1970 Gibson ES-175D Restoration, Part 1: Dipped in Shellac?

[@TheWGLOVER]

Nice how you involve your son. Precious moments.

[@usujason]

This is awesome. Love that your son is in this one.

[@zwitchguitars]

I’m trying to get him interested in building stuff in general, but he’s not ready yet

[@peterjames2580]

I wish you would have played it briefly before starting . A before and after is always fun. It's nice to see your son so involved, Will be looking forward to the next installment.

[@zwitchguitars]

Unfortunately, the strings were so crusty that one broke when I tuned it! But I didn’t really change anything of substance, so it’s probably as close to “before” as it could be My son is already telling me we need to make another video, so hopefully it won’t be too long before the next one 🙂

[@adrianbacolo7322]

Neat. Great to see Nate having an interest, too.

[@zwitchguitars]

He’s much more into the “influencer” and technology parts, but maybe I’ll get him interested in guitars over time 😏

[@barrybeckett602]

look forward to Part 2, removing shellac and restoring original finish. Good job.

[@petesnyder713]

Beautiful guitar, i think thats the model steve howe plays....i need one..😊

[@borgonianevolution]

That is crazy how that warped like that and is still solid. I will go out on a limb and say that sat in a window with direct sunlight for an extended period of time. We have a knucklehead who owns a shop up the street and does the same thing. I have seen bad warped necks and tops on what could have been really nice vintage AND expensive guitars. He had a really old Martin i went in to check out that was in the window too long and warped beyond repair. I actually said Owww out loud when the soft part of my hand between the thump and pointer finger touched the tuners when I grabbed it out of the window.

[@zwitchguitars]

Yeah, who knows. But I did get a cheap flexi-camera thing so I can look inside. So we’ll see if the braces are intact and whatever else we might see in there to give some clues 🤯

[@davidsimpson3380]

The braces could be cracked … if you put your iPhone inside the pickup cutout you can take pictures/ video ….. 3 parts thinner 1/2 part lacquer 1/2 part retarded (flash coat) after sanding the finish with 600 grit could be a big help in leveling the finish …. 👍

[@reijerlincoln]

Is that a Mustang / Jazzmaster bridge, without the posts? If so, it has a 7.25 or 9.5 radius.

[@zwitchguitars]

Your guess is as good as mine! When I get to actually dialing it in for playability, I’ll measure the radius and see if it needs replacing. But, as much as this guitar was played, it didn’t seem to affect the previous owner(s)

[@TomLilletveit]

It had to be shellac ... I also did the mistake of trying to finnish my guitar with shellac with no previous experience with it. It did not go well.

[@zwitchguitars]

It does get that distinctive wrinkled, sticky wave thing going on 😹

[@WonkeyWabbit]

Nitrocellulose lacquer is affected by some alcohols. I once used 100% Isopropyl Alcohol to try and clean some gunk off a nitro finish (thinking it was safe) and it definitely attacked and roughened the finish.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

What can soften modern Fender finish just a little to remove scratches?

[@zwitchguitars]

For sure. This is one of those “can’t win” scenarios. No way to get the completely awful finish off unless I sand or use alcohol. It could be the case that alcohol ruins the lacquer…but it’s already ruined 😢

[@zwitchguitars]

If by “modern”, you mean polyurethane or the like, you can polish it using car scratch remover or other specialty cleaning products made for guitar.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@zwitchguitars The marks I have are from a burr on a Telecaster bridge being moved. They're not so much scratches as linear dents. Not really visible.

[@zwitchguitars]

@@RideAcrossTheRiver in that case, you’re not really going to get those out without an actual touch-up/refinishing the area.

[@fleadoggreen9062]

Does that mean the braces are missing when it’s sunk like that ??

[@zwitchguitars]

The braces aren’t missing, as I could feel them when I inspected the pickups. But they might be cracked or warped. I got a cheap phone endoscope, so I hope to take some interior pics soon