You are the Bob Ross of guitars restoration and I mean that as a sincere compliment. Love the description of the volume and tone markers and grubby switch 😂! Excellent restoration! Looks fantastic!
I always would brush on chemical stripper and then slide the body into a hefty bag and seal it. Let it sit over night and the finish would melt right down and scrape off a lot easier! Love that guitar!! TV yellow is absolutely the color to do it!!!
This is my favorite body shape of all time. I love my Junior..but wish that it was a double cut like this Special. However, being a leftie, they are hard to find. I was fortunate to find my Junior at fair price. So I am not complaining. Just admiring the guitar on the screen. Great work, by the way. I normally hate seeing old guitars (especially ones from this period) being refinished, modified or altered in any way... but in this case, it had already been refinished. So it is cool in my book. hehe. Awesome stuff, dude!
Hey, you have a lot of skills and do really good work. I'd point out, however, that shooting highly flammable nitrocellulose lacquer into an electric fan that doesn't have a non-explosive motor is pretty risky. You probably have been doing it for awhile but all it takes is that one time and you could have a life changing event. Non-explosive fans don't cost that much.
I think the restoration is wonderful. It was surprised that the cavities weren’t masked of and the only original paint still on it was just painted over.
Sounds amazing even before you’ve lifted a finger on the restoration - the P90 - even in a one pickup Junior configuration (perhaps especially in one pup config) really is my favourite Gibson pickup…
Great job! In ‘68 I had a LPSpecial. During a practice break, the guitar was leaned against my Gibson amp. Horselay amongst two bandmates resulted in a neck break. My Dad used Elmer’s glue to repair it. Picked it up a few days later and no discord all the way up the neck! Aside from the scar it was perfectly playable. I eventually traded it to a new Gibson ES335TD. It was cherry red and I miss it!
Little tip with paint stripper on poly. Put it on with a brush and wrap it with cling film or glad wrap. Thats how we do it on cars, the fumes really help to lift the paint.
If your using a paint stripper and it melts the paint off it's probably not poly, I have done quite a few poly removals and it always took a heat gun and a scraper. It looks great now nice job!
What a fantastic job! The craftsmanship - counting drops of pigment, sheesh! - is just sensational. I could just imagine Rick Richards of the Satellites, or maybe the Great Fatsby himself, jamming with this axe and nodding their heads - "Aaaah, Yeah...!"
polyurethane is bad for furniture also. We should never apply anything that can't be reversed. I learned that from restorers of old paintings. I agree with you, poly does protect, but it also makes it very difficult to totally remove from wood, you are lucky because you are spraying another finish on it and not leaving it natural. Very nice work by the way. I was surprised the paint wasn't applied heavier, you can see the wood grain through the paint, almost like a 'wash'.
I agree with this. I work with pianos, many from the C.19. Everything in them is reversible with heat or solvents. It’s a big reason they’re still going today.
I would love to strip the finish off my 1985 fender Japan Strat, it's probably one of those thick reacted finishes that looks like the chocolate candy layer on Glossette almonds. I've seen a picture of a water damaged example that was peeling finish. But is it worth it? I know it would remove half a pound of plasticky weight off the body, and allow the wood to dry out, but the job could be a mess…
Had to come back to this one, Scotty! Wow, what a glorious job you did on this beauty. The color was SPOT ON! One thing I've noticed, which I didn't realized the first time around was that you opted to use the original tail piece. If you still have access to this guitar, might a suggest a Music City Bridge - the kind endorsed by Uncle Larry! No weird mods, just perfect intonation. If you've seen them before, then you know. I think it's called the Stud Finder. Joe Glaser's humble invention. Anyway- thanks again for sharing this beauty with us. it's really appreciated!!
I love the special/Junior design with a single wraparound bridge ( much better resonance). The only design flaw of the 2 P90s design was the positioning of the neck pickup. The cavity was placed to near the neck end, cutting directly into the wood connection of the body and neck end. This resulted in huge stability problems. They changed that a few years after, shifting the position further down.
A properly cut and polished bone nut with the smallest amount of lube might be just about as good. Plus it looks traditional. My 90s Les Paul is pretty stable.
Very nicely done restoration job. I love those old Les Paul Specials and Juniors, the old SGs with P90s are also great sounding and playing instruments. I liked the way that you managed to dig out the the wood putty etc and skilfully replacing it with mahogany, the final colour of the guitar looks perfect to me.
Good job! I have a 1983 SG Special in TV Yellow. I love the yellow color. Mine has checks and cracks all over it though. Kind of cool, but kind of not cool.
the original TV lacquer finish on Specials and Juniors came from the same finish used on wood TV frames and cabinets in the US in the late 50's and 60's. Hence the name, TV yellow. It's an inconsistent finish that would range from bright yellow to more brown, red and olive green. I guess Fender, at the time, got a very good deal on a stockpile of it for lower-end student models
Nicely done. I would have liked to heard it played through a big tube amp, couldn't tell for sure but it looked like it was going through that little Fender Champion. Crank ti through a Mesa Boogie, etc. Good job, though.
We briefly had a vintage guitar shop in my hometown, and they had a vintage LP Jr. that was TV Yellow on the front and that exact shade of brown on the back. When I asked why it was discolored, the shop owner explained to me that the original formula for TV Yellow paint was highly reactive with cigarette smoke, and that the guitar's original owner was a heavy smoker. I don't know if that holds true, but it sounds plausible.
That’s 80% of the Humbucker / PAF crowd… Fun fact: early PAFs attempted to emulate the bright and thick P-90 sound with less hum. It was a compromise design. Thus, the P-90 sound falls right between a humbucker and something like a fat Tele single coil. And there’s a volume pot on a guitar for a reason, between songs.
@@j_freedfrom Gibson's roster: burstbucker pro's sound absolutely horrible, 500T is one of the worst pups I ever heard, 498T is decent, but the original PAF variants and T-Tops have THE sound, I had/tried most of them, some old school Epiphone and Tokai pups sound better than everything Gibson has to offer the last years. Just my personal opinion. Sadly never tried a P-90 that sounds so PAF-esque like the one from the video
Fantastic job of restoring the 59 special. I was really hoping you would do a light relicing with a little checking and a few will placed scratches and chips. Then put a nice layer of grime and polish it up nice lol I still love it though.
Nice job. Great guitar, Nice sound. I knew the DC special model off course but never had the occasion to hear a real 59 one in isotion. It's probably my dream guitar but i always found the pickgard a little goofy.. The junior is nicer but i need the neck pickup. Your sound is fantastic on the neck.
Seems like the pickups have different polarities; when using both you get that out of phase sound. I had that situation with a late ‘60’s SG Special I have. I’ve heard sometimes they came out wired like that from the factory.
Happy birthday Les Paul and thank you for inventing the solid body guitar in the Epiphone factory 1939 - 41..if not for you and Epiphone there would be No Gibson Les Paul today period!..Also I would Add that Les Paul played Epiphones especially recoding from the early 1940s to the end of the 1950's..when he was under contract with Gibson..Gibson eventually to him to stop and when his contract ended with Gibson he started playing both epiphone and Gibson Live I should know saw him in March of 2009..
Nice restoration. Looks like the neck pickup is 70s with the clear bobbin. I think you are getting the "wrong" sound with the two pickups combined. Either the magnetic polarity is flipped, the leads were reversed or the pickup is wound the other way.
I've owned many Specials since the 1960's. Sounds to me like 1 of the pickups is out of phase in the middle position - which could easily happen if the coil wires were reversed on 1 of the pickups at some point in time. This can be corrected by reversing the wires on 1 of the pickups. Listen to the difference and you will see.
Enjoyed that alot been doing them awhile myself but not any of late so to see if I still gave a fuck, I watched this and for some reason I guess I just enjoy that. But I also loathe poly granted fullerplast or the sherwin williams stuff they used in 50s was some sort of poly regardless fullerplast being 8:1 ....But its not as bad as what you scraped off.. I do not miss that part did a 56 Tele for a guy in Texas, and lol I guess who ever did the job just dunked the neck frets and all in it. That was alot of fun but I saved the original frets and got that crap off and did it in light translucent blond and oddly the guy who sent it said ok now sell it lol which the first guy that saw it said you know, if you got that guitar playing and together before I leave id buy it I was back in about an hour with it strobed. He had a 54 gold top which I also did Stevens guitars turned me onto the place that had that gold so that was a blast took longer then the tele but he still owns them. Be interesting to see them now though see how they aged out.. If I get there someday Id like to see the shop !
I know same here. When he first said TV yellow I was like ‘nooo’ but if it was the original color and the owner wants to restore it back to his dad’s guitar totally have to respect that. Very nice restore.
@@LP5369GT I don’t care if other people like. It just is not for me. Also I need to retract my opaque finish statement. I own a white Strat with a gold anodized pick guard and gold hardware. My tribute to David Gilmour.
You are the Bob Ross of guitars restoration and I mean that as a sincere compliment. Love the description of the volume and tone markers and grubby switch 😂! Excellent restoration! Looks fantastic!
I was about to say the same thing. Very similar voice. Really nice job on the restoration.
Scotty D doesn't even have an afro...
You are a real artist with the voice that goes with it.
South Africa.
Beautiful restoration of a great guitar. Artist at work :)
I always would brush on chemical stripper and then slide the body into a hefty bag and seal it. Let it sit over night and the finish would melt right down and scrape off a lot easier! Love that guitar!! TV yellow is absolutely the color to do it!!!
This is my favorite body shape of all time. I love my Junior..but wish that it was a double cut like this Special. However, being a leftie, they are hard to find. I was fortunate to find my Junior at fair price. So I am not complaining. Just admiring the guitar on the screen. Great work, by the way. I normally hate seeing old guitars (especially ones from this period) being refinished, modified or altered in any way... but in this case, it had already been refinished. So it is cool in my book. hehe. Awesome stuff, dude!
Thank you kindly! 😊
Insanely underrated guitar shape in my opinion
Beautiful ❗️
I love the great care you take and the love you give these restorations.
Thank You 😊
Man those 58-60 double cuts are so awesome. Especially in TV yellow
Hey, you have a lot of skills and do really good work. I'd point out, however, that shooting highly flammable nitrocellulose lacquer into an electric fan that doesn't have a non-explosive motor is pretty risky. You probably have been doing it for awhile but all it takes is that one time and you could have a life changing event. Non-explosive fans don't cost that much.
I think the restoration is wonderful. It was surprised that the cavities weren’t masked of and the only original paint still on it was just painted over.
Been playing Specials and Juniors exclusively forever. That one sounds ok. Nice resto
Awesome job. I thoroughly enjoyed watching your video. Thanks for sharing. GBU
Just stumbled upon this video while trying to battle the cold weather... Nice job my friend.
Thanks man from me job with that ole girl sounds and look great!👌👍🎸🤟
That old Gibson definitely has a soul. Good job.
Thanks a bunch!
Greetings from Paris France, great job , great video
Merci 😊
Thank you too!
Sounds amazing even before you’ve lifted a finger on the restoration - the P90 - even in a one pickup Junior configuration (perhaps especially in one pup config) really is my favourite Gibson pickup…
I think the headstock restoration was superb. I would have liked to see that being done.
I lovd it too, great pickups ! soft and energic
The Special is one my favorite instruments. Buddy of mine has a 60 single cut away in TV yellow. Best electric I’ve ever played-
Great job! In ‘68 I had a LPSpecial. During a practice break, the guitar was leaned against my Gibson amp. Horselay amongst two bandmates resulted in a neck break. My Dad used Elmer’s glue to repair it. Picked it up a few days later and no discord all the way up the neck! Aside from the scar it was perfectly playable. I eventually traded it to a new Gibson ES335TD. It was cherry red and I miss it!
😃🎸🎸
Simply nothing better than a good Special.
Little tip with paint stripper on poly. Put it on with a brush and wrap it with cling film or glad wrap. Thats how we do it on cars, the fumes really help to lift the paint.
Thank You 😊
That seems very efficient, and actually more environmentally friendly because you're using less volatile compounds for more results.
If your using a paint stripper and it melts the paint off it's probably not poly, I have done quite a few poly removals and it always took a heat gun and a scraper. It looks great now nice job!
Yes you are right
Awesome restoration and it sounds magnificent.
Awesome work!👍😎🎸🎶
What a fantastic job! The craftsmanship - counting drops of pigment, sheesh! - is just sensational. I could just imagine Rick Richards of the Satellites, or maybe the Great Fatsby himself, jamming with this axe and nodding their heads - "Aaaah, Yeah...!"
Thank You 😊
Ot does sound awsome .I hope I find my one guitar I can't live without. Great job brother ❤
100% Leslie West. Great tone.
polyurethane is bad for furniture also. We should never apply anything that can't be reversed. I learned that from restorers of old paintings. I agree with you, poly does protect, but it also makes it very difficult to totally remove from wood, you are lucky because you are spraying another finish on it and not leaving it natural. Very nice work by the way. I was surprised the paint wasn't applied heavier, you can see the wood grain through the paint, almost like a 'wash'.
I agree with this. I work with pianos, many from the C.19. Everything in them is reversible with heat or solvents. It’s a big reason they’re still going today.
I would love to strip the finish off my 1985 fender Japan Strat, it's probably one of those thick reacted finishes that looks like the chocolate candy layer on Glossette almonds. I've seen a picture of a water damaged example that was peeling finish.
But is it worth it? I know it would remove half a pound of plasticky weight off the body, and allow the wood to dry out, but the job could be a mess…
Had to come back to this one, Scotty! Wow, what a glorious job you did on this beauty. The color was SPOT ON! One thing I've noticed, which I didn't realized the first time around was that you opted to use the original tail piece. If you still have access to this guitar, might a suggest a Music City Bridge - the kind endorsed by Uncle Larry! No weird mods, just perfect intonation. If you've seen them before, then you know. I think it's called the Stud Finder. Joe Glaser's humble invention. Anyway- thanks again for sharing this beauty with us. it's really appreciated!!
👍🏻😊👍🏻
Hey Leslie West called and he wants his guitar back! Glad you got rid of that doggy do-do brown paint. It had to go!
Excellent restoration. I wish I had your patience and skill to perform jobs like that. 🍻 🇨🇦 🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶
Great job, i like the bridge ppick up sound bright but with like you said a bit more bass in there, fantastic sounding 💪👍
I love the special/Junior design with a single wraparound bridge ( much better resonance). The only design flaw of the 2 P90s design was the positioning of the neck pickup. The cavity was placed to near the neck end, cutting directly into the wood connection of the body and neck end. This resulted in huge stability problems. They changed that a few years after, shifting the position further down.
Thanks for sharing!
The most beautiful sound I've heard in a guitar in my life, from the top of my age
It would be cool to see the lucky owner’s reaction when he sees it for the first time after it’s been restored. Pimp my 59LPS 🎸 🤩 Amazing workmanship.
Indeed!
Thank you 😊
Very Very Wonderful Work!!
To stay in tune use a graphite nut.Otherwise its a nightmare.Excellent job...!!!!
A properly cut and polished bone nut with the smallest amount of lube might be just about as good. Plus it looks traditional. My 90s Les Paul is pretty stable.
Awesome sound, just stunning bottom end!
Wow, excellent craftsmanship. I really loved watching this video and you bringing this old guitar back to it's original Glory.
You sir are a true craftsman
Awesome ! easy choice....subscribed
a little late but wauw i love that doubble cut and it sounds amazing nice job!
Beautiful.
gosh that old wood sounds so good.
The word you were looking for is Ohm, nice job
Awesome job, enjoyed the video a lot!
Thanks Steven! 🤩
Very nicely done restoration job. I love those old Les Paul Specials and Juniors, the old SGs with P90s are also great sounding and playing instruments. I liked the way that you managed to dig out the the wood putty etc and skilfully replacing it with mahogany, the final colour of the guitar looks perfect to me.
Thanks! Yes these are sweet guitars 🎸
Good job! I have a 1983 SG Special in TV Yellow. I love the yellow color. Mine has checks and cracks all over it though. Kind of cool, but kind of not cool.
I have no problem with poly...but not on a 59. Great job restoring it.
Right on!
You knew what you were doing when you picked that thumbnail photo! You got me to click right away 😂
Nice job on that Les Paul.
Thank You 😊
Jeez, she's beautiful!
Just fantastic job!
Very excellent !!!!!!!!❤😊
Thank you! Cheers!
That bridge pick up is nice
Great job!!!
The only thing grubbier than the switch tip is the #!$%!&# sound. Fantastic!
Great presentation style.
Well done
Nice work
those P90s are my favorite pickup. It's almost a middle ground between Fender single coils and Gibson Humbuckers.
the original TV lacquer finish on Specials and Juniors came from the same finish used on wood TV frames and cabinets in the US in the late 50's and 60's. Hence the name, TV yellow. It's an inconsistent finish that would range from bright yellow to more brown, red and olive green. I guess Fender, at the time, got a very good deal on a stockpile of it for lower-end student models
👍 Nice work!
Awesome work.
Plug that beauty into a vintage Marshall Super Lead, crank it, and then youll get the million dollar rock tone!
nice spray job !
The guitar ive got to own someday.
Nice work mate, 👍🇬🇧
I knew the "Rip Your Hand Apart Pointers" under another name: "Thumb Bleeders" :))
I want that Special!!!
That's a cool guitar, man!
Very nice work!
Nicely done. I would have liked to heard it played through a big tube amp, couldn't tell for sure but it looked like it was going through that little Fender Champion. Crank ti through a Mesa Boogie, etc. Good job, though.
well done 👍
Thank you! Cheers!
We briefly had a vintage guitar shop in my hometown, and they had a vintage LP Jr. that was TV Yellow on the front and that exact shade of brown on the back. When I asked why it was discolored, the shop owner explained to me that the original formula for TV Yellow paint was highly reactive with cigarette smoke, and that the guitar's original owner was a heavy smoker. I don't know if that holds true, but it sounds plausible.
