Re-finishing a 1936 Gibson L50 like mando

[Gail Hester]

Recently I was asked by a devastated guitar player to refinish his 1936 Gibson L50 archtop guitar. It had been left too close to a campfire and most of the finish including the headstock had been severely scorched. He was distraught because he has owned the guitar for 35 years and it was his favorite. The guitar had been re-finished about twenty years ago with a painted, opaque sunburst which looked almost as bad as the scorched part. He asked if it could be re-finished so that he could see some of the wood grain and then he spotted one of my mandolins and asked if I could duplicate the look on his L50. Here are the oil varnished, French polished results, sounding much better than ever.

I hope this is enough mandolin content but I wanted to share the story.

[Gail Hester]

...and the back.

[Michael Lewis]

Very nice salvage job Gail. Sometimes the worst looking jobs that come in turn out to be the most inspiring reaults.

[Gail Hester]

Thanks Michael, that means allot coming from you. I wish I had taken a before picture but I dove into it and realized I should have taken a picture about the time I had the finish removed. I delivered the guitar to its owner yesterday as he was coming off stage at an outdoor performance. The look on his face made all the work worth it.

[mandohusband]

Any idea how the finish repair affected the sound? Obviously, there are a lot of variables involved in this re-fin, just curious how different the guitar sounded to the owner. Beautiful results, though. It'd be nice t see some higher resolution pics...

Shaun

[Gail Hester]

I thought the guitar sounded dull before the refinish even with new strings. After the refinish it really came alive and the owner described it as louder and brighter. He is quite an amazing guitar player and a bit of a legend in our area so it was really fun listening to him play his reborn guitar.

I have trouble getting higher resolution pics that are under 70K for posting. I could have taken a closer view but now the guitar has gone home. I’ll keep that in mind if I post a picture again.

[grandmainger]

Gail,

Any chance of getting a photo of the guitar BEFORE the re-finishing? and possibly a breakdown of the operations you carried out to get it looking that fabulous? I'm thinking it would be of interest for repair/restore operations.

Germain

[grsnovi]

What a great looking job Gail!

[Gail Hester]

Quote: “Any chance of getting a photo of the guitar BEFORE the re-finishing? and possibly a breakdown of the operations”

Unfortunately I did not think to get a before picture but I’ll try to describe it. It had been refinished a dark, opaque stain many years ago by a furniture shop. It was OK for table but not for an instrument. Due to the fire damage the finish was blistered and scorched like someone had taken a torch all over it, mostly on the front. The neck finish was soft and sticky like someone had smeared gum all over it. Sound bad? It was and probably why I was in such a hurry to get it stripped down and didn’t think of taking a picture.

The refinish was straight forward but time consuming. I’ll try to keep this as short as possible. I sanded the entire guitar down to bare wood, except for the area around the original Gibson logo. Maintaining the logo was the hardest part of the entire process and fortunately while the rest of the headstock was scorched and bubbled the logo sustained only minor damage which I was able to restore. This guitar has an Adirondack Spruce top, Maple back and sides and a Mahogany neck. I was pleasantly surprised to uncover some nice flame on the sides. Once it was in the white I repaired one minor top crack and filled an old pickup jack hole in the lower bass bought, with a grain matched plug of maple. I then began refinishing by wiping on the traditional yellow stain then airbrushing on the brown. I used several thin coats of oil varnish sanded back until smooth, careful it’s easy to go through to the stain at this point. This is the most critical step since the French polishing process does not cover any imperfections it just makes them shinny. I French polished with both ruby (for depth) and pale blonde shellac in multiple sessions until the entire finish was complete. The entire process took about a month doing as much as I could every day. I let it cure for about two weeks after finishing before stringing it up and delivering it back to the owner.

Here are a couple in-process pics taken with a video camera so I apologize for the low resolution.

[Gail Hester]

...the side with some flame.

[Gail Hester]

...lastly, the back. Thanks everyone. I can't think of anything much more worth while than restoring a fine vintage instrument.

[Dan Adams]

Gail: Have you seen, the 'Can This be Repaired' thread. Look at the old Gibson A-Model I'm trying to get some general information about concerning restoration cost, or value. Ideas? I would appreciate the input. Thanks, Dan

[grandmainger]

Thanks Gail, that's excellent. You truly did a terrific job!

[Luthier Vandross]

Excellent!

M