Onyx Forge
Custom Guitars
Recent Repairs / Refurbs - Click the pics for a
better view
NOTE: I'm currently busy building commissioned custom guitars and am not taking
on any refurbing or refinishing work. Drop me a line if you have any questions.
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BOLT NECK PROBLEMS? Zinc alloy threaded
neck insert kit significantly increases sustain and tone while repairing stripped
neck screw holes. Buy the fix HERE
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2001 American Strat re-fret and refinishing -
Done Sept 2008 –
I bought this American Strat new back in 2002 in Sky Blue. I originally wanted it in
Surf Green, but Fender was not offering that color. I noticed several months ago that
the Urethane finish was cracking pretty badly on the neck, especially on the fretboard.
To make matters worse, the wood was staining to black through the cracks.
The frets were wearing a bit. The lamination seams were starting to show on the
body, and the paint was darkening to a not so nice blue. I decided to do a revamp.
The neck work included:
Installing zinc alloy inserts in the neck and tossing the wood screws
Removing the frets, stripping the existing finish after carefully taping
off the stamps on the heel, as well as the face, back and sides of the neck. Special
care was taken to preserve the Fender logos and serial no. decals
Sanding the stripped portion of the neck and wet sanding the area to be
masked
Hand radiusing the board to a 12" radius. There was a slight asymmetrical relief
that was sanded out with an 18" flat sanding bar
Deepening the slots to allow re fretting with medium jumbo stainless frets
Shooting the neck with nitrocellulose lacquer
Mixing aniline dye to match the existing color and re-shooting the dye
Making and slotting a new bone nut
Shooting the entire neck with satin nitrocellulose lacquer
Replacing the neck and string tee screws with polished 18-8 screws
Final level, crown and polish the frets
The body work:
Complete disassembly and wet sanding
Masking off all of the stamps and stickers in the body cavities
Drilling out the neck screw holes to accommodate the new machine neck screws
Shooting with Surf Green lacquer
Overshooting with gloss nitrocellulose lacquer
Wet sand, polish and wax
Replace the original white knobs, PUP covers, trem handle, 5 way switch knob with versions
in black
Replace the white pickguard and trem cover with black pearl versions
Replace all the original screws with polished 18-8 screws
General:
Reload with .011" / .050" strings
Complete setup
Before
During
After
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Neck refurb & Switching Upgrade - 50th Anniversary Telecaster '52 Reissue –
Done 6/06 –
This is a guitar that I picked up on Ebay several years ago. It sounds great, and
used to play well. Unfortunately the neck developed a bow that was about .015"
more pronounced on the low E than the high E side of the board. It could not be
corrected to eliminate buzz without setting the action exceptionally high.
I decided to refurb the neck and try to save it, maintaining the original color
and code stamps on the heel. See the list below for everything that was done.
I also like the sound of a Tele that is wired such that the pickups are in series, and
decided to upgrade the switching as well. To my knowledge, no Telecaster has ever
been wired this way from Fender.
The work included:
Carefully removing the 50th anniversary sticker on the back of the headstock
Stripping all the finish other than that on the end and bottom of the heel to
preserve the date stamping and initials made at the factory. The original heel color
remained and was matched by the new dye
Removing the old small frets, block sanding the fretboard to a 10" radius
Installing medium jumbo stainless steel frets
Drilling for and installing threaded zinc alloy inserts
Replacing the nut with an Onyx Forge bone and brass alloy nut
Installing zinc alloy threaded inserts in the neck
Sanding the entire neck, re-shooting aniline dye to match the heel and re-shooting
with nitrocellulose lacquer
Leveling, crowning and polishing the frets
Installing a 4-way blade switch such that the full back position puts both pickups
in series, which has more output than the stock parallel wiring. This is equivalent
to a humbucker pickup. The other three positions are stock modern Telecaster switching
Re-assembling and setting up the guitar, including truss rod adjustment, string action
and intonation
The outcome was excellent. The board is now straight and plays great, and the
additional switching option sounds good too.
