1955 Gretsch with rotted plastic parts: replacement idea
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- After nearly 60 years, old celluloid parts start to crumble. Dan Erlewine builds replacement parts from a sheet of tortoiseshell pickguard plastic.
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It's always a great pleasure to see a time served old boy showing us the old school traditional way of working with materials from yesteryear.
I've got an Epi LP standard that I'll be customising soon s video's like this are very interesting.for me so thankyou Stewart.
StewMac is my personnel savior! They have bailed me out so many times. One of the best purchases ever were the nut files. A set of files from .010 up to .060 is one of the best tools you will ever own as a guitarist. A string that does not fit right in the nut is going to give you all kinds of trouble. And the "How To" books are worth their weight in gold!
Thank you Dan! Inspired by you and the stewmac catalogue for over 30 years!
Another wonderful job. I really enjoy listening to and watching you, Dan.
My goodness, Dan, you are really the finest guy on the repair side of the craft out there. Great trick.
that oscillating sander - holy smokes that was wicked cool
Dan is the man! Always innovative and the expert craftsman.
Your videos are really well shot and your explanations and personality on screen is lovely. Thanks for sharing your expertise with us.
Amazing watching you work Dan. Thanks for making these videos !
I could watch Dan Erlewine do his thing all darn day.
Always a great experience watching a master at work. Dan rules.
This was a great one, Dan.
Craftsmanship and preservation.
Wish these videos were longer. They're fantastic!
What a great lutheir! Every custom shops dream. Great videos. I seen the video on shaping the pickup rings, and that helped out a lot with my Les Paul. My knock off LPs never had the traditional curved top.
So many great ideas, I love the journey of luthier work I learn tons from Dan he is the best hands down when it comes to repair work. I'm more of a builder but a lot of his techniques transfer over to custom building as well. Thanks Dan.
Thanks Dan. Nice to have this type of information for future repairs.Another reason i support StewMac.
I can watch these repair videos all day long
I love these videos - so easy to understand and yet the craftsmanship is impressive!
With regard to this topic, how about a follow-up on how to get rid of the rust and other corrosion left behind?
This dude is an absolute genius.
Dan is rocking the Lee Valley apron. Props!
This man literally has one of the greatest jobs in the world :)
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us!
@Scrap wood city, I love your channel!
The handiest guy in the world!
DwightMS1 he owns a workshop, and is very experienced
Dan is a true American treasure
Your videos are addictive...
Excellent! Great skills privileged to see your work, thanks for sharing your vast experience.
Very nice, Dan. I've been in that same situation of having to fabricate a couple of those pickup bases. Those are not easy to make precisely because of how thin and fragile they are and how much sanding or carving and then cutting you have to do to them. I am sure I settled for a far less than perfect fit than you did to the curved top of the archtop I was working on. But they came in pretty good. Tedious!
Outstanding! Thanks as always for sharing this info Dan.
Even if I didn’t play guitar...it’s impossible to stop watching him.
Ahhh show us what it looks like after mounting!
This is just Amazing ! I´d like to fly away and be a mentee about all luthering ! with Stew-Mac !
Very impressive. You're quite an innovator. TY for the post :>
Thanks for uploading. Loved it and THUMBS UP
Eric
Dan, you are the man
If I ever have to do this to one of my guitars. This would be good to know. I like your method od using similar wood rather than any old plug or dowel.
that's experience talkin' here! Great repair!
Dan is the man!
very cool. great job man, that was awesome!
incredibly talented....
Will you be showing how you restored the damaged humbuckers on this guitar?
Great video!
You are a damm cool craftmann!!! Thanks!!
You the Man Dan
I've learned so much it's crazy
After the buff (3:42) how did you get the mounting ring off the block? I heard double stick tape earlier but it looks like it was part of the block itself, haha.
amazing job.
enjoyed that so much!
The celluloid is nitrocellulose with camphor plasticizer which will degrade over time under normal conditions. This also happens with old film stock. The gasses from this degradation are corrosive oxides of nitrogen, and will attack a wide range of materials.
All I need now is the '55 Gretsch
Yes, how did he get it flat again after gluing it in a curve? Did just the sanding flatten the top?
Now all you need to do is strip off those De Armonds parts & replate them. Caswell or Rio Grande has plating set ups, & the solutions. I have been replating in 2liter beakers. Cast parts are the hardest. Cleaning, stripping & buffing are 98% of a good job. Good plating requires an underplate, hence the term triple plate. Gold should have nickel maybe copper under it. Copper makes a green color when oxidized, some DeAs were lacquered brass. I know Dan would get a kick out of replating old parts.
