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Gorgeous thing!
So impressed by this level of skills, The outcome to me appears wizard like.
I wish the whole process were captured in vids. Can't wait to see the Byrdland.Last edited by Zack; 02-01-2026 at 10:33 AM.
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01-30-2026 10:17 PM
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I appreciate these posts and always learn so much from them. Thank you Mark for sharing these with us. They are now lovely instruments and better than they were when they shipped from the factory.
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Hi @MCampellone,
Please could you confirm/correct if I am right in assuming that untightening the truss rod on the Byrdland will add relief?
Thank you
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Truss rods are like screws or jar lids: "righty tighty, lefty loosen." Loosening will make the neck/fingerboard bow up, increasing relief, and tightening will push more toward a "back bow."
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mvp is correct - turning the truss rod nut counter-clockwise will release tension on the rod, allowing strings to pull up on the neck - turning the nut clock-wise will add tension to the truss rod, counteracting the upward pull of the strings. In this way, the truss rod should effectively increase or decrease relief, ASSUMING that the neck is straight with no string tension and no truss rod tension, and that's not always the case.
Originally Posted by Zack
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Here's another completed restoration - this time, a 1957 L-4C. This guitar was in good shape structurally, but in need of finish and fret work.
A previous owner had added a pickup - fortunately, the top was not routed for a humbucker - instead, an old Rowe/DeArmond pickup was attached, just sitting on the top, secured with two screws - there were some holes in the rim as well - a large hole for the output jack, and several small holes where various pickguard brackets and a strap button had been installed and - all were filled prior to doing any finish repair.
The color on the top had faded slightly and did not match the area that had been covered by the pickup, so some color touch-up was done there to restore an even blend. There were a few deep scratches in the body, and MANY chips and dings everywhere on the guitar - these areas were touched up with color where needed, and drop-filled with clear lacquer (this was probably the most time consuming part of the work). Most of the finish on the guitar had very open checking, so the entire finish was sanded back and over-sprayed with a few coats of clear nitro.
The original small frets were very worn - they were removed, the fingerboard was re-surfaced, and new, larger frets (and new nut) were installed. Finally, all new hardware was added.
Once the guitar was strung up, I found it to be a great sounding little acoustic - despite the application of fresh lacquer, the treble is very crisp - mids and bass, very warm - overall tone, open and woody.
For anyone seeking a nice old 16" acoustic archtop, the bad news is I'm keeping this one - the good news is I'll be selling my old L50 - my pal for many years.
Last edited by MCampellone; 02-01-2026 at 02:32 PM. Reason: remove one attachment
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Damn. This looked like a major reclamation project. Congratulations. Great keeper!
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Outstanding work!
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Wow! You truly are a Wizard!?
Stunning result, amazing!
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Wow. If plastic surgery on humans could add value at a similar level ...
It is enjoyable to see how nice these guitars are brought back to glory.
Thanks for sharing.
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WOW! I'm extremely impressed with your work!!! This is an awesome thread!
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OK - here's another one – a 1969/70 (?) L-5CES. The six digit serial number, starting with “6” indicates early 70’s production - the shape of the peghead is 70’s, and it’s stamped Made in USA on the back - but there’s an orange label inside the body - also has a nicely figured maple back, which you don't see often on the Norlin L5's - I'm guessing this guitar might've been among the last built before the Norlin takeover (?).
This guitar was advertised as being “well loved”, but it must’ve been “tough love” because the guitar came with a number of battle scars. These included a badly repaired top crack running from the PU selector switch down toward the waist, a deep dent in the neck (actually, more like a gouge), rim cracks around the jack, a corner chip out of the peghead binding, buckle-rash on the back and various dings/scratches throughout. The frets were heavily worn as well.
I tackled the top crack first. The original repair attempt left some blobs of glue on the face of the top – also, the two sides along the crack didn’t meet flush – one side was higher than the other. Using a heat gun, I was able to release most of the glue – I re-glued the crack, getting it pretty flat, and clamped in some cross-grain patches on the inside for reinforcement. However, the crack was slightly splintered, with some wood missing – I ended up routing out the cracked/splintered area and gluing in a spruce spline. Rather than attempt a local finish touch up, and since the finish on the top of the guitar wasn’t in great shape anyway, I decided to take the whole top down to the wood and re-finish it.
The ding in the neck was about pea-size and fairly deep, and in an area where I figured it would be near impossible to do a completely invisible repair. I considered using a wood plug to fill the void, but it still would’ve been visible, so I decided to go the easier route of filling with epoxy, tinted with powdered pigments. I stripped the entire neck down to the wood, and got the colored epoxy filler to match the natural maple color of the surrounding wood quite well - once the lacquer was applied, though, the refractive quality of the wood kicked in, the filled spot became either visible or invisible depending on how the light hit the area. So, not visually perfect, but perfectly smooth.
