Trash to Thrash #21 – James Hetfield Rusty Explorer Rebuild (Ethan) - S2E01 (Epiphone Gothic)

james

hepfield is the scout who drives the leader of metallica, he has written some of the best heavy metal riffs of all time and he is one of my favorite guitarists today i am going to build a replica of one of papa het's scouts,

rusty

, Be sure to click the subscribe button and hit the bell to get notified every Thursday when a new episode drops. This is

trash

to

thrash

for over 20 years. I've been obsessed with guitars, from playing them, to working on them, to buying them, to collecting them. I built a huge collection of amazing custom guitars this season.

I will

rebuild

guitars submitted by fans of the show. I will

rebuild

14 guitars over 14 weeks, each with a unique and interesting backstory. I will be repainting, rewiring whatever is necessary. to turn these things into the guitars of your dreams this is

trash

to

thrash

hello everyone and welcome back to trash to thrash season two episode one i'm your host mark murray and i specialize in buying old worn out guitars and rebuilding them into shredding machines killer today I'm going to look for a couple of new projects to start and I'll start by looking in my usual places.

I always look on eBay, Reverb and Craigslist. There are many other amazing places where you can find guitars at a great price. deals from garage sales, trade-ins, pawn shops, if you let people know that you are looking for used equipment, you would be surprised how many people have an old guitar in their closet that they will take out and sell you for 40 or 50 dollars too. I've also used Facebook Marketplace and apps like let go and local sales apps to find great deals on gear. I'm always looking for new gear, looking for jackson's ltds

explorer

s, wolfgang, anything I can find that's beat up that I can fix. something incredible, so today we are going to look for a specific Jackson Roads for my client Marcel.

He said that he wants the guitar to have a Floyd Rose bridge and for the electronics to go through the back of the guitar so there is no pickguard on it. On the front he also said he would love to have 24 fret shark fin inlays and if he could adjust the neck or neck through construction, but if all other requirements are met he will fit. I know there are a few different models that will work for this so I've been looking at a few different guitars but I think I found the one today which is a jackson rr xmg rhodes it's a great guitar with a basswood body, maple neck, it has routing rear, it has 24 frets shark fin inlays I want to say this is almost perfect with a little modification, it will be perfect many times when I buy on eBay or Reverb, I will visit the seller's store and see if they have other items.

They might want to buy if you put together a package and give them a lower price, they could take $50 or $100 off each item and if you're willing to invest in a few guitars at a time, you could save a couple hundred dollars. Right there, while searching through this guy's page, I found another guitar that I really wanted. It was an Epiphone Explorer Gothic. The Epiphone Explorer Gothic is based on the original 1958 Gibson Explorer, but it came completely blacked out. Matte black finish. Black pickguard. All hardware is black. and they were awesome they made

gothic

explorer

s vs les pauls and sg at first they started with gibsons but then they expanded the line to include

epiphone

s and some of the

epiphone

models even had floyd rose bridges which was awesome because you don't really understand that. a lot about gibson and epiphone guitars.

I've always loved the gibson

gothic

series since it came out around 2000. A couple of friends of mine had some and I thought they were cool at the time, it was as close as you could get. get a

james

hetfield

guitar because they weren't making 1984 epiphone explorers like these and the ltd ones were very hard to find and of course the esps were super expensive after searching the entire seller's store i found the roads that really suited me they liked it I found that explorer that I really liked and I even found a set of tuners and a bridge that will work perfectly for the explorer, so I put all those items together, sent him an offer, he came back with a counter and I accepted it.

Most of the time when I buy a new guitar, I post it on my Instagram stories and let my audience see it. I'll tell you it's available if anyone wants me to customize it. Reserve it now and it's yours. when I posted this on my Instagram story, someone messaged me and wanted to buy it. He wanted me to build him a Hetfield Rusty, which is a guitar that James Hadfield used during the Saint Angry era. James Hepfield's Rusty Explorer is a mahogany-body Gibson Explorer. and the neck has a matte black finish and a

rusty

pickguard, it has emg 81 and 60 pickups and a two nomatics bridge, so we are going to do pretty much the same thing, but on the gothic epiphone Hi guys, I want to take a moment real quick . to tell you about my friends from the iron age guitar accessories make amazing things knobs guitar picks and my favorite kill switches I know a lot of you are like this guy talks about kill switches every episode, but it's because I put a switch Basically, every guitar I have I love kill switches because, as a lead guitarist, I'm always looking for a new way to add something special to my playing.

