The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

WARNING! The pictures in this post are not to be viewed by the squeamish of heart. When I say "Smokin'" I mean the dam thing was actually on fire !








Not too bad in this pic. the body is solid and the p'ups, pots, etc work excellent.





The damage is more apparent in this pic. The light mark on the neck where the stand support is would indicate it was sitting in a stand too close to a fire soure.





Three original tuners, functionally OK, cosmetically bad. This is as ugly as it gets.





The P.O. used a dremel tool of some sort to attempt to remove a sticker on the neck plate. In doing so he created a random burnished pattern in the chrome and actually stripped off some of the chrome in places, exposing the copper plating beneath. I removed the remains of the sticker in 5 minutes with a few drops of goo-gone and my thumbnail





Some more heat damage





You can still make out the ghostly "Vantage" logo and AV325 script on the headstock. I polished up the brass nut which is loose.




In spite of the horrendous abuse the neck responded well to a re-shim and truss-rod tweak. The fretboard is discoloured but the surface is fine.The action is high at the nut as the "heat treatment" caused a slight upturn at the first fret. Instead of filing the brass nut I figured I would file a 1-2mm slot underneath to lower it. Or would that be A Bad Thing ? The crack in the headstock seems solid, I might reinforce it with a couple of small screws.


I looked at a few replacement necks on the bay but I think for now I'll leave it as is.

Oh Dave, it is to weep!
That Bozo ought to be drawn and quartered for placing it next to an open flame like that.
Still, depending on how much effort you want to put into it, you should be able to take that charred surface down to bare wood.
The head stock really should be glued and clamped. Which means of course, first breaking it open. Not for the faint of heart!
A water slide transfer will reinstate the logo.
Fretboard warp? Dunno. But I'd definitely work on the nut and not remove wood from the the head, it's likely already weak enough. Perhaps work it out first with a plastic nut?

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Trying to reinforce the headstock with screws is the worst thing you could do to it (short of setting it on fire again). You would most likely end up with more cracks. The second worst thing you could do would be to glue it and clamp it without completely disassembling the joint and planing both mating surfaces perfectly flat first. Clamping that end could pull the glue joint apart at the other end.

If you want to get it back to looking more or less original, I think the best approach would be to clean out the charred material and old glue from the separated joint and watch it for six months or so to see if it opens or closes up on its own. If it remains stable you could glue in a wedge-shaped shim, trim and finish.

On the other hand (and I type this anticipating reactions of shock, horror and rage from from Matophiles worldwide) a relatively quick and simple way to put the headstock into presentable shape would be to simply saw off the partially separated piece outboard of the glue line and then plane it flat. That piece doesn't really contribute much to the instrument either structurally or sonically.

What you do depends on the skills you have and the amount of time you are willing to invest. These Avenger basses are neither rare nor especially valuable but they are terrific--and lightweight!--players. Best of luck to you as you bring this fine instrument back to life.

Darn ... I knew these Avenger basses were hot, but ... spontaneous combustion??

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Totally agree , just keep the degree of your restoration in perspective with the actual going value . The AV325B sets up beautiful , nice and low and has a strong meaty tone , but , if you are a actively playing bass in a band , you will probably be wanting more out of a bass than the AV325B can offer . A P/J configuration is always better sounding IMO. Good luck , nice score !

This is why "storing' your lit cigarette on your headstock whilst playing ( ala Keef) is not a good idea.

Sorry.

Best of best of luck with the restoration!