Dude, you're the coolest. ;)
Awesome and Interesting Once Again....love these stewie vids....Thanks Dan....k.j
Dan, what do you think about making the risers out of wood? I know it's not original, but do you think it would give you any better tonal response? Since wood is what people talk about when they talk about tone. No one ever says that celluloid sounds amazing.
You're a genius.
I think that while it was still mounted to the wood block he ran the mill across the top of the blank to make one side flat, then he routed out the opening in the center area. If anyone saw it differently, pls do correct me.
How did you restore the metal parts?
what are all those knobs for on the bottom of that guitar
Your brilliant!
Dude! You are amazing... 😳
Amazing ...
Old celluloid is nitrocellulose/camphor. The rot is from nitric acid. Same thing happens to oild celluloid based films. Mainly from years of moisture. So sayeth the chemist/luthier
1) How did you machine that accurate curve into the mahogany?
2) How did you release the pickup ring from the mahogany?
First, using a radius gauge, Dan found the contour of the top at the bridge pickup to be a 16"-radius, and found the radius at the neck pickup to be 25" using a shape finder. He then transferred those curves to two blocks of mahogany and cut them close to the line on a band saw. After that, the blocks were sanded to the line using a belt sander, likely the edge sander he uses later in the video. The thinner neck pickup ring was mounted to the mahogany block using double-stick tape, so it would've peeled away fairly easily. The thicker bridge pickup ring was mounted to the block using some small countersunk Phillips flathead screws.
could you replace the mounting rings with hard wood?
wow way cool!
Howdy Dan
thanks for the great tip
way out of my league tho
but very interesting
stay cool
Rich
I don't quite get how he got the flat top. It looks like he just glued the plastic to the curved block, which would make it curved on both sides. Did he skip the part where he made the top flat, or am I just missing something?
Awesome
Right, that's it. Next time round I"M coming back as this guy.
Okay. If that's the case. I thought he was just talking about sanding it on the block for cleanup and reounding the edges. And hadn't flattened the top, or didn't show it.
Why would you polish surfaces that aren't visible after installation?
What can be done for the corroded pickups?
Scrape the wax coating off, take the corroded metal and use a coke bath to clean that up, then re assemble the pickups and give them a wax bath, that'll make them good as new.
Acrylic bends easily with a heatgun. Pipemakers' being doing that for ages.
You've got to be in the south... those birds are always going at it in the south.
Slick idea, using two pieces bonded, cause opposing forces to hold that radius indefinitely!
what kind of glue did you use to glue the two sheets of celluloid together? Acetone?
MEK would work the best with acrylic, acetone would probably be fine however.
That smug look at the end :D
imagine owning a guitar that's old enough to be your grandpa!
old guys rule
I wish you were my dad
I thought he would print one out hehe :p
The fumes are more likely to be Nitrogen Dioxide caused by the nitrocellulose content decomposing.
Opps sorry - forgot I had previously commented - I'm just getting senile
You make it sound easy, but for an idiot like me It's impossible.
I am not an expert by any means, but gold plating rusting away ? It must be either some anonised metal or brass. Gold is non corrosive.
onsese joo But corrosion from plastic and other nearby metals would still affect the surface of the gold. And clearly there are plastics and other metals right around, so you could theoretically just wash off the corrosion, but that'd dameage the electronics. But no, the pure gold itself is not corroding.
Why not fabricate new parts from real celluloid and replace them again in 60s years? Corroded metal parts could be cleaned up and if really needed have them replated. Celluloid has a unique look which is why one or two vendors have finally sourced genuine celluloid to make the Fender 'green' nitrate guards although Fender hasn't done this as far as I can tell.
oh nevermind lol
I off gas at night quite a bit, my girl hates that.
Off-gassing? I think he means "out-gassing". Off-gassing is farting.
No correct term is "Off-Gassing" Google it if you think He's wrong.
Your hypothesis about how celluloid "rots" is wrong. Celluloid contains nitro-cellulose which is intrinsically unstable. As it deteriorates it gives off nitrogen dioxide which causes a brown colouration catalyses further decomposition. Nitrocellulose is flammable and thats why celluloid and old film stock burn so easily.
I don't know this for a fact, but many years ago I heard that pool balls were once made with celluloid and on occasion would explode when struck by the cue stick or dropped. Can you offer any additional information on this phenomenon?
He said it "rots" and gives off a gas while you say it "deteriorates" and gives off NO2. Rot and Deteriorate are Synonyms so Id say its the same thing ?
deteriorate, decompositiion...more expensive ways to say rot??