Yesterday I worked on the replacement bridge for the EH-150 I am restoring.  I don’t have an original bridge so I used a tracing of the footprint visible on the guitar and pictures.  I used my tablesaw and bandsaw to rough out the shape and cleaned it up with files and sandpaper. A final buffing with Zam brought out a nice shine.  It looks a little tall so I may bring it down at the base but I will wait until everything is ready to go together.  For more photos see here…

Sometimes you just need a hacksaw for guitar work!  After a little elbow grease I managed to fashion a Charlie Christian reproduction pickup for the Gibson EH-150 I am restoring.  I’ll have to wait a while to get it mounted to get a true idea of how it sounds but it is working and ready to go. More photos here…

My frend, Paul, found this 1959 Epiphone Coronet that had been modified.  He filled the extra routs and brought it to me to have the top refinished.  He sent me these before and after shots including the new security guard! More photos here…

There’s not a lot of mystery behind this repair, just careful gluing and touch up. Whenever possible I use hide glue for this type of break. It is incredibly strong, has good heat resistance, and if the joint does fail it can be reactivated with hot water.  More Photos…

The nut had been cross threaded on this P-Bass neck with such force that the anchor came loose causing the entire truss rod to spin inside the neck.  My friend Paul managed to loosen the nut allowing the truss rod to be pushed out the headstock end of the neck.  After cleaning the crushed threads with a die I attempted to reinstall the rod but the sleeve inside the neck bunched up causing the skunk stripe to pop up near the base.  With a little gentle coaxing I go the entire stripe out.  I wrapped the rod in wax paper, epoxied the anchor back in place, and reglued the skunk stripe and headstock plug.  Except for a small ridge at the base of the neck you would never know. More Photos…

I just setup this cool DeArmond M-75T for Krazy Kat. It’ll be in the store later today and could be yours…..

I just finished reassembling this 1976 Les Paul Custom.  It had been painted black over the original black finish and the owner decided that he wanted it completely stripped and redone.  It took a little longer than I expected but I am pleased with the results.  Click here for more photos.

After more than a year of slow progress (sorry Mitch!) I put the finishing touches on this Bajo Sexto inspired Telecaster  for Mitch Webb.  Mitch had the idea for this guitar a long time ago and it is finally done.  Dubbed “El Raunchocaster”, it has a mahogany body capped with a maple top, maple and walnut rope binding, a radical pickgurad and faux mustache bridge, a birdseye maple neck, and Lollar Special T Telecaster pickups.  I can’t wait to see and hear it on stage.  For more on Mitch Webb and The Swindles check out theswindles.com.

For more photo of building El Raunchocaster click here.

For crowning I used diamond crowning files and clean up the filing marks with sandpaper and steel wool. (I didn’t take pictures at this stage, I’ll have to add some later from other jobs.)

Since the string slots in the old nut were now too low for the new taller frets I made a new bone nut.

I start by applying the hot hide glue, and then press with my first caul.  Since the neck radius is 7.25″ I started with a 6″ caul.

After the first pressing the hide glue has cooled and gelled so I heat the fret with a soldering iron to liquify the glue again and proceed to the 7.25″ caul and the 9″ caul.

I was lucky that the finish on this maple fingerboard is not very thick.  There weren’t any ridges around the fret slots.  I used a simple neck jig with adjustable arms to hold the neck stationary during the refretting and leveling.  I adjusted the neck as close to flat as I could manage and moved the arms up behind the neck to support it.

It is important to prepare the replacement wire carefuly.  I first cleaned it with acetone to remove any grease from the factory. Running it though a fret bender creates a consistent curve slightly tighter than the neck radius.  I first cut them a little over long and then trim the tang to fit just inside the binding.  The tang nipper from Stuart-MacDonald does this very well.  After the tang is trimmed I put each piece in a small fret grinding jig to bevel the ends.  The jig is just a block of wood with a groove to hold the fret at a constand angle as it is pushed into a sanding disk.  I bevel just a few thousandths of an inch from the trimmed tang.  I burnish the tiny overhang to curl the sharp edge under and then polish the ends on a buffing wheel.  I use a jewelry polishing compound called Zam.  It polishes the ends and rounds all of the sharp edges in one step.  The reside from buffing is easily removed with naptha just prior to installing the frets.

