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Crispy Cherry

SamanthaCay

SamanthaCay

Like bass guitar OMG!
Nov 16, 2008
2,401
5,650
41
Denver, CO.
#1
I think some of us look at a pile of broken bass and see headache and some of us have a few screws loose lol. I may just be in that latter camp.

This is my latest project,
20220421_151905.jpg

A 70's framus s 375 bass. Bought off the verb for $166 shipped.

I believe this bass is gonna be a pretty epic restoration. Above average good, and as such I feel I'd be doing you all a disservice to do my usual isolate myself and build.

So here it is a new restoration thread.

Anyway specifics, it needs the following dealt with based on my initial inspection..

Headstock inlay
Headstock delamination
Tort binding missing
Dot inlays painted over with one missing
Neck is big time warped from the fire
Neck heel damage
Neck will likely need a reset
Neck pickup rout needs filled and corrected
Burn needs a bit of clear coat
Needs bridge, tuners, pickups/electronics,
Nut/spacer (framus style).
Refret???

I'm sure there will be a few twists beyond the one in the neck so this should have a bit of entertainment value. Here's all the pictures I took today.
20220421_151917.jpg
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20220421_152156.jpg
20220421_152217.jpg
20220421_152637.jpg

Marry Christmas lc! Please enjoy telling me I'm crazy. :D

Plan is to give it a functional restoration keeping as much of the aesthetic as possible and avoid fires for the foreseeable future.

Finally I gotta give credit to the reverb seller for the crispy cherry name as that's how they described the finish in their add. :roflmao:
 
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#4
I love the SG body shape, but could never get on with the neck dive. Fun project though, should be.....challenging. Somebody needed to step away from the Forstner. The neck backbow looks worrisome, but if anybody can pull this off, its the Mad Scientist. Nice to see you back building, always enjoyed your projects. Sub'd.
 
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#5
The neck dive thing.. idk it may be my current rose colored glasses but I don't so much remember that being a big deal on these. More so the 34" ones they made, and perhaps some of the poorer examples ive seen. That said I've taken a shine to a couple of these over the years and don't recall it being a thing. One was a el degas japanese copy and the other was a 62 Gibson that belonged to a customer. Anyway this thing as is has just a hair of imbalance towards the neck but we'll have to wait and see what parts do to that situation. If I had to guess with a couple heavy pickups, bridge, even with some non ultralight tuners this one will be ok.

@Gilmourisgod I've been building just not blogging about it. On one hand I love it here and everybody's feedback is amazing but on the other it takes time and is kinda a break from my normal stream of consciousness if you will. That said this one is something I'd love to see on here and being as life is a little more calm these days I figured why not.
 
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#6
I'm going to be taking some pto next week from work and I'm hoping I'll get at least a solid day or two in on this beyond the usual weekend time I can afford.

After some thought yesterday evening I'm thinking the first order is going to be to remove the neck as it's going to take an extraordinary amount of heat press to get it within reason. That and I'm used to working on bolt necks lol. I can't even remember when I last removed a set neck so I'll be doing some homework. I've got a few ideas but I definitely need to look around a bit and see what folks are doing in this realm before proceeding.
 
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#9
If you are lucky, the previous "Informal Heat Treatment" may have already turned the neck glue to fried dust that will pop out ok. Never done a done fire damage resto, so I'm clueless. Given your skills, I'm hopeful on the neck salvage, but.... Might be a neck build in your future. I've read that the short scale Gibsons don't dive as bad, but the long scale EB-3 type are terminal divers, that's the only kind I've played. is this one a short scale?
 
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#10
Gilmourisgod said:
If you are lucky, the previous "Informal Heat Treatment" may have already turned the neck glue to fried dust that will pop out ok. Never done a done fire damage resto, so I'm clueless. Given your skills, I'm hopeful on the neck salvage, but.... Might be a neck build in your future. I've read that the short scale Gibsons don't dive as bad, but the long scale EB-3 type are terminal divers, that's the only kind I've played. is this one a short scale?
Click to expand...
Yup a 30" as it should be imo shorties are my jam.
 
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#11
Hey Samantha;

It's great to see you back here with another project! I like it. This one is going to be a challenge, but should be worth it.

It looks to me like that neck is too far bent to be simply heat straightened. I would just do a full mechanical rebuild on it. Rout off the fingerboard, pull out the truss rod. Then try to heat straighten the neck. You'll be more likely to get it back to shape with the fingerboard and truss rod removed. Then put in a good strong double-acting truss rod and a new fingerboard. A lot of work, but much more certain to work long term.

I would probably do the neck rebuild without removing the neck from the body. Unless the joint actually looked loose.
 
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