Vintage Gretsch Country Gentleman – Binding Repair and Restoration
When it rains it pours, and my partner Dan has been up to his elbows in binding repairs this year. Here, he replaces the dried and crumbling binding from a vintage Gretsch Country Gentleman.
A common problem on vintage Gretsch guitars is the decay and crumbling of the outer celluloid binding strip. Sometimes, owners will opt to leave the cracked binding alone, but in this particular guitar’s case, the owner wanted it repaired. In areas, it was loose enough to be scraped off with a fingernail and in others it needed to be scraped and even chiseled off. We ended up replacing the outer layer entirely, then touching up the nitrocellulose finish.
Here, Dan chisels away the cracked and loose old binding.
After cleaning and smoothing the binding channel, he glues the new binding into place.
Then he touches up the area with ambered lacquer to better reflect this vintage guitar’s age.
Final buffing…
Shiny, clean, and looking great.
If I may ask, what type of binding did you use? Modern ABS type or vintage style celluloid? Also, what sort of glue?
Thanks! Great website, I check it weekly!
We did this repair with modern binding and acetone-based Sigment cement. Dan touched it up with ambered lacquer to give an uneven and more natural appearance; more white looking here, more amber looking there.
Thanks for checking out the site!
I confess I just skipped to the last photo to admire the always stellar handiwork — and one of the best-looking guitars ever made. Country Jinnilmin!
I’m sending my vintage Gretsch Country Gentleman to Dan and Steve to replace the binding and touch up the finish…..I’ll let you know how it turns out. Aloha
How much does it cost to replace the binding on a 1970’s Gretch Country Gentleman. The main Body needs replacing but the neck & stock are good. Paul
Hi Paul,
The final cost of this kind of repair varies because sometimes we have to actually replace strips of binding (like this one) and other times we can do a less invasive patching and touch-up. It depends on how much of the binding has crumbled off. We have also found that a guitar of this age frequently is asking for other work like new frets. The binding work itself has probably ranged from $350-600.