This is my first real restoration project. Maybe not even a restoration technically since she's getting totally nekkid and not coming back dressed as before (as it were). I have pretty much been a Les Paul guy so learning about Fender-style guitars was on my to-do list. This one is kind of a hybrid since it has the Gibson-style neck, but it also has a Floyd Rose licensed tremolo which is something else on the to-do list.
Aria Pro II Magna Series SN920625 most likely the MA-550, bought at a local second-hand shop (HARD-OFF) for about $70US. Probably made in Korea MIK. The pickups functioned, pots worked but were scratchy, pickup selector worked, the whammy... whammed, but no hope of keeping tuning due to some poor adjustment techniques and super crapped-out strings. Purple with a light dusting of pink sparkle, missing one knob. To use car speak, she's the perfect candidate for a frame-off restoration.
DISASSEMBLY
She's a dirty, dirty thing she is. Strings off, removal of the surface goo so I don't catch a disease from what lies on top and then we take her apart.
Inside the electronics cavity. Simple, original wiring and one of those icky plastic selector switches. Black paint inside that *might* have been conductive at one point but a quick check with the multimeter showed that wasn't the case. Tone control is a push/pull and probably a coil-tap for the humbucker but seemed to have no effect.
With the Floyd Rose out you can see problems developing. Adjustment of the string height was done under string tension so the knife edge gouged the mounting studs. So much for keeping things in tune.
License-built Floyd Rose. Built in Japan by Takeuchi, it is known as the TRS-101. Loads of surface corrosion, things didn't move smoothly. Arm is the screw-in type and missing.
All disassembled. Things don't stay put together for long here.
Gotoh tuners seem to be in decent shape. Logo reference photo for recreation when final color is determined. Note the outline of the pink sparkle accent color. Neck off, neck pocket confirms that this is the original color. Light coating of grime on the frets, no real work needed other than polishing.
The only real damage to the body was a button-type spot. Not a slab body, contoured on top and bottom.
Initially I did not know if it would get painted or stained so paint removal would be an adventure.
PAINT REMOVAL
As expected the headstock didn't take long.
Guessing a clear poly finish, color coat, then a silver primer/base coat. Once through the clear coat things went pretty smooth. Random orbit sander and 100-grit sandpaper.
Only fix on the neck was a small gouge that I filled with CA (superglue) and sanded down. I like my necks more satin feeling so the gloss with get taken down and you'll never notice the repair. The fret edges were all sharp on the edges due to the fretboard wood shrinking so they all got tapped/smoothed until they didn't rip the flesh from my tender hands. Polished the frets wet/dry sandpaper from 400-2000 grit and final polishing with Never Dull.
TEST FITTING
I was curious as to what it might look like in a natural finish so I test fit the components to see.
New pickup selector switch is a bit taller than the stock one so I'll thing the cavity wall a little and the cover a bit and it should be fine.
Replacement switch comes with these screws which are a bit bigger then the original so I'll have to source some flush-mount black ones.
The wood is *kind of* nice looking but she's getting painted.
FLOYD ROSE
The TRS-101 manufactured by Takeuchi in Japan.
As built, the TRS-101 whammy comes with this anemic-looking sustain block (left) so I opted to order a replacement brass block from Killer Guitar Components. KGC also makes replacement arms for the TRS-101.
KGC fixes the swinging arm issue with a plastic insert in the sustain block (circle on the left side) removing the need for the complicated screw/nut adjustment system originally in the Takeuchi design sustain block.
Doesn't that look nice?!?!?! We'll see on final assembly if I need to remove any wood to accommodate the massive piece of brass.
PRIMER
Finally! Temps crawled up enough for me to start priming. I'm using Rust-oleum automobile wet-sandable primer. It's available at my local BX and easy to get. No fancy spray booth, all painting is done on my back patio and subject to temperature and weather considerations. This is the first of six primer coats, wet sanded after the third and sixth to level the surface and remove dust specks, etc.
After three coats on a wire hanger I got fed up and found a piece of scrap lumber to mount the body on. Life got a little easier.
