The Hub

I need some suggestions from the many great repair senseis out there.The customer is fine with a structural repair and not concerned about making it invisible. I told him you will see anything I do. He was fine with that and has a budget of between $700-1000. It's a clean break. nothing missing, It closes tightly.. I was thinking either 1) the generic double splines one on either side of truss rod and touchup as best I can. Or 2) the ab…

Hi All, I wanted to check in with folks in the industry and ask for some advice. I have been on a building Hiatus for a number of years now (Hand Injury, Medical Issues). Things have gotten much better, and I am fully able and capable of building once again. The 2nd biggest hurdle I have had was a lack of opportunity for shop spaces to build. I now have a viable workspace and full use of my hands once again to build. The problem is that, o…

Looking to get a custom fingerboard slotted, radiused and cut for block inlays, preferably in Canada. Any leads much appreciated! 🙏

Greetings Wise Elders and fellow seekers of the Looth Group! I hope you're all keeping well. I humbly beseech thee for thine sage wisdom and experience. I purchased a 1971 Hagstrom Swede. This guitar was basically put in a case and then forgotten about for a few decades. I felt sorry for the old man and have taken it in as a stray / project. I would like to get it playing again. There are many scars on this guitar, I have looked for as…

Guitar fell straight down on the headstock when it was hanging up at the refinishers. Shit really does happen! Grain is pretty much shattered around the adjustment nut. Thinking I’ll replace the entire broken area with a completely new piece of mahogany. Scarf it in between the volute and 3rd fret. Probably even a 3 piece lamination to mimic the neck. This one was not the clients fault so the expectations for looking close to original a…

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…

*Photo added* Ding repair on spruce top, 2015 Collings 0002HE #23701. What are y’all reaching for when repairing dents in nitro? GlueBoost fill & finish or drop filling with nitrocellulose? This is a well-used guitar; not pristine and the owner has reasonable expectations that the repair will not be “like it never happened” Bonus question: If there is bare wood, should I seal it with shellac to preserve the color before proceeding to fil…

I've got a client with a '72 Tele. It needs a re-fret, but the truss rod isn't functioning. In fact it's backed out of the channel significantly, and there's a bulge in the neck underneath the first fret which suggests to me there's something going on with the truss rod anchor. The puzzling thing is the wood in the neck has bulged, but the skunk stripe and the finish don't appear to be disturbed at all. I'm thinking I'll probably hav…

When using epoxy (either silvertip or epoxy), I try to sand back the epoxy on the surface and only leave it in the pores. I'll start the process with sanding to 320g or so then using an air compressor to blow out the pores. The challenge that I run into is opening new pores in the process. I use a block of wood and long strokes in an attempt to avoid uneven sanding. Ultimately I'll get a good pore fill but I tend to apply several coats…

Hey everybody, I should restore this Roger Rossmeissl Archtop. There is a lot of work to do. The owner is aware of the possibly-much-more-work-than-value situation. I am still thinking about how to aproach it, I want to start working on the guitar in August. It seems that there is not much warping in the top, few wood is lost. I do not know what happened to the guitar, but sometimes I hear a voice coming out the corner of my workshop mumb…

I've built a number of classical guitars with an adjustable neck and they seem to gather quite a bit of interest, so i'm currently in the process of looking to refine the design and build. It's quite a simple construction where the neck is held together by string tension and hangs on a pivot. I developed a 3d printed "socket" which acts as the interface between the body and the guitar and allows for some fine tuning of the alignment of t…