GAA's BST-1000 Restoration

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In the late-90s I converted my Gretsch BST-1000 into a DIY Resolectric. 20 years went by. In the meantime I got a real National Style-O and wasn't playing the Resolectric. I didn't have a dual humbucker guitar. So I decided to restore the BST-1000.

The Starting Point

This is the body when I started. I previously routed a huge cavity to hold the resonator cone.

I still had the original pickguard and knobs but no longer had the pickups. Cream humbuckers are hard to find because DiMarzio has a trademark on that look. Fortunately I found a TDPRI thread about some inexpensive cream-colored humbuckers like the DiMarzios.

Patching the Huge #*!@% Hole in the Body

I glued up some pieces of alder and shaped it to fill the cavity. I plugged the sounds holes in the back with poplar dowels. I used epoxy to glue the wood patch and the dowels.

I sanded down the wood patches with 80 and 150 grit sandpaper so everything was flat. I patched the gaps with Elmer's epoxy wood filler. The epoxy wood filler was easy to work with and worked well. I sanded everything smooth with 220 and 400 grit paper.

Painting the Body

I wanted to use Rustoleum 2x enamel spray paint because it was easy to get and I liked the color choices. I mocked up various colors in Photoshop. I decided on Hunter Green Gloss.

I prepped the body with a couple of coats of BIN Shellac Primer. I sanded the primer coat smooth with 400 and 600 grit sandpaper.

Before I put on the color coat I drilled the holes for the bridge. The BST-1000 had a string-through bridge. I drilled some string-through holes but they came out uneven. I patched the holes, reprimed and went with a top loader bridge.

I sprayed on the Rustoleum color coats, waiting 48 hours between coats as recommended. I thought the primer coat was smooth but fine scratches were visible after spraying the first enamel coat. After a couple of coats of enamel I sanded out the scratches with 400 up to 1000 grit sandpaper and applied some more coats.

I let it dry for a week. When I painted the body I also painted some scrap samples. I tried various finishing schemes on the samples - not-sanding, sanding with various grits, etc.

I settled on sanding it with 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper then applied multiple clear coats using Varathane oil-based Polyurethane spray cans.

After the clear coats dried I smoothed the surface with 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper and polished with Meguiar's polishing compound.

Final Results

It turned out well. The finish isn't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it. There is a barely noticeable sunken line between the body and the round wood patch.

I really like the color scheme - Hunter Green goes very nicely with the black pickguard, cream humbuckers and rosewood fretboard.

It's looks like a solid color version of an original Gretsch BST-1000 without much sign of what it's been through :^).

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments. Visit my home page for other instrument building pages.

Updates:
4/26/24 - initial version