Check out this amazing restoration that new GCA instructor Dave Johnson, owner of Scale Model Guitars in Nashville, recently finished for a customer! This guitar was built by the customer’s grandfather, Bill Lee, while in prison in the early 1960s. Amazingly, the instrument was playable despite not having a truss rod in the neck, as well as a very thin headstock with almost no angle.
Leaving as much of the original guitar intact as possible, Dave installed a modern neck adjustment system, replaced a missing inlay with period-correct celluloid, added a new piece to thicken the headstock, installed new custom pickups built by GCA lead instructor Steven Mather, and created a new tailpiece with the number “33” (Bill’s number from his days as a race car driver). Outstanding work! Read Dave’s full story of the restoration on Instagram at @scalemodelguitars!