You know, we have harmonics, choruses, bridles and all these different cool effects and techniques that we can use. but the off switch is one that not many people use and adds some really cool percussive dynamics to your playing. Let me show you now get a kill switch, enter gg-10 at checkout and you will get 10 discount links in the description. Next, the gothic scout has arrived and is in my hands, everything looks good, so in the monthly production meeting I have with my assistant Ryan, I'll show it to him and give him the game plan, that's a cool scout , so this is the epiphone gothic explorer this guitar is going to be

ethan

we are going to make a replica of james hatfield's rusty explorer this is what it will look like oh wow we are going to remove the pickguard and the switch that is up here let's go To relocate down here There's a little channel that runs through here for the switch wiring and we don't need to fill it because we're going to put another pickguard on it, that's where I need you to come in and build me, you know, a nice rusty pickguard like that.

Awesome, I might even throw a clear coat over the rust afterwards because I wouldn't want to have a guitar with a really rough surface. I feel like that would be abrasive when you touch your pickguards with your fingers it would just be annoying yeah so maybe we'll put a really thick clear coat over that yeah that rusty pickguard emgs that'll be sweet yeah this will be really cool now that the game plan is in place. Ryan will disassemble the guitar and take it outside and sand it every time we disassemble a guitar, we always take all the parts and put them in a bag and label it with the name of the guitar, even the parts that we know are not going to come back on the guitar which is always put in the bag just for reference and in case we need to check something later now that this guitar is completely disassembled, we can take it outside to the sanding area.

It's important to have multiple workspaces set up because where you sand a guitar is not where you want to assemble a guitar and where you do the final polishing is not where you want to do wiring where you sand the guitar it leaves all kinds of particles and dust and where you polish a guitar you have a lot of Also, when it comes to assembly and wiring, you have a whole set of different tools depending on the job you're doing, so it's good to have your tools where you need them for specific jobs, for example all your files and all your draft elements.

On one table, then you can have all the cables, heat shrink and soldering tools on another table. Most of the time when we touch up a guitar here, we simply sand it with 600 grit sandpaper and a palm sander as shown here. You don't need to reduce it to bare wood and you don't want to because when you reduce it to bare wood you will have to re-prime it and then repaint it, paint doesn't like to adhere. Wood paint likes to stick to primer or paint that has been scraped off, the reason you want to scrape it off is to create a mechanical bond because paint doesn't like to stick to a smooth surface if you are just trying to paint over a On a finished guitar, the paint will scratch off immediately, but if you scratch it with 600 grit sandpaper it will create a surface that the paint will love to adhere to, as long as the original paint adhered well to the guitar. the original paint is peeling or chipping, the new paint will go right on top of it and adhere, but underneath the old paint will simply peel off and take away the new paint.

I filled in a couple of chips and dents on the guitar and then put it in. In the paint booth, I put down three coats of matte black and then three coats of matte clear, even though it's a matte paint job you still need a clear coat. Paint is primarily made of pigment, while a clear coat is made specifically to protect a finish. You will notice that when you buy a clear coat, there are different sheens. You can buy a high gloss semi-gloss or even a matte clear coat. This paint job turned out amazing, so let's check out Ryan and see how he does against Rusty with that dart.

Pickguard we are using is eight inch steel. Ryan traced around the old pickguard using it as a template for the new pickguard we're making, then attached a ruler to it and used a grinder to cut it out now that he has the basics down. cut out shape you'll take it to your belt sander here you refined the shape and started breaking up some of the edges to really smooth out the edges you got on your file and cleaned everything up it does all the old school stuff like a true craftsman that's why I love this guy's work when he finished it all he gave it back to me and I tried a few different methods to rust the pickguard.

The first method I tried was the natural way by spraying it with water and leaving it outside for a while. A couple of days I really didn't love the results of this method, it was very uneven and the color wasn't very uniform either, so I sanded it again for attempt number two, rubbing it in with the sponge and paint, which was a complete failure , so I sanded it and attempt number three was to mix some spray paint back and forth using black and then some copper colors again. This was an absolute failure, so I sanded it too for my next attempt.

