Blog Archives

It might be cold outside...

28/2/2018

We've been lucky enough to have some lovely guitars through the workshop recently and really enjoyed working on every one of them.

If you've a guitar in the attic, a gathering dust in a corner that needs some much loved attention or a guitar that is played daily that needs some maintenance, get in touch and we'll be more than happy to help get your guitar to it's playing best!

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Gibson Les Paul 2017 50's Tribute Faux Binding

21/2/2018

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This stunning example of a Gibson Les Paul tribute was in the workshop to have Faux binding. This is created by carefully removing the finish on the edge of the maple cap, exposing the maple, which creates the look of binding.

Once the maple cap was exposed, the 'binding' was gently sanded and the finished with truoil, to protect the maple by sealing it. The truoil blended in well with the thin matt nitro lacquer finish on the guitar.

All finished, Plenty of pictures of this lovely guitar in the gallery below

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Manuel Rodriguez bridge lift repair and bodywork

15/2/2018

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This Manuel Rodriguez classical was brought into the workshop due to it's bridge lifting off the body of the guitar.
The owner had tried to repair it himself, with limited success, as the glue he used hadn't created a strong enough bond.
The old glue needed to be cleaned off before the bridge could be reattached correctly.

Once the glue joint had been cleaned, the bridge was glued back down using a mixture of traditional 'go bar' clamping and a special bridge clamp. Due to the fact this joint had already been glued once, more pressure than normal was needed to ensure the bridge sat correctly on the body of the guitar.

The joint is left open to examination, to allow the removal of excess glue and for visual checks that the joint will dry strong.

After the correct amount of curing time, the bridge was restrung to test the joint. A finishing touch of some lacquer was added along the repaired joint to tidy up the appearance of the repair!

The previous owner had drilled holes in the guitar for strap buttons and the new owner wanted them plugged while the guitar was in for repair. Mahogany plugs were inserted before being stained and lacquered to hide the holes!

All repair work finished the guitar was restrung ready for the customer to enjoy once more!

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Taylor fretwork and replacement fingerboard inlay marker

12/2/2018

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This lovely Taylor acoustic was recently in for some much needed attention after being gigged for years.
It's main issue was fret buzzing due to fret wear on the lower frets, it also had lost it's 3rd fret inlay marker somewhere along the way too!

The fret grooves are common with guitars that are played regularly, as the fretwire is normally a softer metal than the guitar strings.
The photos show the different stages of recrowning the frets, restoring the curved profile into each fret, which eliminates the buzzing when the frets are played.

Once the fret recrown and hand polish had been completed, attention was turned to replacing the missing fret dot marker.

The original ones were a plastic with a slight pearloid effect. The decision was made to upgrade by using a real mother of pearl dot, which matched the exsiting ones better and looked a bit more classy than a plastic dot.

The work completed, the fingerboard was treated after being cleaned, then the guitar was restrung, ready for the customer to collect!

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Vintage 80's Tokai Fretwork

7/2/2018

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This 80's Japanese Tokai was brought in the workshop due to a nasty dent in one of the frets, this made the guitar unplayable on certain strings, due to the dent catching the string while bending and fretting.
Due to the depth of the dent and the low height of the other frets, the damaged fret was removed and replaced with the matching profile fretwire.

Although the dent doesn't look like much, it was very deep. These photos show the removal of the fret, in preparation for the the installation of the new fretwire.

With the new fret installed, it was much higher than the existing frets. the next step was the new fret needed to perfectly level with the old frets, else choking and fretbuzz would occur

Once the new fret had been levelled, all the frets were then recrowned to give more life into the frets and help hide the installation of the new fret.
The masking tape was removed after the fret recrown, to check the visual appearance of the new fret. The board was then remasked for the polish, after the polish, the board was treated with lemon oil to condition the wood.
The end result was a perfectly level new fret, that blended in well with the original frets that had been installed when the guitar was made.

Once the fret work was complete, the guitar was reassembled and treated to a setup to compliment the repair work.

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Classical Guitar new nut

5/2/2018

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This vintage classical guitar was brought in for a new nut, as the old plastic one had snapped.

A new bone nut was cut and shaped to the exact fit of the guitar before being fitted. The work was then completed with a detail clean and a new set of strings!