Ibanez artist binding decay

[Len Biglin]

Hi Guys , this one is an old Ibanez Artist LP style guitar . It has cream binding on body and neck , which is crumbling and looks burnt . I have not had much experience with re-binding and how to avoid damage to the lacquer when trimming . Also the neck has cream binding with nibs also crumbling .Any advice ? and pricing for this job? Thanks Len

[Paul Verticchio]

Hi Len.

I owned & played one for 28 years. They're my unique area of expertise in electric guitars.

First, it's a thick poly finish. Don't worry about harming it. But, being very old ply, it's extremely brittle. Like "shards of glass" brittle.

Before selling mine (ONLY due to it's 14 lb. weight which I can no longer tolerate on a 4 hour gig), I simply mixed up an acetone/binding slurry, filled the voids & damaged areas and leveled, smoothed... you know the drill.

The neck binding: On mine (a 1978 #2618) the frets are trimmed flush to the FB and the nibs butt right up against the end of the frets. If you score the finish at the neck/binding joint to prevent finish chipping, you can easily remove the binding and replace it using Dan E's instruction provided in his book. They're bound like Gibson's. I'd use a well heated #11 Xacto blade to get a clean shatter free "first score line".

I WAS going to replace the binding on the body on mine but you can see there are areas around the cutaway whose dimensions don't correspond to any modern binding width.  Hence, my slurry fill on the body binding. Also, the HUGE 90 degree binding joint at the neck/body scared the hell outta me.  If it were a lacquer finish, I could blend it in. But being poly,, I viewed it as a potential cosmetic nightmare.

BTW: Those instructions are for Artist solid bodies made IN JAPAN from 1977 through 1982 . I can't speak for later models and especially, the reissues.

Got a pic of the guitar?

Best of luck :)

[Len Biglin]

[Len Biglin]

[Len Biglin]

There you have it Paul , I may even try reglueing the neck binding , and patching the body as you mentioned .

[Paul Verticchio]

Wow. That's a 2618 too. It was the only 24 fret model in that Series.

Other than the chunk out of the cutaway binding on the treble side, a slurry fill will work fine.

Mine had similar binding issues at the neck joint and the 'usual' clean/reglue/clamp method will work well.

A tip: there's enough of a sharp edge to ALL of the binding, combined with its thickness, to scrape the edges into an attractive & comfortable shoulder. AND, as a result, you'll have the binding scrapings you need to make your filler slurry :)

Best of luck and THANKS again for the pic's :)

[Len Biglin]

Aha I love those little practical tips thanks .