I went to YouTube to see if anyone had any experience. on how to rust things quickly and found a great video by Mr DIY Dork that teaches you how to make a solution he calls Rusty 3000. I cut his measurements in half, so what I used was eight ounces of hydrogen peroxide and one ounce of white vinegar. and a quarter tablespoon of salt, I mixed all that in a spray bottle and labeled it as oxidized 3000 just like Mr. Diy Dork does. Link to your original video in the description below. Always remember to label your bottles over time in your store.

You're going to end up with a lot of different spray bottles with all kinds of solutions and you always want to make sure everyone knows what's inside them. Here I'm using a spray bottle with pure vinegar that's going to I prepped the surface and also cleaned everything really well. I sprayed the guard three times about five minutes apart to prepare it, then sprayed it with Rusty 3000 and within seconds the rust started to appear. I let him do his job. about an hour and all the solvents dried and this is what we ended up with a really uniform amazing rusty red color, it got a little thick in a couple of spots which looks really nice and added a bit of texture to it but I touched it.

I had it in a couple spots and it was a little loose at the top. If I cleaned it, I would have removed a lot of rust because it's not real rust, it's right on the surface, so I sprayed a few coats of clear lacquer. I put one coat on it and it came out great, it felt very durable and nice, but pretty uneven, so to give it a little more leveling, I gave it a little sanding just like I would after spraying a clear coat on the body of Guitar. I didn't do so well. heavy with the sanding because with the guitar you want a real mirror like finish and with this I thought it was cool that it had a little bit of rust texture, but without having the weird raw rust feeling, so I gave it a good polish with the combo 105 and 205 of Maguire.

This removed the scratches left by the sandpaper and left it with a nice shine. You can see how rough the texture is down here, which I haven't leveled yet, compared to up here, where I have. leveled and polished there is still some texture but it's not as abrasive as down here it's more like a smooth rock finish now do you want to winone of the guitars I built on the show each month? I'm giving away another of the custom guitars. I built on this program. The only sure way to enter this giveaway is to register at the CEO level of my Patreon page each month.

I download the list of sponsors and draw random numbers to give away one of the incredible guitars I have. Built here at the show last month, Robert won the White Reaper with this crazy Ibanez pro line 1660v from 1985 and this month I'm giving away this totally radical Jackson Roads concept from 1994. This guitar features black chrome EMG 5766 pickups that match with locking goto tuners. custom clear pick guard and a purple Tessie kill switch not to mention the totally crazy purple and teal paint job and next month I'm going to raffle off a totally crazy jackson kelly for your chance to win and be automatically entered into a raffle every month to win one of these guitars.

Sign up at the CEO level of my Patreon page. The links are in the description below. Now that the pick guard is complete, it's time to put it on the guitar and see how. It looks like the holes are lined up perfectly and that seems crazy. Now I will start wiring, assembling and working on the fretboard of the guitar. The fretboard is pretty dry and the frets look pretty dirty, so I'm going to use this fret protector and just go down the fretboard using some steel wool to clean the frets. These dishes were still in good condition and after cleaning they look beautiful, pretty and shiny.

Now the fretboard definitely needs some oil, so I put some lemon oil on it and let it soak. for a couple of hours and then we just cleaned the excess electronics off of this guitar, we're going to use the emg 8160 kit, which are the classic james

hetfield

pickups shown here, the emg wiring kit with the potentiometers, the connector output and Wiring the bus first comes first before mounting the pickups. You must route the pickup cables that will go under the pickups and through the cavities of the guitar. Back when Ryan and I were taking this guitar apart, I mentioned that under the pick.

Guard is a channel originally, this channel was placed there so you could run the wires for the pickup selector switch that is normally mounted on the pickguard, but we moved the selector switch down to control position one, so now I'm going to use this channel here. To route the battery cables that will power the EMG pickups, I put some foam under the cables and on top of the cables so the cables wouldn't move and tapped the inside of the guitar. I raised the foam. and along the control cavity, then I mounted the pick guard and mounted the pickups.

