Epiphone Goth-Bird Rebuild Part 1

[Nocturnal]

This project has been finished for a while but I am just now getting around to detailing the process and final result. It all started with a beater Epi Goth T-bird that i picked up for $70 on Craigslist. When the project started, the bass had the following issues:
1) Missing truss rod cover and pickguard
2) Bridge inserts lifting out of body
3) Input jack pulled thru the face of the control cavity
4) A couple of bad tuning keys

The electronics all worked and sounded fine, the neck was straight and adjustable, seemed like a minor fix. My original plan was to only replace the crappy tuners and install a Strat-type input jack in the face and call it a day. After watching some of the others do exciting builds/restorations/etc on this forum I decided to step it up a notch and create a bird that I hadn't seen before. Looking back, I wasn't prepared for what I got myself into but I'm glad that I attempted it. Overall i am happy with the final product despite the flaws, most of which are only obvious to me.

Anyhow, here is where it all began:

[Nocturnal]

The first step was to strip all of the parts from the body, then address the input jack damage. I used a forstner bit (if i remember correctly) to remove all of the damaged wood from the input area.





I had decided to move the input jack to the end of the body like on my Gibson, so I used a piece of 1/8" plywood and glued it into the control cavity:

[Nocturnal]

From this point on Joe (Chromium) was a HUGE help in the rest of the project. Without his help and guidance this project may have never been finished and likely would not have been as successful as it turned out.

I had decided that since I was trying to do a unique Bird, that the 3-point bridge had to go (sorry Uwe). So since I was going to do body repair I went ahead and doweled the bridge insert holes. I planned on moving the strap button behind the neck, and the screw at the butt-end was stripped out so i doweled those holes as well. I had also decided that i didn't need a pickguard so i filled the screw holes for the guard and the truss rod cover. Joe's auto-body repair experience came in handy at this point as he taught me how to use Bondo to fill the all of the holes and dents on the body. I had picked up a pair of TB Plus pickups that I was planning to use, so i routed (rather poorly) the pickup cavities to fit the new pickups.




I had planned on using the original paint as a "primer" so I sanded the body and used some filler primer for a couple of areas that needed a little help. Sadly, I can't find any pictures of the painting process so you will just have to wait to see the final product to see how it turned out.

[Nocturnal]

I have always loved the look of the Fender Jazz Specials from the mid 80's that had the grey body with the black headstock. In fact, my initial thought for this bass was to fill the pickup routes and re-route for a P-J setup. I decided to borrow the color scheme and use more traditional pickups. I also decided to not use black hardware like the JS or Gibson Birds and chose to use chrome hardware as i thought it would look better with my paint scheme (again uwe, i am sorry). The body color I chose was Gun Metal Grey metallic and black metallic for the headstock. Having never painted a guitar before, i didn't know to be afraid of using a metallic paint. I don't really recommend it for a first-timer, but thanks to Joe it turned out much better than I hoped. I made some major mistakes and had to start over a few times (3 attempts in all I think) but finally got it painted and clear-coated. Despite all the reading that I did online I never heard anyone say NOT to use acrylic enamel for the clear coat. I was using Duplicolor paint from Autozone so i figured I should use Duplicolor's clear too. Only later did I find out that the acrylic enamel takes a really long time to harden  . Oh well, it was too late at that point unless i wanted to strip it and start over, which i was not going to be happy about. I had also taken the body from it hanging spot and laid it on my work table for a while because it had been curing for a couple of months, which resulted in a few dents in the clear (life got in the way a few times during this project) on the front and back. I was pretty angry with myself and convinced that the dents couldn't be fixed. Joe came by to check it out and worked some sanding magic on it and pronounced the finish "salvageable". Thank God!!! I hung it back up and let it cure a little longer. At some point I spent an evening watching the Walking Dead and wet-sanding the clearcoat until I achieved the shiny finish I was after. I then used a little swirl/scratch remover to help clean it up a bit. it turned out much better than I had a right to hope for and like I said, I am happy with it overall.

After starting the project I was able to aquire a pair of those Gibson 70's TBird pickup covers and rings so I decided to strip my black TB Plus to install inside the covers. That never happened but it sent me down the chrome path so I picked up an ABM style bridge, Gotoh tuners, and a stainless pickguard and truss rod cover just to really over accessorise the project  .

At yet another turn in the road, I decided to get a couple of the TB Plus pickups that are guitar-humbucker sized to load inside the 70's covers. I bought two of those from Ebay because I remembered the pickups in my LP Standard bass being so aggressive and I really liked the sound of them. I also wanted this bass to sound different than my ebony Gibson so I felt like this was a good move. I decided that I didn't want to have a tone pot since I just turn them all the way up and leave them, but I did want a kill switch so I planned to install that switch in the tone knob position. I used silicon to install the pickups inside of the covers so that if I wasn't happy or ever wanted a change that it would be an easy job to remove them. It ended up wired in a Vol-Vol-Kill configuration.

I had to use a luthier along the way to install the bridge, set it up, install some wood pieces to raise the pickups to the proper height, and wire it up for me but other than that all of the work was done by myself or Joe. The pickups aren't wired the way I want right now so that will need to be redone. As it is now you can't turn off one volume knob without killing the output to both pickups. I want to be able to use just one pickup at a time when I want that sound so that will need to be addressed later. This bass sounds HUGE!!! The output is quite loud and it sounds like an angry bright Thunderbird. Just what I was after  .

This is the abbreviated version of this long process, but now it is time for some pics of the completed project.

[Nocturnal]

Behold the Epiphone GothBird rebuild:







I'm not in the same league as the rest of you when it comes to guitar restoration but I think I did pretty good for a newbie  

[Basvarken]

Looks fantastic! I like the combination of the color and the chrome.
The big switch looks awesome too; nice detail!

[ramone57]

looks good all nice and shiny!

[Highlander]

That body repair looked fine, Andy... the repair I did to my PCTB with similar material lasted a couple of decades so...

[dadagoboi]

Great job, looks killer!

[Nocturnal]

Thanks guys!! There was a lot of blood, sweat, tears, swearing, and beers shed during this project. It must not have frightened me away from refinishing because I've just started another refin. I will start a thread on that one after I make a little more progress on it.

[Highlander]

Did someone say shed...?

Be brave and earn a rep like me - I lovingly ran my hand over the neck of the RD and moved a Jazz neck to get at my circular saw today, but I do have a nice little bookshelf with some of my reference material to my left now...

[chromium]

That's one of my favorite tbirds of yours.  A very heavy, substantial bass, and it always had the tone to go with it.  I liked it even in its original state with the Epi pickups - but its really smokin' now!  Really like the whole look that you pulled together on this... the aluminum guard and trc, big honkin' kill switch, the replacement bridge fits the look perfectly, etc...

Great job, and can't wait to see how the other refin turns out!

[gearHed289]

Very cool! Unique bird you have there.

[Nocturnal]

That's one of my favorite tbirds of yours.  A very heavy, substantial bass, and it always had the tone to go with it.  I liked it even in its original state with the Epi pickups - but its really smokin' now!  Really like the whole look that you pulled together on this... the aluminum guard and trc, big honkin' kill switch, the replacement bridge fits the look perfectly, etc...

Great job, and can't wait to see how the other refin turns out!

Thanks Joe! Without your help this project may have never been finished. Your help and advice was invaluable to me during this project. 

[OldManC]

Very cool! Unique bird you have there.

I was thinking the same on both accounts. It's a killer looking and, from your description, sounding bird. Congrats on a job well done!