I replaced the bit of binding that was missing from the corner of the peghead. I added some internal reinforcement to the jack hole in the rim . The fingerboard was re-surfaced and re-fretted and a new bone nut was installed. I sanded back the clear coat on the back and rims to remove as much as possible of the buckle-rash and dings, drop filled the indents that didn’t sand out, and sprayed a few light coats of clear nitro lacquer. The original pickup covers were badly corroded by gas-off from the original pickguard, so they were re-plated as was the tailpiece. The guitar came out of it all looking really nice – plays beautifully, and the original patent number pickups sound just as you’d expect them to.
Last edited by MCampellone; 02-23-2026 at 07:32 PM.
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As Ranger Doug would say, "That's purty work".
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What a beauty!
Wow! Pure Wizardry!
Absolutely amazing!!
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Each one is even cooler than the last. Just beautiful work.
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You are a magician! Marvelous job!
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Amazing work - this thread is a lot of fun. Very skillful and the results speak for themselves.
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Wonderful, looking forward to more!
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Wow I have an L5ces with that exact (almost) finish, kind of a cognac shade. I have never seen one the same, and I love it. Originally Posted by MCampellone
OK - here's another one – a 1969/70 (?) L-5CES. The six digit serial number, starting with “6” indicates early 70’s production - the shape of the peghead is 70’s, and it’s stamped Made in USA on the back - but there’s an orange label inside the body - also has a nicely figured maple back, which you don't see often on the Norlin L5's - I'm guessing this guitar might've been among the last built before the Norlin takeover (?).
This guitar was advertised as being “well loved”, but it must’ve been “tough love” because the guitar came with a number of battle scars. These included a badly repaired top crack running from the PU selector switch down toward the waist, a deep dent in the neck (actually, more like a gouge), rim cracks around the jack, a corner chip out of the peghead binding, buckle-rash on the back and various dings/scratches throughout. The frets were heavily worn as well.
I tackled the top crack first. The original repair attempt left some blobs of glue on the face of the top – also, the two sides along the crack didn’t meet flush – one side was higher than the other. Using a heat gun, I was able to release most of the glue – I re-glued the crack, getting it pretty flat, and clamped in some cross-grain patches on the inside for reinforcement. However, the crack was slightly splintered, with some wood missing – I ended up routing out the cracked/splintered area and gluing in a spruce spline. Rather than attempt a local finish touch up, and since the finish on the top of the guitar wasn’t in great shape anyway, I decided to take the whole top down to the wood and re-finish it.
The ding in the neck was about pea-size and fairly deep, and in an area where I figured it would be near impossible to do a completely invisible repair. I considered using a wood plug to fill the void, but it still would’ve been visible, so I decided to go the easier route of filling with epoxy, tinted with powdered pigments. I stripped the entire neck down to the wood, and got the colored epoxy filler to match the natural maple color of the surrounding wood quite well - once the lacquer was applied, though, the refractive quality of the wood kicked in, the filled spot became either visible or invisible depending on how the light hit the area. So, not visually perfect, but perfectly smooth.
I replaced the bit of binding that was missing from the corner of the peghead. I added some internal reinforcement to the jack hole in the rim . The fingerboard was re-surfaced and re-fretted and a new bone nut was installed. I sanded back the clear coat on the back and rims to remove as much as possible of the buckle-rash and dings, drop filled the indents that didn’t sand out, and sprayed a few light coats of clear nitro lacquer. The original pickup covers were badly corroded by gas-off from the original pickguard, so they were re-plated as was the tailpiece. The guitar came out of it all looking really nice – plays beautifully, and the original patent number pickups sound just as you’d expect them to.
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Kind of interesting about the finish on this guitar - the color is the "ice tea" finish common to the Gibson archtops of the 70's. It appears that on this guitar, they just went a little heavier on the color application so it ended up being a little darker than most ice tea finishes you see. Also, it seems to me that Gibson used a different finishing method on these guitars - normally, color would be applied after the wood was first sealed, either with clear lacquer or sanding sealer - but it seems to me that during this period, color was applied directly to the wood, evidenced by that fact that once I'd sanded off the clear coat, I could see that the color had soaked into the wood. In refinishing the top and neck on this L5, I sealed with lacquer before applying color, and while I got a pretty good color match, it doesn't have quite the same look as the original stained wood finish. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
Last edited by MCampellone; 02-25-2026 at 10:16 AM.
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A Jesus on Lazarus job if you ask me!
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Now this is why I only visit this forum!
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Is there anyone in the UK of the same calibre as Mark?
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I've always noticed this very obvious change in finish just around the time when Gibson was taken over by Norlin. They also stopped buying figured maple, the shape of many models was altered, the dot on the Gibson "i" was lost, the guitars became ever more heavy, it went down hill all through the 70's and 80's .... Originally Posted by MCampellone
This type of finish and how the color penetrates the bare wood underneath can also be found on certain cheaper PRS guitars and IMHO it looks cheap and an totally un-appealing.
My congrats to you Mr. Campellone : you're immune to the wide-spread "save-the-vintage-original-look" mantra and you successfully ignore the quasi religious belief that it's a sin to
alter an instrument in order to make it more playable/affordable. Your work helps people get their hands on good instruments without having to pay the outrageous/inflated prices on the "vintage/collector" market !
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