Greco Super Sound SE500MB Laox Original. Part 2

In this post, I’m going to describe the main stages of the restoration process.

There’s a story I wanted to tell for a very long time, but I wasn’t able to find the time or motivation to do so. Fortunately, I got inspired by Nick from the Netherland, who bought the hero of that story: a great and rare Metallic Blue Stratocaster made somewhere in Summer ’78 in FujiGen factory by the Greco for local Japanese chain stores called Laox.
Check the first part of an article here: Click

Beauty under the stickers

The moment I received it, I knew it was an extraordinary guitar. Even with all of those stickers, that is a disaster for a collector, but a normal thing for an owner, this guitar simply stole my heart…

The first examination I did after I have received it wasn’t optimistic.

The guitar was playing nice straight from the case, even before I did the whole setup, but the pickguard and metallic blue finish were destroyed. So it was pretty evident that the restoration process won’t be easy.

But on the other hand. This is more and less what I expected from the very beginning, and this is what’s my passion anyway. Bringing back guitars to life is my goal 😉

Stage 1: stickers removal

One of those delicate jobs. You need to use the sharpest scalpel you can have, so you can remove the sticker and the layer of the old vulcanized glue, but you need to keep every move smooth, relaxed, and controlled to don’t destroy the pickguard or any of the lacquer’s layers.

Step 2: bring back the pickguard to its previous condition.

This process took me longer than I expected. It’s been over a month from the beginning till I reached the same color and surface.

First I needed to glue all cracks and remove all glue leftovers and polish the pickguard to a nearly brand new condition.

Secondly, I needed to restore the surface and the color.

Step 3: The lacquer shades. You need to polish them to reach a nice solid color.

Metallic blue is a color that you create with couple of layers: sealer, silver undercoat, blue with metallic glitter-like parts and transparent finish.

Thankfully all dents and damages visible on the surface were only on the transparent layer, so my work with the lacquer needed to remain delicate, but no painting was required.

Step 4: Put all parts together and the setup

Nicest part, when you can see how the little duckling 🐥 changed into the beautiful swan 🦢

Step 5: Rock it like it’s brand new!

And that’s all folks 😉