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1982 Gibson ES-369 Refret and Body Repairs

Wednesday, April 12th, 2017
This '82 Gibson ES-369 was brought to us needing work done on the body, fretboard, and headstock.
Starting at the headstock, the guitar needed new tuners. Here, you can see the holes left by the previous mounting of different types of tuners. We will fill these in when we install the replacements.
The front of the headstock will be left as is, since there is no structural damage . You can see the worn out nut and frets that we will be replacing though.
The holes for the tailpiece studs had become oblong after years of tension from the strings. We need to repair these to ensure the bridge functions properly and provides the proper adjustment, as well as prevent any further damage to the body.
Here are the new frets that we cut to go in the fretboard after the old ones had been removed.
On necks with bound fretboards, it is important to shorten the tang under the fret ends. It has to be short enough to not damage the binding, while still providing enough surface area to grip to fretboard.
After we installed the frets, we taped off the fretboard to protect it while we sand the frets to the correct height.
After outside edges have been bevelled and the frets have been crowned and polished, they should be set for years of use.
Here, we have mounted a set of new grover tuners in the headstock. You can also see where we filled in the screw holes from the previous tuners.
To fix the tailpiece holes, we filled them with dowels that had been cut to size, and then drilled new holes to fit the original posts. This will provided durability and ensure the tailpiece stands properly.
Once all the hardware was mounted back on the guitar, we put a new set of strings on. You can see here that the bridge and tailpiece are looking great and aligning properly, as well.
We have also installed the new bone nut and ensured that everything is playing evenly with the new frets as well.
After a complete setup and test of everything, this very cool guitar is completed and ready to go!

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