He's smiling :)

I didn't take any pictures of the process of building the rails. Mostly because I have a proprietary way of making them so they work, in my opinion, better than the original.

This is actually the scary part. One slip or a wrong measurement and it's back to the wood store.

After painting I kept it upside-down for a few days. That way if there were any bad notes from previous play, they could drain out.

Stripped and primed resonators

Cutting assembly. It's finally starting to look like something real.

Turning the end rails on a wood lathe.

So I go to my local exotic wood store spend some serious $$ and honk off the sales guy because I picked through a LOT of wood. A few splinters and a sore toe, and this is what I brought home. A little water gives an idea of what it will look like finished.

The beginning. I well used and cared for M-75. The picture makes it look a little better than it was. The paint was flaking in a few places and a few dents and scratches in the wood.

I promised Tony I'd post some pictures of the M-75 I rebuilt for Joe Locke. I will be posting a few pictures of the build process, although they aren't that great. I found it was really a hassle interrupting my work and getting the ligting right and moving stuff around so it made sense what I was doing. Having a really cheapo camera probably didn't help matters.

So the short list of what was done:
All wood was replaced with solid walnut.