So, having bored you all to death with my 78 Ebony Ripper, I finally got it to sound like I wanted and now love it to bits. So much so that I've bought another one. Not quite the same, though, and with cosmetic issues rather than electronic.
This is/was a natural finish, serial number 182193, which Guitar Dater suggests is 1970-72, but I guess must actually be 73 or 74. It has the pickups with screws through the body and the 4-way chicken head selector pointing north, but the ring with the numbers on is missing. Knobs look original, maybe missing metal position markers? I'm not at all certain about the pickguard - it has one small hole above and two below each pickup and they look very neat to be a DIY addition. Pickups are good, except the bridge pup has an indentation in the top - looks like it's been screwed down too tight at some point. Works fine though, both pickups sound great and all the selector positions work.
On to the finish. The body has been resprayed matt black, with a lot of orange peel all over and a lot of buckle rash on the back. Haven't had the pickguard off, but it looks like there might be original finish under it. Where the black is worn away it feels like the original finish is still there. Neck has some kind of clear lacquer on it, worn in places. Serial number, with Made in USA under it, is quite faint and there is what looks like lacquer runs around it, so I suspect it's been tampered with. Great low action, neck plays very nicely despite the worn finish.
Main question then is - what would you do with it? Is it likely to be feasible to remove the black back to the natural finish, if so any tips on how? What about the neck, would you do anything about the lacquer? Any thoughts on original bits that may be missing?
