2nd Chance Guitars

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-22T15:41:00.000-08:00

Body Contouring

2011-11-14T09:31:00.001-08:00

When building custom bodies from scratch you don't normally have a template. In this case I have a prototype that I'm working from, but I don't have a duplicating routing machine for cutting the body contours. So it's all by hand and by feel.

I'll start by drawing my limit lines (a visual safety net) in pencil. Both my depth of cut and max cut into the body itself. Using a Rasp file, I'll work the deepest section first, working my way back to the thinnest cuts. Next I'll use a Bastard file to smooth out he heavy cut marks left by the Rasp file. And finally 120 grit sandpaper to get the final smooth surface.

From the images above you can see I needed to contour the forearm and belly cut on these bodies. Total time for each body was about 30 minutes. The file I use is double sided, Heavy Rasp (depth of cut is 1/16") on the front and Bastard on the back, see pics. Leather Gloves are a must when working with Rasp files... Start with Ten end with Ten that's my motto.

Dragons Claw

2011-10-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

I've been working a bit this week on my lunch hours trying to move forward on the Dragon guitar. Here you can see me trying to sort out the Claw that is holding the crystal ball.

In the Shop

2011-10-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

In the shop this weekend I had 3 projects in progress. I was color sanding and painting the final color coats on Mike's Jaguar and Andy's Strat. I was also rough cutting bodies for some custom guitars.

To better explain rough cutting. I start with a Plywood template and route about a .25" deep around the template on the wood blank. From there I hit the Band Saw. Using the routed channel, I'll cut the body out, right down the middle of the route. Once cut out, I'll break out the router again. Using the previously routed channel as my template I'll gradually take off the remaining stock until the route is consistent all the way around the body. Unfortunately I was in a hurry so I didn't take enough pics of the process but I have more Alder on the way so I'll have another chance to shoot pics and post.

Until next time...

Dragons

2011-10-11T15:41:00.001-07:00

I've begun a new project to keep my lunches at the House of Mouse a bit more Zen.
I started with a nice big piece of Bass wood, thickness sanded it down to 1.75" using my new favorite tool (see last post). Then using a standard Strat as a template I cut and routed the body.
I took my sketch and transposed it onto the guitar body. Now I've begun depth carving to find the correct feeling I'm looking for. About an hour a day for about a month or so and it should be ready for finish... we'll see!

New Tool

2011-10-11T15:38:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting a long time for this. I finally got myself a thickness sander.
No more paying someone else to do it for me... Now I just need a dust collector so I can keep breathing properly!

Cigar Box Uke

2011-09-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

I signed up for a beginner Ukelele class at work.
But with all the cigar boxes I have laying around do you think I'm going to go buy a Uke?
Heck NO! I built one.

So I got home early on a Friday and whipped up a scarf joint neck and a set of tuning pegs in a couple of hours. I made this from old Oak flooring I found on the curb in my neighborhood. You can see the nail holes in the back of the neck if you look real close. While the glue was drying I fretted a piece of maple (using the Tenor uke 17" scale) and glued it on as the fingerboard. While all this was drying I cut a bridge, bone nut and saddle from scrap. Glued the bridge to the cigar box and reinforced the box to hold up to the string tension using scrap dowels.

On Sunday I sanded the profile and neck stack, assembled and strung her up.

The finish project is a Tenor Uke on a Vegas Cigar box.
Total time to build and tune up, 5 hours.
Built and completed in one weekend, just in time for the Wednesday night class.

And she was the best sounding Uke in the class... except for the instructors Banjo Uke...
That was cool.... Maybe for the next project...

Rescue Part 2

2011-09-06T09:33:00.000-07:00

In the first part of this rescue you saw how I reattached the headstock. In this part you'll see how I replaced the missing pieces of wood and reinforced the break so it will never happen again...

As you can see in the first image I glued in some wood with similar color and grain characteristics. Once the glue dried I chipped, sanded and scraped away until the patch was flush on all sides with the original wood.

In the second image you can see where I have routed grooves to fit the shims that will reinforce the neck. After gluing in the shims and grinding them flush with the neck I lightly sanded the overall area to make sure you couldn't feel them.

I then applied a coat of sanding sealer to the exposed wood, sanding this flush once dry.
Next I brushed on a couple of coats of Lacquer to build up the repair and fill any leftover cracks so it will be undetectable to the touch.

At this point I will be experimenting with the finish. My goal is to have an opaque faux finish that matches the surrounding original finish hiding the repair as much as possible.

More to come!

In The Shop

2011-08-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

I've got quite a bit of work right now, so I haven't been posting.
Here's some of the stuff I've got in the shop;

That's Mike's White Jag in the background ready for final sanding, he wants a classic blue for the final finish.
Kenny's acoustic getting it's neck set, this is a partial restoration, He likes the worn look but want's it playable.
Andy's Strat body top stripped for inspection, he wanted to see if there was a nice grain under the color.. Not.. so were going with a gloss black.
Steve's prototype wrapped up and ready for CNC scanning.
Joe's broken headstock getting the cracks filled, and last but not least under the white rags, Jason's Les Paul waiting for a setup. Oh and that other acoustic hanging in the background is a Rose Bowl find waiting for my attention.

More to come...

Rescue

2011-07-22T08:59:00.001-07:00

I rescued this guy from the Rose Bowl swap meet. One of the vendors was trying to get rid of it so I offered him $20 and he accepted. The history here is that the headstock broke about 4 years ago and it just sat in the back of the truck bouncing around ever since.

Let me start by saying the longer you wait to repair a break like this, the more tips and chips are lost. You can see there are some really big chunks of wood that are missing. These chunks are going to have to be replaced with some wood with a similar grain.

The grain is so worn down in the inside of the break that there is really nothing for the glue to stick too. In the initial shots you can see someone tried to re-glue the headstock back on using something like standard wood glue or a cheap polymer glue. It chipped off like it was nothing.

I'm gluing the headstock on using a Premixed Hide glue. Since the grain is so worn down I will go back and install bracing to keep the headstock from breaking again. After the glue up and bracing is installed, I will attempt to hide the break as much as possible using a bit of faux finish.
There really is no way to hide a break like this but it's nice not to see it unless your really looking.

Stay Tuned!

Primer

2011-07-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

I'm experimenting with a new primer... well its new to me. It's workable, which means you can build it up and sand or scrape it down. This is good when you have grain warp that won't go away. So far it's working great, just a bit difficult to use. I'm used to a one part primer that just needs to be thinned a bit before spraying. This stuff is two part, which means I need to add a hardener and then thin it out for spraying. So the mix is in ratio's not exact numbers. So far so good.

The Only complaint I have thus far is it STINKS... I had to buy a new respirator so I could breathe (The old one was 20 years old). And it lingers as it gasses out, so fans are a must.

Let's see how long I'm willing to deal with this.

Rewired Barney Kessel

2011-06-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

This old Barney belongs to Joey D., He's a good friend and client. Sometime in the late 70's or early 80's a previous owner Tapped the original PAF pickups and wired her up with push pulls all around. A real Professional job... not kidding well done. However, Joey's been struggling with this set up since he bought her about 10 years ago. He finally brought her to me and said REWIRE PLEASE! So back to the original wiring we go.

The first trick, and I do mean trick, is to remove the old wiring. You need child's hands to do this, so I had to use forceps and long tweezers to remove the old wiring. you can see in the images above the old push pulls, toggle and the original potted output jack.

Take a close look at the original PAF pickups. The neck pickup was tapped for split coil phazing. The Bridge pickup was tapped for Single coil use. you can tell by the leads coming out of the casing. 2 extra wires would mean there is a contact for the beginning and end of each coil. 1 extra wire means that the coils are tapped in the middle to cancel out the second coil. A real pro job by the looks of it. You can see how they re-soldered the case together after they were done. They left the original PAF stickers alone and wrote the Ohms readings on the back of the pickup.

I folded back the taps and shielded them so there would be no accidental contact to cancel either of the coils before I re-attached them to the pots.

I removed the old pots and replaced with pots I had ordered from a contact I have at the China Gibson plant. All the electronics are coming from there anyway so I might as well take advantage of any contacts I have. Saved $50 by going directly to the source. I had to wait a week for delivery but well worth it.

With the new pots wired and grounded using the original Toggle and Output jack. I then began the tedious task of placing everything back into the guitars cavity. That alone took 30 minutes.
Finger tips and Forceps in the F holes. For the record the toggle was the hardest to re-mount.
The F holes and pickup holes are just out of reach.

Now that the guts are back in, I strung her up plugged her in.
There is nothing like the SWEEEEET sound of an Original PAF...

