completely free overhaul of a vintage hondo

[heroics321]

alright guys, i'm about to begin an overhaul for one of two hondo les paul double cutaway copies that i obtained for free. for the first experiment, i have already reworked the frets (they were sticking out of the sides of the fingerboard) and began sanding the finish off the neck. aside from that and some really screwed up electronics, the fretwork is still alright and the neck is warp-free. right now, i am about to do a complete electronics swap using various spare pots, caps, switches and output jacks, along with a spare seymour duncan jb and some stock ibanez pickup. i may take some pics of the process. wish me luck!

 

[Buck62]

for the first experiment, i have already reworked the frets (they were sticking out of the sides of the fingerboard)

The reason the frets were "sticking out of the sides of the fingerboard" was because the wood was totally dried out and shrunk. The frets were fine. All you really needed to do was put the guitar in the bathroom and run an extremely hot shower (with the door closed, of course) for about 45 minutes. This would have humidified (re-hydrated) the wood, causing it to expand back to it's original size, thus, the frets would have been set perfectly. Now, you still have a dried out neck and shorter frets. Those frets will be slightly too small when the guitar is properly humidified. I've had two different people come to me with the *exact* same problem (a dried-out neck with the frets were protruding to the point it was cutting their hands). The shower trick corrected the problem both times. You'd be amazed at how much that neck expands when properly humidified.