British-made Grimshaw s of the early 60s could hold their own with many of the USA-made instruments of the time, but this SS Deluxe model needs a little TLC.
Only dimly aware of the Grimshaw brand? Never heard of it at all? Although there’s not a great deal of content featuring Grimshaw s available online today, we’ve all heard one in action courtesy of Joe Moretti’s spine-tingling playing on
Pete Townshend would of course go on to cover the song many times with The Who, and his own Grimshaw SS Deluxe was a real favourite – albeit modified with a trio of Rickenbacker pickups and the Californian brand’s headstock nameplate.
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Founded in Lancashire over 5, 000 miles away from the SoCal sunshine by Emile Grimshaw Snr and Jr, the company was established in 1930 to manufacture banjos, mandolins and s. By 1935, Grimshaw could even boast a Premiervox electric in its catalogue, assembled in the UK largely from Rickenbacker parts. 30 years later, Townshend’s Rickenbacker parts were likely salvaged from the carcasses of smashed instruments, rather than specially imported.
Production had been ramped up after Emile Sr died in 1943 and by the late 1950s, Grimshaw’s most successful model was the aforementioned SS Deluxe. The ‘SS’ stands for short scale, and it was popular with first-generation British rock ’n’ rollers.
I must confess that I was only dimly aware of the Grimshaw story when my friend Jim Lewis gave me the instrument featured here, but grimshaws.co.uk head honcho Eric Sandiford has identified it as an early 1960s SS Deluxe. He describes it as a MkII version, due to its altered headstock shape and adjustable truss-rod.
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Eric suggests a production date of 1962-1964, but it’s hard to be exact because SS Deluxes weren’t given serial numbers. The model came with f-holes and the more desirable teardrops, and although the 1950s examples are most sought after, Eric says the electronics were superior on the later models. Inside the body of this , a label features the address of Grimshaw’s sales HQ between 1962 and 1975, on Great Pulteney St in London’s Soho.
Later on, Grimshaw moved into solidbodies with the Les Paul-inspired GS30. Gibson apparently granted Grimshaw a license to manufacture a humbucking pickup based on Seth Lover’s design and remarkably, when new, a GS30 would have cost you more than a secondhand Burst. The company finally ceased trading in the mid 1980s and Emile Grimshaw Jr passed away in 1987.
Although a lot of affection remains for British and European made s from the pre-Beatles rock ’n’ roll era, even the most diehard enthusiasts would probably acknowledge that Gibsons, Fenders and Gretsches were better instruments. That said, the closer I examine this , the more impressive I find it. The build quality is easily on a par with Gretsch models of the time.
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The offset body shape looks surprisingly contemporary in a West Coast boutique sort of way, and it’s made from laminated wood that appears to be maple. The neck is certainly mahogany and the fretboard is high-quality quartersawn rosewood.
The body and headstock have multi-ply binding, with single ply binding for the fretboard and f-holes. The controls are reminiscent of some older Epiphone jazz models and the Van Ghent tuners still turn smoothly and feel solid. I love the faded cherry colour, too, although I suspect it may have been touched up in some areas over the years. The bridge is currently missing but the tailpiece remains, along with the stepped single-coil pickups.
As you’ve no doubt surmised from the photos, the main issue is that the body and neck have become separated. Judging by the splintered wood on the top of the body, and copious amounts of splintering around the heel, the separation may have involved some trauma.
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An excess of glue in the heel block might indicate a previous attempt at repair. There’s also a ‘countersunk’ screw hole that passes through the heel into the heel block – in the Gretsch style – but I can’t say for sure if it was done that way in the factory. The rear binding is warped and buckled in that area, too, which may have been caused by a heat source.
With resistors soldered onto the volume pots and some unusual connections, the SS Deluxe may benefit from some rewiring, but for now a cleanup will do
A quick electronics check demonstrates that both pickups are working, but the controls will need some figuring out and a lot of contact cleaner. Besides that, I’m going to be doing a whole lot of binding repairs, and using techniques that may be applied to plenty of old s. Only one section is actually missing, but much of the binding is loose in the cutaways, and it has shrunk away from the body in the waist area. The heel cap has also vanished, and without it there will be a sizeable gap under the heel.
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This won’t be a painstaking and meticulous restoration. Instead, I’m focusing on addressing the cosmetic and structural issues, and getting this playing again to find out how it sounds.
I begin with the waist and cutaway areas, where shrinkage has left gaps between the binding and the body. This is a very common issue with old s and I’m pleased that the binding hasn’t split. It feels quite taut and there’s insufficient play for it to press back into position.
Rather than cut it and glue in a patch, I decide to heat the binding with a hairdryer. Plastic will soften if sufficient heat is applied, but care must be taken with the lacquer. I’ll use a paint stripping heat gun when I’m binding Les Paul bodies and the like – but only if there’s no finish on the .
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After a few minutes the binding starts to become malleable and I use a mallet handle to press it back into the waist. The handle is oval, which helps because I can twist it around to best match the curve in the area in which I’m working.
Once I’m confident the binding has stretched sufficiently, I apply gel superglue in the routed channel and hold the binding in place with strong binding tape. Masking tape usually works fine too, but here I want something a bit stronger. The process is repeated for two other waist areas before I shift to the cutaway.
The outer binding has separated from the body in three of the four waist areas and has to be softened with heat before it can be stretched back and glued
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The problem here extends over a wider area and it’s complicated by the fact that the black and white layers are separating. Because I have an end piece to work from, I carefully unpick the binding from the body and separate it all the way to the cutaway horn.
The original glue has turned to powder and I use a craft knife to clean it off ready for some fresh glue. Fortunately, no heat is required this time, but the re-glued shrunken binding now stops a few millimetres short. Adding a small extra piece will fill the gap.
After reattaching the binding in the neck heel area, I get to the trickiest part. The missing section on the upper horn has to be replaced, so I have a rummage through my offcuts to find the best match. Whether the original binding snapped or was cut, I can’t say, but it’s a neat and clean angle. After cleaning off the powdery glue, I lay some masking tape in the channel, extending behind the point where I’ll make the join.
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The lacquer and wood is chipped beneath the heel area and all of the binding, which appears to be heat-damaged, is detached
Masking tape is used to protect the finish from the superglue to make cleanup easier after the plastic binding tape is removed
Using a very fine pencil, I mark the binding line, remove the tape and place it over the piece of binding I’ve selected for the patch. This gives me the angle I need to cut the new binding to butt it up against the old. A bit of finessing with a craft knife and abrasive paper is needed, then I apply the hairdryer treatment to pre-bend the binding patch before sticking it on.
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This time, because there are gaps to fill, too, I use a paste made by dissolving pieces of binding in acetone. Finally, I add a strip of binding to the end of the fretboard to replace the missing piece. Grimshaw used butt joints rather than mitres, so I do the same.
Placing a length of masking tape behind the binding allows the cut angle to be marked and transferred onto the replacement binding for a snug fit
The binding repairs are done, but now I have to scrape and sand off the excess binding and glue. For this I use a utility knife blade as a scraper and follow up with ever decreasing grades of abrasive paper and Micro-Mesh. Eventually everything feels smooth, but the repaired areas are clear to see because the yellowed lacquer no longer
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