Blog Archives - Guitar Repairs, Restorations & Customisation by Lewis Durtnall

Offering Guitar Repairs, Restorations and Customisations, throughout Torquay, Paignton, Brixham, Torbay, Teignmouth, Newton Abbot, Totnes, Exeter, Plymouth & Devon!

1988 Yngwie Malmsteen Signature USA Fender Stratocaster

1/8/2019

This stunning 1988 Yngwie Malmsteen signature series Fender USA Stratocaster was recently in the workshop for a fret polish and to have it’s intonation set!
This guitar was the first signature model that Fender produced (just after they reopened their USA workshops) and was made in the custom shop workshop. So it’s essentially a custom shop Fender!

Summer in the Workshop!

31/7/2019

Summer is in full swing and it's business as usual in the workshop, with some lovely instruments through this month, including an ESP Eclipse, Fender Telecaster BAJA and a rare Ibanez Talman.

We're never to busy to quote on any repairs, restorations, or modifications, as we would love to work on your guitar to get it to its playing best!

Don't forget there's plenty more photos on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/TorbayGuitarRepairs
Happy playing!

Ibanez 5 string Bass Drop F# Setup

29/7/2019

This cool Ibanez 5 string bass was recently in the workshop for a setup to drop F# tuning!

Epiphone Machinehead upgrade and Setup

29/7/2019

This pretty Epiphone Les Paul was in the workshop to have new pickups fitted and new machineheads!

The new machineheads lined up perfectly over the holes the Grovers left, although conversion bushing were needed for the new machineheads on the front of the headstock!

The new machineheads and the new pickups transformed this lovely guitar!

Tanglewood Bone Nut and Saddle Upgrades

24/7/2019

This lovely Tanglewood Parlour acoustic was brought in for a upgrade to a hand cut bone nut and bone saddle, along with ebony bridge pins and a full setup!

The original plastic nut and the original saddle

Cutting the slots on the new bone nut, using the original as a guide plus shaping the new bone saddle.
The new bone nut next to the original plastic one plus the new bone saddle next to the plastic original!

The new handcut bone nut and the new bone saddle with the new ebony bridge pins

Fender Deluxe Nashville Power Telecaster Modification

13/7/2019

This cool Mexican Fender Deluxe Nashville Power Telecaster had one of it’s piezo saddles replaces, along with a toggleswitch fitted.
This toggleswitch allowed the owner to switch between the Fishman bridge, standard pickups or having both on together. The USA version comes with this switching option fitted as standard.

The control plate was drilled to allow the switch to be fitted and wired up!

Fender Jaguar Customisation

11/7/2019

This cool Fender Mexican Jaguar was brought in as the customer wanted to give it an overhaul after it spending years being unplayed.
After discussing what he wanted, we decided on upgrading the pickups and custom wiring, along with giving it a new bridge to replace the rusted one, along with a full service. The pickups were a Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge and a custom made single coil by Jaime at The Creamery, which would be matched to the Super Distortion.

The frets were hand polished and the fingerboard cleaned and oiled to clean of years of dirt/grime.

The cavity for the bridge pickup was for a thinner Jaguar sized pickup, so had to be carefully opened up by hand to allow the larger single coil sized Dimarzio Super Distortion to be fitted

The final result with the scratchplate fitted, the single coil sized humbucker blended in well with the rest of the guitar.

To match the high output of the Super Distortion, Jaime at The Creamery custom made a Darkline neck pickup, spec'd out to be balanced with the bridge humbucker.

We also installed two push/pull pots, allowing a reverse phase function and a series/parallel option to get the most of out the pickups, creating a massive amount of tonal options combined with the Jaguar switching!

With all the work done, the guitar was setup ready for the customer to collect, one very cool and versatile Jaguar!

Takamine's Mysterious Rattle

10/7/2019

This lovely 1995 Takamine acoustic was brought in for a MOT and also to solve a strange buzzing/rattling noise when it was played.

The buzzing/rattling was more apparent on certain notes, after an internal inspection, it turned out that the nuts on the bolts, holding the bridge down, had worked themselves loose!
The picture of our inspection video camera shows the bridge bolts that were causing the problem.
Once tighten, the mysterious noise disappeared!

Ernie Ball Musicman Axis Fretwork and Service

9/7/2019

This ace Musicman Axis was in the workshop for a setup and a hand fret polish!
It had an awesome story, the customer owned the guitar years ago, then unfortunately had to sell it, although he didn’t want to.
A fair few years later he spotted the guitar for sale on the website of a major guitar shop, and as he recognised the serial number, it was his chance to buy it back, but it sold too quickly.
Amazingly the same guitar appeared back on the website 6 months later and the customer seized the chance and brought it, being reunited with his guitar 10+ years after selling it!
Our job was to reset it back to factory standard and bring the tarnished frets back to new condition!

The frets after the hand fret polish.

PRS SE Chris Robertson Signature Rewire

4/7/2019

This lovely Chris Robertson signature PRS SE was in the workshop for a complete rewire with upgraded braided and cloth wire, CTS pots, Switchcraft toggleswitch and jacksocket with Sprague Orange Drop Capacitors!
The customer had been suffering from intermittent output, which was randomly dropping the treble from the tone too.

The original wiring, which was causing intermittent volume and tone mainly due to poor soldering joints, the toggleswitch had also started to fail. Not ideal as the customer had brought the guitar from new less than a year ago!

You can see the difference between the cheap toggleswitch on the left and the uprated Switchcraft switch on the right.

The last picture shows the rewired guitar with the new components and metal braided wire!

For guitar repairs and customisations by Lewis Durtnall, email [email protected]!