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I'm thinking of building my own custom Ventures II slab body guitar and I have some questions...

Recently I bought a Ventures II slab body (leftover from the factory) in sunburst finish, which is in bad condition, but I noticed the way the neck is attached is different. Turns out the body was converted to a melobar body. Is it possible to make it back to the way it was, or should I just buy a replacement body from tym guitars instead and build from that? I'd prefer a vintage body. EDIT: Seems like the pickup holes are also differently located... comparing to my MIJ slab. They are further away from the neck pocket.

I would also like to know, if anyone can make an estimate, on how expensive it would be to restore it.

Here's some pics of a melobar with the same kind of ex-slab body.

You'd have to extend the neck pocket area, then cut it to resemble the Ventures II. Then fill in the cavaties for "Melo-Bar" pick ups, and re-route new pockets. The melo-bar pick ups are more towards the rear of the guitar than the VII's are.

The neck pocket on the Melo-Bar also sits deeper into the body.

It can be done, not sure how much a luither would charge though.

Hmm... Sounds like it would be troublesome.

It seems like to me you would just glue in wood blocks to cover up the old neck routing, sanding it flush and then just rerouting the neck pocket. if you had all the parts it wouldn't be too expensive to do I would think. If you went to that much trouble I would probably refinish the body while you were at it, but that's just me.

In my shop, I charge 350 to strip and refinish a guitar body, the routing work is a rough call, really depends how long the work takes. my guess is I probably wouldn't charge more then 4-500 bucks, in total for labor to refinish the body, put everything together, set the guitar up, etc.. keep in mind that's a rough estimate.

the only thing is coming up with those old tremolos are uber expensive, you might have some luck getting a repro cheaper from Tym or Bob Shade. Hope this helps.

oipunkguy wrote:It seems like to me you would just glue in wood blocks to cover up the old neck routing, sanding it flush and then just rerouting the neck pocket. if you had all the parts it wouldn't be too expensive to do I would think. If you went to that much trouble I would probably refinish the body while you were at it, but that's just me.

In my shop, I charge 350 to strip and refinish a guitar body, the routing work is a rough call, really depends how long the work takes. my guess is I probably wouldn't charge more then 4-500 bucks, in total for labor to refinish the body, put everything together, set the guitar up, etc.. keep in mind that's a rough estimate.

the only thing is coming up with those old tremolos are uber expensive, you might have some luck getting a repro cheaper from Tym or Bob Shade. Hope this helps.

Sure did, thanks.