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.
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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.
Howdy! Beautiful work on this CG body binding. I have a ‘71 that looks like someone took a Zippo to it, and the neck binding is just plain gone in spots…makes it hard to play, ya know? I am retired and cannot afford to have this worked on by people who know what they are doing! Do you guys sell just the neck binding; if so, how much, and (don’t laugh) will Elmers’ Carpenter’s glue work okay? I have some experience with that. Thanks! Kenny Lee
Kenny,
The binding material is available through Stewart Macdonald and other suppliers. But unless you have done it before with professional guidance, I absolutely do not recommend that you try to do this yourself. There are countless ways to ruin that guitar or even hurt yourself doing this work. Truly. The better news is that we often do not have to remove large areas of binding. Our preference when possible is to patch the broken and crumbled areas and use touch-up to blend in the appearance. If you can send us photos to info@chicagofretworks.com , we can give you an estimate. Otherwise I would advocate playing a different guitar and leaving this one alone until it can be properly repaired.
Steve
Thanks, Steve. I had checked at Stew-Mac and did not see anything specific to Gretsch. I have actually reglued little pieces of neck binding, using as little Elmer’s as possible. This is a great guitar: just needs some help…a little would make it playable; a lot (like new frets, binding, TV Jonses, new tone caps,etc.) would make it a fab guitar. For now, it stays in the case. I will email some pitchers (Cubbies, of course–no Zambrano, tho) so you can see what we be tawkin about! Thanks. Kenny Lee