vultures
Well-known member
The Guitar:
So I've had this 93 PRS CU24 for a very long time now. It was passed down to me from a family member who passed as I am the only one in the family that plays guitar. Needless to say, the guitar means a lot to me.
The work I've done:
So this guitar is warm/dark. Since it will never leave my possession, I've taken liberty to do things to it that you'd never want to do if you're worried about resale or value. I sanded the neck and put an oil/wax finish on it. I've swapped the pickups over a dozen times. I even sent it to evertune to have an evertune installed. Every big step I took seemed to brighten up the guitar, especially sanding down the neck. The finish on this guitar was easily 2mm or more thick. I had an idea.. Get the body refinished in my favorite color with Nitro. The guitar was tobbaco burst on the front and solid black on the back. I've been working on guitars professionally for over a decade, but I am far from being a painter/finisher. I wanted to leave that to a PRO.
The refinisher:
I had a friend recommend a builder. That friend had been to his shop and said his finishes were top notch. On this guy's Instagram he removed the top on a PRS SE and put on a 1 piece quilted maple top. He looked absolutely professional in every way and his work looked amazing. I told him to strip the body, paint the top a blue metallic and leave the back natural.
The horror:
The guy told me the guitar was finished. A week or two later he nearly cut his finger off with a bandsaw. I went up to grab the guitar and he mentioned, "I didn't finish buffing it out completely, but it's good to go". OK. No worries. I shoot the shit with him for an hour and leave with the guitar. I did not take an in depth look at my guitar when I was there. I get home and get to take a closer look under good lighting. The guitar is so fucked up. The refinishing is just.. Absolutely trash. Objectively. I've wanted to get this guitar refinished for over a decade and wanted to wait for the right place. Here's some highlights of how fucked up this thing is.
The guitar before refinishing:
From a distance, the refinish looks great. Note: I sanded the cavities and painted them with black shielding paint.
There is pig tailing all over the guitar from his sander. You can see at the bottom of this light streak. There's more all over, but it's hard to get the lighting.
There are still remnants of black paint from the original finish on the back of the guitar. These specs are under the new clear coat. Also there is a black ring around the electronics cavity from him not sanding back the finish completely. That is also under the new clear coat.
The upper horn and lower horn is sanded incredibly rough. I know for a fact buffing wouldn't clean this up.
More spots where the original black finish wasn't completely removed.
Here's one more crushing blow and the one that bothers me the most. The lower horn and hand contour was masked poorly.. And then finish put over it.
The solution?
The top is actually OK. The color is pretty spot on to what I asked for. It's just the rest of this guitar looks like garbage. I'm thinking about sending it to MJT, I've sent them multiple guitars and refinished when I worked for a builder. The whole thing is I didn't want to ship this guitar and risk it being damaged in shipping.
Thanks for coming to my RIGtalk and letting me vent. I put this guitar in it's case and haven't touched it in weeks. I literally feel sick to my stomach thinking about it and posting this.
So I've had this 93 PRS CU24 for a very long time now. It was passed down to me from a family member who passed as I am the only one in the family that plays guitar. Needless to say, the guitar means a lot to me.
The work I've done:
So this guitar is warm/dark. Since it will never leave my possession, I've taken liberty to do things to it that you'd never want to do if you're worried about resale or value. I sanded the neck and put an oil/wax finish on it. I've swapped the pickups over a dozen times. I even sent it to evertune to have an evertune installed. Every big step I took seemed to brighten up the guitar, especially sanding down the neck. The finish on this guitar was easily 2mm or more thick. I had an idea.. Get the body refinished in my favorite color with Nitro. The guitar was tobbaco burst on the front and solid black on the back. I've been working on guitars professionally for over a decade, but I am far from being a painter/finisher. I wanted to leave that to a PRO.
The refinisher:
I had a friend recommend a builder. That friend had been to his shop and said his finishes were top notch. On this guy's Instagram he removed the top on a PRS SE and put on a 1 piece quilted maple top. He looked absolutely professional in every way and his work looked amazing. I told him to strip the body, paint the top a blue metallic and leave the back natural.
The horror:
The guy told me the guitar was finished. A week or two later he nearly cut his finger off with a bandsaw. I went up to grab the guitar and he mentioned, "I didn't finish buffing it out completely, but it's good to go". OK. No worries. I shoot the shit with him for an hour and leave with the guitar. I did not take an in depth look at my guitar when I was there. I get home and get to take a closer look under good lighting. The guitar is so fucked up. The refinishing is just.. Absolutely trash. Objectively. I've wanted to get this guitar refinished for over a decade and wanted to wait for the right place. Here's some highlights of how fucked up this thing is.
The guitar before refinishing:
From a distance, the refinish looks great. Note: I sanded the cavities and painted them with black shielding paint.
There is pig tailing all over the guitar from his sander. You can see at the bottom of this light streak. There's more all over, but it's hard to get the lighting.
There are still remnants of black paint from the original finish on the back of the guitar. These specs are under the new clear coat. Also there is a black ring around the electronics cavity from him not sanding back the finish completely. That is also under the new clear coat.
The upper horn and lower horn is sanded incredibly rough. I know for a fact buffing wouldn't clean this up.
More spots where the original black finish wasn't completely removed.
Here's one more crushing blow and the one that bothers me the most. The lower horn and hand contour was masked poorly.. And then finish put over it.
The solution?
The top is actually OK. The color is pretty spot on to what I asked for. It's just the rest of this guitar looks like garbage. I'm thinking about sending it to MJT, I've sent them multiple guitars and refinished when I worked for a builder. The whole thing is I didn't want to ship this guitar and risk it being damaged in shipping.
Thanks for coming to my RIGtalk and letting me vent. I put this guitar in it's case and haven't touched it in weeks. I literally feel sick to my stomach thinking about it and posting this.
Last edited:
