Lola; the work begins

I am going to kick this update off with pics. You will see some gruesome pictures against a defenseless musical instrument. I caution you, this is one of the most assaulted guitars I've seen.

As you can see, the headstock finish appears to be melted. But still has character. 

The fretboard is seasoned, the binding aged, yet the frets will be replaced. I am going to do the fret replacement without sanding the fretboard. The fret markers are also in excellent shape. 

Here is where you can start to see the damage. I am a huge fan of the patina, but the holes through the body in the switch, neck pickup and control knobs foreshadow so much more than you can imagine...

The patina continues. The wood grain is magnificently aged. 

Here is where the damage becomes more apparent. The neck was sanded through to the truss rod, the heel is now non existent, the body was sanded down and wood filler added to the body which was then taped down for some reason. 

As the pictures roll on, you can see more of the damage. 

That is the input jack to give an idea of how massacred this guitar is. 

A picture of the process in removing the fretboard. 

And with the fretboard removed, you can see the darker piece of wood in the middle I will be routing out to fully remove the truss rod. 

With the fretboard removed, I clamped it to a level to keep it from warping as it cooled down. 

As you can see, the scars she wears tells the story of her life. I imagine besides the obvious assault she suffered, she has had a rather hard life. 

First few passes with the router in the attempt to remove the truss rod. The MDF board was there to guide the router in a straight line. At this point, taking a router to the neck was a test of patience and will. It seemed so hard to further disfigure her to make her better. 

So these ending shots... I routed through as this seemed the best way to fix the damage. The Gibson style truss rod bows and in my attempt to fix the neck, I will fill this section with a strip of mahogany and after it cures, I will re-route the excess and put in a double action truss rod. This pains me to move from the original style set up, but I want this guitar to play again. 

Till next time...