Ernie Ball Music Man JP6 Restoration Project!

[Morbid]

Originally Posted by Spudmurphy

Do you have the wiring diagrams? I have them in .PDF format (somewhere )if ya want them?

Also I can give you some hints/tips on rebuilding the Piezo back into the trem block if ya need it - other than that the guitar will be a great little project - one that a lot of us will like to see - and the more pictures the merrier!!

oh yeah and if you do come across the rubbers for the pot knobs - let me know where you got 'em from ?

I do have some wiring diagrams. I think they came from the Ernie Ball Music Man site, actually. They're not as clearcut as I'd like though. Perhaps I'm lazy, but I like pictures, haha. Drawn or otherwise, pictures help me

The piezo bridge seems to be copasetic, but I won't know until I get everything hooked up and get to try it.
I'll also be calling Ernie Ball after the body gets closer to being done to get some price checks on pieces. The knobs/rubber pieces will be part of that list, so I'll be sure to let you know.

Anyway, it's time for an update I suppose!

My father had a guitar he had been meaning to strip for a while, and since the weather has been decent, we decided we'd strip the two guitars together.



Since both of our guitars had been refinished, we decided to go the chemical stripper route. Things start off excellent!

Here's the JP6 after the first layer of stripper was laid down. The paint seemed to bubble almost immediately.


The paint also seemed to be coming up real easy, too! Almost like pealing after a sun burn.


Things didn't stay that easy though. I soon got down to the strong protective finish under the paint, and my progress slowed to a crawl.


As if that weren't enough, while inspecting the fill in job that resembled bubblegum, I noticed something interesting...
It would appear that the guitar was never actually sanded down before being refinished. I know that seems insane, and perhaps I'm out of my mind, but I swear I see the Ernie Ball Carbon Blue paint in this picture!


That would also explain why the wood showed up there so much faster than the rest of the guitar.
Alas, I finally started to get somewhere with the rest of the stripping.

It became pretty obvious to me when I was going to get results from the scraping process, as the finish started to crack and peal all on it's own.


Here's the guitar half way through the 2nd day of stripping.


Most of the front of the guitar is done now, and the back is stripped of paint, but I couldn't get pictures because I ran out of light.
I'll try to update in a few more days, though. Hopefully it'll be time to start sanding soon, and then the body work can begin.

[bkrumme]

Originally Posted by Morbid

Since both of our guitars had been refinished, we decided to go the chemical stripper route.

What did you use to do this? I have a buddy who wants to refinish a guitar of his and doesn't know what to use to strip the original finish off.

[Ernieballplayer]

this post is exciting!!!

[RedRadRocker]

Nice! Its like watching a tv series haha, cant wait for the update!

[candid_x]

Just clear coat over this and call it done.

Originally Posted by Morbid

haha, just kidding. Thanks for sharing this daunting project here. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[fbecir]

Good luck with your project !

When I heard the word "stripper", I imagined something else ...
But anyway, your project is a tough job but very interesting !

[Morbid]

Originally Posted by bkrumme

What did you use to do this? I have a buddy who wants to refinish a guitar of his and doesn't know what to use to strip the original finish off.

I used the Professional BOTTOMLESS Strippers, of course! They're just more fun, but cost a little bit more ;D
Kidding of course.

Here ya go!

Just tell your friend to be careful...this stuff will eat you alive in a very literal sense. When you get it on you, you know it.

Originally Posted by Ernieballplayer

this post is exciting!!!

Originally Posted by RedRadRocker

Nice! Its like watching a tv series haha, cant wait for the update!

Haha- I'm glad you guys approve! Except that unlike some of our favorite TV Series, this won't be canceled prematurely before the story is over with. On that note, I sure hope they make a Season 3 for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles!

Originally Posted by candid_x

Just clear coat over this and call it done.

LOL- I actually said that to my father as a joke, right at about that point, too. I figured I'd call it the Vintange Music Man, hehe.

Originally Posted by fbecir

When I heard the word "stripper", I imagined something else ...

Believe me when I say, every time the words "It's time to use the stripper" come out of my mouth, I make myself sad lol


I haven't started the 'stripping' process today just yet, but I've got the table set up and the guitar brushed off a little bit. I took a couple of pictures to show you guys how things are looking.

Here's the front of the guitar as of right now

It's nice to finally see some real wood under all of that crap.

