The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Well, gang.. here we are yet again! I have on the bench for my perusal - courtesy of a rather well-known, philanthropic board member - an Avenger that is a little tatty but solid as a rock underneath the obvious and therefore an apt subject for my latest, and last, restore.

So,, to the pix...





























... I've a bit to be going on with! I shall need new tuners and bridge, and a lot of elbow grease to prepare the finish. Which I haven't actually decided on yet!!

Got a case to build as well, though not for this!

What's wrong with the finish? Looks perfect to me.



New tuners, bone nut, fretwork, maybe a little Loctite on the bridge saddle screws, and put it right back together. Let 'er rip.

je

_________________
...doing bad things to good Vantages since 1985...

1981 AV-320
1981 AV-320
1981 AV-325
1982 AV-320
1982 VS-695-12
1982 VSH-445
1983 AV-330
1995 VST 33 CE TBK

Well, well, well!
Just when you think he's packing up his gear and saying "bub-bye" to the wonderful world o' guitars...this!

Hey, not too much seriously wrong with this at all John. I like it.

• Um, except for that #$%** bridge of course. Replace with all due haste!
  And yes, that's the "correct" way to string this miserable bridge. But it doesn't matter. You're gonna replace it. Right? RIGHT?!
  
• By all means replace the cr@ppy machine heads.
  I just did that on my AV310 (finally) and it's made a quantum leap in performance, tone, and stability http://www.matsumoku.org/ggboard/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=5577&start=110#p70898
  
• The brass nut looks OK to me in that shot, just loose and off centre. I would not change it.

Looks like the only serious resto work needed is the fret board. After a bit of light sanding & steel wooling try hitting the really dirty bits with Oxalic acid to lighten the wood. Then you can refinish as you like.

This has had a refret job? Jumbo wires?

_________________
"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

The last one "SURE". We have all heard that from you before and as if we are going to start believing you now.
Now that you have it on the bench I can see the potential.
Slime green paint, a bit of work with the jigsaw to add a couple of points to it and you will be good to go
The only thing we need to do as a collective group is to start a petition to save the bridge.
I would hate to see a perfectly good bridge get thrown out. If you don't want to keep it we could pack it up and ship it to Barry

_________________
You can never have too many guitars

_________________
"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

New tuners, pickup rings and bridge in black have been ordered.

The frets have been levelled by someone with some sort of a plan and a stone; there is no chance of re-crowning them, they're that ground down! So, there's a job I've not done before looming up in front, eh!! Should be OK, though; I don't rush into anything and replacing frets looks like a job that requires patience and attention to detail, something I have to work at!!

So... who knows what size fretwire I will need?!?!

Really looking forward to this one, if I'm honest, because - and I know you blokes don't believe me!! - but this will very likely be the last one I tackle simply because I'm fresh out of ideas for refinishing after this though one or two of the ones I already own will undoubtedly cross the bench for minor tweaking.

Oh, you know that hole that appears in the thin fillet between the neck pocket and neck pickup cavity that I asked about in the trans-red Avenger thread?? It is where the very long drill bit required to make the pickup wire tunnels through the body starts its journey.

... and we're off!! I thought I'd start by pulling the frets so I ground a set of nippers square and had at it!!









And this...

Hey John, just noticed you have this identified as an AV325.
The 325 actually has 2V + 2T with 2 coil cuts on the tone pots. Both of mine have this configuration (including my current avatar)--->

What you have there looks like the "AV Whatzit" on the Gallery information site
http://www.matsumoku.org/models/vantage/avenger/av-xx_natural/pics.html .
Another one just turned up north of here, and of course, it's "extremely rare"
http://www.kijiji.ca/v-guitar/barrie/vantage-avenger-whatzit-extremely-rare/603592849?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true

_________________
"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
Guitars: https://legend.barryeames.com
Music/Pix/Videos: https://getback.barryeames.com

Of course it's extremely rare!! And it's an AV310....

Yeah, i know about the "whozit" and "whatzit" thing but I reckon this is an AV325 with a simplified control layout; everything else is the same as the trans-red 325 I played with a few weeks ago. After all, Vantage were renowned for chopping and changing specs without notice so who knows?!

Right. Question.

Does the clearcoat on the neck/fingerboard go on before or after the frets are installed?

I'm in the process of sanding the neck down and the thought crossed my mind. Gee, whatever clear the uncle used on these doesn't age well; this poor old thing - it's an 81 - is absolutely filthy and it's a dirt that's got into the finish so sanding it back is the only way to make it presentable. There is significant marking on the board face and edge, too, from what I presume to be sweaty hands...

Per your question, most people clear coat a maple neck after the fret job is done and just scrape the clear off the frets with a razor.