Hondo HLP-2N restoration

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I have decided to create a thread to keep everything in one place .
An old bagger Hondo HLP-2N , that I had bought a while back from marketplace for £10 in a rather bad condition .

Here are the links to previous discussions and problems I have come across .





So I am slowly moving on .

Last weekend I had sanded off the old finish . The fight took about 2-3 hours ,mostly by hands with a little help of very cool abrasive bit to do side profile .


While sanding the top down I had sadly realised , that the ash top was just a thin veneer and I had lightly sanded to other layer of wood in places .
One places is between a bridge and tailpiece area and some patches on the outside profile .
Not horribly though :) 

I haven't taken any close up photos but you can just about to see on this photo .


After this I had stained the body with Crimson's black stain and lightly ( or not :) ) sanded it for now .
I will likely repeat the process at later stage to achieve a desire effect .


The next stage , is to enlarge pickups slots to accommodate custom pickup covers .

I will need to shave off a 1mm of each face , and while at it , I'll re-machine toggle switch cover hole and wiring cavity too ( only top faces where the covers go ) as both are well out of shape with visible gaps .

I have already made pickup covers with 49.2mm and 52.5mm spacing . Once I get everything made I'll plate them black . 




I am also planning to machine pickups rings .
This is going to be a little nightmare as the body's profile radius varying from one end to another , and it is going to take long time to machine .
I have drawn some ideas as to what I might like . Though not the last word on those designs at all .

Other things in cooking are the bridge and tailpiece anchors .
They'll be custom made too , to suit current holes in the body , as I failed miserably to find them new to buy ( with the gold finish I go with ) .

That's the progress and plan so far . 

Now though , I have purchased a Graphtech bridge which turned up yesterday , and their tailpiece ( on special order as no stock in UK ) .
I have just put the bridge on , to see what it looks like and immediately noticed a problem that I am not sure what to do about , other than return the bridge . 
But , I have made a special order , so no going back now ! 

What it is , is the intonation screws are facing pickup cover .
If you look at the photo , you can see there will not be a great clearance to fit screwdriver to adjust intonation with string on .

Any solutions to this other than to get another bridge?
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Comments

  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71950
    By the time you raise the bridge enough to get the correct action - I'd guess at least 3-4mm given that it's well below the straight-edge now - the screws will be accessible. Maybe not perfectly, but enough to get a screwdriver into them without slipping.

    You could also reduce the angle of the pickup surround slightly, which will lower the back edge - it's currently steeper than the string angle.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • JazzthatJazzthat Frets: 163
    ICBM said:
    By the time you raise the bridge enough to get the correct action - I'd guess at least 3-4mm given that it's well below the straight-edge now - the screws will be accessible. Maybe not perfectly, but enough to get a screwdriver into them without slipping.

    You could also reduce the angle of the pickup surround slightly, which will lower the back edge - it's currently steeper than the string angle.
    Yeah I was thinking of reducing the height of pickup ring by a bit . Didn't realise though the angle of it .
    I will take that into consideration when making rings .
    Back to the board !
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  • paulnb57paulnb57 Frets: 3044
    You could possibly turn the current pickup ring 180 degrees to get a bit more access and to level it up better...
    Stranger from another planet welcome to our hole - Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock 'n' roll

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  • JazzthatJazzthat Frets: 163
    paulnb57 said:
    You could possibly turn the current pickup ring 180 degrees to get a bit more access and to level it up better...
    Good idea .
    I'll be making custom rings to fit , so all options are  on the table :)
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  • JazzthatJazzthat Frets: 163
    edited June 2021
    The weather has been good lately , so I went ahead  with body prep .
    I have sanded off black stain and used black grain filler instead .

    I applied loads of that stuff to the body , but as I'll show later it wasn't enough !
    Sanding off black filler with 320 grit sandpaper took about 2h .

    Next stage as advised by @SteveRobinson ;;; was sand sealant , which went on well .

    There's not much to see , but at least my cat got interested ... 



    After that I have covered binding with vinyl tape prior to spraying the body .
     

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  • JazzthatJazzthat Frets: 163
    edited June 2021
    Unfortunately there was a small problem ,that I didn't see it coming ...