*58
I actually didn't expect it to sound this good and agressive damn didn't even know P90s can produce that sound
That’s 80% of the Humbucker / PAF crowd…
Fun fact: early PAFs attempted to emulate the bright and thick P-90 sound with less hum. It was a compromise design.
Thus, the P-90 sound falls right between a humbucker and something like a fat Tele single coil. And there’s a volume pot on a guitar for a reason, between songs.
@@j_freedfrom Gibson's roster: burstbucker pro's sound absolutely horrible, 500T is one of the worst pups I ever heard, 498T is decent, but the original PAF variants and T-Tops have THE sound, I had/tried most of them, some old school Epiphone and Tokai pups sound better than everything Gibson has to offer the last years.
Just my personal opinion. Sadly never tried a P-90 that sounds so PAF-esque like the one from the video
Fantastic job of restoring the 59 special. I was really hoping you would do a light relicing with a little checking and a few will placed scratches and chips. Then put a nice layer of grime and polish it up nice lol
I still love it though.
ew
Nice job. Great guitar, Nice sound. I knew the DC special model off course but never had the occasion to hear a real 59 one in isotion. It's probably my dream guitar but i always found the pickgard a little goofy.. The junior is nicer but i need the neck pickup. Your sound is fantastic on the neck.
Thanks! 🙏
Seems like the pickups have different polarities; when using both you get that out of phase sound. I had that situation with a late ‘60’s SG Special I have. I’ve heard sometimes they came out wired like that from the factory.
Happy birthday Les Paul and thank you for inventing the solid body guitar in the Epiphone factory 1939 - 41..if not for you and Epiphone there would be No Gibson Les Paul today period!..Also I would Add that Les Paul played Epiphones especially recoding from the early 1940s to the end of the 1950's..when he was under contract with Gibson..Gibson eventually to him to stop and when his contract ended with Gibson he started playing both epiphone and Gibson Live I should know saw him in March of 2009..
Nice restoration. Looks like the neck pickup is 70s with the clear bobbin. I think you are getting the "wrong" sound with the two pickups combined. Either the magnetic polarity is flipped, the leads were reversed or the pickup is wound the other way.
I agree. Not an original 50's P-90 at the neck. They di not have clear bobbins.
Sounds fantastic. Even sounded good before you restored it.
a heat gun is a good option with polyurethane and you can pull it up in big sections.
Nice job on the color. Don't you need a little more clear lacquer on the finish?
Thanks!
Much better than that Brown....
I've owned many Specials since the 1960's. Sounds to me like 1 of the pickups is out of phase in the middle position - which could easily happen if the coil wires were reversed on 1 of the pickups at some point in time. This can be corrected by reversing the wires on 1 of the pickups. Listen to the difference and you will see.
great vid
Where did you get that Les Paul from the bottom of the sea
evry tim you say guitar i take a drink, am i drunk!
Are you sure the guitar isn't out of phase in the middle position now?
I think it looks good before the repaint.
You did an incredible job, but part of me really likes that tacky brown colour. Big fan of guitars in 'ugly' colours lol
Early '70s neck pickup not original. Still cool
JFC... did they use it to stir paint?
Awesome, did it actually sound different without the poly or was it the amp settings?
The amp for sure 😀
Enjoyed that alot been doing them awhile myself but not any of late so to see if I still gave a fuck, I watched this and for some reason I guess I just enjoy that. But I also loathe poly granted fullerplast or the sherwin williams stuff they used in 50s was some sort of poly regardless fullerplast being 8:1 ....But its not as bad as what you scraped off.. I do not miss that part did a 56 Tele for a guy in Texas, and lol I guess who ever did the job just dunked the neck frets and all in it. That was alot of fun but I saved the original frets and got that crap off and did it in light translucent blond and oddly the guy who sent it said ok now sell it lol which the first guy that saw it said you know, if you got that guitar playing and together before I leave id buy it I was back in about an hour with it strobed. He had a 54 gold top which I also did Stevens guitars turned me onto the place that had that gold so that was a blast took longer then the tele but he still owns them. Be interesting to see them now though see how they aged out.. If I get there someday Id like to see the shop !
Never was a fan of TV Yellow or any opaque finish. I like the wood grain visible.
I know same here. When he first said TV yellow I was like ‘nooo’ but if it was the original color and the owner wants to restore it back to his dad’s guitar totally have to respect that. Very nice restore.
@@LP5369GT I don’t care if other people like. It just is not for me. Also I need to retract my opaque finish statement. I own a white Strat with a gold anodized pick guard and gold hardware. My tribute to David Gilmour.
Wow, I'm not gonna lie...the still shot of this video looked a hell of a lot like a pizza shaped like a guitar.
That 1 heavy stripe of white wash came back to bite you