The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Barry Corsair ... I see it !!!! lol
For the record I am not expert on refinishing, but getting around and by the wraparound binding is going to be T H E most challenging part of this resto for me as I've never done one before !!!!!
AND there is only two choices for me to make and they are original clear showing the beauty of the red wine grained birch top....

OR

go with a metallic red with the finest pulverized flakes at Ummm, say, "000000" size grain for the metallic powdered stuff that's in the paint.

My Westone Raider II had a chunky metalflake blown onto it and you can still see bits of metalflake in front of my painter blokes workshop 2 years on... your painter will love you for adding it - it's as messy as all hell....

.... but worth it in spades!!!

If you go for the red, perhaps a little red pearl in the paint might be nice, too??

Yeah, the binding will be a pain; for the colour coats, some super fine masking tape should suffice - fiddly and time consuming to apply but not rocket surgery, eh!!

Pay no mind to Barry and me... we dig this stuff!

New hardware
initial set up... it plays but im going to have to completely rewire everything....
I have the neck pup, and the middle pos on the switch....no bridge sounds....

Once I get things righted about the wiring, I guess I will then proceed to "restore" it.
Im going to leave the wine red color on it.
And it will get a whole bunch of clear coats. Minimum is about 20 I've heard, so I 'll go with 25 and see where we are from there

Well I did it again...........
I was bidding on e-bay and it was in Toronto ... very very local.... a VP820. it was no more than 60 minutes away.....Brass hardware and gold tuners....beautiful. A stunning guitar!!! I didn't refresh my phone app and thought I was going to win but got an email saying "sorry but the auction is over and this one got away on you".

That was only a week ago.

Then a couple of days later another VP shows up on e-bay. Another beautiful VP795. Trans red.
I bid, and bid, and bid. With 5 minutes left the bids were just too high for me so I didn't get that one. I was saddened, but thought it wasn't meant to be and shrugged it off. Still feeling a bit sad I tried the Craig's thing and spotted an ad for yet one more of Mat's guitars. The ad was 7 hours old and again very, very local. I pounced on it, and I never let go and now am the new owner of a beautiful near mint (the volume knobs are not stock) VLP550.

The moral of this story is...?
Never stop dreaming of owning one and keep looking for that guitar.

A beauty! Nice classic Lester there, plus that Mats extra touch. Well done!

_________________
"A little song, a little dance. A little seltzer down your pants." -Chuckles the Clown
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Thanks Barry.
If you read the commentary, finding this was like a gift from the heavens after the trying week that I had.
Funny thing is that I wouldn't have stumbled upon it if I was successful in either of the other two previous efforts earlier in the week.
I picked it up in the east end of Toronto somewhere off the Danforth, and once home,.... well I haven't been able to put it down cept to sleep at night.

Plays like butta as the saying goes. I'm thrilled to welcome it to my collection. A true piece of craftsmanship.
I wonder if I'm in for any trouble tho...... S/N is....well.... AND im not superstitious but 1982 January 0
Yep that's 2010666

I will get a pic of the neck plate soon enuf
and
We'll see what happens in the next couple of years

Nice! very pretty indeed; well done you for hanging in there!