    This must have happened after I went round the corner and didn't check back before spraying .
     
    Then there was more problems ...


     
    This was covered in another thread , and the cause of it was left over polish on the previous finish .
    That's that lesson learned !

    I have also stupidly enough tried to remove some bug that got stuck to fresh paint , resulting my finger touching the paint and putting indent in there . 
    I don't have photo of that , but I had to wait and sand it down and respray .

    As I have said earlier , the grain filler didn't work for me 1st time , and i only found that out after spraying colour on .



    At this stage , I couldn't be arsed to go back to strip the lot down and start again , so I left it ...

    Hopefully once it's finished ,  it won't be a disastrous effect .
     
    This is where I have come to a stop , as I have run out of clear due to some fu.. ups and very little experience with that field .


    More clear coat cans on order !

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  • SteveRobinsonSteveRobinson Frets: 6913
    tFB Trader


    You might be able to drop fill that with some green lacquer. You can either re-mask or scrape to the binding once it's dry (and before it's too hard and brittle). 



    You can aslo drop fill those holes on the front with clear lacquer, it will blend in with your clearcoats.

    > More clear coat cans on order 

    Thanks, I think it's looking pretty good overall!
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  • JazzthatJazzthat Frets: 163


    You might be able to drop fill that with some green lacquer. You can either re-mask or scrape to the binding once it's dry (and before it's too hard and brittle). 



    You can aslo drop fill those holes on the front with clear lacquer, it will blend in with your clearcoats.

    > More clear coat cans on order 

    Thanks, I think it's looking pretty good overall!
    It is ok , I have managed to cover it with remaining green colour . Perhaps it will be visible a tiny bit , but overall I am happy .

    Yes more cans are coming :)
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  • WezVWezV Frets: 16541
    That's a good burst 
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  • JazzthatJazzthat Frets: 163
    WezV said:
    That's a good burst 
    Thanks @WezV ; .

     It was pure improvisation , as I initially was going for an even green coat ,but somehow my hand went against my brain thinking :) 
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  • WezVWezV Frets: 16541
    I have a soft spot for green bursts as my first proper guitar had one.... although that is currently gold instead :D
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  • JazzthatJazzthat Frets: 163
    edited July 2021
    Another update on that bad boy  

    This is the part I was looking forward to . It took long time from start ( sanding flat from 800-1500 ) to finish ( 4 stage polishing ) .

    I got it near perfect , though all bits that I have failed on prior polishing showed up big time .
    One of them was not filling grains properly .
    Luckily most of that is at the back , so I am not that bother .
    Some sanding ' bumps' lines between frets ( no photo of that at the moment ) , which I can live with .
    All in all I am chuffed with the gloss I have achieved .
    Photos could be definitely better to show that !
    The headstock reflection , shows pylon in the far background , and there's almost none distortion .

    There's also one picture showing what I used for this little job .


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  • paulnb57paulnb57 Frets: 3044
    Wow, that polished up nice
    Stranger from another planet welcome to our hole - Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock 'n' roll

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  • Winny_PoohWinny_Pooh Frets: 7730
    That looks seriously cool. 
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  • CorvusCorvus Frets: 2924
    tFB Trader
    Nice work Mr Hat, like the colour a lot too.
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  • JazzthatJazzthat Frets: 163
    Thanks guys ! 
    I will keep updating the thread untill  it's done completely .
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  • MattharrierMattharrier Frets: 451
    That colour is gorgeous and the grain looks sublime. One of the close ups looks almost like a watermelon - not in a cheap painted ukulele way, though! I can only assume it was the added ingredient of beer that makes it so lush ;)
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  • RickLucasRickLucas Frets: 396
    Lovely.
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  • JazzthatJazzthat Frets: 163
    That colour is gorgeous and the grain looks sublime. One of the close ups looks almost like a watermelon - not in a cheap painted ukulele way, though! I can only assume it was the added ingredient of beer that makes it so lush ;)
    Not , that you said that , it does look like lovely and tasty melon :)
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  • DeadmanDeadman Frets: 3851
    That looks wonderful. Great job and I love the contrast!
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