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Topic: ISO: PSG rebuilding tips and guidance |
Eugene Cole
From:
near Washington Grove, MD, USA
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Posted 17 Jan 2005 9:43 pm |
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I was given a S10 PSG as a thank-you present. I was told that the guitar would probably need to be rebuilt. The guitar had been stored in a garage in its case for the past 15 years.
The instrument was delivered a few weeks ago and I have since thoroughly inspected the guitar. I have concluded that a full rebuild of this guitar is the only responsible and sensible option.
The guitars mechanicals are very crude in comparison to all of the PSG's I have previously owned.
I changed a few strings and tuned the guitar up and played it a bit. It sounded good enough that I decided to plug it in to an amp to see if the electronics worked. The electronics are in good working order and they too sound good.
This guitar has 6 pedals and zero knee levers and I see no obvious indication that it ever had any knee levers.
For these reasons I am guessing that this guitar is probably much older than either of my current PSG's and I am therefore a bit curious about when it was built.
Regardless of its age I already like the guitar enough as-is to know that I want to rebuild it. I am confident with the help of this forum I will end up with a nice little guitar.
I have experience repairing mandolas, hammered dulcimer, guitars, and such.
I am also in the process of completing a home shop so that I can start
building instruments of this type from scratch. This PSG however is the
first PSG I will be fully rebuilding and I KNOW that I need to ask for help
and guidance on aspects of the PSG repair which I have no experience-with
and/or knowledge-of.
Currently every piece of Mica on the guitar has come unglued to some degree.
At present I have the following questions. Some of these questions are variations on each other which I hope will generate more concise answers.
Q: How should one prepare the surfaces of the Mica and the guitar body to be reglued?
Q: What adhesives are preferred for bonding the Mica to the body?
Q: I am told that contact cement is commonly used to bond the Mica to a guitars body. Is this correct? Which brands are considdered to be inferior or superior?
Q: When doing a full rebuild of a guitar with substantial delamination does one normally replace the Mica or re-use the original material? I have no idea what Mica costs.
Q: What is the recommended method of completing the removal of partially delaminated Mica? ? I am assuming that these surfaces should be separated so that they can be properly prepared for re-bonding. Please correct me if I am incorrect.
Q: If the Mica between the body and the neck still has a strong bond to the body can they be steamed apart or should another solution be used to separate them?
Q: Would it be reasonable to use a heat-gun and a putty knife to soften the existing adhesives which had bonded the Mica from the body?
To put these questions in to a useful context I will attempt to provide enough information for us to determine what materials were probably used to assemble the guitar originally. I suppose that we should try ball-park approximately when it was built so that we can guess more accurately exactly what materials the guitars was assembled with/from.
Guitar description:
- Emmons S10
- No knee levers
- 6 pedals for E9 type tuning
- The number 5095 appears on the underside of each pedal and appears to be an integral part of the pedal casting.
- Push/Pull changer (so it was built prior to 1990)
- Serial Number 2796 BTW: All the serial number data for Emmons that I have found is explicitly for D10's and I am told that it does not apply to other models.
- The pedal bar clamps on to the legs with a plate that slides horizontally to behind the legs and is secured with a wing-nut. This is very similar to my early-eighties vintage Sierra, but distinct from my MSA which has holes through 2 of the 4 legs through which a threaded rod is inserted.
- The underside of the body (but not the mechanicals) is covered in with some sort of black flocking (which looks like velveteen)
- It appears that the mechanicals were uninstalled or not yet installed when the flocking was applied to the bottom of the guitar.
- The Mica is rather drab Satin (non-gloss) black
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Regards
-- Eugene at FJ45.com
 Click Here
Sierra U14 MSA D10 and almost nothing in the Bank. 8^)
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Ed Naylor
From:
portsmouth.ohio usa, R.I.P.
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Posted 18 Jan 2005 7:28 am
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| Sounds like you have a Push Pull Emmons that was probably Custom built. It shouldn't be too difficult to take the End Plates off and put new formica on it. If you will call me at 1-800-749-3363 I can refer you to someone that can tell you really what the problem is.Ed Naylor Steel Guitar Works |
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johnnyb
From:
Wendell, NC, USA
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Posted 18 Jan 2005 8:39 am
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| . [This message was edited by johnnyb on 04 June 2005 at 07:00 AM.] |
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Glenn Austin
From:
Montreal, Canada
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Posted 18 Jan 2005 10:11 am
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| Eugene, You have yourself a great little guitar there. From the S/N I would say that it is an early 70's model. Definitely check out John Fabian's site above on rebuilding. Don't use a heat gun on the body, Use a clothes iron over a thin towel or a hair dryer, and just keep working the mica off. The only problem with installing new Formica is that you have to buy an entire 4 x 8 sheet of the stuff. As far as the mechanicals and changer goes, I would remove everything an get it all electrosonically cleaned. These little Emmons are great sounding guitars and there is not a hell of a lot that wears out on them either. |
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Eugene Cole
From:
near Washington Grove, MD, USA
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Posted 20 Jan 2006 2:30 pm
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Well I am finally ready to start this project.
From what I have gathered in the interim the preferred method of removing the old formica is to use a heat gun or a a hot-blanket like some of the Luthiers use to bend instrument sides.
The video clips at http://www.steelguitarinfo.com/restoration/restorationindex.html
did provide some helpful ideas.
I may need a few small parts like the wire clips which connect the rods to the changer. The wire clips I can probably make myself once I have the guitar disaasembled and can measure the holes with some calipers. I would like to add 2 (or more) knee levers to this guitar. Any suggestions regarding where to obtain any "correct" old-stock parts for a 40 year old guitar without spending a fortune? ...Or do I have get them directly from Emmons?
Several people have told me that the original formica is thinner than the formica currently available for sale; and that some people opine that the thinner formica realizes a superior tone. I would be happy to be able to keep the original formica if it is possible to recover it.
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Regards
-- Eugene at FJ45.com
 Click Here
Sierra U14, MSA D10, and almost nothing in the Bank. 8^)
[This message was edited by Eugene Cole on 20 January 2006 at 02:36 PM.] |
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Eugene Cole
From:
near Washington Grove, MD, USA
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Posted 20 Jan 2006 2:45 pm
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The case for this guitar appears to be structurally sound (and even looks nice). Unfortunately its interior has a mold/mildew smell to it.
What if anything is suitable to clean the interior of the case?
I have been considdering using some diluted Dr. Bronners Castile Soap. This soap when diluted does not leave any sticky residue.
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Regards
-- Eugene at FJ45.com
Click Here
Sierra U14, MSA D10, and almost nothing in the Bank. 8^)
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