Ernie Ball Music Man JP6 Restoration Project!

[Morbid]

Hey Gang! This is one of my first posts here at this great forum, and with that, I wanted to share with you all my new project.
I'll be starting a small site dedicated to this project, but until I get started on that, I wanted to post this thread here to get some input and opinions!

So, I recently purchased a John Petrucci Ernie Ball Music Man from ebay in project condition. This is one of the older Petrucci models, before the D-sonic was introduced. The person who owned it before me decided to relocate the piezo switch to the area between the piezo volume and tone knobs, as it was a bit of a neusense when playing tapping licks. Having relocated the switch, he had the guitar painted from the original Carbon Blue to a Metallic Forest Green. Personally, the green isn't my thing, but I'm happy about that, because I'm going to have to strip the paint regardless.
As it stands right now all I have is the body, case, and MOST of the parts (Some little pieces missing here and there, like a couple of nuts and screws). The neck should be here in a couple of weeks. My intention is to restore this guitar to as CLOSE to it's original form as humanly possible, with a couple of slight alterations in between. I'm REALLY hoping I can find a unique color I like to make this guitar a little special, but I'm not sure I'll get that lucky yet. Worst case scenario, I'll end up going with the Graphite Pearl (probably my favorite EBMM color)or something similar.
So here's the guitar in it's present condition;




At first glance, you can clearly see the cover up job done where the piezo switch ORIGINALLY was, both on the front AND the back side of the guitar.


This will actually aid me in rerouting out that area to place the piezo switch where it should be. I hope...

Let's take a good look at those routing holes on the front of the guitar.


OUCH! The back is pretty well decorated, too!




Let's fool with the electronics a little bit and see how the guitar looks put together, just for fun!

Uh oh...wait a second.

It would appear that the Volume and Tone pots differ greatly in size from the Piezo Volume pot, so much so, that the piezo volume pot won't fit through the holes in the guitar body.


Not a huge deal, but a bit of a hassle. The previous owner ensured me that the pot has not been replaced, so I'm not sure how this fitting issue has come to be. Unfortunately, I don't have any friends with Ernie Ball guitars, so I can't take one of their's apart to compare! lol

While messing with the piezo volume pot, I noticed that something else seemed a little 'off' in a very literal sense. Look what happens when I place the copper plate into the guitar.


It would appear that the pickup selector switch is about a half an inch off center. Upon further inspection, I noticed two different wood types, and found out from the previous owner that the hole was indeed relocated, courtesy of the people who did the body work, filling up the hole like dummies.


I'm a bit on the side of OCD, so that's gonna have to be fixed provided I can find a way to make that area sturdy enough to redrill through one more time!

Looks like I'm also gonna need some new rubber pieces for my knobs!



I've definitely got my work cut out for me! This certainly won't be the easiest way to join the Music Man club, but it's more affordable for me, and I can take pride in the project when it's done, provided I manage to take my time and do a good job.

I certainly hope you will all follow along with me as I take on this project, and will share your helpful hints, tips and opinions/constructive criticisms along the way!
I look forward to playing this beauty when she's done

Take care,
Jordan

[DrGonzo5150]

Nice... I love these things!

I can't wait to see the progression and end results
Spudmurphy was restoring one recently so i'm sure he'll chime in.

Welcome to the forum

[Dizzy]

Great Post - very entertaining !

They sure did their best to butcher that axe.

You've got a bit of work ahead of you mate, but I'm sure it'll all be worth it in the end !

I'd love to see an alternative flip-flop colour attempt !

Good luck and keep us updated.

[Morbid]

Glad to see some interest already!
I actually found Spud's threads earlier this afternoon while looking for pictures of the JP6 taken apart. I noticed all his pots are the same size, unlike mine, but at this particular moment I'm just chalking that up to the difference in age between our guitars.

Dizzy, I've been contemplating a flip-flop color as you mentioned, but might go against it just to try something different.
While I'm normally not fond of them, I was actually contemplating attempting some form of swirl paint job, sans a bunch of bright colors. I'll have to experiment with ideas before I set anything in stone, though.

Thanks again for checking out the thread guys

[Dizzy]

One of our members (Norrin Rad) swirled his JP6 with some pretty good results ! :

AND IT GLOWS IN THE DARK !!!

[Dizzy]

Pete DuBaldo has a great "Molten Gemstone" JP7 :

[Morbid]

Thanks for the pictures, Dizzy!

I've actually seen both of those guitars on multiple occasions.
I'm still not sure how I feel about the swirled JP6, which is actually why a large part of me is leaning AWAY from the swirled idea, to be honest. Again though, I need to experiment before I decide.
I always liked Pete's Molten Gemstone, mainly because of how unique the color was, but I've never been a big fan of sparkle guitars myself, unless they were a very subtle sparkle.

After reading up on the story of the UPS Guitar Destroyer about Pete's JP7 though, it gives me hope to do as good of a job on mine as he did on his. Based on what he said when he posted the thread over a year ago, the guitar was a complete mess! He really did an outstanding job.

[Dizzy]

Ahhh,

I see you've been here a fair while then.

Joined back in 2005 and only 6 posts !?!

[Morbid]

Well, I actually saw those on the petrucciforum a while back, back when I was a member.
I joined this forum years ago when they did an online interview with John, and we got to ask questions and have them answered on the fly. For some reason, I just never came back to the forum until now. Now that I'm part of the Music Man club, I guess it only seemed right lol

[Dizzy]

Cool, welcome back - it's a pretty cool place here

[Sticky1973]

Lovin' the project log, Morbid

Flip paint black/silver would be a nice take on the Music Man theme, whilst echoing the old JPM100P3 look.

This is gonna be interesting, I'm gonna get comfy for this one.

[Big Poppa]

GOod luck and thanks for rescuing this abused puppy.....Its amazing the lack of craftmanship displayed...This "tech" really could probably tell you all about how great he is and then look at what he does to this guitar. The biggest problem with guitar techs is there is no accreditation program or certification process....Can you imagine deciding one morning, " I like smiles....Im a dentist" Or in Dizz's case I like women so Ill be a plastic surgeon!"

The regulars here can tell you how much misinformation gets pompously spewed by hack techs that know it all but have never made anything. "That piezo doesnt fit..."FORCE IT, they will never know ...thats why they make covers!"

Now before the thunder starts there are many great techs...I bring this up because the bad ones really make it bad for the good ones.

[Nik_Left_RG]

All the very best for the Project Morbid.. and might I add , nice hi-res pictures man.. wtg!!

[bkrumme]

I WANT A GUITAR WITH THIS COLOR!

That's SICK!

Originally Posted by Dizzy

One of our members (Norrin Rad) swirled his JP6 with some pretty good results ! :

AND IT GLOWS IN THE DARK !!!

[TwAn]

Are you getting a new neck for it?

Good luck with the project, man! Looking forward to the results... (I wish I was the handy man to do stuff like that, unfortunately I'm not...)