The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Hmm - so anyway, I have had this Joodee Les Paul for a while now and I had noticed that where it was a little chipped, there seemed to be a lovely cherry sunburst finish under the factory black nitro. Since I have a bit of a thing for sunburst lesters, I finally took the plunge and started stripping it back by hand. As you can see from the pics, there is a beautiful finish under the topcoat, I am assuming that this was done at the factory, either becuause the burst was considered substandard or because they needed some black guitars .
I have managed to hand sand the top coat down oall over, being very carelul not to damage the burst underneath, as far as I can see there is a one piece maple top over a mahogany body - the top appears to be about 1cm thick judging by what has been exposed in the pickup route. Ive done the job fairly quickly as I am pretty impatient but am pretty pleased with the result.
These gutars are pretty rare and this is an early one (from about 77-78) judging from the logo style. Its definitely an upmarket copy - there are even rumours that the very first ones were handbuilt. although I treat that sort of claim with suspicion.
Still waiting form my PIO caps to arrive so wired it up with a couple of cheap caps. finally worked out how to wire up the PRS Multitap Bass pickup so that it produces a decent tone (wierdly you leave the white and red wires unconnected to each other), now I cant stop playing it - I got a little carried away and sanded through in a couple of places but nothing major - the top is perfect and the rest of it has a cool relic vibe - anyway pics are attached.
Before

During



After




This guitar was made by Yamaki in the late 70's I think, but the quality is outstanding - if you can find one you should buy it

Wow. That was not a small job, recovering that burst! How does the construction and material choice stack up?

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"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use" - Søren Kierkegaard
"It looks just like a Telefunken U47" - Frank Zappa

The construction on this thing is great, a two piece maple top about 1cm thick and a mahogany body of either one or two pieces (its really hard to tell) the neck I think is one piece of wood - no three piece joints like you get on Epiphones. The whole guitar now feels so much 'nicer' now - wierd and hard to describe but true. I will get some more detailed pics taken soon and post them, although you all have to promise not to laugh at my slight oversanding in places. To be honest it was very very scary sanding through the topcoat and a little hard to know when to stop but I am so glad that the top came out mainly intact.
Ive had a few Les Paul copies over the years and still have two Epiphones, a John Connelly Signature and a Korean Standard with a Bigsby, Recently I had one of those Chinese built Gibson knockoffs too, which I fitted with Duncans and set up properly. This thing p***es all over all of them - happy happy joy joy and all for £50 and a lot of elbow grease

Well, I have to say that I'm a believer in many thick finishes killing instrument's pleasing natural resonances. I won't go into it in detail here as it is not the place, however I am sure you feel both a weight and tonal difference from yours! A burst, clearcoat, solid coat and possibly another clear is a bunch of weight you don't need.

Definitely a great score for the money, and I'm sure it'll give more back in return. For what it's worth with the sandthroughs - if you can't repair them then antique the guitar a bit and give her a vintage countenance.

_________________
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use" - Søren Kierkegaard
"It looks just like a Telefunken U47" - Frank Zappa

I'm not gonn repair the santhroughs, there arent tat many of them and it was never gonna look like a 'new' guitar, I dont have the patience or the ability to do that level of restoration and of course I really like the whole relic thing too so I'm very happy with the result.

I'm having a little trouble understanding why someone'd do that?! Anyway, regardless, good job, man - looks good, certainly better than the black!!

I think on the basis that the original finish has been damaged, it is probably a better idea to cover it up as being "antiqued" rather than "oh that's a sandthrough isn't it?".

_________________
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use" - Søren Kierkegaard
"It looks just like a Telefunken U47" - Frank Zappa

I've got a fair amount of previous in relicing guitars so that's the route I will take, being careful not to damage the top of course

Well Done! A major improvement in my book, as I'm partial to 'bursts as well. A few nicks and burn-trhroughs wouldn't bother me at all.