Ibanez 1982, JP-20 restoration

The owner of this 1982 Ibanez JP-20

had left this guitar in front of a radiant heater. The original, heavily applied, polyester finish was roasted off the surface closest to the heater.

He attempted to remove all the factory finish with the intention of refinishing it which never happened. It was stored away in its case for more than 20 years. I learned of its existence and offered to refinish and restore the guitar for him.

The JP-20 with its distant cousin a 1930, Gibson L-4.
which I also restored. It was fitted with an old Hofner, lyre tailpiece and die-cast,
covered tuning machines which I replaced with authentic original parts.
Grover Butterbean, open back tuning machines and a Gibson, trapeze tailpiece. I repaired several body cracks, reactivated the shellac finish and refretted the guitar. What a vast improvement to this underrated Gibson survivor from the pre electric guitar era!

The L-4 looking much more authentic.
Dry fit-out of the JP-20, prior to applying tobacco burst.

The new tailpiece is really good, closely matching the original. 

I fabricated the replacement tailpiece from a nice block of
New Zealand Puriri hardwood.

As a precaution against splitting the wood, and to aid
earthing of the strings, I fabricated a brass string retainer

plate and riveted it to the wood with bronze pins.

I then filled the area of the plate to conceal the fixings 
and dyed the wood black to mimic the original ebony factory tailpiece.

I located a stainless steel hasp and staple which I modified
to resemble the original chromed brass hinge. I rebated it into the back of the hardwood tailpiece and epoxy glued and bolted it into place.

I linked all the metal components to complete the earth circuit.

The raw guitar ready for shellac sealer.

Shellac sealer applied.

Masked and ready for applying the three tobacco burst colours.

The burst goes on.

I love this work when it goes this well!

Removal of the masking reveals a thing of beauty!

Clear-coats applied.

First fit-out of the hardware. Fortunately, apart
from the missing tailpiece and pickup, all the original
hardware was still in the case.
I had a local pickup manufacturer wind a suitable,
low output Humbucker to replace the missing
Ibanez, Super 500 pickup.

And she's done.

Its a beautiful jazz guitar, the owner absolutely loves it and
can't put it down.