I now turn my attention to the headstock for a moment to assemble the pegs and truss rod cover. I'll probably remove the truss rod cover to make an adjustment. When I set up the guitar, but for now I want to see what it will look like and man this looks spectacular. There's something about matte black with gloss black that looks so good together, so I hung it with some regular 1046 Ernie slinkies. ball and intoned the guitar now cosmetically it's basically complete look at this, it's beautiful to start this. I wasn't a big Rusty fan, but now after seeing it in person this is just stunning, it's definitely a guitar I would love to own. my collection, the final step for this is to just finish wiring it up.

Emg makes it really easy because they come with wiring that everything connects to and it's very simple. It is basically a solderless system. I had to do some soldering for my selector. switch, but it was only four solder joints and you could even buy a really cheap soldering iron online and do those four points yourself, overall I highly recommend that if anyone is looking for a really easy to use mod and upgrade, try emg because They come with It's a really easy system to use, as you can see in the control cavity, there's really no extra space so I was lucky to have room under the pickguard to use with the 9 volt battery.

Well, look, this turned out rusty. Great, I would love to keep it but I can't. This is for Ethan. The matte black with the rusty pickguard looks crazy. I love it. This guitar was from the Saint Angry era of Metallica, but I think it fits all of Metallica's arrows. now it's time to plug it in and see how it sounds this thing is a beast, it definitely nails the james hetfield tone explorers with their giant mahogany bodies, especially when combined with emgs, they just create a monster tone. This episode of trash to thrash is sponsored by social pedalboards.

I love social pedalboards. I've been using them for years. In fact, Social Pedalboards were one of my first associations when I started Guitar Guts and they've been sending me pedalboards that I've been using for years. I love them. The quality is excellent. They are wooden pedalboards built by hand. It has a lot of great features like rubber feet, a built-in handle with holes on the side for running cables, so check out the social pedalboards. I'll put the links in the description below. Great company, everything is hand built in Southern California, very close to where I am located.

So what did you guys think of Rusty? I love how it turned out. Leave your comments below. Let me know if you liked Rusty and let me know in the comments what your favorite Metallica album is. I'm a big Metallica fan. I'm not a big fan of Saint Anger to be honest, I never really listen to it, but I love Metallica. They're one of the reasons I started playing guitar in the first place, I love everything from Kill Them All, Load, Reload, Black Album, of course, all the Master Puppets, Red Lightning and Justice for All, but I love it all so leave your comments below.

I'm curious to know what. Your guys' favorite Metallica album is, many thanks to my sponsors for this episode, as well as social pedalboards and Iron Age guitar accessories. I have their information in the description below and links to their websites. Do you want me to customize your guitar or? Do you want to order a custom guitar through me? If you do, my information is in the description below. Brand guitarguts.com. You can email me and we'll talk about a custom guitar for you. Also follow me on Instagram. Guitar Guts if you want more content from me and make sure to tune in next week because I'm going to start working on Jackson Roads that I bought at the beginning of this episode and it's going to be a tribute to Alexi Leo so make sure you come.

I'll be back next Thursday at the same time and place on this channel and also next Sunday I'll be doing another guitar show on this channel every Sunday called Sunday Morning Shred where I answer your guys' questions and play videos of their custom guitars. I look through old guitar magazines. Do a bunch of really fun guitar related things every Sunday, right when you wake up it's already there waiting for you to grab your cup of coffee and come check it out, so if you have any questions you want answered, leave them in the comments at continuation and me.

We will come gather all the questions from the comments and answer them on Sunday morning. If you want to show off your custom guitar on that show or your modified guitar, make a couple of minute video showing the guitar. Tell me the story about it, tell me how you got it, what inspired this guitar, and then send it to me. Bookmark guitarguts.com and I'll play guitar on the show. I love playing your guys' guitar videos on there and showing people your guys' creations, so send them over. Send them to me, thank you very much for watching everyone.

Remember to register at the CEO level of my Patreon page. There is a link below and you will automatically be entered into a monthly drawing to win one of the custom guitars I built. In this show, also visit guitarguts.com to get the guitar guts kill boost pedal, guitar guts kill switch and remember you can find this show on guitar guts dot tv, tell your friends, help spread the word , I really appreciate it, thank you. lots of guys rock with my friends