ST85? Really?

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On closer inspection it's a two piece body - the join is almost undetectable unless you look inside the pickup cavities.

I reckon the neck was originally intended to go on an ST-100, but got put on an ST-85 the day after, when it was stamped 85 on the fretboard. That's the only plausible answer for the ST-100 handwriting on the neck and the markings on neck and body being one day out.

I have to say it's a lovely guitar, absolutely stunning. A bargain!
 
I'm taking some pics during the cleanup and setup, and the reinstatement of the spaghetti logo...

The nickel plating was worn or scratched off in many places. Just a quick polish up to remove the worst, but to keep the aged look. Before and after on the left and right:



The headstock was in pretty poor condition. The spaghetti logo wasn't delicately scratched off. The marks were a lot deeper than necessary and went well into the wood:


Sanding the nitro off the headstock with wet & dry 240, 400, then 600 grit:


Sanded and dry, ready for a thin coat of amber nitro first:


This is about as close as I can get to the correct colour. I'll let natural nitro ageing do the rest:
 
Thanks mate, still loads of work to do though... the early Tokais all had the decals underneath the lacquer, so need a few coats on top, followed by a fine sand & polish. Will post updated pics!
 
After several coats of clear nitro, flattening the paint with 600 then 1200 grit wet & dry:


A final polish:


Then distress the lacquer a little with a few very small random knocks and scrapes (and a little scratch off the decal!), and re-fit hardware... The colour looks ok, it looks reasonably aged and in keeping with the general wear on the rest of the neck. All finished, now for the body and neck plate:
 
marcusnieman said:
Suki said:
Thanks guys - all that patience pays off :)

A little talent helps too :wink:
Again, really nice job.

Thank you sir :)

Been busy today...

The pickup covers and pickguard were at some point painted. We've all done strange things to guitars before, what the heck is this? The paint had been mostly removed from the pickguard, but heavily scratched in the process:



The Pickup covers weren't original. Original Tokai ones don't seem to age much at all. Looking inside, these are the same colour as the outside and look like cheap aftermarket cream covers. These are therefore going in the bin, in favour of some Fndr original aged cream covers:



The knobs are original, and will be kept:



The pick guard needed some very aggressive polishing:



The round head screws for the selector switch (left) were not original, and were replaced with proper countersunk mushroom head screws, aged in acid (right):



Neck back on, with strings tensioned correctly, and adjusting truss rod until neck perfectly straight:



Fret dressing with strings on:



Nearly there... crowning the frets:



Fret polishing... Just the final assembly next:

:
 
I must say I was really tempted to bid when I saw that auction was going to end at that silly price. But no need for another strat so I decided not to.

You?ve done an outstanding job bringing this guitar back to its original beauty.

Great to see it has found a good home 8)
 
Thanks for the kind words guys - I feel more comfortable that I have done justice to the instrument and re-instated it with its correct identity. It always bothers me whether it's the 'right' thing to do as it's actually now less 'original', but I think the instrument is better for it :)

I have only played it in anger for the first time today: The v profile neck has a bigger fingerboard radius and allows for incredibly low action after the fret-dress - absolutely stunning for a strat. The E pickups just sound amazing - probably the best sounding strat pickups of all time for me, next to the (very different) Fender Lace on the Claptons and the early 80's Schecter pups.
 

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