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About a year ago I was searching Craigslist and found an 84 Rhoads Custom listed for $400, described as formerly belonging to Rick Hunolt from Exodus. I did a bit of research to confirm it was Rick's old guitar, and yup it's the one that he used in the 'Double Live Dynamo' DVD with Paul Baloff (1997?), and as sad as this is, you can confirm it from the 19th fret inlay which has a distinct 'band' across it!
I asked a friend who lives local to the seller if he'd help me out, so John went and met the guy and then called me with a review of the guitar, which was basically "this thing is a total wreck"
But the price was right and I had a plan (sort of). So he bought the guitar on my behalf, sent me a ton of pics so I knew what I was getting into, and he then shipped it to another friend of mine who did a fret dress on it (thanks Dave!!). I took some pics when it arrived with me and the initial horror had passed..
Yup, it was in a bit of a state! Chris Holmes would be proud...
It had had a piss-poor rattle can paint job, the neck had been striped, pretty much all the screw holes for the hardware were oversize, the headstock clear was a mess etc etc. My initial plan was to have a bit of a go at it myself, so I removed all the hardware and then used a cabinet scraper to strip all the shitty black paint off it, then removed the remaining primer off the back of the neck and headstock, used a razorblade to clean up the binding and then generally set to cleaning it up as best I could.
Halfway through cleaning the clear off the binding with a razorblade
When I removed the paint, I found that whoever had made such a mess of it before had for some reason stripped the bevels of their primer/undercoat. But worse than that was that the top bevel was no longer straight - it had a nasty concave curve to it where it met the face of the guitar:
I discussed various aspect of this job with Sully who was super helpful throughout. But all in all it was starting to look like more of an undertaking that I was prepared (or able) to take, so I contacted a local guy who builds and repairs guitars. I went knowing exactly what I wanted, in that I wanted to have an oiled neck, partly because it was partially stripped, partly because I like the feel and partly because the frets don't have the life for another dressing, and if a re-fret is in the not-too-distant future, I didn't want to risk damaging a new refin when they get replaced. Obviously, the oiled neck was not original to the guitar, but I supplied pics of how the join was done back in the day, so at least it's halfway authentic. Likewise, I managed to get hold of an old-school RR bridge to replace the Gotoh which came with it.
Anyway, here's some pics:
Before: After:
I still need to drill for the strap buttons, plus I need to get the right type of screws for the control and V-plates. Oh, and I need to put a dummy pot in the last space, if I can jiggle it in around the battery. But otherwise, it's ready to go! Big thanks to John and Dave for their help on this one, and to Sully for his advice (and patience for my stupid questions!!)..
After posting the initial pics on another forum, it turns out this guitar used to belong to Hellraiser - small world!!
I asked a friend who lives local to the seller if he'd help me out, so John went and met the guy and then called me with a review of the guitar, which was basically "this thing is a total wreck"
But the price was right and I had a plan (sort of). So he bought the guitar on my behalf, sent me a ton of pics so I knew what I was getting into, and he then shipped it to another friend of mine who did a fret dress on it (thanks Dave!!). I took some pics when it arrived with me and the initial horror had passed.. Yup, it was in a bit of a state! Chris Holmes would be proud...
It had had a piss-poor rattle can paint job, the neck had been striped, pretty much all the screw holes for the hardware were oversize, the headstock clear was a mess etc etc. My initial plan was to have a bit of a go at it myself, so I removed all the hardware and then used a cabinet scraper to strip all the shitty black paint off it, then removed the remaining primer off the back of the neck and headstock, used a razorblade to clean up the binding and then generally set to cleaning it up as best I could.
Halfway through cleaning the clear off the binding with a razorblade
When I removed the paint, I found that whoever had made such a mess of it before had for some reason stripped the bevels of their primer/undercoat. But worse than that was that the top bevel was no longer straight - it had a nasty concave curve to it where it met the face of the guitar:
I discussed various aspect of this job with Sully who was super helpful throughout. But all in all it was starting to look like more of an undertaking that I was prepared (or able) to take, so I contacted a local guy who builds and repairs guitars. I went knowing exactly what I wanted, in that I wanted to have an oiled neck, partly because it was partially stripped, partly because I like the feel and partly because the frets don't have the life for another dressing, and if a re-fret is in the not-too-distant future, I didn't want to risk damaging a new refin when they get replaced. Obviously, the oiled neck was not original to the guitar, but I supplied pics of how the join was done back in the day, so at least it's halfway authentic. Likewise, I managed to get hold of an old-school RR bridge to replace the Gotoh which came with it.
Anyway, here's some pics:
Before: After:
I still need to drill for the strap buttons, plus I need to get the right type of screws for the control and V-plates. Oh, and I need to put a dummy pot in the last space, if I can jiggle it in around the battery. But otherwise, it's ready to go! Big thanks to John and Dave for their help on this one, and to Sully for his advice (and patience for my stupid questions!!)..
After posting the initial pics on another forum, it turns out this guitar used to belong to Hellraiser - small world!!
). That's the same bridge that I have on my LP Custom.
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