pawnshop se

[scottsgh]

hi, newbie, first post. i went to my local pawn shop to see if they had any cheap pedals, and i saw a prs se custom on the wall. it's scratched to holy hell, but i always wanted one. they wanted $300 for it, but i didn't want it with all the scratches. so he said i could have it for $150. i walked out the door with it. a lot of the scratches are deep. some, not too bad. so, my question here is, does anyone have experience with getting scratches out? i know i won't get them all, but if i could get the majority, i'd have pretty nice axe for $150. aqre the tops real, or are they silkscreened? if i could'nt get the scratches out, maybe i could sand it down, and stain it. also, i tried to take the wammmy bar off, and couldn't. is there a trick to it? sorry to ramble, but if anyone could help, it would be very much appreciated. thanx, scott

 

[themike]

hi, newbie, first post. i went to my local pawn shop to see if they had any cheap pedals, and i saw a prs se custom on the wall. it's scratched to holy hell, but i always wanted one. they wanted $300 for it, but i didn't want it with all the scratches. so he said i could have it for $150. i walked out the door with it. a lot of the scratches are deep. some, not too bad. so, my question here is, does anyone have experience with getting scratches out? i know i won't get them all, but if i could get the majority, i'd have pretty nice axe for $150. aqre the tops real, or are they silkscreened? if i could'nt get the scratches out, maybe i could sand it down, and stain it. also, i tried to take the wammmy bar off, and couldn't. is there a trick to it? sorry to ramble, but if anyone could help, it would be very much appreciated. thanx, scott

- The whammy bar should pull out, no tricks.
- The tops are veneers with caps - what that means is that the guitar has a mahogany body with a thick maple top, and then a thin veneer ontop of that for "appearance"
- Without photos itll be hard to diagnose the scratches - are they just surface scratches or are they deep?

Either way dont let the scratches bother you - sounds like you got a good guitar for a great price. Enjoy it and welcome to the board

 

[scottsgh]

thanx for the reply. i tried to pull the bar out, and it wouldn't budge. i'll try some wd-40. so, if i strip the finish off the top, it's going to be plain? no curl? if thats the case, i won't do it. the worst are on the back. i was told to use 400 grit, and wet sand it. i have zero finishing exp. and don't want to ruin it anymore than it already is. for $150, i'll deal with it. thanx again

 

[cjmwrx]

There should be set screw in the trem on the back where the trem arm inserts. See if it's really tight. If so, loosen, and you should be able to pull the arm out.

The Top veneer should be thick enough to sand the finish off, and re-finish. Deep gouges may be an issue, and might require filling.

If you have no finish experience, it could be a good project to start off with. Check StewMac's trade secrets. http://www.stewmac.com/tradesecrets/archive


Photos would help a lot.

 

[Mikegarveyblues]

As mentioned, the tops are a veneer. Real wood, just very thin.

For fine scratches i've used T-cut with success. It would probably help lesson the appearance of deeper scratches. For $150 you can look at it two ways. Not worth spending too much money trying to clean it up. Cheap enough to experiment with trying to re-finish. Up to you.

Personally, i'd start with something like T-cut and a good polishing and then see how it looks / how you feel after that.