Ah, Winter Break! Two week's worth of days off, and a chance to really work on it!

Now that it's strung up and playable, I decide to go after the neck profile. After several hours, I have changed it from a kind of big, round "C" to the thin, flat-bottomed "D" that I remember so well. I've probably removed at least a quarter inch - and closer to three eighths, I'm sure - to get it feeling "right" - but it definitely feels "right" now!

Revisiting the pickup pole piece spacing issue, I do some comparisons of the Antiquities against what I have in the tool box. On more careful inspection, I find that the Antiquities DO have the same spacing as all my old P90's do, and it's the WD covers that are goofy. ALL the P90's - bridge, neck, whatever - have the same pole piece spacing. The WD covers, on the other hand, have the neck pole pieces a bit narrower, and the bridge pole pieces a bit wider than the "standard" P90 spacing! Is this the way the new "import" models are made? I think it must be so... But is that the way the originals where made? I can't say... Anyway, with careful filing I adjust the holes on the WD covers to fit the Antiquities and mount 'em up. It looks swell, and the slight pole piece mis-match is hardly noticable. The covers hide even more of the oversized humbucker holes in the body than I had hoped.

While I have the neck pup out to mount the cover, I re-wire the leads to see if my "out of phase" observation is correct. It was, and rewired the guitar sounds much more like I anticipated.

I put the knobs on, just for a look-see, and it's getting closer and closer... Now that it FEELS right and SOUNDS right, the PERFECT LOOK seems to be less of a priority.

I disassembled the Casino to do a little more "woodworking." After trying more finish remover - unsuccessfully - I resign myself to more sanding, sanding, sanding to try to remove the cherry freckles. I will NEVER try this again on a cherry-stained Gibson!

I glued in a couple of fillers for the pickup holes. I used some nice pine (softer than the maple) so that as I sanded it to the correct contour I would have less of a chance of going through the top veneer. That worked out very nicely.

So, now I'm DONE with:
the repair of the pup holes;
the wiring harness;
the pickup mounting problem;
the "silhouette" of the neck - just about all the "working guitar" problems.

But I'm left with the UGLY FINISH problems.
Sanding, sanding, sanding... Every time I think I've gotten the freckles down to where I can live with them, a quick wipe with a damp cloth (to simulate what the guitar will look like with a coat of finish) reveals more, more, more... arrrrgh!

Frustrated by the never-eradicated cherry freckles and the fact that the more I sanded, the bigger the scars and uglies got, I snapped. I went to the hardware store, got some sanding disks for my electric drill, and went after the top. I know, I'll probably be burned in effigy for this, but I just couldn't take it anymore!

It was scary...

...But boy, am I glad I took the chance! I took off the top two layers - the maple veneer and the underlying birch - to get to the maple "core." I only did the top - I was too scared to do more - and it came out even better than I expected. Thank gawd for the old Gibson integrity, using only the finest plywood! Yeah, there are a few little knots and stuff, and the original holes did "bleed" a little stain even this deep - but I think it looks one hundred percent better that it did with the "scars." I will leave the back "scared" to remind me of what a challenge this was!

Now, it's ALMOST READY FOR CLEARCOAT!

JANUARY 2002

FINISHING THE JOB…

The finishing job:

Yes, I'm sanding, sanding, sanding... at last I am satisfied with the overall look of the guitar. In keeping with the philosophy that less finish sounds better - hey, that's the reason Lennon sanded his finish off - I only used ONE CAN of Rustoleum Clear Gloss Lacquer on the entire guitar, and at least half of that on the neck alone. I hit the neck extra hard because (as we all know) mahogany is more porous than maple, and in my experience takes a lot more paint to get a good finish if you don't seal it first (which I didn't). I was surprised to find that even though the neck was practically a "VIRGIN" surface - I REALLY took a lot of wood off - it didn't suck up the lacquer like mahogany that I have worked with in the past. Nice, tight-grained, thirty-year-old MAHOGANY! Nothing like having good wood…

After a quick three-day cure - I love living in Southern California! - I rubbed it out, first wet sanding using 220 grit wet and dry sandpaper to go after the runs and get a nice even surface, then wet sanding with some 600A to get a little shine going, and finishing up with TurtleWax (automotive) White Polishing Compound. I didn't buff it to a high gloss, as I wanted to get a more "natural wood look."

