Restoring and Cleaning a Vintage Guitar

[@leefury314]

Nice job. Sounds gorgeous too.

[@MaxRossellMusic]

Cheers matey! 1980s Japanese PAFs, the sleeper vintage-style humbucker.

[@steveannand955]

As a former furniture restorer, I love your attention to detail, and the fact that you don't rush anything. Taking time to do a proper job always pays off.

[@MaxRossellMusic]

Thanks man! And thanks as always for watching and commenting.

[@mcfats7652]

When he said, "Dirt is bad for guitars." -- I thought, "Finally! Somebody speaking some truth!" SUBBED.

[@megaalibear]

Thank you, this is exactly the sort of content I was looking for! Excellent video!

[@MaxRossellMusic]

Thanks man, and thank you as always for watching and commenting! Please keep sharing your feedback, it's super valuable for me to know when I'm making stuff that meets your needs. Cheers!

[@KRE808]

Excellently-made video, lighting, presentation, playing (including some creative editing of the playing segments) and I like your approach to "sympathetic restoration". Your friend should be very happy. If I might give a video-making tip, if you look at the lens rather than your LCD screen, you'll connect more with viewers (on a subconscious basis) which will make your videos even better 👍

[@MaxRossellMusic]

Thanks for your comments. I'm not sure what you mean about my eyeline though - I'm looking directly into the lens throughout. I close the LCD screen when I'm filming for exactly this reason.

[@KRE808]

@@MaxRossellMusic Hmmn, not sure then. I checked the video again and it looks like you're looking slightly off-camera. I'm an old dude, could be my eyes that need re-alignment.😉 At any rate, keep up the good work!

[@MaxRossellMusic]

@@KRE808 I reckon it's because it's natural light so there aren't prominent catchlights in my eyes like there would be had I been using my videolights. Point taken though, I'll make sure to put them up next time. Thanks again for watching and commenting. Cheers!

[@jeffberg8015]

Gorgeous guitar, and good job with the cleaning and maintenance. Although not really necessary here, I might have gone farther with the fretboard, lightly scraping the wood with a razor blade, wiping it with naphtha, and then oiling it to get off sticky finger oil residue and smooth out the beginnings of finger grooves. As I said, not really necessary with this guitar, but something I often do when I'm doing a deep clean and have the strings off.

[@MaxRossellMusic]

That's definitely a good technique and I might have gone down that road had this been my own guitar. Didn't want to do a "deep-clean" on the fretboard on this one though, or address the finger-wear. Just enough to get it well-playable. The owner may decide at a later date to have it fully refurbed but my advice to them would be to leave it until the next refret and have the fretboard planed.

[@jeffberg8015]

@@MaxRossellMusic Fair enough. The fretboard on this guitar wasn't in bad shape anyway but when I have the strings off my tendency is to take care of anything that's now reachable. That's with my own guitars though.

[@adeepoberoi1130]

Nice man, can the milky look on some parts of vintage guitars be compounded or sand paperd so that they look fresh again

[@MaxRossellMusic]

You ideally don't want to machine a vintage finish at all if you can help it. If polishing the guitar with a non-abrasive, nitro-safe product doesn't work then it's likely the milkiness is there to stay unless you decide to refinish it.

[@adeepoberoi1130]

@@MaxRossellMusic thank you

[@antoinesurot6742]

Never saw this sunburst on the SA 2200, it's beautiful! Could it be the result of its long sleep in an attic or so?

[@MaxRossellMusic]

I don't think so. I've seen new SA2200s with a similar burst colour. I think the dyes and finishes they were using in the 80s were quite stable so I wouldn't expect to see much of a change in colour on this one. Which is a good thing, because as you say it's a gorgeous finish.

[@PaddyGreen]

Just got some of that WD40 contact cleaner delivered after watching this vid. Holy balls that is like sorcery.

[@Brewhound77]

Dubya D forty is the counterpoint to duct tape

[@MaxRossellMusic]

What I love the most about it is the less you use the better it works, meaning a can should last for roughly nine generations.

[@PaddyGreen]

@@Brewhound77 we used to have a lyric that was a repeated chant of "if it should move then we'll oil it if it shouldn't tape it down"

[@mrbill4068]

mr feather duster man

[@MaxRossellMusic]

That's me!