Comments on: Vintage Gibson ES-355 Refinished, Bound and Refretted

By: Christopher Tsiatsios

Christopher Tsiatsios — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:52:50 +0000

I have a 1980 Gibson Les Paul Custom that a previous owner routed for a Kahler trem. The nut was also replaced with a locking nut and the binding was removed around the nut area. Can you help to restore it to original? Or do I have a lost cause? The color is sunburst. What would the cost be?

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:46:11 +0000

Swish, It’s been a year and a half since we did this guitar, but our best recollection is that we used binding that was about .065-.070 thick. You’re right, you couldn’t use thick stuff or multiple layers on curves that tight.

By: Swish

Swish — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 06:43:23 +0000

What size binding did you use for the f holes? Compared to the thickness of 335 style body binding the f hole binding must be thinner…

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 15:59:40 +0000

We've never used House of Kolor, but the color coat on this guitar was from Guitar Reranch.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 15:51:44 +0000

For this one we used nitro for our top coats and a blended candy color. Much more consistent results than the layered approach (and much less expensive for the owner.)

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 15:48:32 +0000

John, we like Lenmar Duralaq for our nitro. We’ve tried lots of others and like the way this one cures.

By: John

John — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:23:27 +0000

I have a similar project. I goofed up and used stripper… which in turn softened the binding…Now I’m carefully trying to replace with the neck still in place. That is how you learn I guess. Also …did you use a base color of silver or gold under the candy? What kind of paint? Laquer?

By: John Mc

John Mc — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:31:17 +0000

Steve, Thanks for the info. What kind of paint did you use? I was going to attempt the same thing on a 335 “basketcase”. I am going to try a House of Kolor candy. I will check with my paint guru to see if I can go over it in nitro?

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:27:24 +0000

Rafael, we’ve found that with edge binding, we get a cleaner line by scraping with a razor rather than taping. However you’ll notice Dan pulling tape off the headstock inlays. That’s because a) we don’t want to scratch the pearl with the corner of a razor and b) it would be nearly impossible to lay the blade flat enough to clean the sharp corners and tiny pieces of inlay. So… a little bit of both.

By: Rafael Rivera

Rafael Rivera — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:40:06 +0000

was wondering did you paint over the binding and the just clean it with a razor? or did you taped it off?

anyways amazing work