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

]]> http://www.jroadman.com/instruments/?feed=rss2&p=1154 0 http://www.jroadman.com/instruments/?p=1143 http://www.jroadman.com/instruments/?p=1143#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:07:45 +0000 admin http://www.jroadman.com/instruments/?p=1143 A good friend brought me the neck for his Jazz Bass to be refretted.  Before doing anything I mounted it on a surrogate body and strung it up to make sure the neck was adjusting properly and to check for any abnormalities.  Everything looked good.  It had a nice gradual curve under tension and adjusted easily.

The first thing to do was remove the nut.  The neck is bound so it will need to be pulled upward. I scored around the edges to separate it from the finish and pulled it up with a pair of end nippers.  It came out cleanly with little effort.

I just completed a neck reset on this great Gretsch Anniversary.  The complete process is documented here.  If you are interested in the guitar contact Spacetone Music.

I filled the screw hole with epoxy filler and carved it flush with the heel.  I stained it dark brown to make finishing over it easier.

Unfortunately part of the heel cap came off during the repair.  The plastic material has become very brittle.  I saved the broken pieces and reattached them to the heel with solvent glue.  Some of the  material turned to dust leaving gaps between the pieces.  I decided to fill the spaces with melted binding material to bond them together.  My goal is to make them look as they did when I started, not to replace it with a complete heel cap.  Luckily I have plenty of pictures.  I mixed small pieces of white and off white binding into a glass of acetone to created a paste/glue that matched the original cap.  I painted this into the spaces between the original pieces until it resemble the surrouding area.  After drying I incised small cuts with an exacto knife to resemble the age cracks and rubbed a brown stain into the cuts.  Then I applied amber lacquer over the new areas until it blended in.   It looks a bit dark but I may be able to  buff it out a bit later.

With the correct angle establish I set about shimming the dovetail joint.  There was one factory installed shim already in the joint.  While I would normally remove all the old shims I decided to leave this one as it established the alignment of the neck with the cutaway.  My goal is to slowly trim both sides of the new shimmed dovetail so the neck will slowly descend to the correct depth.

I began by gluing a new shim to either side of the dovetail.  I reshaped the original dovetail because there was a narrowing at the top which prevented a tight fit.  After trimming both faces it was necessary to use larger shims than normal.  I glued them in place with hide glue.

With the shims in place the neck will not descend to the bottom of the joint.  To figure out where to remove wood I place a strips of carbon paper (marking side in) over the dovetail and put it in the joint.  Firmly pushing the neck into the joint transfers a black mark to the areas that are rubbing.  At first there were dark marks on uneven parts of the dovetail.  I pared away these areas with a sharp chisel.  As the joint begins to fit better the marks will become larger and less intense. After repeating this process many times the neck finally descended to the correct depth without any movement.  I glued it in place and left it to dry.

*When gluing the neck back in the joint a small amount of glue should be applied to the outer faces of the dovetail only.  The neck may need to be reset in the future and using excess amounts of glue will just make it difficult for the future repair person.

I just cleaned and set up this great 1976 Fender Jazz Bass.  It could be yours….Krazy Kat Music

I just finished replacing the binding on this  Gretsch Syncromatic 1014.  I have posted all the photos and text here.

]]> http://www.jroadman.com/instruments/?feed=rss2&p=999 0 http://www.jroadman.com/instruments/?p=880 http://www.jroadman.com/instruments/?p=880#comments Sun, 31 Jan 2010 03:10:35 +0000 admin http://www.jroadman.com/instruments/?p=880

Today I recovered this Fender Vibrosonic amplifier for Spacetone Music.  It had been recovered before and wasn’t looking too sharp.  I stripped it down and sanded the cabinet clean before adding new Tolex and handle to match.  It cleaned up very nicely.  I dig that brown Tolex! If you are in the market for a great amplifier give Jason a call.