Before
After
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Mexican Strat Refinish / upgrade – Done 2/05 –
This is a natural ash Mexican made 70's reissue that the owner wanted refinished in 3 color
sunburst. It had a broken nut, and the owner prior to him had somewhat crudely removed the
word "Mexico" from the "Made in Mexico" decal applied at the factory. There were
some scratches on the fretboard that needed some work. The owner also
wanted the threaded metal inserts installed in the neck. He owns several
Onyx Forge customs, and likes the way the inserts stiffen up the guitar for better
sustain. In the end, the work included:
Sanding and filling dings in the original finish of the body
Shooting 4 color sunburst. The colors used from the outside in are opaque black,
opaque dark brown, translucent cherry red, and custom mixed translucent butterscotch.
The body was then overshot with 8 coats of nitrocellulose lacquer and polished after curing.
Removed the old nut and replaced with a new Graph Tech Trem nut. Including some
additional slot filing for the lowest possible action
Installing zinc alloy threaded inserts in the neck
Sanding the entire neck, including careful removal of the original "Made in Mexico"
portion of the factory decal. I made a new decal, matching the font size
and type, and applied it prior to refinishing the entire neck in nitrocellulose lacquer
Polished all the chrome, etc via buffer
Re-assembled and set up the guitar, including truss rod adjustment, string action,
intonation and trem system adjustment
Before
After
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Damaged ESP "Skull and Snakes" – Repaired 8/04 –
This guitar suffered several nasty gashes at the top of the lower bout. There were
also several 1/4 inch dents in the back of the neck, which is satin finished.
The gashes in the body were drop filled with fiberglass resin, air brushed
with black lacquer, and overcoated with 5 coats of nitrocellulose lacquer.
After curing for 4 days, it all rubbed out very nicely.
The neck was drop filled with lacquer, sanded and then overshot with
nitrocellulose lacquer to match the rest of the neck and back of the headstock.
Pretty wild grahics, eh? The whole guitar was then waxed and re-strung after
appying several coats of lemon oil to revitalize the rosewood fret board. Sounds
great and as good as new.
Before
After
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1979 Ibanez Studio 50 – Sold 12/03 –
This guitar was obtained from a pawn shop, and had been pretty beat up. It was
possible to save all of the original underlying dye except for the front of the
guitar, which had some deep cracks / dents in the finish. The front was
stripped to bare wood, re-shot with aniline dye. The entire guitar was also
sanded down to just above the original dye and refinished with Nitrocellulose
Lacquer.
Additionally, all of the nickel hardware was cleaned and polished. The frets
were leveled, crowned and polished. In the end, this guitar played and looked
exceptionally well. Love those 24 fret Ibanezes.
Before
After
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1994 Fender 40th Anniversary
Stratocaster® –
Sold Jan ‘04 – This guitar was picked
up on Ebay. The clear coat was scratched worse than anything we’d ever seen.
It looked like a series of knife cuts on both the back and front. There was
also serious corrosion, and an aftermarket pickguard had been installed with
several of the screw holes misaligned. The fretboard required refinishing and
was chipping. The tremolo cover plate was missing.
The entire guitar was stripped to the 3 color sunburst dye and refinished
with Nitrocellulose Lacquer after filling in the misaligned screw holes for the
pickguard. New Fender pickguard and backplate were installed. The fingerboard
was taped off, stripped and re-finished with lacquer after the frets were
leveled and crowned. This is another guitar that sounded played and looked
great after the work was completed.
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1994 Fender Telecaster® –
Sold Dec '03 – This guitar was also picked
up on Ebay. There were dents / penetrations through to the wood on the
outside edge of the guitar. The clear coat was carefully sanded down to the dye.
The holes filled with a special clear filler, the dye was touched up, and
the body was refinished with 8 coats of nitrocellulose lacquer. As good as new!
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