Not sure what to do with a Superhawk

[Craig]

Found this in a pawn shop the other day, consigned to the "get it out the door" bin with the chinese Starcasters and the First Act guitars. It's 80s, red, american. It has the Kahler tuners, pickups and trem all in decent shape. Neck isn't warped, frets have lots of life left. Plays well and sounds like a super-strat from the 80s should. So, what's the problem? Some bright spark has painted over several largish dings in the front of the body with non-matching, lipstick red, low gloss paint! The rest of the paint is pretty low gloss as well, almost like they didn't put a clear coat over the top, but these splotches of "3d" ugly paint on the front are just awful. So, my choices:
1. Refinish the body myself-never done it, don't know how hard it is or whether I'd enjoy it. That said, spraying urethane can't be that hard, right?
2. Get a friend to refinish it. This will not be super expensive, but will take literally months of trying to convince him to do it, then getting him to actually do it. He does great work if I can talk him into it.
3. Cover the unsightly spots with stickers (maybe for other Leo designed products)?

Any other thoughts? I'm into the guitar for a price I'm happy with but refinishing is going to eat into that fast, I suspect...

Last edited by Craig on Sun Jun 03, 2018 7:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Admin moved post from G&L products (1992 to present) sub-forum to this sub-forum.

I would opt for #3,
Have fun with it while getting your friend warmed up to the idea,
maybe he could find a better match for the spots and a refinish
could be avoided.

Got any pics?


...and Welcome !

Welcome to our site!

Being that this is your first post, I moved it to this sub-forum. Please see: Welcome! Read This First post.

We need photos otherwise your guitar does not exist!
And don't forget to add it to our G&L Registry.

Tell us a little more about yourself and we you reside.

I live in SW Wisconsin. I'm an ER doctor and have many amps and many guitars by Leo. I think I've owned 5 or 6 G&L over the years, starting with a blue ASAT Jr. None of them have stuck, though. I'm really impressed that this one, despite obviously being not taken care of, is still a perfectly serviceable rock and roll animal. I'm not unhappy with the pickups, even. Now the "locking nut", that is execrable in execution! But otherwise a fine, fine guitar. I'll get pics at some point, and also register it.

In the listings of "how many of each type did G&L build" that I've seen, there's no total for the Rampage/Superhawk. Anyone have any ideas?

Jealous of your find; I'd be tempted to do DIY a refin- just because it's ugly doesn't mean it's not a special guitar. I believe those behind-the-nut locks were used due to a patent in effect for Floyd style locking nuts at that time.

Found this in a pawn shop the other day, consigned to the "get it out the door" bin with the chinese Starcasters and the First Act guitars. It's 80s, red, american. It has the Kahler tuners, pickups and trem all in decent shape. Neck isn't warped, frets have lots of life left. Plays well and sounds like a super-strat from the 80s should. So, what's the problem? Some bright spark has painted over several largish dings in the front of the body with non-matching, lipstick red, low gloss paint! The rest of the paint is pretty low gloss as well, almost like they didn't put a clear coat over the top, but these splotches of "3d" ugly paint on the front are just awful. So, my choices:
1. Refinish the body myself-never done it, don't know how hard it is or whether I'd enjoy it. That said, spraying urethane can't be that hard, right?
2. Get a friend to refinish it. This will not be super expensive, but will take literally months of trying to convince him to do it, then getting him to actually do it. He does great work if I can talk him into it.
3. Cover the unsightly spots with stickers (maybe for other Leo designed products)?

Any other thoughts? I'm into the guitar for a price I'm happy with but refinishing is going to eat into that fast, I suspect...

4. Give it to me, and I'll play it with my eyes closed. I've never seen a G&L in a pawn shop.

Yeah, I was pretty surprised. I think I might have seen Tribute versions, usually with the prices marked up a bunch, but a USA version? I suspect they didn't know what they had and priced it like a badly worn Tribute.

The other possibility is finding a guitarist that's just starting out and give him something really impressive to work with... I'll get pics in a couple of days.

Oh, does anyone have comments on the very "low gloss" finish? It's almost like there's no clear coat, or it's super thin?