Blog Archives

Gibson Acoustic Body Crack Repair

1/2/2019

This lovely Gibson J35 acoustic was recently in the workshop to have a nasty crack repaired down the bass side of the guitar!

The crack was glued and reenforced by cleated, which were shaped down before fitting. This ensured the crack was strong and would withstand the gigging circuit.

Once the crack was repaired the crack was then filled with lacquer before being polished back to blend the repair work in with the existing finish!

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Winter at the Workshop

31/1/2019

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It's the start of the new year and we're already busy in the workshop. Some lovely guitars have already been through the workshop.

If you've a new guitar for Christmas or getting back into playing as a resolution, please get in touch if it needs a setup or service or any other problem that needs sorting.

We are always happy to work on your guitar, either repair or customisation, Happy Playing!

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Squire Mustang New Nut and Setup

29/1/2019

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This ace Squire Mustang was brought in for a new hand cut bone nut and setup. The pictures below show some of the stages of cutting a new bone nut by hand, using the old one as a template to ensure the guitar feels exactly the same as it did from new.

With the new nut fitted, the guitar was setup to the customers playing style before being ready for him to collect!

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Fender Jazz Bass Pickup Fitting

25/1/2019

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This ace Fender Jazz bass, owned by The Supernatural, was recently in the workshop to have new custom shop Fender pickups fitted and a new scratchplate.
The bridge pickup was slightly larger than the Mexican body routing, so was carefully opened up by hand to allow the pickup to be fitted. The photos below show the original sized cavity not taking the bridge pickup, this is because early Mexican Jazz bass bridge pickups were the same size as the neck pickup!

With all the cavity expansion work done, the new pickups were fitted and wired in, ready for the bass to go to it's next gig!

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60's Hofner Verithin Electronics Fix

23/1/2019

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This lovely vintage 1960's Hofner Verithin was brought in the workshop suffering with electrical issues.

Getting into the wiring, it became apparent that the main problem was the earthing wire had snapped sometime in the past at it's anchor point.

A bit of a tight working space but a new earthing wire was installed along with dry solder joints resoldered. The pots were also cleaned with contact cleaner to remove any crackles due to the age of the pots!

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Gibson SJ-100 Acoustic Fret Recrown

21/1/2019

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This lovely Gibson SJ-100 was brought in by a regular and long standing customer of ours, his latest workhorse needed some tlc on it's frets after being used on a heavy gigging schedule.

The problem was indented fret wear, this was sorted by a fret recrown and hand polish. Restoring the curvature profile back into the fret meant the notes rang clear again without any buzzing/muting and the smooth hand polished frets allowed ease of string bending and further still allowed the fret strings to ring clearly. At the same time the fingerboard was cleaned and treated!

With the fretwork complete, the guitar was restrung and ready to go back to it's life of gigging!

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Warwick Bass Restoration

18/1/2019

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This ace and very hardworking 5 string Warwick Corvette SS was recently in the workshop for some some tlc, including a detail clean and fret polish and a setup!
It has seen over 2,000 + gigs being previously used in a national touring production plus all the gigs with its owners band too!
The first problem was solving the faulty output on the bass, this was caused by the battery terminal falling apart over years of use. The clip was replaced with an uprated one and we fitted some foam to the back of the cavity plate to secure the battery in place to stop it rattling loosely around.

The frets were in a very sorry state and needed a hand fret polish to remove years of corrosion.

Here's a link to our Facebook video showing the frets before the polish.www.facebook.com/TorbayGuitarRepairs/videos/1985815861474351

The string anchor was also causing some issues due to it not holding the bottom bass string correctly. We carefully widened out the channel sides and then finished it with black stain and lacquer to protect the metal from the now correctly seated string.

Here's a link to our Facebook video showing the frets after the polish.
www.facebook.com/TorbayGuitarRepairs/videos/356807274870764/

With the bass work complete, it was restrung with a fresh set of strings and setup ready to go for it's next gig!

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1970's Telecaster new Pickup Fitting

15/1/2019

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This 1970's Telecaster had bags of character including a DeArmond neck pickup fitted by the customer.

This had a monster output and the customer was never happy with the output of the bridge pickup after fitting the neck pickup.
The solution was we had Oil City Pickups hand wind a new bridge pickup with a much stronger output, but which would still retain that classic telecaster sound.

The customer also wanted a reverse phase switching option so we wired this in at the same time with a push/pull volume control switching the reverse phase on and off!

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Project Stratocaster neck fitting and Setup

10/1/2019

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This project strat was brought in as the owner was suffering choking frets on the upper region of the neck. When it was brought in the workshop, it became clear that the neck was not seating in the pocket properly in the heel, causing an incorrect neck angle.

As it turned out, it was the neck that was slightly too wide for the pocket, it was carefully opened up by hand with a sharp chisel to allow a proper fit of the neck and the pocket.

With the neck correctly fitted, the guitar was then set up with an ultra low action to the customers playing style.

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1987 Gibson 335 Dot Setup

7/1/2019

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This stunning 1987 Gibson 335 Dot was recently in for a setup.
It had a brilliant backstory, as often vintage guitars do, the owner was lucky enough to purchase it less than 24 hours it had been in the window of a guitar shop many years ago. The guitar is the same year that the customers son was born.

It was in lovely condition, although suffering from a sunken bridge, very common with older Gibsons, the guitar sounded amazing!