Pete Back Custom Special Explorer (198X?)

Since the last time I updated the blog back in May, I've had quite a few emails from Pete Back guitar owners (thanks as ever for writing in!). The first of which was from Gabriel, and his story is quite simply brilliant:

"I have a Pete Back Explorer which I found at the council rubbish tip several years ago. It had been spray painted all over in matt black, and when I say spray painted all over I mean all over, the neck, fretboard, head stock, pick ups the lot. It was in a very sorry state indeed. I took it home and over several weeks I took it apart completely. I then started the task of removing all the black paint. Unfortunately there was no way to rescue the original finish which appeared to be off white so I had to strip it down to bare wood. I have not repainted it electing instead to apply several coats of Danish Oil which is ok. I am not a luthier and in fact i'm not really experienced in guitar repair so there are a couple of jobs needed to finish it of. The third fret mother of pearl inlay is cracked and the 7th fret inlay is missing completely.
Despite the remaining neck damage this guitar plays beautifully and when I get round to getting it finished it will be perfect. I know nothing about the age of this guitar and the only info I have is the name Pete Back Custom Special on the head stock so any thing you can tell me about it would be great."

Well Gabriel, congratulations on your DIY restoration effort - given the state it was in you've done an astounding job. The guitar has clearly been played a lot over the years, although I'm not that surprised to hear it is still working perfectly in terms of sound. Pete's guitar's were always built to last - far superior to machine-made mass-produced efforts. Its difficult for a non-expert like me to tell that much about the guitar, clearly some of the parts may be non-original, although if I were to hazard a guess I would say the bridge, tailpiece and pickups were originals. The ebony fretboard - with huge mother of pearl inlays - is signature Pete Back work. You'll be pleased to know that re-laying inlay is a fairly straight-forward operation, which you could do yourself if you have a reasonable selection of woodworking tools.



In terms of dating the guitar, we're faced with a bit of a problem. The headstock transfer and truss rod cover are very unusual, and we haven't featured them before on this site. The transfer is of a simpler and later period to the classic late 70's transfer we have seen on other models. The truss rod cover is not hand-etched, again suggesting a guitar made in Pete's mid-period. Now as many of you know, Pete gave up guitar making several times over his life and even ran a hardware store in South Yorkshire I believe. This makes exact dating of this guitar very difficult (unless any readers out there can kindly help!). My estimate would be to place this guitar in the mid-eighties, when this model was incredibly popular among rock and metal guitarists.



What we can say for sure is that it is a rare example and with a bit of attention, it could easily be restored to look as good as it sounds. Having said all that, I'm sure a lot of people will agree with me when I say that as it stands now you have a guitar that reflects its experience and a used character that is rare to find indeed, so I wouldn't advise you make too many radical interventions any more than restoring missing pieces, giving it a general service and removing any left over black paint! I think this is one guitar that we are all very glad that you saved, and I'm sure its life will continue for much longer thanks to you.