The results are way better than I could ever have dreamed of just two weeks ago!

Thanks to my trial fittings, the reassembly went nicely, with no surprises. As I knew I would have to, I enlarged the holes for the bridge posts, no problems there. I noticed a few spots where I had gone through the finish to the bare wood while rubbing the thin finish out, so I touched those up by shooting the rattle-can lacquer into its cap, and then applying it to the "bald" spots with a small paintbrush (I'm very superstitious about mixing different finishes, even of the same type and brand of paint).

And here's another thing that I just wanted to do: I cut a piece of half-inch hardwood dowel, wedged and glued it in, just clear of the bridge pickup hole and centered between the bridge posts. The top is pretty heavily reinforced on the inside anyway, but as I said, I was hoping for some feedback control out of this, too.

I strung it up, notched the new bridge, and away we go!

What a nice axe! The new neck profile is exactly what I remembered, and it feels fabulous. It's a wonderful instrument to play unplugged. I have it strung with Gibson Brite Wires 10's - my version of "vintage medium gauge" - and it sounds great. As there were a few very badly worn frets, I had done a quick and dirty fret level while I had it all apart. I was afraid I might have to get it refretted, but it now seems that my quickie job did the trick. It's practically a "fretless wonder" for the little meat that's left on the frets, and the combination of not much fret-height left and the .010 set I strung it with makes it a bit tough to hang on to the high "E" in lead-type bends. Oh well, that's not what I intended it for, anyway, and it's a great "rhythm" guitar. I don't think the soundpost affected the acoustic tone very much at all, and it positively has helped in making the guitar less feedback-prone - I think it just makes the whole guitar feel a little more solid, now, too.

As a finishing touch, I filed and sanded a Les Paul "rhythm/treble" ring down to the size of the mysterious "black washer" around the pickup selector of Lennon's axe, and cut a small piece of black rubber tubing to match whatever it is that he had under the pickguard screw on the top of his Casino. Now it REALLY is starting to look like Lennon's Casino!

Lennon's Casino (LEFT) and my Casino (RIGHT - thanks, Rob...)
(Lennon's Casino scanned from Tony Bacon's Fuzz & Feedback)

If you look closely, you can see that what little grain shows in the top runs side to side, instead of up and down as it should - and there are the knots… I used a set of "vintage look" knobs instead of the haphazard collection on John Lennon's. Perhaps I'll get a set of the "gold top" knobs for it, like they use on the reissues… I still wish I could get an Epiphone trussrod cover, and perhaps repair the binding on the bottom of the neck at the twentieth fret - minor points, to be sure. Boy, I hope the finish will yellow a bit over time...

Over all, I'm VERY HAPPY with the way this project turned out. Not bad for a net investment of about $500 - not counting my time, of course. And Lennon's Casino recreated or not, the ruined "vintage value" in some people's opinion be damned, it's still just a great guitar, and will positively remain here in my collection and always be among my favorite players.

A "ps:" or two...

2003 - Hank Tomczak, a fellow TDPRI-er, sent me an Epiphone trussrod cover - toooo cool!
Thanx, Hank T! I'll try and get a picture up here soon...

2004 - With a little more water under the bridge, I have decided that I won't use the old standby hardware-store spray lacquer for clear-coats any more. I have found that with the three or four guitars that I have used this type of product on, they are EXTREMELY succeptable to plasicizer migration - you know, the finish getting soft where it touches the rubber of a typical guitar stand. Axes on which I have used a proper nitro-lacquer (obtained from Reranch) do NOT have the problems that these hardware-store finished axes do... A word to the wise! For solid colors, I'm with Leo - automotive paint!

2005 - Now I find that I am craving that refret that I thought I could live without, because I'd really like to string this up a tad lighter and play some "fab and gear" lead riffs...

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