Because of all the shaping of the front of the guitar, I'm actually kind of looking forward to moving on to the back.
Speaking of the back...

Now that I'm reminded of how much work I've yet to do on the back, I'm suddenly NOT looking forward to it, haha.

When some more of the wood started to show through last night, I noticed a bit of an issue that actually made me say "uh oh".
As I've gotten around to the fill in areas, I've noticed that the putty they used isn't very substantial. Here's what I mean...one of the following is occurring here;
A. The chemical stripper I'm using is eating away at the filler material, or...
B. They used the non hardening wood putty.

I say this because as I'm scraping away the paint, wood filler is coming up, too. The filler seems to be incredibly soft, in fact, I've been considering trying to stick a nail or pencil through the piezo area, just to see if I'm right, especially since I intend on routing out that area again anyway.
But I digress...

It's difficult to tell by the pictures, but if you look closely, I think you'll be able to see what I mean.

Here's the pickup switch area...

What was once a reasonably level, bubble gum colored area, is now a darkened and sunken in area. Sunken courtesy of the scrapping process.

Here is where the piezo switch USED to be...

Again, looking closely, you can see that the area is now sunken in some. Not only that, but the white 'paint' around it, doesn't seem to want to come up. When looking at that, I noticed a familiar pattern...
Do you see what I see?

Hmmm...

According to some research, it's come up that car bondo is the best thing to use for guitar projects like this, courtesy of the fact that it won't shrink or expand...what you leave there is what will remain there. It also hardens pretty well, so I should have no problem rerouting the areas I need. I'll just have to spend some extra time sanding and making sure everything is as smooth as possible. I only want to do this once.

When it cools down a little bit here, I'll start the stripping process once again and see if I can't try to end this tonight.

[candid_x]

Originally Posted by Morbid

LOL- I actually said that to my father as a joke, right at about that point, too. I figured I'd call it the Vintange Music Man, hehe.

Exactly!

I never tried it, but I've read several times that a heat gun is the easiest way to remove a poly paint job.

I did the paint remover on poly once, and never again!

[Spudmurphy]

Hey Morbid - nice one!!

I've been watching a (very old) Fender Jaguar restoration where the previous owner had rubbed it back and resprayed it. Problem was a lot of the contours were rubbed away and the body needed repair.

My mate (a luthier) used Car filler on it and it's looking awesome now.
The only problem in using body filler is that you will have to build up a good coat of filler primer if you are using nitro celly to refinish , - this is because nitro celly sinks over the years.

Thanks for posting the pics.

[Morbid]

candid; I've read that myself, but the problem behind that is that I've never done it before, and there is a great chance of burning/damaging the wood for beginners.
Granted, it shouldn't matter much after the paint is done, but this guitar may very well become my pride and joy, and I'd like to do it the best way I can, even if it takes me a few months to get it done.

Spud, that's an interesting piece of information I didn't know about. I'll have to do a little more research before I settle on that idea then.

[Spudmurphy]

^
yeah "sinkage" is prevalent when you use say a wooden dowel to fill in any holes.
it can look as flat as a pancake then after you have sprayed with celly the damn thing will sink.

[Morbid]

See, this is exactly why I started posting on this forum, lol.

Alright, then I'm definitely gonna need your help with what I should do.
I actually DID/do intend on filling the necessary holes with wooden dowels (just seemed like the best way), but now I'm unsure.
I intend on having the guitar painted by someone else, as the paintjob idea I have is a little too complex for me (I'm not exactly a talented painter, lol).
The hole filling and body work is going to be unavoidable no matter what I do.
I assume even if I prime the guitar, paint it and THEN add the celly it will still sink? And what about the protective layer that normally goes on most basswood guitars before the painting is done?
I'm lost, haha.

What should I do?

[Spudmurphy]

Use a wooden dowel to fill the hole. Make sure that the wood does not have too much moisture in it - bring the dowelling indoors for a while to dry out. My mate uses a stopper coat and a filler primer coat.

I tell ya what - I'll be seeing my Luthier friend in the week and I'll ask him for ya.
He refinishes all his guitars in celly. - I'll see if I can get a picture of the Jaguar too!

[Benjamin T]

Nice Morbid, I can't wait to see what you can do to it. Good luck!

[the24thfret]

This is a great thread, thanks for writing it all! It must add to your workload (guitar work + updating thread) but it's really interesting, so keep it up!