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Hi all. I've just joined the group....I'm pretty certain what I'm asking here has already been covered somewhere but not really sure at the moment how to search chat topics. If so, and it's easier to just point me to an older chat...please do so! I'm in my 50s, been playing guitar for as long as I can remember. I'm a trained wood-worker (amongst other things) and am looking to start a new journey into guitar repairs. At my age I can't a…

At what point do you tell a customer that their acoustic instrument needs a bridge reglue? Do you do it when the corners are just barely starting to lift? Once it has begun to affect playability/tuning stability? Do you offer half-measures to save them money when the damage is not too bad (dripping in some thinned tite bond instead of removing the bridge entirely for example)? I ask this because a Godin acoustic bass just came across my…

It was attacked by a Martin Dreadaught on a small mountain stage resulting in a faceplant. The top is Redwood. I was able to get it to glue up fairly well and have done some splice and drop fill on the vertical cracks. I'm curious about suggestions for the deep cross grain areas. I am hoping to not re-shoot any lacquer and just rub out the finish with some Kovax dry sanding. It was never high gloss buff to begin with and it's a personal…

HI EVERONE! I just found a sealed box ready to ship that must have been sitting awhile. In it I found a new "signed" Opti-visot with t double lenses as the one I use I know it was ready to ship to someone, and I think it was a LG person. If you are the person that I promised to send this too, please let me know. Thanks, Dan Erlewiine

I have a Favilla Classical guitar on the bench, in for a bridge reglue. This is a low to mid-range classical guitar, made circa 1960, and it's an heirloom guitar for the customer, he basically wants it back in playing shape. The story is that he went away on vacation, and when he returned the bridge had delaminated from the top and took a fair amount of finish with it. It also appears that someone attempted to glob on superglue at some…

Hello again folks, how is everyone! So I'm curious about what people here think about re-tops, who's done them, and what sorta ballpark rates you've charged for past completed jobs. I've got a bit of a wild one here, so strap in if you've got a couple minutes for story time! Back in 2012, I traded an HD28V of mine for a cool 1966 D-35 that needed some work. Basically, the body and neck of the guitar were fine apart from…

Hey everyone, I'm a technician at a music production school in London. As the most 'guitariest' technician on staff, I've become the de facto guitar maintenance person. A big part of my work is taking a look at each guitar once a week. Usually my "routine" is to check action and intonation, making adjustments if needed, then cleaning/polishing. The thing I struggle with the most is getting strings feeling good. We use D'Addario…

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…

Hey guys, Up until now I've always tried to blend any repairs into the surrounding area when it comes to finishing and avoid refinishing as much as possible. However, im yet to be fully satisfied with the results or hit the elusive "invisible repair" So my question is, for this headstock fix in the image, would you simplly refinish over the splines or consider refinishing the whole neck to avoid the blending battle? For what its worth, its…

I had a client dropped off his Suhr JM Classic for a pot replacement yesterday. The fretboard extension hangs over the pickguard on these a little so I flipped it over to loosen the neck screws a tad. I found what looked like 3 missing neck screws and only one screwed in place. The one screwed in place was bright and shiny. I removed that screw and the neck would not budge at all. I focused a pin light into the neck pocket holes to find…

Friends - I have an unexpected problem with my 1989 P Bass-Plus. I suspect that the Series-Parallel switch is grounding out (ie, short circuiting) when the 3-position pickup selector is in the P pickup position (disengaging the J pickup and all 3 pickups). I am waiting for feedback from Fender as to whether there is both a wiring diagram for this bass and the possibility of getting a direct replacement switch. Has anyone worked on these…

Hello everyone, this will be a long post. I usually describe my passion for luthiery as a "fire." I can easily remember the day I realized that I wanted this to be what I would do for the rest of my life. It started as pure joy; learning day by day was like unwrapping a new surprise. I did everything right: studied, practiced, studied, practiced. I built my own jigs and tools, and I even did a small apprenticeship with a local luthier. Wh…

Hi looths ! I return to a repair of a personal project. It had a crude end grain break, which was previously messed up with, so I cleaned one part of the break and glued everything back with epoxy. The plan was to excavate the wood from the sides and behind the break, then to add new wood, sandwiching the trussrod. Now that I've discovered the carbon fiber sheet repair, I wonder if it could be a good candidate for that, or if it'd first…

This Lys (made in Canada) is one of my personal guitars. I noticed the string ends are dissappearing into the bridge plate. I thought about buying the SM Bridge Saver when they were having a discount sale, but it's been out of stock. The tool set costs more than I paid for the guitar, but I figure I could use it in the future for other repairs. I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with this tool and if it's a better repair than p…

Hard to get a good recording of it but clear as day in person, I assume truss rod rattle? Checked braces, piezo system, bridge bolts,tuning machine ferrules all seem tight, anything else to check off? And as for fixes, what to y'all prefer these days?