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My Guitar Refinishing Thread.....with progress pics **UPDATE DAY 9**

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dwell said:
How long do you have to wait? Do you need to wet sand it?
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It has a 3 hour "dry to the touch" time, but a 7 day cure time. I may polish it tomorrow and seal it later in the week. Or I might just wait to do everything, but I really wanna play it.....
 
DaTT said:
It has a 3 hour "dry to the touch" time, but a 7 day cure time. I may polish it tomorrow and seal it later in the week. Or I might just wait to do everything, but I really wanna play it.....
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My advice is not to rush anything. I rushed my last lacquer job and ended up having to do it again. Now I can't play that guitar until June 🙁
 
DaTT said:
You sir have a guitar I would love to own. Have you seen the $10k 20th anniversary KH-20 they just released?

That decal is cool looking too.
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http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/feedthegod/guitars.jpg

I've got a KH-2 and a KH-3 (they don't make it anymore), signature 7 string Steph Carpenter (Deftones), signature Will Alder (Lamb of God) and just a regular ol' LTD I got for cheap right before they stopped making them in Korea. Each one of them is tuned different as well.

There's interesting stories behind both of the KH models. The KH-2 is most likely the 5th one they ever made.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/feedthegod/serial.jpg

The serial number is 2005. Which most people on the ESP forums agree that it is the 5th one made. They were supposed to have started at 2000 and no one on the forums had ever seen one lower than that. The issue is ESP Japan burned down in the mid 90's i think it was. So the records were lost and we're just going off memory...lol. One of the techs posted that he believed it was 2000, but couldn't be sure.

The KH-3 I got when it first came out and I was given backstage passes to Metallica, Alice In Chains, Suicidal Tendencies and Candlebox as a guest of ESP. I got to go and watch them play and hang out with them after the show. We had all access and had a freaking great time. I was probably 16-17 at the time (Black Album tour) and me and my best friend got to take a limo to the show. So that one is also probably very earlier in the production run, but I've never checked.

The 5150 head is a block letter head as well. It was the first short run of 5150 heads that Van Halen and Peavey were sued for the EVH and they had to pull them and change it to his signature. Not sure how many were made, but I know there's not a whole lot of them out there. I was in California in the early 90's with my mom and they had just came out and she a full stack for me as my birthday present. We got it at Guitar Center in L.A. I have the other cab in storage and you'll noticed I took an old school peavey logo from a small amp I had and put it on the 5150 stack. I like the old logo better 😀

Sorry for the low quality pics, i had to use my camera phone since my wife has our canon.

That anniversary KH is badass and I love the finish. But it's an insane price to pay lol.
 
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Did you pay full price for those signature guitars? I was considering getting a KH-602 to put this logo on, but I decided against dropping that kind of money and then possibly fucking it up. I believe the actual guitar that has the mummy on it is an M-II of which ESP will never release with that graphic on it....so I made one.

I also have the spider decal from the KH-3, just sitting here.
 
DaTT said:
Did you pay full price for those signature guitars? I was considering getting a KH-602 to put this logo on, but I decided against dropping that kind of money and then possibly fucking it up. I believe the actual guitar that has the mummy on it is an M-II of which ESP will never release with that graphic on it....so I made one.

I also have the spider decal from the KH-3, just sitting here.
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The actual guitars are just signature (Mirage) guitars with the stickers. Nothing really special about them otherwise that I know of. Still I like the graphics and the old school horror poster look. It's pretty cool.

Well I don't know about full retail price, but yes they were expensive back in the day. They're both ESP Japan custom shop. It's been over 15 years, but they were around $2,500 each back then.

I've considered pickup an extra Mirage body and doing a decal project like you're doing. It would be something fun! I kind of wonder how expensive it would be to design and print your own? hmmmm lol The hard part is finding a good neck because ESP does not produce spare necks. So you have to find one on ebay or something. Usually they're the crappy LTD low end model. That's the tricky part.
 
LikeLinus said:
The actual guitars are just signature (Mirage) guitars with the stickers. Nothing really special about them otherwise that I know of. Still I like the graphics and the old school horror poster look. It's pretty cool.

Well I don't know about full retail price, but yes they were expensive back in the day. They're both ESP Japan custom shop. It's been over 15 years, but they were around $2,500 each back then.

I've considered pickup an extra Mirage body and doing a decal project like you're doing. It would be something fun! I kind of wonder how expensive it would be to design and print your own? hmmmm lol The hard part is finding a good neck because ESP does not produce spare necks. So you have to find one on ebay or something. Usually they're the crappy LTD low end model. That's the tricky part.
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It is fun, but the waiting around really sucks.

Is it possible to remove a neck-through body neck from the body? All the KH guitars are neck-through body with the exception of the KH-202, which is bolt on.
 
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DaTT said:
It is fun, but the waiting around really sucks.

Is it possible to remove a neck-through body neck from the body? All the KH guitars are neck-through body with the exception of the KH-202, which is bolt on.
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No, a neck-through is a completely solid (well laminated) piece of wood. It does not come apart. But, ALL of the KH-2s are bolt on. You're thinking of the KH-2 NTB (Neck Through Body). They didn't start making those until many years later. None of his originals were NTB at all. Both of mine are bolt on as well. The KH-3was never NTB. Kirk didn't even play NTB originally.

http://espguitars.com/guitars_kirk.html

Well I would be using a spare body and nothing that I would need to play. I don't mind waiting for it to cure. It looks like you've done a great job and I'm sure it's going to be awesome to play 🙂 Can't wait to see the final product!
 
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LikeLinus said:
No, a neck-through is a completely solid (well laminated) piece of wood. It does not come apart. But, ALL of the KH-2s are bolt on. You're thinking of the KH-2 NTB (Neck Through Body). They didn't start making those until many years later. None of his originals were NTB at all. Both of mine are bolt on as well. The KH-3was never NTB. Kirk didn't even play NTB originally.

http://espguitars.com/guitars_kirk.html

Well I would be using a spare body and nothing that I would need to play. I don't mind waiting for it to cure. It looks like you've done a great job and I'm sure it's going to be awesome to play 🙂 Can't wait to see the final product!
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Ahhh, my bad. I have been to that very site many times dreaming....and I can honestly say I have never noticed (that I remember) the non-NTB
 
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