Original 1950's Les Paul Junior

[oipunkguy]

I got a new project in my shop the other day. a refinishing of an original 50's LP junior. The serial number is missing so the best we can come up with is it's between a 54 and a 57. I will be posting pics soon, and you will understand why its getting refinished. hope you all enjoy this thread. be back soon.

[Olav]

Can't wait. Doublecut or singlecut?

[Sarah93003]

ooo! Very interesting!

[jtr654]

Singlecut, the doublecuts didn't come until the late 50's.

[eltuce]

I can only hope you're going with TV for the refin. I've been thinking of putting a tortoise guard on my '56 TV even though they didn't have 'em that way back then. I just think the tortoise guard looks so much cooler on the TV.

[KRamone27]

can't wait to see it. I love Juniors

[oipunkguy]

This guitar is indeed a single cut, I stripped it out tonight. Much of the original material on this guitar was replaced unfortunately, including the factory finish, the pick guard, the pickup, electronics, bridge, knobs, and maybe the nut. However I’m pretty sure the frets are original, tuners, truss rod cover, and the strap buttons.
After stripping it out I discovered some serious damage had happen to this guitar on the outside area of the horn that was bad enough to get someone to do major patch work. There’s a small ding on the same side at the headstock making me think maybe if had a terrible fall. This is my guess why it was refinished in the first place. The other interesting discovery was that the original finish was indeed TV yellow.

[oipunkguy]

well here she is. She may not look it, but she is in fact the real deal. By the way, I'm pretty sure the spiderman sticker is not original

[Olav]

Singlecut, the doublecuts didn't come until the late 50's.

Aah! Hadn't realized that.

[oipunkguy]

I got the junior stripped out pretty decently now. After stripping out an old finish particularly when it's an opaque paint, I recommend switching over from stripper to pure acetone. going over the body again with pure acetone will clean up the wood better then using stripper at this point to get that real nice "dry" look on the bare wood. Then you know you are ready to begin the refinishing process.

Typically the next step is to sand out the body/neck with 220 or 320 for final clean up or to remove discoloration in the wood that might be present. Sanding also will begin the process of getting an even surface for finishing. If you want to raise the grain again generally spraying the bare wood with a little bit of water and using a tack rag helps to do that, not to mention clean off the saw dust. generally the tv yellow finishes have a very open grainy look to them, so this is what I will do to start the refinishing process.