So first of all here's a picture of her just after she was made.
1982
A Royal DCS "TV" Junior from 1982
I'm
going to start this section by doing a complete Repair
and Restoration
on one of the first guitars I made.....
She was made in 1982.....
and she was made on my Mum's kitchen table,
and sprayed
in the open doorway of my Dad's
garden shed !
In fact, I recently realized that this was the
first guitar
that I built completely
away from Chris's workshop.
So..... apart from "Pearly" which had the "Chilcott"
logo, she is the first
Royal Electric.
(
The 12 string Acoustic was the first Royal.)
At Present..... Please treat this Section as Incomplete
So first of all here's a picture of her just after she was made.
1982
She was sprayed "Sahara
Beige" ! to imitate
the original "TV"
Limed Mahogany finishes of the 1950's/60's.
She had a 'tortoishell' scratch
plate, a Kent Armstrong Humbucker
with multi-tapping and
phase options, Volume and Tone
controls, a Schaller Bridge
and Machines.
She is sitting in a Keith Calton Case.....
one of the original hand made glass fibre ones.
Three years later she appeared in a Review
in Sounds Magazine in April
1985,
Where Gary Cooper said.....
ROYAL TV: faithful looks,
better sound.
I'm always amused when I read this article as Gary
said : -
"it could have been just a little
bit better finished in one or two areas - unless it was just that pus-yellow
colouring which threw me !"
.....and he didn't penalize the Q
rating (Quality),
which was great.
She was made in 1982
and had been 'all over the place' in the 2
1/2 years before she was reviewed.....
She had done 2 London Guitar Shows/
Exhibitions, The Festival Hall
and and The Guildhall, had been played by me when
ever I got the chance, had been used by Brian
Willourby from the Strawbs
for a couple of months - I'd asked him to give her a whizz to see what he
thought, and although he used Str*ts at that time he used her for several
gigs.
(Brian
is another great guy).
She had also survived two moves as well..... so for Gary
to say what he said, above, was pretty
generous I think. The Calton
Case was a major factor in her staying in
reasonable condition - Thanks Keith.
Sounds Review.....
Hear is a picture of her
now..... 21
years on.
2003
Quite a bit has happened
to her over the years..... but she still has her original
Schaller bridge
and machines.
The pickup
has been changed
for an EMG.
She has obviously been re-sprayed
at least once and has been a bit battered
too.
She still has her original
set of frets.....
which were narrow
and extra hard.
She is currently owned by D.T. who bought her in this condition. He wants her to be completely restored to her original condition, as near as possible, with maybe a couple of modifications.
So, below in the different sections hopefully I'm going to be able to show you all the stages involved and the tools used to try and get her back to her original condition.
STAGES IN RESTORATION
Planning and Preparation
Stripping off the 'Bits'
Stripping off the Old Finish
Repairing any Previous Damage
Body Preparation
Organizing for Spraying
The Spraying Process
The Polishing Process
Fitting Up
The Final Polish and Tuning Up