Blog Archives

September Repairs

30/9/2017

It's been another busy month in the workshop with some lovely guitars in for repairs and customisations.
Enjoy some of the highlight photos below, including some high end handmade bass guitars, rare Epiphones and a stunning example of a Gibson Les Paul!
We're never to busy to get your guitar/ bass to it's playing best so get in touch if you're in need of any repairs, customisations or restorations.
Happy Playing!

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Tokai fretless bass fingerboard restoration

25/9/2017

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This vintage 80's Tokai bass was brought in the workshop after being shipped in from Japan.
The bass had been poorly converted into a fretless, the previous owner must of ripped the frets out, leading to large amounts of tearout on the wood.
The fretslots had then been filled with white filler, which had spread into the surrounding tearout, causing large patches of white all over the board. The board was also in very poor condition and was very dry, obviously had been neglected for sometime.
Below is details on our restoration of the fingerboard.

The amount of damage to the board was horrifying with the filler used all over the board filling the tearout. The filler that had been used was breaking down into a powder but it had spread into the surrounding wood.
As well, the board had deep grooves where round wound strings had been used instead of flat wounds, all this damaged needed to be sorted.

The filler carefully was removed and the slots cleared before the board could be prepped for the new maple inserts, you can see the removed filler either side of the board.

Before the board restoration could continue a nasty separation of the board from the neck had to be dealt with , this was caused by the age of the board and how dry the wood was. The crack was clamped and glued, left to dry then cleaned up ready for the next step to begin

The tearout and damage to the board was filled with a mixture of woodglue and rosewood sawdust!

The board after the first pass of filling the damage and tearout, this process had to be repeated several times after the excess had been removed, due to the state of the board and the previously used filler had soaked into the wood surrounding the fret slots, causing further problems.

While working on the board, another crack became apparent that needed to be fixed before work could continue.

These photos show the process during the filling process and removing the excess filler. Once the damage was filled, the board was sanded smooth, removing the string grooves at the same time.

Once the board was ready, the next step was filling the slots with maple veneer as the new fret markers, these were cut over sized and glued in, before being cut back to the board and sanded smooth.

The final stages of the restoration, the main work has been done, with just some detail work needed on the edges of the board before it can be treated with a health amount of lemon oil to give some much needed moisture to the wood!
Below are some photos of the finished project, the customer collected the bass, and fitted a new scratchplate and some roundwound strings, before bringing it back to us for a setup!

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Guthrie Govan Signature Charvel

18/9/2017

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This stunning Guthrie Govan Signature Charvel was recently in the workshop for a setup to switch it's tuning to E-flat for a gig the owner was working at. It was then brought back to be returned to standard tuning after the gig!
This particular guitar is looked after by us as part of a session musicians guitar collection, while it was in, we took the opportunity to take some photos!
It's too lovely not to share so enjoy the photos!

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Epiphone S300 Restoration

7/9/2017

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This vintage Epiphone S300 was recently in the workshop for a setup, wiring problems and it's bridge posts needed some attention and sorting, after they had started to rise out of the guitar making it impossible to setup

This photo clearly shows the lifting of the bridge posts, it can happen for a few reasons, normally tremolo abuse is the main cause, but in this instance I believe the wood has slightly shrunk due to it's age.
The bridge and posts were removed, the area underneath was cleaned and the lacquer that was lifted by one of the posts was resealed back to the body.
After the bridge posts holes were cleaned, the bridge posts were glued back into place so the guitar would stay in tune so it could be setup!
It also had some wiring problems including a faulty jacksocket which was sorted before it was ready to be collected by the customer

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September Repairs

Tokai fretless bass fingerboard restoration

Guthrie Govan Signature Charvel

Epiphone S300 Restoration

Lewis Durtnall

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