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Click HERE for more pics of the finished Guitar.

1966 Silvertone Guitar Refinishing Project Received new as a Christmas or Birthday present in 1966 or 67. (I barely remember last year, who can remember 40 something years ago?) Click HERE for more information about this model. This guitar suffered its most damaging blow in 1969. It was my first year of college and I was in the dorm picking the blues. Some knucklehead who lived on the same floor wanted to see it, so I handed it to him. Seconds later he dropped it on the linoleum floor and it landed on the input jack, splitting the guitar. The photo taken in 2008 still shows the damage. At some point, being embarassed to own a Silvertone, I painted over the logo with an ugly brown. I joined a band, bought a 1968 Les Paul Deluxe ($220 cash in 1972), and the Silvertone was retired.

The guitar ended up in my brother's basement in Kentucky sometime in the 70's, where it stayed until I brought it to Florida in December of 2007, with the intent of fixing it up and being able to use it again. Several knobs were missing and the pots were broken so new knobs would not attach.

After staring at it for a few weeks and reading about refinishing techniques, I decided to strip off the red paint and enhance the natural wood finish using a "hand-rubbed" technique utilizing Tung Oil.

Briefly, I'll go through the process . . . First, I disassembled the guitar, removing everything that would come off.  NOTE: All of these photos were taken after disassembly. I cut the area around the input jack since it was split anyway, and pulled the electronics out through the opening. Lots of elbow grease and sandpaper later - weeks later - I had a paintless guitar that looked pretty good. I repaired the broken wood by the f-hole (In retrospect I should have painted the guitar so the repair would not be visible. You can run your hand over it and not tell its there, but it is very obvious under the clear finish.)

I sanded it with finer and finer sandpaper until I thought it was ready to finish. (There were still scratches that can be seen if you look close, but buy this time I didn't care, I was tired of sanding) I chose  MinWax Tung Oil, for a hand rubbed finish. I wiped on the oil with a rag and after letting it dry overnight, I would sand it again with very fine steel wool, and then apply another coat. I ended up with eight coats, again, I was tired of oiling.

The Electronics My original intent was to replace the pots in the old pickup assembly,  reinsert everything back in the guitar, then repair and paint the sides. Well, when I soldered in two new pots to replace two I removed, I couldn't get them to work. Everything worked in the old assembly, so I figured I didn't know enough about it to do the job right. And besides, my soldering skills suck. I decided to move to plan B. So it was time to start thinking about what would be a good plan B. Since I wanted to keep the costs at a minimum, having the assembly repaired by a professional was out. I looked around on eBay for something that would fit right in, but had no luck. I ended up buying - for only $8.00 plus shipping - an entire pickup assembly, wired and fastened to a plastic panel designed to fit right into a solid body "Starcaster" guitar.	"Starcaster" assembly
I wanted the knobs to fit the holes already in the Silvertone, so I had to "lengthen" a half dozen wires on the pots and switch to make that happen. I decided to re-use the original pickups instead of making custom housings for the cheap Starcaster ones. I tested one first, then proceeded. No soldering, just twisted wires with small electrical connector caps that screw onto the wires. After this mess was completed, I plugged it into my amp and tapped on each pickup. To my amazement, everything worked. Then I spent a lot of time squeezing the electronics back into the guitar. I made a custom blade-switch cover out of some of the plastic from the original Starcaster assembly, hand beveling the edges and also cutting a slot in the top of the guitar. I cut the assembly into two more plates to cover the original triple-switch opening and the two pot holes I no longer needed. Click the image at the right to see a larger version.
Finished Next I glued and clamped the area around the input jack (leaving an opening big enough to pull the jack back out of the guitar- the jack plate covers the hole) After filling and sanding the repair, I choose to paint the sides of the guitar so the paint would hide the repairs. Sand, paint, attached the jack plate, add strings, and the finished guitar is shown to the right. Click the image at the right to see a larger version. Click HERE for more pics of the finished Guitar.
Update: Feb, 2009. I ebayed some black knobs and black Wilkinson tuners. I like the tuning keys better than the old Silvertone originals. The guitar stays in tune better, and the new knobs are easier to turn. Gee, I could have moved the vibrato bar to show the knobs a little better. Someday, when I find the time, I will change the white plastic "hole covers" to something that looks more professional.