Hey y'all. I've got a 1965 Gretsch Corvette. My dad bought it back in the 70's from a buddy of his. He played it for years but when my parents got divorced it sat in a leaky garage for years and years until I rediscovered it about 10 years ago. In the meantime I've been building guitars and restoring some of the other guitars I've accumulated over the years, and now I think I'm ready to restore it. So here's the thing. EVERYTHING on the guitar needs to be replaced. The pickup literally fell out because it completely rusted through. The pick guard crumbled with the slightest touch. About half the machine heads are rusted and broke (it really needs a new set... these are unsalvageable.) The pots were rusted frozen. So here's the good, the body is in great shape, but the finish is spiderweb cracked everywhere. The tailpiece is fine and the bridge is fine. My question is given how much work needs to be put into this guitar, I'm not sure how much it will be worth since it needs a complete resto. However, would it be better for me to leave the finish as it is and maybe lacquer it (the cracking looks kind of cool) or should I sand it and completely redo the finish? I know normally you wouldn't want to sand it down to the wood and redo everything, but as I said, I'm not sure how much it's going to be worth since I'm never gonna find 100% original parts. I'm going to get the actual DeArmond Dynasonic pickup for it, but the machine heads will most likely be aftermarket. I would just like some opinions on which direction I should head in. I don't plan on selling this guitar really, I just want to make it sing again! Thanks everyone!.
P.S. I'm posting this question because either way it's getting restored, but if I have a chance of making it valuable, I wouldn't want to do anything to hurt it. I just want to restore it in the best way I can that will do it justice as well as not make it worthless.
Let me guess, it's red. Cool Guitar, "The Les Paul Killer!" DO NOT REFINISH IT!!! The finish crazing is very common for Nitro finished guitars and the refin will dump any value right out of it. Don't try to halt the wear, add to it, cover it ,nothing. Clean it with some naptha and leave it alone. DO NOT get rid of anything. Even if you can't use it you might be able to fix it later with more experience or partially rebuild it from new peices - the pots, for instance - if you source out new pots you may be able to re-use the old rusted covers with the dates on them - two small tabs hold the covers to the pot - some lithium grease might even get them back in order?
Sourcing the parts should be pretty easy as the corvette has been re-issued and Gretsch's are sort of prone to cannibalism. If you take a pic of the pickup(s) I can tell you if they can be salvaged at any level - at the very least the plate and mags should be salvageable and having them rewound and covered would be more desirable then replaced to anyone. I'd certainly rewind them for you at cost plus shipping, probably $20 a piece if the covers are usable but you could find the covers out there either way.
In my experience "its falling apart" is ubiquitous gretsch-speak for "vintage" - they fall apart more often than any other guitar I have ever handled. Luckily, the solid bodies hold up a lot better than their hollow and bound brethren. I had a '67 rallye that was turning to dust.
So whatzit worth? The worst question in the guitar world is the glassy eyed expecting plead from a vintage Gretsch owner. Gretsch's aren't like Fender and Gibson, Ric and Hofner, they were never that cool being known for mostly country music hollow bodies. The solid bodies were late on the scene and never got the credit they deserved. They have a rep for falling apart, and they were expensive as hell. And the corvette never had much of a pedigree like the Duo-Jet, nobody big really played them. Perfect examples with the case, bigsby and filtertrons only go for about $1500 (an absolute steal). Completely restored, yours will probably only be worth around $700. A guitar store would probably offer you $450. That's a guess and maybe even high as I've seen earlier models go for around $900 in original condition. The good news is you really don't have to worry too much about painstaking attention to detail and era correct pot numbers and tuners if you don't care all too much. It should be a great project and you are going to have a completely bitch'n guitar when you're finished for a few nights work and beer money. Post pics along the way, I'm sure we'd all be interested and their just isn't enough (or any) of that on this forum.
Ditto on pic's!!!
I also would just clean the finish, and leave it at that. The rest I don't know enough about them to give advice. Tuners are easy, and lots of styles, brands, and price points out there. Pickups..... well you already say you want the same type, so your set. Good luck!
Paul B
