Greco Les Paul Copy – Refinish and Relic

Here’s an early 1980’s Greco Super Real Goldtop as it arrived in our shop. Take a look at how we gave it a more authentic and vintage appearance.

The Greco Super Real is one of the more sought-after copies of the Gibson Les Paul. They consistently fetch upwards of $1500 on eBay and in our opinion, outshine many of the more common varieties. It’s got great weight, feel, and sound but the appearance is a little less convincing. The owner of this guitar noticed that it had an orange-hued finish that was clearly not the traditional nitrocellulose lacquer found on Gibson guitars. He asked us to refinish it in nitrocellulose and relic the appearance so that it looks more like a genuine vintage Les Paul.

Those original goldtops got their look from clear lacquer finish applied over bronze powder. Over time, the clear finish would wear thin and ‘check,’  exposing the bronze to arm sweat and the oxygen in the air. As a result, many of these 50+ year old guitars have taken on a greenish appearance in the more heavily worn areas. The Greco’s owner knew this and specifically wanted to see this subtle effect on his guitar – which means simulating fifty years of wear and tear in a brand new finish. You’ll see we were up to the challenge.

The work begins with removing the old finish. It turned out to be two separate color layers between the outer surface and the wood. The top layer peeled off in large flakes.

Once all of the finish is off, the entire body gets sanded smooth and prepped for painting. The mahogany back and neck are coated with pore-filler which levels the surface of the wood and makes the grain really stand out under lacquer.

After a sealer coat, comes a white primer for the top surface. This gives a solid background for the gold color coat.

After gold and clear top-coats, the Greco looks beautiful and new… but not for long!  Now it’s time to scratch, chip, cut, and scrape it so that it takes on the appearance of natural wear and checking without having to wait 50 years.

Working from a photo the owner sent us, we started adding the random-looking dings, dents, and finish checking you’d expect to see on a vintage guitar. When we don’t have photos to work from, we use a 15 point checklist with each point graded for light, medium, and heavy wear to try to deliver what each customer wants. Overall, this one would probably fall into the medium/heavy range.

It’s subtle, but you’ll notice that the checking has the greenish hue we were looking for.

There you have it. Turns out you don’t need 50 actual years to get 50 years of wear!