The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Q&A, discussion, and information for the labels covered by The Guitar Gallery (Specifically and exclusively guitars made by Matsumoku up to 1987)
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PostPosted: Sat 20 Oct 2007 10:16 AM 
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Virtuoso
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Joined: Thu 13 Oct 2005 06:39 AM
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Location: Kawagoe, Japan
Here's an '83 SB Elite I that I got recently. It came covered with black paint (really horrible refinish job). I have started to remove the old paint and luckily it looks like the original paint is OK but we'll see. There is some red paint under the black on the body, which is proving much more difficult to remove. The headstock was just black with no undercoat of red, and that came off with very little difficulty when I used lacquer thinner.

Here are some pics of the original state of the bass, and the headstock with the original finish. I will update progress as it goes along. Hopefully I'll be able to post a pic of a fully restored bass sometime soon!

http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c104/ ... %20finish/


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PostPosted: Tue 27 Nov 2007 08:03 AM 
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Joined: Thu 13 Oct 2005 06:39 AM
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Location: Kawagoe, Japan
Hello,
The 1983 Aria Pro II Elite I has been restored! Considering the state the bass was in before (covered with an undercoat of red, and then black paint on top that, and also a sanded finish on top), I'm very happy with the result!

In case you want to know how it was done: 1) I used lacquer thinner to remove the red and black paint. 2) I wet-sanded the scratches using 1000 grit paper. 3) I had the body buffed by a guy in Seoul, Korea who makes custom guitars ( www.mdcustomshop.com ). Incidently, this guy also used to manufacture for Aria Pro II several years ago! He says he knows Shiro Arai, too...

I did most of the dirty work but without the suggestions and help of some local guys here (thanks Lance and Dave!) and of course Mr. Kim of MD guitars who buffed it, it wouldn't have come out this nice. Check out the link for more pics. Sorry if they seem a little dark. There are some before and during pics as well...

http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c104/ ... %20finish/

BTW, I almost forgot - the bass plays *great*! It's truly a bass worthy of all the work (and mess) and money to get it back to the condition it deserves! I was very disheartened when I discovered the deep scratches underneath the red and black paint. But thanks to wet sanding and buffing the bass' finish looks almost new (aside from the pre-existing chips dings!). You might also notice the non original knobs. It came with some other kind of non original knobs, so I swapped them for the kind Aria currently uses for the Re-Issues.

[img]http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c104/AriaProII/Aria%20SB%20Elite%20finish/100_4481.jpg[/img]


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PostPosted: Tue 27 Nov 2007 01:10 PM 
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Joined: Tue 24 Dec 2002 09:04 AM
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Location: Welland, Canada
Wow! An amazing restoration. It's almost hard to believe it turned out so nice.

Good job!!


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PostPosted: Tue 27 Nov 2007 05:45 PM 
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Joined: Wed 22 Nov 2006 09:13 PM
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Location: London
Wow.

Just... Wow.


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PostPosted: Tue 27 Nov 2007 06:51 PM 
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Location: Grand Absurdity, TX
What he said.


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PostPosted: Tue 27 Nov 2007 09:18 PM 
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Virtuoso
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Joined: Thu 13 Oct 2005 06:39 AM
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Location: Kawagoe, Japan
Thanks for the comments! I didn't really think it was going to come out this well, either. The turning point is when I started to see the deep scratches vanish with the wet-sanding...But even then, I thought "it's still going to look kind of scratched up". Then Mr. Kim from MD did his thing to it and...wow. If anyone comes across a guitar that was brutally refinished - don't give up hope!


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