GreatDane
"up yours, baby."
Several years ago I bought a 1975 Les Paul Custom as a potential project to take on at some future date. the guitar started life as a white custom. Somewhere in its history, a prior owner had replaced the tuners with Schallers, removed the schallers and thrown back on the original keys, routed the body for a kahler trem and locking nut, and then had decided to have the entire guitar refinished in what i can only try to describe as "smurf blue". Maybe they were going for a pelham blue. i don't know. all i know is they "missed the mark".
The good news is that i have all the hardware/plastics/electronics, the guitar has a really nice neck carve, the truss rod works as it should, and the weight fully loaded is right around 9.55 lbs. that's really nice and light for a LP Custom. i knew it could be a great guitar with some TLC. Norlin gets a bad rap from some internet audiences, but there are great Norlin-era instruments out there (and some golden-era dogs), so the best approach for me has always been to judge individual instruments on a case-by-case basis.
shortly after i bought the thing, i brought it to a local guy who did a great job filling the trem route in the body. it's been curing for almost 7 years and hasn't budged. He also did a reasonably good job removing the blue paint, so approximately 95% of it is gone. miraculously, the original serial number sticker (yes, they were stickers in the mid 70s) is completely intact.
the problem that arose was that my local "guy" didn't have the skill or ability to complete the work. I became distracted with other things while casually trying to locate another professional who could finish the job, and then de prioritized the work entirely when we found out that my wife was pregnant with our first child.
So the guitar went into its case, and was put in a dark corner of a closet to be subsequently forgotten for years...
Last week, i was dicking around in the music room and stumbled across the case that contained the old Custom project. i became motivated again to get this guitar playing and looking good again. So I asked around, and got some great recommendations for professionals who could do the job.
I ended up reaching out to a few places, exchanged some emails, talked to some folks on the phone, and ended up deciding to go with Greg Platzer of BCR Music in Pennsylvania. He quoted me a fair price and a reasonable turn-around time (approximately 4 months including drying time), passed the "gut check" in emails and on the phone, and has good references for this type of work.
I intend to ship the guitar to them by the end of the week and Greg indicated they'd have the package opened and in the hands of the repair staff within 24 hours of receipt of package. He's going to match the original paint under and around the serial sticker (the white has aged to a really nice parchment color; not like a dirty ash tray or banana).
Here's a few pictures of the guitar as it currently looks - i'm excited to see what it looks like when it gets back.
The good news is that i have all the hardware/plastics/electronics, the guitar has a really nice neck carve, the truss rod works as it should, and the weight fully loaded is right around 9.55 lbs. that's really nice and light for a LP Custom. i knew it could be a great guitar with some TLC. Norlin gets a bad rap from some internet audiences, but there are great Norlin-era instruments out there (and some golden-era dogs), so the best approach for me has always been to judge individual instruments on a case-by-case basis.
shortly after i bought the thing, i brought it to a local guy who did a great job filling the trem route in the body. it's been curing for almost 7 years and hasn't budged. He also did a reasonably good job removing the blue paint, so approximately 95% of it is gone. miraculously, the original serial number sticker (yes, they were stickers in the mid 70s) is completely intact.
the problem that arose was that my local "guy" didn't have the skill or ability to complete the work. I became distracted with other things while casually trying to locate another professional who could finish the job, and then de prioritized the work entirely when we found out that my wife was pregnant with our first child.
So the guitar went into its case, and was put in a dark corner of a closet to be subsequently forgotten for years...
Last week, i was dicking around in the music room and stumbled across the case that contained the old Custom project. i became motivated again to get this guitar playing and looking good again. So I asked around, and got some great recommendations for professionals who could do the job.
I ended up reaching out to a few places, exchanged some emails, talked to some folks on the phone, and ended up deciding to go with Greg Platzer of BCR Music in Pennsylvania. He quoted me a fair price and a reasonable turn-around time (approximately 4 months including drying time), passed the "gut check" in emails and on the phone, and has good references for this type of work.
I intend to ship the guitar to them by the end of the week and Greg indicated they'd have the package opened and in the hands of the repair staff within 24 hours of receipt of package. He's going to match the original paint under and around the serial sticker (the white has aged to a really nice parchment color; not like a dirty ash tray or banana).
Here's a few pictures of the guitar as it currently looks - i'm excited to see what it looks like when it gets back.
