This '58 Les Paul Junior suffered some nasty smoke damage in a housefire and was brought in for restoration. At the time of the fire it was stored in the original alligator case, which was completely ruined. The owner asked about having the guitar refinished, but I convinced him that it would be better to salvage the original finish even if the smoke damage could'nt be removed completely. After a nice chat about how he'd inherited it from his father who bought it new in '58, it's sentimental value to him, and my personal love for '50s Juniors, he decided to let me have the job.

Removing smoke damage from a 50 year old nitrocellulose laquer finish is a delicate duty and one with many variables. Each job is different and has to be approached in a different way. For this one I ended up getting excellent results by hand rubbing with Stelling Glyde-Cote. After about an hour of heavy hand buffing I had the body & neck looking real good.

I cleaned the fingerboard and frets with 0000 steel wool and applied a little Guitar Honey fingerboard treatment.

All of the parts were cleaned up and prepared for re-assembly.

Job complete. This beautiful '58 Les Paul Junior survived a house fire and remains in 100% original condition.

Stelling Glyde-Cote  SALE$8.95   

Gerlitz Guitar Honey  SALE$5.95