Feathered Toggle

2011-06-01T09:09:00.001-07:00

There is a technique that some Les Paul players utilize to get a funky fazing affect. They Feather the Toggle switch so the output varies rather quickly from front pickup to back. After years of this kind of abuse the toggle suddenly decides that one of the pickups just doesn't deserve to be heard. You can see in the photo how the top tab is bent out of shape and the two copper leads are not touching anymore. The simple fix would be to replace the toggle and be done with it, $12.50 from Stew Mac. But on a classic collectable such as this one, replacing electronics devalues the guitar. I had to take a mechanics approach and bend the tab back into proper shape, making sure the connection of the two copper leads was consistent. Unfortunately I was in a hurry and forgot to take an "after" shot. The repaired toggle worked like new. This player should get a few more years out of this toggle... My suggestion would be to buy a "Faze" pedal. Save's wear and tear on the guitar... :)

CBG Progress and a Completion

2011-05-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

So tonight is the last CBG class for this semester at Disney. I'll get to see how some of my students have progressed. This has been a difficult class to teach. Mostly because we don't have access to a shop. All the students do their work at home, there really is no way to give personal instruction except at the next class. Basically I just demonstrate, lecture and answer questions... I think the students need more of a hands on experience in class for this to be successful. Like shop class back in school.... I'm pushing the powers that be to set aside some space for just such a shop. Maybe by next semester I'll be teaching First Aid too.

Here is what I've accomplished since the beginning of class.

Above is the completed Peterson. 6 strings with a Jackson humbucker under the lid.
This was a fun build. I've never tried to fit an electric guitar neck to a box before.
I'll try this again with a full size neck, a larger box and an array of pickups.

The Vegas is almost done. The neck is fretted, finished and glued up. I cut my sound hole and installed my tuners. Still haven't been inspired with a Tailpiece yet... Fingers are crossed that I'll find something while I'm walking the dogs. I'm also thinking of winding another custom pickup for this one... like a mini P90...

Keep watching for the progress on the Vegas CBG.

More CBG's

2011-05-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

I got the Peterson wired up, just waiting for tuners to arrive and she'll be a player.
I installed an old Jackson humbucker under the hood. Should give me a good tone.
The Vegas next to the Peterson is another build for the class I'm teaching.
I need to fret this and find a tailpiece and she'll be ready to go.

CBG Thank You

2011-04-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in previous posts, I'm teaching a Cigar Box Guitar class at Disney. A Friend of mine and his Father smoke quite few cigars, so they have been graciously donating their empty boxes to my cause. As a thank you, I've begun a project as a Birthday gift for my friends Father.

I have an extra half scale neck from a kids project I completed years ago, and an old Jackson humbucker also left over... It's amazing how much Crap gets left over. I have some scrap Oak that was laying around, so I cut it up as a neck mount. I didn't want to destroy the cool logo on the front of the box so I centered it between the end of the neck and the bridge and decided to mount the pickup under the wood. The magnetic field from the humbucking coils should be sufficient to pickup the sting vibrations through a thin amount of plywood. I assembled the neck mount and glued it in.

I'm going to use some scrap aluminum for the tailpiece and a hunk of Wengie for the bridge.
I'm just waiting for the Son to bring me a logo for the headstock and I'll finish this project really quickly.

It's really interesting how you can make these CBG's so quickly and they sound so cool.
It really doesn't take that much effort either. Just look around your house and find some objects that you don't use anymore and slap something together. People are fascinated by these things.
I recommend you all try to build one, just for the fun of it!

Finished Fret Job

2011-04-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

Finishing up Ward's guitar I needed to put a new nut on. In the last episode of "Ward's re-fret" we had cut the nut and fit it to the neck. Now you can see how I finish it. Basing the string spacing on the old original nut I mark the new nut and begin the process of cutting the notches.

I'll start with a slightly over sized nut file to nail down the location of the strings. I will then use corresponding nut files for each string thickness to cut to the proper depth. For example for a high E string thats from a set of 9-42's, the string width is .09 or 9 hundredths of an inch. I have a nut file that measures .10 which is 1 hundredth of an inch larger than the string. Just large enough that the string will be held tight but wide enough for the string to move in the nut during tuning and wammies without hanging up.

Based on the string height measurements I took before I removed the nut. I will cut the depth of the nut to just above the height of the first fret. In this case the height of the fret is .05 or 5 hundredths of an inch. Using my thickness gauge, I will cut the nut to a depth of .065 or 6.5 hundredths of an inch. That's .015 or 1.5 hundredths of an inch higher than the first fret. For the thicker strings I'll go as far as .02 or 2 hundredths of an inch higher because they need more room to vibrate. I'm basing these numbers on the original measurements I took before I removed the frets and began the process. The idea is to give Ward as close to the action he had when he entrusted me with his baby.

When all is said and done the action was low but not too low so Ward could whip out his slide and get bluesy.

Fret jobs are a tough thing for a guitar player to go through. If you play a guitar for many years, you begin to feel that the neck was custom made just for you. It wears in just the right spots for your hand and you become comfortable with it. After a fret job it's like a brand new guitar. All those comfort spots are gone and it's like starting over. I try very hard to give my clients their comfort zones back. Sometimes that's not possible. Sometimes you can get decently close.

Ward came by to pick up his baby last night and seemed very pleased.

Cigar Box Guitars Class #2

2011-04-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

Disney convinced me to teach another class in how to build cigar box guitars.
Since it's a lecture and demonstration class, and not a shop class, I created these diagrams to help my students when they get home and try it on their own. I thought I'd share them with all of you out there who may be interested in trying to build one. These are just basic diagrams. The bulk of the information will be the lectures spread out over 4, 2 hour classes culminating in tune up and play in the 5th class. I even throw in some basic electronics. But I think most of you will get the gist. Enjoy!

Starting the Nut

2011-03-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

The frets are finished on Ward's guitar and it's time to mount the neck and see if I need to install a new nut. No matter how much I hope we don't have to do this, you can always bet after a complete re-fret your gonna need a new nut. When the frets wear down you usually adjust the nut to match the fret height. So when the frets are new... they are too high for the nut slots.
In this case, the only guitarist who could or would play this would have been Malmsteen.

So I started off by putting the old strings back on and tuning her up so I can get a good idea of how much action was lost. You can't really tell by my blurry pic. but the action is so low you can barely squeeze a .012 spacer between the string and the new fret. Way to low... Nut time.

I popped out the old nut using a flat head screw driver and an extra light hammer tap. It came out so smooth it left the finish wave on the fret side. This is good because there's nothing worse than polishing up a neck just to screw it up by knocking out some finish. Next I used a special nut file, that was designed specifically just for this task, to clean out the old glue from the nut slot. I chose myself a nice clean piece of bone and began shaping.

You can see from the pics. that the first thing I needed to do was shape the bottom of the nut to match the nut slot. Fenders have this annoying curved slot, so I need to match the curve of the slot using a power sander and slow methodical passes. Next is the curve of the top. Stenciling the top of the existing nut helps me to find the curve there. I used the same power sander to size the width and then I glued it in place using slow set gap filling glue. I let this sit over night so It doesn't get bounced around during the slot cutting. I like the slow set gap filling glue because it's easier to remove the next time. The thin fast setting glue actually works it's way into the grain of the wood making removal later a very messy task. Slow set will just fill the gap and set in place.

The next step, nut slot cutting 101.

Fret Crowning

2011-03-07T09:57:00.001-08:00

Here you can see how I'm crowning the frets on Ward's guitar. For me this is the most time consuming part of fretwork. I like to take my time when I do this because It's very important that you have a nice rounded edge, but you must have that sliver of a flat spot on the top of the fret. This is where I get into this Zen Zone, and I just file and sand until I get what I want.
In the photo you can see one of the fret crowning files that I use to get the edge of the fret rounded after the leveling process. I have several of these, all different radii and grit, for the different size frets that I use. They are coated with diamonds for a smooth, fast cut.

After I round the edges of the fret with the special files, I use about four different grits of fine polishing papers to get the frets to shine like new.

The next step is to check the nut height and determine if we need to install a new one. Usually with a re-fret a new nut is a given. But sometimes there's enough material to just use the existing. I like to save my clients as much money as I can. Especially with the current economy the way it is. So next post will be all about the "Nuts" of a re-fret.

More Freting

2011-02-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

In the last installment of "Fretting Wards Guitar" we got to the install of the frets.
Here I have all the frets glued and in place. I then nipped off the edges and beveled the sides on an angle using a special beveling tool. Basically it's a file embedded in a block of wood on a 60 degree angle. After beveling I rounded off the ends using a three sided file with the edges burnished giving me a smooth end. Rounding the edges gets rid of the sharp ends that grab your fingers as you slide your hand up and down the neck. After rounding the ends I used an old school lacquer stick to fill the ends of the fret slots. You might have noticed that I cut the tang on the fret about a sixteenth of an inch from the end of the finger board. I've noticed over the years that if you leave the edge of the tang ending right at the edge of the finger board, when the wood shrinks in cold or dry weather (and it does), the tang pokes out and catches your fingers as you play... this is very uncomfortable. So I cut the tang and fill the gap. creating a smooth edge for your hand.

After all that fun, it's time for the main event, level and crowning. To start I mark each fret with a Sharpie. This will give me a way to judge when all the frets are level with each other. The idea here is for each fret to be level with the frets surrounding it. No high spots or low spots, just level from top to bottom. Here I used a special sanding block that has a radius that matches the radius of the neck. In this case the neck radius is 7.25", which is standard for the 70's Strat necks. When all the frets show metal on top and no more Sharpie is visible on the tip of the frets, then we have level frets. I use a straight edge to double check for high and low spots.

