The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Re-taped and shot the primer this morning.



After 30 minutes of drying, I shot one light coat of black, waited 15 minutes and shot a second coat.



After allowing to dry for one hour, I lightly dry sanded with 320 to even the surface out, and shot a light third coat. I'll let this dry for 8 hours, wet sand with 400 and shoot the fourth coat. It's nice and smooth so far and I should be able to start shooting the gloss clear tomorrow morning.

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Mr. Lawrie Mann
Toronto, Canada

It's been a while but here's an update. Once I got to shooting the clear over black, things got totally screwed up. Although I followed the instructions on the cans of paint, the dry time weren't even close to what it says and I ended up having to sand all the black parts back to bare wood. I then used my own common sense and with allot of patience, got the result I was looking for which was a "piano- like" deep gloss finish. These pics are after the final coat of gloss:







I'm going to let this dry for a couple of days before removing the tape.

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Mr. Lawrie Mann
Toronto, Canada

Hell yeah!

Let it dry is the key here... it has to cure.... We are not equip with pro paint sprayers and the sug dry time on cans are...

Great work.....Keep em coming....

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

Thanks Frenchy. Letting it cure is the key for sure.

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Mr. Lawrie Mann
Toronto, Canada

Last coat of gloss before final wet sand and buff:





Can't wait to get the guitar back together tomorrow.

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Mr. Lawrie Mann
Toronto, Canada

Well..... although this has been a 3 week adventure, I'm finally done.











Here's what I learned with this project:

1) If I was going to paint anything black again, I would use a black primer, not white.

2) Without a proper spray booth and a dust free environment, doing a high gloss black finish is very difficult. Same goes for buffing and polishing. You need the right equipment to get the best result.

Generally speaking, I'm happy with the outcome and of course, the wider neck makes it a joy to play. I had to shim the neck to compensate for the height of the roller bridge. The tunomatic feature made intonating a pleasure. Now I can get back into playing it

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Mr. Lawrie Mann
Toronto, Canada

Great job Lawrie!
I particularly like the tortoise shell treatment on the headstock.

As you say, you do learn a thing or two when attempting these things, eh, especially the painting! Had similar frustrations with my Urchin refinishing. Hard to do a perfect job in less than perfect surroundings, but she looks good!
Now, go. Play. Be noisy!

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"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

Thanks Barry. The tortoise shell treatment was an important part of the project because it had to at least resemble the "original look", even though the headstock is a different shape. Preserving the Raven logo was the icing on the cake



I just set the bridge with some clear silicone so I should be able to get noisy tonight!

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Mr. Lawrie Mann
Toronto, Canada

Nice work.... love the end result.

How does she play with the new neck... do you like the sound better now...did it change the sound any, more sustain-less.....

I actually like the Raven logo... really original on these older ones.

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MAA Member since June 29th 2009, taking one baby step at a time..... and failing miserably!

Thanks Frenchy. I spent yesterday morning working on the set up, mostly tweaking the side to side neck adjustment and bridge placement so that the strings lined up properly. Once that was done, I fixed the position of the bridge with clear silicone caulking and let it set for about 4 hours.



The overall tone of the guitar has not changed that much. My previous mods made more of an impact on the overall tonal quality. If anything, I find that it sounds cleaner and slightly warmer. It has WAY more sustain, but I don't think that's a function of the neck. I believe it's the combination of the graphite nut (which comes installed in the GFS neck) and the new roller bridge. The increase in scale length of about 1" (25" to 26" nut to bridge) may have something to do with it as well.



The increase in the nut width makes a huge difference in playability for me, and is the main reason for taking on this project. I also like the feel of the larger frets, as opposed to the small vintage frets I used when I re-fretted the stock neck. Bottom line.... although I really liked playing the guitar after all the mods I had done up to now, it still felt like a 45 year old guitar. However, after this mod, it feels like I bought a brand new guitar that meets all of my needs.

My friends say that it looks "too new"

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Mr. Lawrie Mann
Toronto, Canada