1964 Gretsch country gentleman rebind, neck reset and fretboard true up with refret

Initial inspection and binding removal

The first task was to remove the body binding. Most of the time the inner layer is sound enough to leave on the guitar. If this is the case there is less disturbance to the paintwork/finish.

Neck work

The next task was to remove the neck, remove and replace the neck binding, true up the fretboard and reprofile it, then add the red side dot markers and new frets which were levelled, crowned and had the ends nicely smoothed.

Neck refit and new body binding

The heel was an 'interesting' shape. There was a lot of glue in the neck pocket but not much wood to wood contact. We tidied the heel and added shims to the neck pocket for an improved angle and a perfect fit.

With the neck refitted it was time to add the body binding layers, repairing the black base layer in a few places. The new white/black/white layers are added as single strips and scraped back individually. A new heel cap and side infil plates were also made and fitted. All the binding edges were fine sanded for a soft aged look and feel.  With the guitar masked up we tint coated the bindings to match the natural patina of the guitars overall look.

Reassembly

We serviced and cleaned all the fittings and electrics and made a new rear cover as the original one was very brittle and distorted. The original one will stay with the guitar for originalitys sake.

Restrung and set up, the guitar plays great with a good height to the bridge, now giving plenty of future adjustment. A clean up and polish of all the paintwork and new mute tops completed the work.