All is good here, next step is the crowning.

On the Bench

2011-02-22T16:06:00.001-08:00

This was a busy 3 day weekend for me;
I had Wards neck for installing frets, upper left bench,
Andy's 75 Flying V in for a fret level and crown, upper right bench,
I just finished the repairs to Bills old classical, and now it's ready to string up (foreground),
There's a custom back there, that I blurred out for now, that is in the prototype phase,
and I'm still trying to strip the paint off that Jaguar for Mike (above classical),
Oh, and then there's the couch my wife found (upper left) and wants me to restore...
Busy... Busy... Busy...
I love it!

Fretting

2011-02-22T15:53:00.001-08:00

As you can see here Ward's guitar is coming along slowly. after building up the finish around where the old frets used to be, I finally got to the point of installing the new frets.
I start by wicking in just a bit super glue to fill the gap between the bottom of the fret tang and the wood, I then individually press the frets in place using the arbor seen above left. I then clamp a block of wood with the same radius as the neck to hold the frets in place until the glue sets up.
Just in case you are wondering "why are you using glue?" The idea is to not have any airspace in the fret slot between the bottom of the fret and the wood. Good solid contact means no unwanted vibrations, and negates the chance of loosening frets down the road due to flexing of the wood. After the glue sets up I'll begin nipping the unwanted ends of the frets and then comes the level and crown. FUN!

A Chemical Reaction

2011-02-07T12:34:00.001-08:00

I had to pick up some of the Heavy Duty paint stripper to make a dent on this one.
The cheep stuff was just not cutting through. There was 12 layers of varnish and 3 layers of acrylic before you reach the Nitro. Finally as you can see this new stuff is doing the job.
It make's an eeery crackling noise as it works... Kinda like Snap, Crackle and Pop.
The veining that you see is caused as the chemical works it's way down layer by layer.
Looks cool right.

Oh Yeah! Always wear Gloves and Goggles people.... this stuff will burn the hell out of your skin not to mention your eyes.

Filling the Gap

2011-02-07T12:28:00.001-08:00

Update on the Fender Maple neck re-fret.
All the frets have now been removed.
Now I'm building up the area that was damaged during the removal of the original frets.
You may remember from a few posts ago that this was a dip neck (finished after the frets were applied). During the removal process some of the finish chips off.
So here I'm brushing Nitro Lacquer in the areas that chipped away. Essentially building up the area so it's flush with the rest of the neck. When It's all level, smooth and polished like the original finish I'll install the new frets.

Polishing the Classical

2011-02-07T12:22:00.001-08:00

All Cracks have been filled and patched. Finish has been smoothed and rough polished.
All that's left to do is final polish, replace the pick guard and string her up. I wish I could find the before pic. This classical had been through the ringer Dry... the wood was so dry I had to pump steam into the body cavity twice a month for six months until the wood held it's moisture levels. I've never seen a guitar so dry that glue wouldn't hold. She'll be back in her owners arms and singing away soon.

Refretting a Maple Neck

2011-01-27T12:57:00.000-08:00

My new client Ward came by the other day to see if i'd be willing to refret his 70's strat.
Normally, I'm more than enthusiastic about fret work... It's a Zen thing for me... just focus and work, one fret at a time and then you level and crown... (sigh) But when he pulled out the maple... yikes, it's a dipper... This is what I call the Fender necks that were finished AFTER the frets were applied. Effectively sealing them to the wood really well.. and making repairs and refrets a nightmare.

You can't really tell from the pics, but the wear is so low that just a level and crown is out of the question. Were gonna have to replace all the frets.

I start by removing the least damaged fret, in this case the last fret on the neck.
After scoring the finish against the fret with a razor blade, I used a soldering gun to heat up the fret just enough to get it to flex in the groove. Then with the fret pullers I gently removed the fret. in the pics you can see the build up of finish that's left behind. I'll need to gently scrape this off and build up the finish to match the surrounding areas before I even begin replacing frets. The new frets will need a stable surface to sit on. There must be even contact with the wood from end to end of the fret or you wind up with goop/sweat working it's way under the fret, or worse, buzzing down the road.

After removing the first fret I take measurements using my dial caliper to make sure I order matching fret material. A little larger (maybe one hundredth of an inch or so) is better than a little smaller. Now I'll go to my computer and order about four feet of fretwire. Four feet is exactly what you need for one guitar. You should be able to get about 26 frets if you cut right. I only need 22. That leaves room to screw up... Hah!

Now that i've ordered the fretwire, I can start the slow and careful process of removing the remainder of the frets.

Next I'll be repairing the fret grooves and prepping for installation.

Moving Forward

2011-01-18T12:33:00.001-08:00

This weekend was a fun long weekend;
I finished the workbench rebuild.
Sprayed the first coats of gloss on my Mom's bathroom cabinets, you can see them stack drying.
Began stripping a Jaguar that had been previously painted and varnished. More to come there.
Sprayed a first coat of Lacquer on a Spanish Classical that I just finished repairing.
and began the smoothing process on an in progress custom.
All in all it was a good weekend in the shop.
Can't wait to get back too it!

Rain Damage

2011-01-17T19:20:00.001-08:00

So I had a tumor removed from my insides, and I've been out of the workshop for some time now. During my recovery SoCal experienced the most intense rain storms in 10 years. Unfortunately the roof on my garage/workshop leaked like crazy. as you can see from the images above rust ran rampant amongst even the smallest of tools. If you look at the bench in the background you'll see a nice puddle of water. That's where my drill press, band saw and scroll saw sat... let's just say all the steal parts have a red coating. If you look closely at my workbench on the right side you'll see a dip in the middle. The water had puddle up and soaked through the carpet to the bench top below, then on to the shelf below that and then on down to the lower shelf below that... All Needs to be replaced.

So All of last weekend was spent drying out tools and pulling moldy carpeted bench tops out of the garage. The stench of mold and rust was overwhelming. I had to turn on a bunch of fans and wear my respirator to breathe. I even pumped some bleach through my HVLP and sprayed every inch of the ceiling, walls and shelving. After clearing out the nasty I ran to HD and picked up some new plywood and carpet, about $60 bucks worth. Had to rebuild 2 workbenches and carpet them for guitar work. By the end of the day on Sunday I was just about ready to go back to work.

This weekend I had to find a new place to hang my bodies and necks and then start to get caught up on the backlog.

I'm Back... More to Come!

Leave Of Absence

2010-11-29T08:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry Folks, I've been dealing with medical issues.
It's Benign, but still needs to be removed.
Doctors say I should expect a painful recovery... Yeah!!
Probably won't be back in the shop till end of December or beginning of January.
All depending on how bored I get and how pain tolerant I can become.
If you don't see any posts until after the holiday's...
Have a Great Holiday Season Everyone!

Mangled Tuner

2010-09-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

It's been a very Les Paul past couple of months. Unfortunately my clients didn't want their repairs featured, so until now I couldn't show anything. I repaired 2 headstocks, a lifting fingerboard and a poorly installed ABR-1... straight from the factory... 2 of these were Chinese made, 1 was a USA. The Headstock we're looking at now is a 57 reissue, the parts say made in Japan, but the factory claims made in USA. I don't know what to believe anymore.

So here we have a damaged G string tuner, that either means someone was careless and bumped into something while they were walking around or it slid off a stand and hit something. Either Way, they get my "Your Instrument is Your Livelihood so Don't Mess It Up" speech. It's like talking to a wall sometimes with musicians. Of course without these little mishaps I'd have some very boring weekends... or not!

With these Kluson copies it is possible to bend the tabs back and remove the casing to reveal the gear and post. Not easy, but doable. The Original Klusons have a thinner metal cover so it's much easier to repair an original than a copy. Once the cover is removed you can see that the case and arm weren't the only things bent out of shape. As you can see from the pics. The Bushing that holds the threaded arm in place was damaged pretty bad, I was able to straighten out the arm and return the case to square, but without the bushing in the correct position the post will be free to vibrate and wobble. The owner will be able to tune up and stay in tune but, there is a noticeable vibration to the neck when strumming. I'll be ordering a new tuner to replace this one.

King Baccarat

2010-07-26T08:57:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the blurry pics. This is the King Baccarat CBG. I tried to do this one with as little power as possible. The only power tool I used was a drill driver to drill the holes for the strings and tuner pegs and to drive the 3 screws holding the neck to the body. This box has surprisingly good tone, I'm thinking of putting some frets on this and seeing how it sounds. But the idea here was to see how fast and easy it would be if all I had was a drill driver a saw and some sandpaper. Just over 5 hours to make this one... most of that was sanding. I think I'll go back to power tools. I've got Popeye arms from all the sanding.

CBG Arturo Jr.

2010-07-19T08:49:00.001-07:00

Cigar box #2 Completed. I now have a Set of Arturo's.
Jr. was an experiment in "How Fast and Easily can I slap this together."
All the Parts but the box and electrics came from Home Depot.
Total Cost including electronics $15.
Here you can see I used eye bolts and wing nuts for tuners, a carriage bolt for a nut, galvanized nails for frets, the bridge is a lamp extension and the stings are chalk line. The neck is cut by hand using a standard everyday hand saw squared using a 90 degree angle as a fence. The electronics are a piezo and jack. Junior is 19" from nut to bridge making this effectively a 3/4 guitar scale.
It was a pleasant surprise to find out Junior sounds pretty good even with chalk line for strings.
Not as good as Senior, but a hand wound pickup does make a difference.

