Lately & notably

I painted Benjamin Peter's SJ-200 a couple of weeks ago. Superthin. With my old formula nitrocellulose lacquer. It has already developed beautiful weatherchecking and ambering without additional artificial aging:

Hi there again!

Just to let you know - I received the guitar yesterday on wednesday. I let it rest 24 hours until I opened the package today a few hours ago. It was a relief to notice that the guitar had survived the travel from Germany to Finland :) This is risky business and you never know how they handle these packages. I knew the risks and this was a calculated risk I wanted to take when I decided to send you the guitar for a refinish.

I did not know you before the project - I remember someone saying that "Jaeger can do a refinish" on thegearpage where we discussed these Murphy Lab issues. I checked out your webpage and the photos of the work you had done convinced me immediately. I noticed that you have very special skills and that you are able to do the job.

The project progressed very nicely and I shall thank you again for all the photos that you sent along the way, it was really great to see the progress! And the info that you shared during the project, just great! And now, after the guitar has arrived back to my home I can say wow! I just plugged it into my Two-Rock Classic Reverb Signature amp and it was difficult to put the guitar down :) :) :)

The neck is amazing, the sound is amazing, the playability is amazing! What can I say about the brazilian rosewood fretboard? Absolutely perfect! It was the right choice! Frets are great also, and overall the neck feels smoother and better to play now after the Murphy Lab finish is removed.

The looks - thin layer of paint/coating is sooooo much better than the thick stuff Gibson had done earlier! I can see it now with my own eyes and _feel_ it. The aging is also perfect for this guitar - it looks amazing and unique in a way! This is me - the guitar looks good on me :) You did a great job on the aging and the looks as well! Bravo!!

I am very happy with the project and this guitar is my main workhorse now. Thank you very much for helping me out with this guitar and the amazing results you provided after the Murphy Lab fiasco!

The circle is closing - I remember being about 20 years old in the mid 90's and I was so into music that I had to get me a guitar. There was a recession in Finland then and many, many people were unemployed - I could not find a job either and was very poor back then. I did not know almost anything about guitars back then, but I had to get a guitar. All I could afford was Ibanez acoustic guitar made in China. It was very, very cheap, perhaps about 100-150 euros in todays money. But I bought it because I did not know about guitars and could not afford the better ones. It almost ruined my hobby, because it was such a shitty guitar and the action was so high that it was very difficult to even play. I would have never ever imagined back then that some day I would have a guitar like the one I have now after your amazing refinish work!

Just for the fun - I will include a couple of photos of the guitar that I had back in the mid 90s :) I happened to see this for sale a while ago - this is (probably?) not my guitar, but I remember my guitar being exactly like this that is in the photos, same color also :) We have come a long way pal!

So, I shall thank you very much for your amazing work!! I could never have imagined I would have a guitar like this.

Keep up the great work man!

I built this Propeller 2011 - and the GT is getting even more beautiful. Right?

Thommy wrote: "When the sun is bursting, the sunburst comes bursting out like hell!
Ich bin dir noch eine Rückmeldung zum Makeover-Makeover schuldig (hab ich nicht vergessen, aber ich bin beruflich die letzen 4 Monate extrem beschäftigt gewesen).
Seitdem ich die Gitarre abgeholt habe hat der Lack sich prächtig entwickelt bzw. „gesetzt“, das ist etwas was ich an deinen Lackierungen liebe. Sie sind einfach organisch und fühlen sich dadurch echt an. Das stained fretboard macht optisch einiges her.
Da die Gitarre ja schonmal gemakeovered war sollte man ja denken, dass klanglich sich nichts getan hätte - Fehlanzeige. Durch deinen Einsatz hat sich das Instrument nochmals deutlich verbessert und ist sehr nah an meine BM2 klanglich gerückt. Das ganze Instrument fühlt sich nochmals runder an als davor. Danke dir dafür! Und ganz ehrlich. Die Lackierung schickt wie die anderen von dir alle Murphylabs auf die Strafbank 🙂‍↔️"

This beauty suffered severe Murphy Lab issues: the paint on the back broke off in big flakes; so it instantly went from Helsinki, Finland to the Jaeger non-lab. It received a neck reset with genuine hot hideglue, a sublime almost black brazilian rosewood fretboard and the period-correct, real nitrocellulose finish, which I applied superthin as Gibson was capable of shooting back in the days. It's now painted about 70 percent thinner as the thick stuff it wore before. Sounds amazing. Decent, tasteful and subtle aging. No flakes.

This early historic reissue has received a Bavarian Makeover ONE and heavy aging. Notice the topvcarve, the period correct bronzepowder, the authentic weatherchecking and the real greening of the bronze. This is NOT a lab, guys. I've had many Murphy Labs in my workshop the past months (and other LPs which have been "makeovered", by let's say: not so skilled craftsmen. So: just take a look at these pictures and let them do the talkin'. You can't tell the difference between an original and this one.

Benjamin Peters rocks the SJ-200 I entirely overhauled by stripping that sticky Gibson paint and shooting it with my hard nitro, which resembles a 70 years matured finish. I'm sure: You guys don't underestimate a superthin nitrocellulose-lacquer which stretches like thin skin over the tonewood. You can't buy a Martin or Gibson today which is finished like this.

... this beautiful and convincingly sounding 335 had been overhauled by somebody else before and was desperately in need for some loving care. It was more a restoration than a makeover and very demanding. Thanks to you, Holger, giving me strength and motivation to ride on through to this beautiful end result. Cheers!

This ESCO Special, built by Franz Hirsch (the luthier who built the famous ROGER Guitars for Wenzel und Roger Rossmeissl) in the Golden 1920ies, until they were capable of doing it themselves), was in a horrible condition (as seen on the last three pics).

The neck had been glued in by using a thick wedge and several shims, which had spread the sides and destroyed the neckblock and other parts of the guitar severely.

I restored it to a beautiful condition, preserving it´s history, refretted and touched it up with all my experience, knowledge, love and intuition.

It plays, looks and sounds great.