KIM LAFLEUR:

The Founder, the legend – Kim has been involved with vintage guitars for over five decades: playing, restoring, buying and selling with a focus on 1950’s Les Pauls and vintage parts. Since buying a 1952 goldtop in 1970 at Drome Sound Music. Kim obsessed over the sound, feel, and look of vintage Les Pauls and others. Attending guitar shows and dealing vintage parts under the business name Vintage Checkout, he saw prices rise out of reach for most players and old guitars become impractical for road use. Kim started Retrospec to develop and sell reproduction vintage guitar parts. By 2006, the rise in popularity of Historic Reissue guitars inspired the Historic Makeovers® concept: to make modern guitars look, sound, and feel like vintage. Historic Makeovers® represents Kim’s vision and tireless efforts to develop the processes and materials to make reissue guitars more like vintage guitars. He helped develop the proper cellulose nitrate inlay and side dot material, and his library of vintage guitars provides invaluable reference material for reproducing old finishes. After almost two decades in business, with thousands of satisfied customers, Historic Makeovers® continues to refine techniques and methods so every guitar we finish is better than the one before.

The Historic Makeovers Team

Kim recruited a team of talented and motivated luthiers specifically for the Makeover process. Each member of the Historic Makeovers® team brings their own specialized skill set and experience to the makeover process. Their hard work and dedication helps guitar players and enthusiasts get the most from their instrument

KEN

Ken has been here the majority of HM’s existence…Kim’s wingman for the past 14 years. He has been the "boots on the ground" guy all that time, holding down the fort. He does everything from binding replacement, top carves, hide glue neck resets, neck profiles, fretboard assembly and all of the hand aging and distressing of every guitar. Ken spent over a decade performing thousands of shows as a professional touring musician and draws on that experience as he approaches each guitar. He also developed many of the procedures, methods and techniques utilized in our process today.

SCOUT

Scout has spent over half his life as a professional luthier and guitar tech- as the owner and operator of Scout Guitars in Orlando, Fl for 8 years; and on world tours with Steve Vai and Blue Man Group. Scout has ghost-painted for dozens of guitar makers and manufacturers over the years, using everything from vintage correct lacquer to high gloss urethane and polyester. With strong attention to detail and a perfectionist mindset, Scout has fine tuned his craft and knowledge of luthiery, guitar painting, and customer service.

DC

DC's passion for guitar restoration is rooted in a meticulous approach to preserving vintage instruments. He honed specialized skills in identifying and addressing the unique challenges of classic acoustic and electric guitars, particularly from renowned brands like Gibson, Fender, and Martin. Through intensive mentorship, DC mastered advanced restoration techniques, including neck resets, fretboard restoration, headstock repair, top carves and vintage finishes. He transformed guitar restoration into a form of musical preservation that honors both craftsmanship and heritage.

Workshop

Custom Guitar Finish Spray Booth

Our state of the art airflow spray booth is custom designed to overcome the challenges of spraying old school, unplasticized lacquer guitar finishes. It represents absolute state of the art for refinishing guitars. The result is not “like new” perfection, but a finish with the character and nuance of vintage Gibsons. 

Color is critical, so our painter hand mixes pigments to match vintage guitars. With a state of the art lighting system we can see colors accurately as they go down on the guitar to make vintage correct sunbursts, goldtops, and custom colors. And we hand scrape the binding, just like Gibson did in the 50’s.

Luthier Woodshop

This is where we re-carve tops using a custom set of contour gauges we created from real vintage ‘Bursts, to ensure your Makeover has the correct vintage top carve. We cut our Brazilian rosewood fingerboards to vintage spec with correct inlay depth and radius, and correct binding edge.  The wood shop is also where we do neck resets, neck profiling, binding and inlay work, along with vintage restorations. The glue up is done with hot hide glue, using a glue pot and brush just like the old Gibson factory workers.

Guitar Setup Station

The guitar arrives at the setup station during the final stages of the Makeover process. At this juncture the guitar nears completion receiving both a fret dress and our exclusive 6/6 nylon nut. Great care is given to each setup, ensuring optimal comfort and play-ability. After the standard appointments and setup are addressed, each guitar is played for an extensive period of time. This allows us to gain a more personal understanding of each instrument, making this a truly unique and custom experience.

Guitar Distressing & Aging

Controlled temperature change is just one technique we use to age guitars.  Our commercial grade freezer is large enough to house multiple guitars at one time, and our custom built dry box is specially designed to control condensation as the guitars are brought back to room temperature.  Our aging methods produce real checking in our non-plasticized lacquer finishes. We find that our method of cold checking looks more authentic.