Remove those Sperzels!

2010-07-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

Joey came by and asked if I could remove his Sperzels and replace them with some original Klusons. My first reaction was Yikes! I had that wide eyed, dear in the headlights look. You Wanna What!!!!! Usually people ask to have the originals replaced with Sperzels, not the other way around. The reason for the Yikes... Sperzels have a larger bore diameter than most original manufactured tuners. In other words the hole was widened to fit the Sperzels.
Putting OEM parts back in will be a challenge.

First order of business is plug the holes... All of them. From the pics you can see the screw holes from earlier tuners were still there. Plus the pin holes from the Sperzels are almost on top of the original screw holes. I used Pine dowel to plug the tuner holes. I then let super glue soak into the wood to strengthen it.

I re-tapped the post hole and widened the post ferrule hole on the face.
Then made extra sure that all the plugs were flush.
I did a test fit to make sure all the plugs would be invisible when installed, and they were.
So I installed the Klusons.

Now this 60's vintage Gibson has the tuners it should have.
Note to collectors who modify original guitars.... Always keep your original parts.
It will make your investment worth more in the long run if you still have the OEM parts.

Arturo Fuente #2

2010-07-13T15:23:00.001-07:00

I've begun the 2nd of 3 Cigar Box guitars. This is the neck for #2. Cut from a scrap piece of maple I measured out 1/2 scale and marked it with a sharpie. Leaving enough room for nut and tuners on 1 side, box and resonator on the other. Yup you read correctly. I'm going to attempt a resonator on this one. This will also be different as nothing on this guitar will be from a guitar.
No Tuners, Bridge, Nut etc. this will all be Home Depot Parts and a Cigar Box.

Arturo Fuente #1

2010-07-12T17:36:00.003-07:00

Cigar Box Guitar #1. The neck is Maple with a curly Maple fingerboard, medium frets and a Wenge nut. The tuners are leftovers from replacements I've done. This is a Strat scale 25.5".
The Bridge is a chunk of leftover maple from the neck. the nail stop bar is mostly for grounding the strings but also to keep the strings from cutting into the wood. The Pickup is from scraps and wound on my new winder as well as a Piezo as a second source, hence the switch and volume knob. All in all for a first time it turned out decent and sounds fantastic. I'm ready to start Arturo #2, coming soon.

Dean ML missing it's Cover?

2010-07-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

Fell a bit behind due to computer issues but I'm back and hoping to post a bit more often.

Here we have a Dean ML brought to me by a client we'll call L. This ML was in bad shape but had the potential to sound great. The Electronics were all messed up and needed to be completely rewired. Once the rewire was complete and the body, neck and frets were cleaned up she sounded GREAT! A real Shredder. The only thing missing was the Cavity Cover (the hood of the car). Without a proper cover the electronics are exposed to the elements and would certainly become damaged in the future. Especially on the road.

To do this repair I like the Rub and Transfer method (I just made that up :p). I'll take a piece of scrap paper, tape it to the body surrounding the cavity and literally rub a pencil gently around the cavity hole until I have an exact outline of the hole and where the screws are located. I'll then use lo tack spray adhesive (I'll say it again..LOW TACK) and adhere the template to my pick guard material. From there it's just cut and sand to the sketched line. Drill holes for the screws remove the template and pop it on. LIKE BUTTER an exact fit.

Yup! It Works!

2010-06-14T20:47:00.001-07:00

That's right folks after a few months of tinkering, I now have a working pickup winder. This little guy was an experiment Just waiting to be born. Pickup #1, 2500 winds of 42 awg annealed copper wire, measuring in at a whopping 6 ohms. She's a little noisy right now, not potted or grounded to anything, but she's got plenty of punch. Why would I bother making a tiny little thing like this?? Well the fine folks at Disney convinced me to teach a creative class on building musical instruments from found and recycled items. Some of the soon to be students convinced me to teach them how to build Cigar Box Guitars. So the next few posts will cover my investigating the construction of Cigar Box Guitars.

The Winder Continues to Progress Slowly

2010-05-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

Had some time last night to perfect the Counter, Mount and Click timing.
You can see as it rotates counter clockwise the piece of acrylic mounted to the spindle impacts the second piece of acrylic mounted to the counter arm actuating the counter as it passes. For every rotation the counter clicks one digit. I had a chance to test it at High speed and it works with no skips or double clicks. It's loud as heck but I can wind about 6 thousand rotations in about 3 to 5 minutes. If you look close you can also see the guide stops I've begun to install to hand guide the wire on to the spindles. All that's left now is the mounting brackets for the spindles. This should be an interesting exercise. All the parts you see except the motor and the counter have come from scrap laying around the shop. figuring out a way to create a spindle mount with what I've got laying around should be fun.

Pickup Winder Mockup

2010-04-26T08:10:00.001-07:00

Starting to mockup the Pickup Winder. I'm trying different methods of attaching the click counter. No matter how many sketches you do there's always the assembly process to help you change your mind. Available materials make a difference too.

Sorta Slow But look at this

2010-04-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

So Business is slow right now, like I mentioned below.
I've had a few Set Ups, Some Pickup replacements, a bridge and tuner installation and a custom that I can't show because the owner/designer is going to copyright it. Most of this stuff is kinda boring (except the custom, it's lookin' really cool) so I've been spending some time designing a pickup winder (A custom guitar deserves custom pickups)... I know your like WHAT? Why?.. Just Buy One!.... Hello Luthier... Tinkerer. As a Luthier/Guitar Tech, we LOVE Re-Inventing the Wheel.
So I've been searching my shop for parts and picked up a motor and counter on ebay. Here are my initial sketches.. Please bear with the design process i'm a mad scientist you know.

String Height Gauge

2010-03-08T09:37:00.001-08:00

So January and February were slow for me and I got a bit bored. So I started fiddling around with the idea of designing my own String Height Gauge. I saw the gauge that Stew Mac sells and I saw the one that LMI carries, and thought I can do that.

I started with a piece of leftover aluminum bar stock that I had knurled for some reason or another back in the 90's. Drilled and countersunk the inlet for the Dial Caliper. Drilled and tapped for a set screw. Then came the string relief and fret cutaways. The dial tip sits flush with the bottom of the slug.

The way it works is; I'll straddle a string and push down on the caliper tip until the string hits the fret(essentially I'm fretting the string). I zero the gauge and release the tip. Now I have my string height to 1000th of an inch.

You might be saying to yourself "Why the heck do you need to read an action to 1000th of an inch". Well when some one asks for a medium, or low action based on the existing action I now have a reference to work from. It also helps during setups to avoid fret buzz. I'll lower the strings to the buzz point and take a reading and know I can't go below that point.

Sharp Frets and Bloody Fingers

2010-03-05T08:58:00.001-08:00

OK so maybe bloody fingers is an exaggeration. But you guys have all experienced the sharp fret edges on a new guitar right??. Well lets not point fingers but most Made in USA guitars don't have this problem. Usually what causes this is the fret guy or girl is in a hurry to make production deadlines and just bevels the edges, crowns the top and passes it on. You go and test drive that guitar in the store and your fingers get all stuck and pinched as you slide your hand up and down the neck. OUch!!

So the answer is to have a guy like me (or hey just have me do it (daddy needs the cash)) round the edges of your frets to get rid of the sharp corners. Some of you might even want to try this yourselves. It's not that hard, you just need good eyesight (or good corrective lenses like me), the right tools and some Patience (some blues on the box does not hurt either. {I recommend The Delgado Brothers}). In this case all tools are available at Stew Mac or LMI. I use a fret shield, 3 sided fret file, buffing paper and a razor.

The idea is to round the sharp corners with the file, clean up under the fret with the razor (carefully, especially if your working on binding) and polish the end of the fret with the buffing paper. Done.... except you have to do it about 44 times on a 22 fret neck..... like I said Patience required.

Slow Start

2010-02-05T15:31:00.000-08:00

I'm having a slow start this year.
Not much business, so nothing really to post about.
Mostly Honey Do's n such.
Maybe I'll do some tinkering...

Happy Holidays to ALL

2009-12-11T11:35:00.000-08:00

Jack Plate Fabrication

2009-11-16T08:26:00.001-08:00

One of my clients brought this poor Ibanez in. He wouldn't say how, but somebody dropped it.
and it was plugged in when it hit the ground. The hole that was created when the jack plate was pushed through the wood into the guitar was huge. I called and emailed about a dozen shops looking for a pre-made jack plate that would cover the hole to no avail. So this ones from scratch.
I started with a strip of 1/8" Aluminum. I cut to size, drilled the jack and screw holes, countersunk the screw holes and beveled the edges. Next came the pounding... I was able to beat the slug to fit the contour of the guitar. Polished, buffed and installed.
Here you can see the before and after.
I'm extremely happy with the result. I hope the client is too.

