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Private member DiscussionAmps, Pickups, and Pedals

Help needed identifying real PAF

Hello estimable friends, A very long-term friend of mine left us on Christmas Eve after a long illness. His sister tasked me with evaluating, restoring, and selling his stuff. Today I'm preparing to restore a 2008 Longhorn GOM to its original EMGs. Pulling out the humbuckers I see a Pearly Gates and… what looks like an original short-magnet PAF. Correct shape brass screws for the bobbins, UV light confirms sticker and tape, tooling mark…

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Private member
Lindy Fralin quickly pointed to me that the pickup looks authentic all right, but the magnet is non-original. Having a second look at it myself, I realized very fast that it has been changed as it is…
Private member DiscussionGeneral

Humidity stability, moisture meters

It's that time of the year when I start to get all paranoid on the humidity levels of my shop. It happens at this time as the heating seems to send my hygrometers out of whack and it's quite difficult to keep things stable. So far i've been relying on keeping a 45% constant humidity in an automated system I built on Domoticz (similar to Home Assistant), which control a humidifier and dehumidifier. I'm not that confident i got this nailed…

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Thanks both for your replies. In all honesty so far I have not had any issues with my builds. The Trevor Gore books do mention that gluing should always be done at 45%RH, so i'll keep trying to stick t…
Private member DiscussionFinish Repair

Osmo oil finish

Hello. I am interested in the luthiers opinions about using Osmo oil as a finish on acoustic guitars? Advantages vs disadvantages. I am a new builder with small home workshop, mostly using hand tools to build my first acoustic guitar, an OM pre war style. Thank you all.

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Private member
Hi Matthew- I have been using Osmo on Guitars and other woodworking for about 15 years. I love the stuff, and it is still a bit confusing at times to understand their products. They have oils with less…
Private member DiscussionAcoustic Repair

Cleaning under loose braces

I am looking for new ideas on tools or methods for cleaning under partially loose braces to insure a good glue joint. In the past I've tried flossing with sandpaper, using the metal cutting edge from a wax paper box, maybe some extra thin files. In this job, one of the loose braces is up against the bridge plate, so it's impossible to pass something all the way through. The loose parts are marked with the red ellipses.

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Ian Davlin
Private member DiscussionGeneral

Newbie luthier wannabe

Thought I would introduce myself, I am a retired computer nerd ex farm boy that loves to fix things… used to repair/rebuild pianos but now that I live in FL, space is at a premium in small home so I now am venturing into repairing guitars…. I have numerous practice candidates I have picked up on the cheap as not to destroy anything of value or collectability, and have tooled up with enough stuff to be dangerous. I have done several aco…

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Glad to have you on board, Tom! Welcome!
Private member DiscussionGeneral

Widening fretslots

Hello everyone, I use a Stewmac japanese fretsaw (which produces .023" wide fretslots, matching the width of the tang of stewmac wire) to recut my slots on refrets. The saw does a good job making the slots deeper, but struggles to make them wider and binds like crazy throughout the process. I think that is due to it not having enough (or any) set, so in theory it only cut downwards and does a poor job removing material from the slot wall…

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11 replies
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My fretboards are done with a table saw & correct SM blade, if i need to touch them up after radius i go between the jap saw & regular one sm sells. yellow wax to stop them from sticking when cutting…