PAINT
This is kind of embarrassing but it illustrates the challenges of trying to find certain items when you don't speak-o the Japanese-o. At my local huge-scale department store they have an automotive area with a wide variety of colors to choose from. I was able to get the department worked to say that the automotive paint was lacquer through pointing and using a couple of translator apps on the iPhone. When I picked up a color I attempted to ask him if it was white with silver flakes in it (looked metallic with a white cap. After about 4-5 minutes of quasi-communicating He reluctantly agreed and I sheepishly purchased two cans (at almost $11US a can). Did I mention you can't return things in Japan? Well you can't. Turns out the paint is as silver as a silver thing can be so guess what? She's getting two cans' worth of a silver base coat which will actually work out nice as I've decided to go with a white top coat.
COLOR!
First (of many) color coats going on, white #326 if you must know. I've gotten two coats on (3 passes each) but with the giant cloud of toxic Chinese dust hanging over us here in Tokyo it might be some time before I can get the other 4 coats done. Stay tuned!
Coats 3-4 on, might get 5 before the end of the day but the temp's dropping.
Wet sanding the final color coat- 400/600/800 grits. Orange peel texture is from the "rattlecan" method of painting on the back patio.
The glare from the light is about twice as long as you see, the sanded portion of the body above it doesn't reflect as all the shiny is gone. Despite being super light-handed I burned through the color on a couple of areas (edges, of course). Instead of clear going on tomorrow it'll be more wet sanding to smooth the extra paint added today in those areas. Sooooooo, I'll head upstairs and start working on the new headstock decal.
TA DA!!!!! Custom decals! Scanned the headstock at 100% then matched my reference photos, selected the script, changed the color then made the replacement MAGNA text and an experimental RATTLECAN one as well. Acrylic gloss coats to come and we'll see how things turn out. Sometimes I love my inner geek.
Sprayed the decal sheet with clear, 4 nice coats went on but nothing exciting to photograph. But..... decal test one has passed! I applied one of the Aria Pro II logo decals I made on my inkjet printer to an iTunes card I had laying around. The darn thing actually worked (simply amazing, how far we've come from my model building days of 20+ years ago). No decal setting solution but I hear there's a hobby store only a few miles away for we'll spend 1/2 a day to go find the silly thing.
Wet-sanding the head stock. 800-1000-1500-2000 grits are used; the black rubber sanding block I'm using is a Guinness keychain I got at an Irish Pub in Tachikawa, Japan (who knew?).
These are the polishing compounds I'm using on this project. Obviously Japanese made, it took me three store attendants to find out that's what they were (I suspected but wanted clarification). Each formula comes with its own little polishing block for application.
Shiny!
Practicing placing the decals before I do it for real.
On another front, this is what happens when you hit your guitar body with your head as it hangs from the vent; it lands on the painted stair railing, makes a horrible noise, scatters the sleeping cats and picks up some nice brown paint accents. Likely will come off with a little naptha and there doesn't appear to be any real damage to the surface.
Decals applied, setting solvent applied, waiting for everything to dry. Still pondering a hand-painted gold outline of the logo before the clear coating process begins again.
Serious weirdness. First coat of clear on after the decal was applied and I immediately get these funky furrows in the clear (or under the clear, hard to tell. After lots of quizzing my fellow restoration friends the consensus is to continue albeit slowly. So instead of 3 passes per coat every three hours its more like one dry pass an hour to slowly build things up and then I'll evaluate what to do. Since I've printed off multiple decals if I have to go back to pre-decal levels I can.
Currently enjoying the 30-day cure time for the lacquer clear coats. Will likely have to wait for the graphics until we arrive in California sometime in June/July.
I'm for sure waiting the full 30-days on the body but going to jump the gun a little on the headstock. Thankfully the helpful folks over at the Guitar ReRanch forum assured me the clear coat wiggles would likely settle and polish out and they were correct. WHEW! Here I'm almost done with the first wet sanding session using 800 grit wet/dry.
And here we are all nice and polished. I re-assembled the Floyd Rose locking nut assembly to be re-installed then placed the Gotoh tuners back on. Now all I need is a polished, painted, assembled body to put it on.
CLICK HERE to go view part 2 of the ARIA PRO II build.
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