Schecter with Scratchy Potitis

2009-11-10T08:41:00.000-08:00

I like Schecter Guitars. Very Well Built. I like the woods they use and the fit and finish is smooth and comfortable. I especially like the routes for there volume and tone pots. It's not that they are moving them out of the way or anything, it's just a nice touch. But were not here to do a review. The doctor is in, and he's got the prescription for scratchy pot.

Ryan brought this one to me last week with "Scratchy potitis" (I just made that up, hey it's my blog!) The volume and tone knobs make a scratchy sound or grinding sound when he's plugged in.

Scratchy Potitits can be caused by many factors. Too dry an environment, Dust, Sweaty build up making it's way from the knob into the pot itself or even just age. In this case, the client(;P) didn't store it in a case, he would play it and just leave it on a stand for a long period of time. This isn't bad by any means. What it is, is exposure to the elements. I always tell my clients "Store your guitars in there cases", "Don't leave them in your car", "Wipe them down after you play and before you put them away for the night". good rules to live by. I'm rambling again.

Scratchy Potitits can be cured 2 ways, the cheep way is Pot Cleaner or Contact Cleaner. A little squirt in the right openings and walla, your back in show business. Sometimes, Pot Cleaner is not enough, as was the case here. We had to replace all 3 pots.

I recommend to all guitar and bass players, buy a can of Pot Cleaner or Contact Cleaner and once or twice a year, give em a good squirt. It will keep your pots clean and clear of junk, and keep you from visiting the doctor for pot replacement surgery......
Not that I mind :) I can allways use the extra cash.

How I did it

2009-10-27T16:39:00.000-07:00

For those who didn't get what I was doing with the Cleats in the Cracks below.
This image should explain better... I hope... does it??
After the glue dries I can move on to the finish repairs with confidence that the cracks won't get any bigger.

Cracks

2009-10-26T08:36:00.001-07:00

This Classical Guitar was brought to me with a few really nasty cracks that ran from the edge of the bottom rear, under the bridge and into the pickguard. Some of these I was unable to reach due to my short arm length (or it could just be that it's a really tight fit in the soundhole).. I needed to put "cleats" under the cracks to keep them from getting any larger. So I turned to the internet for ideas. While surfing I found this idea: take an old tuner and attach a block of wood cut to shape a "U". Using a used .09 guitar string I attached the cleat at one end, coated it with glue, I pulled the string through the crack and tightened the tuner. This acted as a clamp on the Cleat holding it tight against the body until the glue dried. Once the glue dried I just loosed the tuner cut the sting off and pulled the excess string from the inside out. The next step is to seal the crack from the outside and try to hide it as much as possible. I liked this idea so much that I made a bunch of them..... ok maybe I did'nt need that many, you can only glue so many at a time.

Loose Bracing and Crack Repairs

2009-10-25T19:41:00.001-07:00

Here we have a back brace that was loose and sounding off (vibrating at the wrong time, like there is a right time) I injected a bit of hide glue under the brace and put a Brace Jack on it to push it down on the back. The wet spot you see is from wiping the excess glue with a wet rag. Once it's dried I'll remove the Brace Jack and string her up..

I got lucky on this one. Not so lucky on the next one.

Stay tuned for Cracks Unlimited! Coming Soon!

Black is Back

2009-10-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

The black Les Paul is back on the hanger getting gloss.

Almost Ready for final polish. Stay tuned.

Steve's Strat needs some Fretwork

2009-10-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

Steve brought me this beautiful example of an 80's MIJ strat. I love these. Back in the day (80's..I'm feelin' old now) some of the MIJ's were built better than the USA models... Yes! Sad But True. Fender made up for that in the 90's when they really started paying attention to the USA manufacturing. Sorry I'm rambling...

So Steve brought me the strat with a request.... "Help! my frets are all dimpled and low in the lower register." I said "how about we level and crown those suckers" and he said "YES". So here we go.

We start by taping off the fretboard to protect it from accidental nicks and dings. From there I used a marker and blackened the tops of the affected frets. Next I check the fretboard radius. This one is a 12" radius neck, so I pick the 12"r sanding block and start leveling the frets. The trick is to level all the frets to the lowest dent in the frets. To do this I level the frets until the black marker is no longer visible. Next comes the crowning. I have a special diamond coated fret file. It's curved to crown the the edges I just sanded flat. The next step is the polish, oil and done. String up the guitar, set it up and play. Soup to nuts, it took about 2 hours to complete.

Oh! and another 2 hours just playing it.... I love these Strats... Yeah Baby!

Don't worry Steve, I'm only charging for the actual work... not the play time.

The Les Paul

2009-09-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry Folks, I know it looks like nothing is getting done...
I'm working on the Les Paul previously mentioned here.
A black finish is a difficult thing. Any little piece of dust in the finish shows like a damned Pin Spot Light on dark stage....
I'm thinking of changing to a metalic black so I don't have to worry so much.
Only problem with that is the neck is already a plain black. Arghh.

68' Vette Done and Done

2009-08-12T09:06:00.001-07:00

Remember this from 5 months ago? Well here's what she looks like now!
All Shiny and New! Sweet Low, Fast Action and a Fat Rhythm sound. Can't wait for Steve to plug her in and take her around the block. VAROOOOOOM!!

68' Vette Ready for Strings

2009-08-10T08:53:00.001-07:00

All Wired up and Ready for a Test Drive.
The Next shots you'll see will be the finished product!

68' Vette New Pickguard

2009-08-03T12:49:00.001-07:00

Creating a Pickguard from scratch sounds like an easy process right?.....right.
First thing I did was create a plywood template from the original pickguard. From this template I cut the new pickguard from blank 3 ply stock. I then beveled the edges and cut the hole for the pickup. This was interesting because no one sells templates for the Gretsch HiLotron pickup...so I had to cut the hole by hand... Yes, I screwed up a couple of blanks before I got it right. Next was Pot placement. I made a rubbing of the cavity so I knew how much room I had for the pots. As soon as I had the layout and spacing I found the centerpoints and drilled. Almost done!

First Taste of Color since the 80's

2009-08-03T12:41:00.001-07:00

If you remember from a few posts back, I have this beater Epi Les Paul that barely survived the 80's (busted neck, drop kicked a few times and forgotten). I found a new neck for her and decided to get moving on the refinish. I finished all the repairs to the body, pulled out the HVLP and applied 3 coats of Black. Once this cures I'll wet sand and follow up with about 6 to 12 coats of gloss. She's gonna be sweeeet!

68' Vette Ready for Polishing

2009-07-29T08:52:00.001-07:00

Steve (Client) came by the other day to take a look at the color. He likey. So the finish is finished minus the Buff and Polish. We've got a base stain, 12 coats of clear, 6 coats of transparent tint and 12 coats of clear top coat. In the photo you can see the new pickguard minus the hole for the neck pickup. We decided to configure the wiring like a Les Paul. It's just a bit more comfortable than a line of knobs. So depending on my schedule this Vette should be on the road within a week or so. More pics to come of the wiring and polishing process.
Can't wait to hear that engine rev.

68' Vette Mo Color

2009-06-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

More Wet Sanding FUN. I've got Popeye arms from all the sanding.
So the first round of color was applied directly to the wood as a stain. This seeps into the grain. It's then lightly sanded back to intensify the grain effect. I then sprayed 12 good coats of clear coat to add some depth. Here I'm adding tint to the clear coat. I do this directly in the gun, it's not rocket science. I'll add and mix till I get the right flavor of grape juice and away I go. I then sprayed a good 6 coats of tint. I'll wet sand and apply 6 more coats of tint before the final 12 coats of clear. It's too bad Deep Purple isn't touring anymore, I think they'd like this. I'll bet Steve's (the owner) jumpin' out of his skin, just dying to see this.

68' Vette Wet Sanding

2009-06-23T20:34:00.001-07:00

1st 12 coats of clear are on, and I've started prepping for the color coats. In this next stage I'll wet sand to get rid of any bumps and high spots. I'll use papers from 800 to 1500 grit. When I'm satisfied that were smooth as glass, I'll begin to apply the tinted color base. Five or six coats should give us the dimensional look I'm going for.

Carving up an Old Jackson

2009-06-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

This is the backside of the old Dinky body that I recovered from the scrap heap. Here you can see the Cherry strip that I used to cover up the old tremelo cavity. You can also see the angle I carved out under the neck pocket. In The Day(I'm aging myself again), you'd be sliding up the neck only to hit the square back of the neck pocket with your palm. Jackson style necks are notoriously fast, so anything to aid in making a smooth transition past the 14th fret will be appreciated by most players. Back in the early 90's Jackson started thinning out the neck pocket in an attempt to do just this. And they still do to this day. I still have some more shaping and routing to do on this body before I hit the finish stages. I Can't wait to throw a neck on this one.

