DIY -- 50s White Falcon Binding

[Highnumbers]

I'm deep down the rabbit hole of restoring a 1963 White Falcon (I'll post a full restoration thread soon, just for fun). It's one of the last with the Cadillac tailpiece, and the earliest batch with the T-Zone frets.

Anyway, one of the main hurdles of this restoration is the need to replace all of the gold sparkle binding on the body. But the catch is that reissue binding does not look right at all. It's the wrong color, wrong flake pattern/density, wrong thickness and lacks the deep clear on top that gives a vintage white Falcon it's defining look.






Since they offered it, I bought some modern stuff from Precision Drum Wraps (who source from Delmar), and this is what they sent me. It looks decent in the photos but it's too orange, and too thin for the binding channel, since it needs more clear on top (more on that later):



(Precision Drum Wrap on the left, original Falcon binding on the right):

 

[Highnumbers]

After researching everywhere to find the original stuff, it occurred to me that it's a lost cause and it's been out of production since the 1960s. So I'd have to improvise and DIY some binding.

Logically, the best way to replicate what they had in the 50s is to use the same materials. So I sourced a round-badge 50s Gretsch gold sparkle kick drum that suffered a few modifications, as a donor for it's wrap. Perfect candidate, and let me tell you, it's no joke getting drum wrap off. This was a full day of swearing, heat guns and skinned knuckles getting it off in 1-2 full pieces.



The plan here is to cut this wrap down to 3/8" wide strips, as long as possible.

But as mentioned before, there is an added layer of clear on original Falcon binding that really needs to be there, not just for visual reasons but to get the full measurement for the binding channel. Since this 50s drum wrap is made of celluloid nitrate, the solution seemed to be adding a layer of clear celluloid nitrate on top, and laminating the two pieces together. Rothko & Frost in Germany sell sheets of clear celluloid nitrate that should work perfectly.



I didn't get a shot of cutting the strips, but basically I set up a fence on a small bandsaw with a wide small-tooth blade set to "rigid" and started ripping strips. I ended up with about 20 strips that are at least 48" long, and a ton of 18" long pieces. Plenty enough for this guitar and others in the future (Falcon restorers, get in touch....).

Here's a mix of clear and sparkle strips

 

[Highnumbers]

The next step was laminating the two pieces.

Celluloid nitrate melts very easily with acetone, and StewMac sell a handy little "binding laminator" that uses two nylon blocks with a spring mechanism inside to press binding together after you brush acetone between them. It was well worth the price, as it helped with consistency. The whole process of making this binding is tedious, so it's not for anybody in a hurry.




Here's a photo of one that is only half-covered with clear, you can see how much depth it adds to the look:



The only downside is that the strips of gold binding are 48" long while the sheets of celluloid clear are only 17" so I had to carefully seam clear strips together, which will be mostly invisible once it's installed and flattened.

You're finally left with a stack of laminated binding with rough-cut edges that is slightly oversized. It takes about a week for the acetone laminated binding to fully cure.

The next step is trimming the binding down to size. I wasted an entire Saturday trying to modify my router table with something to copy the $275 tool that StewMac sells for this exact purpose and failed miserably. Lesson learned -- pay the money, save your time and get the right tool for the job.

Enter StewMac's "MacRostie Binding Trimmer" a really impressive piece of kit designed to cut machined precision edges on binding (it can also cut to thickness, to some extent).

 

[Highnumbers]

Eventually I got both sides trimmed down perfectly and cut to exact width. Voila! 50s style White Falcon binding.





Thankfully the inner W/B/W/B binding on this Falcon is still in great shape so all I have to do is install the gold on top. I'll update the thread once I get to that stage.

The MacRostie can even trim much narrower pieces if needed, so I cut some strips down to 0.30" for the soundhole. That's my next step.

 

[HypotenusLuvTriangle]

Wow. This is just fantastic.

 

[Pops]

Subscribed!

 

[capnhiho]

Holy moly!!
What a LABOR of love !!

 

[Glaw]

Necessity is the mother of invention. Great job, can’t wait for upcoming installments.

 

[Pemberton]

Nice. The amount of thought, time, and creativity that you’re putting into this project will pay off with the end result. Can’t wait to see the finished project.

 

[6187LX]

Shine on!

 

[NitroSonic]

Impressive work!

 

[speedicut]

Great job Highnumbers and looking forward to the next edition of your restoration

 

[ForTheLoveOfIvy]

Hats off to you! That is above-and-beyond level work.

To be honest, the cracking binding on my ‘67 Falcon was a big contributing factor in me deciding to sell it. It was only in a couple of places but I figured it was going to deteriorate pretty soon.

 

[juks]

Amazing job! Can't wait to see the next steps.

 

[afire]

Fantastic! Well, I can now see why the Custom Shop is probably never going to quite nail the original Falcon binding. I haven't seen one in person in a long time, but from pictures it looks like they do now use a clear outer layer. Sourcing '50s bass drums to cannibalize is probably asking a bit much. But there's no substitute for perfection. Bravo.

 

[Highnumbers]

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the kind words. Life certainly would have been easier going with the modern binding but some restorations are worth going the extra distance to get it right. Thankfully I'm able to do much of this work myself or it would cost far more than the guitar is worth (and a lot of techs wouldn't even touch this sort of work anyway).

Fantastic! Well, I can now see why the Custom Shop is probably never going to quite nail the original Falcon binding. I haven't seen one in person in a long time, but from pictures it looks like they do now use a clear outer layer. Sourcing '50s bass drums to cannibalize is probably asking a bit much. But there's no substitute for perfection. Bravo.

I notice that the Custom Shop models have thicker body binding in general than the MIJ models (meaning even the W/B/W/B layers under the gold, and possibly a thicker clear on top of the gold, so they do look closer to a vintage Falcon. But the color and texture of the gold still isn't right, IMO. Those are exceptionally nice guitars though, I'd love a CS reissue single-cut Falcon.

 

[gasmoney]

I had this idea several years ago. I hated the way the binding on the reissue white penguins looked. I was tempted to replace the sparkle with old gold like you have done. I sold the penguin instead.
this is the coolest restoration I’ve ever seen.
I am in awe of how well it works.
kudos and kudos again.

 

[gasmoney]

Also I have a 62 falcon like yours. If yiu need any pictures please message me.

 

[thunder58]

Looks fantastic !

 

[Glaw]

Also I have a 62 falcon like yours. If yiu need any pictures please message me.

We all need to see these pictures, please.