If it ain't broke, don't fix it

[richard burton]

Why do steels that are only 30 or 40 years old, and still working perfectly, have to be re-furbished ?

I can understand buying a wreck and adding value by fixing it, but what's the point when the instrument is already playing nicely ?

[Greg Lambert]

I guess for the same reason vehicles have to be refurbished or replaced. Miss use , poor maintenance , and a hard life. lol

[Howard Parker]

Refurbed or restored?

I'm sure that often the choice is personal and might not have anything to do with the play ability of the guitar.

YMMV

h

[Joseph Myers]

I would think a lot of people just like a good resto project and enjoy the work, are good at it, and get satisfaction of the final results. The performance would be better most likely.
Personally, I don't care for totally restored steels.. or cars for that matter. I prefer decent condition instruments, refurbed, detailed and tended to, but left with all their character.

Really the only vintage guitars that you can strip the finish and redo everything and gains value.

[Ron Hogan]

The ones I refurbished played fine but needed 40 years of old lubrication, dust, grime, oxidation removed. Making it look almost new again.

But then adding fresh lubricant such as PTFE.

There's something about a steel that shines on top and underneath and ready for another 40 years.

[Mike Scaggs]

Why do steels that are only 30 or 40 years old, and still working perfectly, have to be re-furbished ?

I can understand buying a wreck and adding value by fixing it, but what's the point when the instrument is already playing nicely ?

There are number of reasons to restore an old but working steel IMHO.

First, a working steel and an excellent working steel are two different animals and sometimes is hard to see the difference till you do the resto and then play.

Another reason is old grit and grease in areas you can't see under the hood are doing damage to valuable changers etc. Things I have uncovered are pretty telling and surprising.

Second, sometime folks like to see a new finish or perfect Mica again. Very rarely have I bought a guitar with perfect Mica with zero chips are scratches somewhere. I'm sure they exist but I have not witnessed one yet in my shop.

Other things I commonly find in push pulls is broken or cracked bodies. Behind the changers are a 95% chance they are cracked. It's a real weakness in the design, I have a solution. Also, guitars 30,40, 50 years old have normally been worked on and things moved and changed with leaves nice holes all over the body. Now that is no sign the guitar still isn't just fine but some like a nice underside without evidence of tampering.

For my own restos I do I enjoy making fully custom one of a kind Emmons push-pulls. It's a lot of work, hours, and expense but I like doing it for myself. That is all the reason I need.

Finally, even working steels many times, not always, but many times do have idiosyncrasies that are hard to discover till they are apart. That list can be long depending on the guitar. Once discovered and fixed that issue should not return making the owner/player much happier not having to worry over that demon again

I think its great we have choices where we live and if a player decides to rip a perfectly good steel apart and make it his own they have the freedom to do so.

Cheers form Nashville
Mike