Check out my NEW Events Link

2009-06-18T08:44:00.000-07:00

I just added an Events link,
If you've got a show coming up, Email me with an attachment and I'll post it.
Right now we've got:
The Delgado Brothers playing Friday Night June 19th at the Double Tree Hotel in Monrovia.
and
My Friend Steve DeBoard is playing drums with the Basco Brothers on July 18th at Knotts.
Click the Events Links for details.
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68' Vette 1st coats of clear going on

2009-06-15T13:42:00.001-07:00

The stain and sealer applied and sanded to a smooth finish, it's now time to start the clearcoat process.......Yaah!! Here I'll do about 12 spray and sand sessions before I'll introduce tint to the clearcoat for more color and depth. I usually let the clearcoat sit for a day or so between sessions so it can setup before heavy sanding and prepping for the next session. Gives a whole new meaning to watching the paint dry right?

New Projects in the House

2009-06-15T13:16:00.001-07:00

The great thing about paint is??? It needs time to dry.
So during the paint and wait stages of the 68' Vette I've started some new projects.

Project #1 is an Epiphone Les Paul from the 80's. It's seen it's share of paint and drops.
Somewhere along the line I picked up a new neck for it so now it's refinish and restoration time.

Project #2 is a Jackson Dinky body that was saved from the trash back in the early 90's when it's neck was broken in two. I shaved a 1/4 inch off the top and glued up some Wenge. I then cut a strip off the back side to cover up the tremelo hole and glued in some Cherry. I angled the neck plate area and began to carve a bit on the cutaways(more pics to come as I advance along). The plan with this one is to install 2 humbuckers, a top loading Schaller and a chandler neck. I also want to do some inlay on the Wenge but I haven't decided what to do yet.

Right now it's time to spray a bit more on the Vette.

68' Vette Wax On Wax Off

2009-05-18T12:56:00.001-07:00

So Steve decided to go forward with staining the wood before finishing. I was excited at first and maybe a little hesitant, the wood was a dark cherry color to begin with, and I wasn't sure how a tint would affect the look of the wood. I was even more freaked out when I applied the stain that Steve brought to me. It was a tint based Minwax that he had custom mixed.....scared the hell out of me when it began drying like you see here in the pics. Bright Purple and chalky was not what he or I was expecting. However...I noticed that If I apply and remove and apply and remove the tint wipes away leaving a gentle purple tint behind...This will work...Kinda like Wax On Wax Off Danielsan... A few more applications and we'll have the dark purple that Steve was hoping for and we'll begin to apply the sealer. The sealer will knock the tint down to the wet look and give us a view of the final color before applying the gloss.

68' Vette still working the kinks out

2009-04-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

For those of you waiting for more on the Vette, I'm still removing divits and kinks, getting ready for the sanding sealer. Steve (Client) will be coming by the shop to talk about stains and see the progress this week. Hopefully I'll have more pics of the stripped and unkinked body soon.

Happy Birthday Little Brother

2009-04-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my little brother Marc.
He turns 41 Today.
Congratulations on your first birthday as a Dad.

BB King 03 Lucille

2009-04-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

This was an interesting guitar recently brought to me by my new client Bill. He was having trouble with the 6 way affects switch, it would just spin around and no effects. This was an easy fix. The switch came loose and the excessive travel caused the ground to come apart. I tightened up the switch and resoldered the ground, new strings, lowered the action and intonation. She sounds and feels like an ES series should, amazing. I really like the effects switch. some really cool sounds are available.
I also noticed some interesting screw ups from the factory (not a rare thing). I noticed the truss rod nut was shaved off. This must have occured during the neck construction. The factory will manufacture the neck and add on the faceplate with logos later depending on the usage. In this case the nut was a little close to the router...oops. They then painted over it. It took a little coaxing to get it to turn so I could adjust the neck..But once it moved, it was all good. The other thing I noticed was a bump in the neck...o so slight but noticeable. You can see it in the pic above, it's were the reflected light changes direction slightly mid neck. You can bareley feel it with your fingers sliding up and down the neck. Just a quirk, completely unnoticable wile playing.
Overall a Great Guitar. I'd buy one in a second.

Fiesta San Antonio

2009-04-28T10:51:00.000-07:00

The first shot is from the 21st floor of the Marriott on the riverwalk. You can just make out the parade route. The 2nd was from a hole in the wall bar on the riverwalk that had a live blues band... These guys were great, all crammed into the corner of the bar...there's a sax player to the right out of frame. They played all kinds of blues and jazz covers, great musicians all. I could have sworn they'd been working together for years...not so, this was their first gig together. I was blown away.... they were tight.....Never did get the name of the group...(too much to drink...me... yeah go figure) so if anyone recognizes these guys from San Antonio, leave me a comment. All in all a Great Experience, Great Food, Great Sounds and a Fun Atmoshpere. Everyone needs to attend next years event.

68' Vette getting the kinks out

2009-04-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

So this part of the process isn't that easy to show in pics so I'll try to describe what I'm doing and I'll show pics as they become available/or as they become viewable....very difficult to see the small stuff.

The guitar has various small to extremely large dings and scratches that have penetrated the finish and actually affected the wood....pretty deep ones too. Luckily this is old growth lumber that is very dense(grain). This means we can use an old technique that has been in use for centuries in woodworking to raise the grain and effectively heal old wounds.

It's a kinda magic...wooooooooh...

I start by removing the finish. this is accomplished using nasty chemicals and light sanding...I gotta stress light sanding... I'm removing finish, I don't want to remove any wood. Once the finish is removed and we are dealing with wood and only wood I start the magic process.

I let some water soak into the dings and scratches, I then apply heat to the areas using a soldering gun. NOT touching the wood but hovering over it just enough for the grain to stretch and lift. This occurs when the water turns to steam and effectively pushes the grain up. Once this dries completely I'll repeat the process over and over until the grain has lifted enough to give me a flat enough surface to start applying sanding sealer....thats it...water and heat. Mother Natures magic.

I'll have before and after photos when I get to the after process. Sometimes this takes awhile. Especially on a really beat up piece of wood.

The Delgado Brothers New Album! Wow!

2009-04-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

Hey All,
Last night I got a sneak peak into the sounds of the latest Delgado Brothers Album. And all I can say is WOW! Music Lovers, prepare for a Jaw Drop. This Album follows "A Brothers Dream" and blows it's doors off. These songs are so colorful, layered with tones and story, It feels like you get everything from Motown to present day soulful rock. Joey's working on the album art now, and should be ready for a release soon. I got my cash in hand.
For a sneak peak of your own, go to the Delgado Brothers My Space link below.
Look for the song "In Time", this is the first Single release from the New Album.
You can also purchase this song, and songs from the Brothers Dream album.

Cavity Sheilding on Da Bass

2009-04-06T15:12:00.000-07:00

Now this bass has it's electronics completely shielded from top to bottom, this should cut the hum almost completely out. This puppy was a pain, especially in the Jack hole, there's nothing more fun than soldering in tight spaces....yeah right...

The Client test drove the Bass a couple of days after I finished and he loved it.

He played through a rig at home with dimmers in the wall. It really cut the hum well.

Next test will be on stage....I'm confident, but I'll cross my fingers anyway.

Silence is golden, Especially Unwanted Hum.

68' Vette Nut and Test Drive

2009-04-01T12:35:00.001-07:00

Finished the Nut and strung her up, to see how the neck does under tension. I'm not sure yet what gauge the client will be using, so I just grabbed a set off my shelf.. 9-42 I believe. Nice rock gauge. I cut the nut about 2 hundredths of an inch above the first fret. This will start us off with a nice medium to low action. Tuned her, and just for fun intonated her. And then What Else.... I played her for about an hour or so. She had a nice low action good for speed and bends. The strings are evenly spaced down the neck and the action is level throughout. No Buzz anywhere. There is nothing like fresh frets. This will certainly be a players guitar.

The NEXT step will be stripping the old finish off and prepping for sanding sealer and finish. This means I have to fill all the gaps and nicks and try to level out all the pits and ruts. This will be the most time consuming part of the process next to the actual finish itself. On a car this would be easy.....Bondo....On a wooden instrument when the wood is the star of the show, this means layers of clear fill and sealer until I get a nice smooth surface for final finish.

Mo Shielding to Da Bass

2009-04-01T12:33:00.001-07:00

Split Pickups are a pain to shield......Next stop the Control cavity.

68' Vette gets a new bridge

2009-03-24T09:19:00.001-07:00

The new bridge is a hybrid tuneomatic developed specifically for vibrato tailpieces. Basically someone was brilliant enough to replace the standard saddles with roller saddles. This keeps the strings from dragging across the saddles and grinding them away over time. Brilliant. If you'll remember, the original bridge was just a steel bar, with no individual saddles. This is completely intonateable...... I just made that up....I don't think its a real word.
Installation was easy, I find the length of the scale, mark for drilling, countersink and install. The holes from the original bridge are covered by the new one, but I'll still fill them in the finishing stage.
The next steps will be to install a nut and string her up and make sure she's playable.

68' Vette gets new frets

2009-03-23T15:11:00.001-07:00

The fretwire arrived, so I began the refret. I started by cutting the wire down to individual sizes.
I then nip the edges of tang off so there is nothing to stick out and catch. I add just a little bit of extremely viscous super glue and then hammer in the new frets. The super glue fills the gaps left behind from removing the old frets. The last thing you want is play in your frets. I know...in my last Vette post I was complaining about the glue....but those were probably not the original frets. After hammering all the frets in, I'll file down the edges to a nice angle and then level all the frets. Checking every fret for High or Low spots and evening out any inconsistencies. Once the frets are all level, I crown and polish.
It was during the polish process that I discovered some interesting damage from the last refinish. It seems someone got a little over zealous while sanding the back and sides of the neck. By the 15th fret there is a 3/32" dip in the fretboard. You don't really notice it when your looking but as soon as you hold a straight edge to it Bam. This is going to need some extra attention before the finish process.
OK Frets are done......I think the bridge will be next.

