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Hey all, I’m curious to know people’s general thoughts on the appropriate or ideal saddle height after a reset. And, when to replace a bridge that’s been shaved down. I know there are a lot of factors (for me anyhow) and this question could open a whole can of worms when it comes to the specifics of the guitar, its age, style of bridge and desired sound. I’m providing an example I encountered recently, but would also like to know people…

So, I've seen people having to deal with crappy binding glue on newer Martin's. I have a D35 at 50 (2015) and the purfling has separated from the guitar body all the way around both the top and bottom of the guitar due to heat. Not only that but the binding has separated from the purfling in spots. The glue is still tacky and it's almost like a thick stain as it has impregnated the top and sides, making it impossible to completely rem…

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…

And another one — putting it in general as while this is an acoustic, the particulars are more relevant to the brand than the type of guitar. This is a very early Hofner Committee (serial 20XX, maybe 1954?) that has suffered some minor blunt force trauma. The mounting posts for one of the tuning keys snapped. While repros may be available, I assume with something this weird and vintage repair is probably more feasible and affordable. Bu…

I have three aluminum Ukulele molds for sale. I was surprised to find them in a thrift store here in Athens, OH. I bought them with plans to refurbish them. They are heated with propane or gas via copper pipe with small holes similar to gas stove burners. i had planned to use new piping but would probably have tried what’s there to see how it worked (being safety conscious of course) The molds are very well made, and I assume are cast alu…

Hey all, I have a customer that brought a mid 2000's Gold Jazzmaster to get a suggestion on what to do to the neck of it. On the Low E side of the neck it has about .08 relief, while the treble side is at .05 relief, and the truss rod is maxed out. He has had several other well known luthiers in the area work on it, one of them tried a fret dress and a setup that only fixed it for about a month, and the other one heated the neck to add…

Here’s some more pencil solderer/copper wire pics. All neck pulls were clean and successful.

Howdy, folks! I'm playing around with an old Harmony Stella, and when I couldnt quite get the neck off with heat (still a newb here), I just sawed it off. Underneath was a delightful green colored dovetail. Is that pressure treated wood or over the decades mold just got into the wood that deep?

I'm building my first BRW guitar, started with the back, pictured below. What do you normally thickness BRW sides to? I guess they can probably be a bit under 2 mm, but I don't want to overdo it in case there is some slight deformation that needs to be sanded later. I bend manually on a heating iron if that makes any difference.

Side bender machine in great condition. Includes spring steel, heating blankets, and thermocouple. No bending forms included, just the machine itself. Asking $600 for local pickup in Chicago area.

Kapton polyamide Heat resistant tape. Combined with heat resistant soldering matts, can help as a heat sink to protect finishes from getting scored. The tape is to line the matt with, not to stick onto guitar finish as it’s high tack. The matts are usually made from fibre glass so ideally needs a heat resistant covering to make it more usable. https://plumbingsuppliesdirect.co.uk/soldering-equipment/soldering-mats/ https://www.strouse.com/b…

Hello everybody! I've got a newer Martin Special 16 (all solid wood with matte back/sides and gloss top) in for some loose braces. Here in Houston I'm used to dealing with acoustics damaged by over-humidification or extreme heat rather than what I often see addressed in the group by you wonderful folks in your colder (normal) climates. My customer had this guitar shipped to him from Wisconsin, and I suspect it was exposed to some extreme…

This thing had a conveniently placed hole in the neck pickup cavity that ran all the way to the end of the tenon, presumably the entry point for the long drill bit that drilled the access from pickup cavity to control cavity before the neck was originally fitted. I injected several pipettes of hot water into this hole while heating the fretboard extension area with a silicone blanket to loosen the extension from the body. Reactivated hi…

Hi all, hopefully some useful information. Dovetail mortise sized from 39mm to 45mm front to back, 19mm deep. I drilled 18mm in from the sides of the fretboard - the extension and neck came off quite cleanly - extension heated with heat pad and pocket with heat sticks and a tiny amount of injected water. Steve

Getting the fingerboard extension off was the hardest part. It required a 1/2 hour at about 230F (measured on the fingerboard surface). The neck join came loose in about 15 minutes using heat sticks and injecting a few cc"s of water every 5 minutes.

This is an early 80's Jester. The only identification is the label inside which appears to show the model number as ACW160, though I've only seen reference to model W160 online. There is scant information about Jester guitars online, and some of it seems inconsistent. This was most likely made in either Holland or Romania. Online information indicated that this would have a dowelled neck joint, but it clearly doesn't. This was a very di…

I just opened a repair shop and the first repair was to remove a broken 1/8" hex wrench ball end from the truss rod nut of a Turner RB4 Renaissance Bass. I read of all sorts of theories on how to extract/remove. None of them had recorded actual attempts of the theories. There's probably others on here but I haven't found them. The ball end was loose and mangled at the rear of the nut sleeve. I tried fairly benign methods first. Heat…

Required 30 minutes of heating with the Ian Davlin design heat sticks at 3 amps, periodically removing one and injecting a few cc's of water. You can see from the burn marks I missed the location of the outer edge of the dovetail. When it finally lets go the neck tips up, but does pop out because there is glue under the "tongue".