United Lutherie Blog

As usual it’s been busy around here! Our pal Billy traveled across several states with an RV full of vintage Gibsons for us to work on and document. It took several days and was some of the most fun we’ve ever had in the shop! He had multiple examples of some of the greatest guitars ever, and we’ve never seen so many pristine 50’s Les Paul Juniors in one collection! Here is a great pic of some ‘68 & ‘69 Goldtops…It was a guitar nerds dream come true! Now Erick and I are off to Purdue University to assist with a guitar building class they hold every summer. Should be fun…we’ll report back with some good stories and more pics!

So, here we have the exact opposite of Erick’s last post…a very cool 40’s era Martin 00-18 that has been in the shop for 5 years now! This guitar imploded on itself, and had undergone a lot of sketchy work from other repairmen…so it was in need of some serious and unique surgery. We are finally through the worst of it, and it should be downhill from here. Fortunately, the owner is an extremely patient person and understands the level of time and difficulty required to complete such a massive restoration. We always say,”Be suspicious of a repairman who isn’t busy!”

We often spend our weekends in the shop, just can’t get enough of this stuff.
Last Friday afternoon a dead dogear P-90 came in for inspection. After a careful examination it was determined that a rewind was in order. After rebuilding the pickup using all of the original lead wires and tape this rock and roll device was boxed up and ready to go back to the customer by Monday morning…. and that’s how I spent my Father’s Day!

To have this man in your corner when tackling an unusual repair.
Athens County is without a doubt the hotbed of lutherie in the Midwest with a number of reputable builders or repairmen in the immediate vicinity including this guy, Dan Erlewine.
Dan has literally written the book on guitar repair and the experience he has gained during his 40+ years in the field are unmatched.
Gene and I both cut our teeth on Dan’s educational materials, spent a number of years training in his shop and continue to do work for him to this day.
One of the few to have the knowledge on how the early TV finishes were applied, Dan offers his advice on how he’d go about the finish repair on Billy’s 1955 Les Paul TV Model.

Variations of the famous Gibson TV Yellow finish.
On the left is a ‘55 TV model Junior made during the first full production year. Referred to as Limed Mahogany in the catalogs the color itself is very thin, brushed on and ragged off with much of the grain and neutral filler showing through with a heavy topcoat. In the middle is a ‘58 Special again in Limed Mahogany. The color coat is nearly opaque and almost tan in color with brown grain filler showing through. Later in ‘58 the color name changed from Limed Mahogany to TV Yellow as did the color. On the right is Bill Collings interpretation of the TV color and the classic LP Special on one of his 290 models. Too cool!