Passive Hum

2009-03-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

Trying to solve a Hum problem with a clients bass. I usually start by shielding the specific pickup and coil. If that doesn't work, I'll shield the entire guitar (all pickup cavities, electronics cavity and pickup leads). If that doesn't work we'll look at new pickups or a Noise Gate.
I really hate telling my clients to go out and spend more money....But this pickup is practically microphonic.

Bubba

2009-03-16T15:33:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,
Last night, with Great Regret and Sorrow we were forced to euthanize Bubba.
He had developed a mass in his spleen that had grown faster than we could stop.
It is unknown at this time if the mass was cancerous or not.
But we were told that he had very little chance of surviving the surgery with any kind of good quality of life.
So we made the decision to put him to sleep.
He passed quietly in my arms with no pain.
He will be greatly missed.
It is our belief that he now sits at the side of Gina's Mom, who passed a year ago next week.
Bubba was a sweet, loving, kind and gentle animal with a heart of gold.
Please plant a flower in his name.
dave
updated 3.23.09 It was cancer.

68' Vette Neck Cleanup

2009-03-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

My first step on this project is to remove the frets and prep the fretboard to receive new ones.
Removing frets is always fun (NOT). To aid in the removal process I use a soldering gun with a flat tip to heat up the frets and loosen the glue that is holding them in. Not all guitar makers glue in their frets, usually the frets are hammered in, and they stay just fine...In this case there was glue. After the frets are removed I will lightly sand down the fingerboard using 800 to 1500 grit sandpaper in an attempt to level and smooth it out. I normally don't take off that much wood, just finish, and in this case I needed to get rid of the slathering of varnish. Once done I'll polish up the fingerboard and feed it with lemon oil. I'll let this sit for a couple of days until the lemon oil has been completely absorbed by the rosewood. Then I'll clean out the fret slots and start puttin' the new ones in.

Stay Tuned Campers.

68' Vette in need of assistance

2009-03-09T16:22:00.000-07:00

New Friend and Client Steve brought me this, It's a 1968 Gretsch Corvette. It was a thank you gift from a friend,
who said it was sitting in his garage for a few years. So it sat in Steve's for a few months.
Looking closely at it, the refinish job was destructive. They had sanded it down to the bare wood creating nicks and dents
and then slathered on some form of varnish to seal the wood. Someone also cut a battery hole in the back and rewired the electronics. The Worst of it all....the serial numbers were sanded off the back of the headstock during the refinishing process. (This pisses me off more than the slathering of varnish) Thus giving us no vintage value for the instrument.....

So Steve asks me Can We Save Her? Of course we can!
So I ask do you want as close to Vintage as possible or do you want a Player.......
His answer made me smile......What do you think he said...."I want a Player".

So Tune In... I'll be posting updates as we go...

52 Telecaster

2009-02-18T13:26:00.001-08:00

Another Sampling from Andy's collection. This beauty was assembled near the end of 1952, and is a prime example of how Tele's Should be. Yes she's worn with age and yes the finish is crackled from top to bottom and yes she is all original..including the case....
But when you pick her up, slide your hand up and down the neck feeling for the notes, the action is so low it's effortless. It almost begs you to start scaling...you can hear her....play me...play me...
I'm a huge Tele Fan, I love the necks and the sound of the pickups. This guitar would be a prize in anyone's collection. I'm still trying to figure out how to get into Andy's will.

73 SG Finished

2009-01-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

Here you can see where I pulled the Japanese bridge and tailpiece from the guitar and plugged the holes with similar grained wood. A little bit of finish work to smooth out the gloss. I replaced the Japanese bridge with a genuine Gibson Nashville Tuneomatic and I reinstalled an original Gibson Bigsby that I was lucky enough to find on Ebay...It fit like it belonged there..which it did.

Now the only visible signs of wrong doing are the plugged hole by the E string and the strip of cherry finish under the Bigsby. I wanted to sand down to the bare wood and refinish the guitar, but the client didn't really care to go that far. I don't blame him, it's a Pawn Shop find that has been restored as close to original as possible. Doubling the current value by adding original and vintage parts.

Ask me how she plays......go ahead, Ask.......You wouldn't belive me if I told you....
Lets just say WOW!!! Smooth and Easy on the Hands, Great Response and Sustain.
I wish I could keep her.

73 SG Restoration

2008-12-30T21:30:00.000-08:00

Andy brought this too me before Christmas and asked if I could take a look, see if I could do something with it. He said he found it in a pawn shop many years ago for dirt cheep. The only history he had was that the neck was broken and repaired.

Taking a first glimpse I thought ich...someone really screwed this one up. The original finish was gone (should be cherry) the bridge was rotting away and Japanese, the neck was re-attached somewhat sloppily and there was screw holes where there shouldn't be.....

On second look, the neck is straight, the electronics and pickups are original and sound fantastic. Hmmm.... there seems to be an indention where a Bigsby should be.....Explains the screw holes.

After a little homework...there's supposed to be a Bigsby and Nashville bridge....that stop bar shouldn't be there. If I clean up the neck cracks, find an original Bigsby, plug some holes and put a new bridge back on, I might be able to save this puppy.

And away we go....

Sherry Pruitt Benefit Concert

2008-11-18T14:26:00.000-08:00

Check out this Article on the Benefit Concert that was put on for Sherry.

Go to http://www.broowaha.com/article.php?id=4269

SoCal Fires

2008-11-17T08:55:00.000-08:00

Hearts and Prayers go out to all those who lost in these horrible fires.

Fender Dipped

2008-11-05T17:32:00.001-08:00

I recently had to clean up one of those Fender 90's necks that had been sprayed beyond need.
You know "the Dipped look". It's when they put the frets on and then finish the neck.
I still don't get that. You play it and the finish on the frets starts to flake off leaving gaps in the finish on the fret board. When the flaking starts to make it's way past the frets and onto the sides of the neck it gets downright uncomfortable to play. Sliding your hand up the neck becomes a challenge as your hand gets caught up in the flaking finish. I figured out a way to repair this problem, but what a pain in the a#s this is.

If anyone knows Why? they did this, please leave a comment......It makes me nuts.

Benefit for Sherry

2008-10-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs to attend this concert. Not only will you be seeing some of the greatest blues musicians EVER. You'll be helping Sherry. That's a gift of love that we as listeners and musicians should feel obligated to give.

40th Anniversary Rock Solid

2008-10-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

In 1994 Fender released a series of 40th Anniversary Reissues of the Stratocaster.

They ranged from the most basic, stripped down versions to really set up.

This is a good example of the really set up. It's main features were the Fender Lace Sensor passive single coils, Sperzal tuners, Wilkinson Roller Nut, and the 2 post fulcrum tremelo.

Andy brought this one in for a set up and cleaning.

It was really interesting comparing the 1994 reissue with the 1955 vintage.

Yes the Tech has changed over the years but the basic principles of solid guitar building are still there.

The 40th reissue was rock solid, sounded good and felt good in your hands. But.

This might sound a bit odd, I still prefer the 55's sound and the way it felt in my hands.

Still Hat's Off to Fender.

The Quinn Special In Concert

2008-10-09T11:14:00.001-07:00

For Three years now the Creative Department of Disney Consumer Products has put on a charity event for the locals (employees, friends and family) that consists of comedy sketches, solo numbers, and occasionally a full band. It's called Applause for a Cause. So this year there was a surprise last act.

The Band:

Andy Mooney,

Chairman of Disney Consumer Products, lead vocals and guitar,

Anthony Ringor,

Motion Graphics Artist, guitar and backing vocals,

Joe Arena,

Director of Communications, bass and backing vocals,

John Quinn,

Vice President of Global Creative Character Art, guitar and backing vocals

Vince Musacchia,

Senior Character Artist, Drums and backing vocals.

5 extremely talented individuals

Together they thrilled the audience and had a good time of it.

You might be saying, Why is dave talking about some pickup band in some charity show.

Well if you look on the left side of the photo's you'll see the John Quinn Special in use....

It just made me happy to see it on stage for the first time.

I always get a kick out of seeing my work getting used the way it was meant to.

A Players Guitar 53 Years Young

2008-10-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

Born in December 1955 this Original Stratocaster is amazing.

It's not every day that you see something like this.....let alone hold it and play it.
I was so impressed with this guitar I feel a rant coming on.....

When Andy brought this in he said that this was one of the crown jewels of his collection.

And he wasn't kidding. Just looking at her, I got chills....gotta play her......gotta hear what she sounds like plugged in....need to feel the neck in my hand and the weight on my shoulder.

