Official Luthiers Forum!

I am very new to all of the material here, and would love any advice for getting started in this craft.
Specifically, here, regarding electric guitar repair.
I own a 1976 Hagstrom Swede, and would love some advice on how to repair some of the cosmetic blemishes on it.
I will try and post some pictures to this topic as soon as possible, but for now descriptions is the best i can offer.

First, a little about the guitar itself.
The Hagstrom is basically the Swedish version of a Les Paul. The body is Mahogany, and im not sure what the neck is. The fretboard is ebony.

In a nutshell there are 3 major projects i can see, but as i have 0 experience there are bound to be more areas to improve.

1. The frets are very worn, and need to be replaced.
2. The binding around the fretboard has been gradually broken, and now all that remains is 3/4 of the topside binding, and the piece at the bottom of the neck. My thought is to simply replace the whole thing, taking off the remaining binding.
3. This ones simple, and only requires unscrewing and screwing, but im listing it to be thorough The humbucker rings are broken and falling apart, so they need replacing.

That concludes the list, any advice on the steps to fix those areas would be very appreciated.

My suggestion is to pick up this book:

Guitar Player Repair Guide
By Dan Erlewine
The leading step-by-step manual for every guitar owner. New in the edition: content sorted to fit your skill level.

Content based on your skill level The basic sections keep your guitar out of the repair shop and playing its best.

For the do-it-yourselfer: how to do both simple and advanced repairs.

Want to go even further into guitar repair? The deep sections are for you.

After reading, you can decide if you have the nerve to try to do a refret, etc. Another thing is to find cheap, or broken or otherwise disposable instruments and practice on them first, before you try it on your nice old Hagstrom.

Joyfulnotes welcome to the OLF!

Thanks!
Steve, its funny that you mention practicing on old guitars, because i thought of that this morning! I have 3 or so "junkers" - 2 squire Strats and a first act.
The squires could actually be nice with some work, so practice plus two newer guitars is def a good way to kill two birds with one stone.

Right now my dilemma is that i have no space to work, and i have no tools. but hopefully in the near future i can remedy that to some degree.

It so happens, that the gentleman who so politely welcomed you above, famously started out his building career in a bathroom. You can find room!

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

well shoot then, i guess i can!
however, the lack of tooling still poses a problem seemingly only rectifiable by the expenditure of large amounts of cash...

Old Hagstroms are cool! That being said, as you're talking about investing lots of money in tools, beware that the truly expensive issue you could run into is having so much fun that you decide you want to start building guitars. That happened to me. I made the mistake of fixing up an old Yamaha strat-type guitar and I caught the bug.

Enjoy the process, and take your time!

-Dave

EDIT: FYI, I live in a 600sf second story apartment with my wife. I do most of my building on a small patch of grass outside with an extension cord running down the stairs. The most important thing you need is the patient support of those you live with.

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David Morris