the top to pop the grain. I used some water based lemon and turquoise stuff from Woodcraft.

Here it is all sanded back and lookin' purty.

Next, I dyed the whole back of the guitar and proceeded to rub in a few light coats of boiled linseed oil. The linseed oil will add the movement of the grain back in after I popped it. After the boiled linseed oil cures, I will give it a couple of light coats of wax free shellac. After the shellac cures, it will be ready for the tinted green and blue clear coats. I am planning on as much depth to the backside as possible and the stain, linseed oil and shellac should give it quite a base to work with.

I smeared in some thinned out artists oil color to the boiled linseed oil to get a pretty good green base before the tinted clear coats begin. You can see how awesome the watery flamey quilty thing is kicking on the righthand side of the top.

The downside is the lack of figuring on the guitar's lefthand side.

I will try and bring it out with the tinted clear coats as much as I can but the burst should work with it quite well. I am trying to recreate the look of water to the best of this guitar's ability and water isn't uniform so it should all work out.

[murkat]

YES!

very nice Zen!

[gorch]

Wow! That's going to be a really nice guitar. I am happy to see the project to continue. Head on Zen!

[burningyen]

Anyone ever seen a guitar that has one color on the left side fading into another color on the right? I wonder how that would look. Maybe it might help tops like this that have heavy figuring only on one side?