I took so many pictures of her I had to combine some of them just to do this post.
So here's what you don't see:
First lets just say there isn't an uncrackled (i just made up that word) spot on her, anywhere.
The years have not been kind to the finish....but she looks so good.
All the logos are intact. but the crackling is abundant.
All the metal surfaces have that worn down polished over the years look. And any surface that isn't showing wear has rust. The pickups and their Bakelite (Yes Bakelite) covers have been worn down almost to the coil in the neck position. The single ply white pickguard is worn even under the strings. The jack plate is pitted and the scratched from years of use.
And then there is the bridge. Looking at the pictures doesn't do it justice this bridge is trashed. The saddle height adjustment screws are rusted in place or stripped. I believe 3 were working. Amazingly enough, once I applied some oil to the intonation adjustment screws, they all broke loose and I was able to manipulate them.
The neck is in line with the body, crackled from top to bottom.
The frets are worn and showing grooving. the nut is worn down on the sides and in the string grooves. The tuners are somewhat loose and couldn't be tightened. The grooves in the fingerboard are so deep you can take dental impressions of them. There is a slight warp to the neck on the low E side up by the neck pocket. The truss rod was holding tension just fine with no rattle at all, for a guitar this old and abused thats amazing.
The electronics are ALL Original. Even the Oil Filled Cap. Look at the Hand written tolerances.

So add this all up and what do you get.......A very PLAYED guitar.......Used and Abused.

I gave her a rub down, blew the dust out of her crevices an pots.
I strung her up, intonated her, and plugged her in.

This guitar played and sounded better than any of the newer guitars that I've recently played.
The pickups have Punch, Bite.....whatever you want to call it they sounded Amazing...Beautiful.
The feel of the neck was so comfortable, you would have thought it was built for your hand.
The weight was perfect....not too heavy not too light.
Just enough sustain that the notes carried on without me.
It almost played itself.
Even with all the damage to the body and neck.........She was perfect in her own world.

I was so impressed that I asked Andy to Will it too me..........he laughed.

I wasn't kidding............

FrankenStrat.....My Creation

2008-10-01T11:21:00.001-07:00

OK so this is My Baby.
The Body is an old Kramer Strat that had been on tour in so many configurations I don't even remember what it was to begin with. The Bridge has been replaced so many times that I had to drop in a piece of 3/4" plywood to stabilize it for the Floyd you see here. The floyd is an original from 1987-88 and has some overspray from the last idiot that owned it and painted his guitar with the Floyd still on it.

The Pickups are '78 Classic Strat single coils and a Pearly Gates Seymour Duncan hummer from the early '90s. The switch is a 3 way. I like the sound of the pickups as they are. I don't like it when they faze together.

The neck is a Warmoth radius Telecaster neck I picked up in '91.
It's got a light oil finish so it feels real nice, No drag.
And it's aging perfectly.

I play on Ernie Ball 9-42 lights and on the deck action.

I know she doesn't look like much but I love the way she feels and sounds.
d

69 Tele, Another Sweet Blonde

2008-09-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

I'm a Telecaster fan....love the necks, as you'll soon see when I feature my Stratenstein later.

It's not that often that I get to see these, and I've had two come in this month.
My client Andy brought this in.
Just gave this baby a cleaning, new strings and intonation.
Notice the floating bridge and the Fender Bigsby copy.
I call it a copy because it doesn't say Bigsby anywhere on the tailpiece.
Not even a licensed by.....

Welcome to the 21st Century

2008-09-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased a new Strobe tuner......Very Cool....
I've had my old Peterson for about 15 years. It's been from coast to coast and still keeps on tuning. Just yesterday I picked up my new Peterson Stroboflip.
It's a hell of a lot more portable than the old R450. I needed a 4 space rack mount for it. And that takes up a lot of space on a work bench. The new Stroboflip attaches to a piece of pipe that I installed on my portable work bench. It's out of the way and easy to stow. Just that alone makes me a happy camper. add to that all the features such as preprogrammed tunings and the ability to program my own tunings. As well as the new custom tunings like the Buzz Feiton system.
I hate to use a McDonalds reference but "I'm Lovin' It".
Please ignore the cluttered work bench.....can't seem to keep it clean.

Joey Delgado's Update on Sherry Pruitt

2008-09-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

Rena and I attempted to visit Sherry yesterday, but she is not up to visitors. She is undergoing intense physical therapy for her stroke. She suffered a brain aneurysm and is hopefully only "temporarily" paralyzed on her left side. Her voice is not affected. She is in a fighting mode, and is determined to win this battle.
She will be treated for at least two more weeks at:

Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center
7601 E. Imperial Hwy.
Downey, CA 90242
562 401-7111
She is Unit 2 North

She would love to receive your cards, letters of encouragement, and prayer.

BRIEF HISTORY OF SHERRY PRUITT:

Sherry was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas. God blessed her with a strong, powerful, and original voice, and she continues to give thanks. She has been praising Him publicly, through His gift, since the age of six -- when her rendition of "His Eyes Are On The Sparrow" at church touched many souls.

At one time called "Little Sherry Jackson", Sherry participated in her elementary, junior high, and high school choirs. She received many awards for her originality. Sherry's musical and professional inspiration comes from Mahalia Jackson, Koko Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington, Gladys Knight, and many more.

In 1974 Sherry moved to California to pursue a career as a singer, recording artist, actress, and writer. She took vocal coaching from Ronnie Hasley and Evangeline Seward, and vocal techniques coaching from Bill Collier so that she could continue her odyssey through music and share her love for it all over the world.

Sherry has performed in many theaters from New York to Los Angeles. She has also performed in Las Vegas and in various clubs from Los Angeles to San Diego County, to Boston. In addition, Sherry has toured internationally traveling to Tahiti, Paris, South Africa, Europe, Japan, and the Middle East.

Currently, Sherry is doing session work and also working with The Delgado Brothers, The Bomb Squad Band, The Billy Haynes Band, and The Blues Project Band. Sherry loves being on stage, and has a powerful delivery and an infectious personality that makes people smile and dance their cares away

Thanks Joey
I'd like to encourage everyone to send love.
d

Prayers For Sherry

2008-09-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

I received an Email from my friend Joey Delgado of the Delgado Brothers.
It seems our friend Sherry Pruitt has suffered a stroke, and is now hospitalized.

Sherri is a vocal talent of untold proportion.
Please, thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery.

If you've never heard her before I'm told you can go to the FM KPFK 90.7 website and listen to the archive recordings on their site. Here's the link:
http://www.kpfk.org/programs/59-blues-power/73-blues-power-home-page.html

Sparrow Guitar In Progress

2008-09-16T16:19:00.001-07:00

Someone asked me to show how It was created.
Rather than a sequence of photo's I decided to try a vid.

Jack Sparrow Theme Guitar

2008-09-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

This is the latest custom that I just completed,
I call it The Sparrow Guitar.
I was inspired by some of the artwork that was hanging on the walls around the office.
We have some really talented artists here at DCP.
The specs are listed on the final image, just click it to enlarge.
This Guitar is currently listed on Ebay for sale.

'82 Fender Stratocaster Elite

2008-09-15T12:46:00.001-07:00

Another Interesting Andy guitar.
This was a clean up, new strings and intonate guitar, with a side of why can't I get any sound from it? Turns out the negative battery post had broken off.

This was a cool example of tech. Obviously these are active pickups (Battery). What's cool about this is the coil located between the bridge and mid pickup. From what I can determine this is used as a transformer to boost the gain voltage. The selector switch's are individual but all can be on or off as needed. You can run all the pickups at once or just the ones you want.

I was jamming on it with the new strings when I realized I was playing the Bridge and Neck positions.....It sounded great.....How many strats do that....not many.
That gives me an idea for my next project guitar....

66 Jazzmaster

2008-09-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

So I have a new client who has a very large collection of guitars. We'll call him Andy.
Some say he has over 50, he says it's around 40 something......but he's not really sure.
Just a pile of cases. My task is to clean them and make them ready to play with new strings and intonation. So I decided to show some of the more interesting ones.

This one is a 66 Fender Jazzmaster, all original. I pulled the pickguard off to blow the dust out and make sure the connections were all still solid. The wiring blew me away. I've seen jumbles of connections before, but this was confusing. I had to pull a wiring diagram to figure it out, and I'm still not sure why they did it.

If anybody knows why they (Fender) added the extra volume and switch controls on the top, please leave a comment.

Nutty 67' Esquire Telecaster

2008-09-14T20:48:00.000-07:00

So there I was rehearsing with the Disney Consumer Products pickup band, and my friend Paul shows up and says "I busted my nut". After a "You Busted your What?" and a good laugh, he proceeded to tell me that while he was changing his strings the high E side of his nut just chipped off.....So he did the best he could to make it through rehearsal with a capo to hold the string in the nut. Then proceeded to hand the old girl over to me.

That weekend, I made quick work of shaping a new nut. However removing the old nut was more of a chore than I expected. Usually a nut just taps right out of the slot. This one just shattered, leaving chunks of bone in the slot to be chipped away at. On top of that, the previous nut was shimmed up with paper and glued in. It took forever to clean out the nut slot. But once I got her strung up she was singing like she used to.

I love the maple fret boards on older guitars, you can see the wear in the wood.

You can actually see the players favorite spots to hang out and solo.