The Hub

I was able to get this one out using two Foam cutters and a little extra external heating of the heel with a heat gun on the low setting. Drilled at 15th fret as usual and got lucky, the holes intersected and scorched the dowels. I still had to wrestle it for about an hour... Converting to bolt-on is fun because the dowel holes will make aligning things easier. Once the dowels are removed, I'll just use two of the holes to refasten with…

Maybe there’s already a place for this but someone wants an old sentimental guitar modified with a Floyd rose and I haven’t done one of those in forever. Thinking back to when I was younger in the trade and stuff like this came up I would’ve loved to have a place to go where helpful repair folks hangout who might help me to avoid underbidding the hell out of a job. I used to bid everything low because I was thinking about the client and…

Hi, Hope it's OK to post this kind of query here? I'm working on a '71 Gibson E-B3 bass. The bridge construction features 2 x 1/16" grub screws, which are supposed to seat (as I understand) on a string mute construction. The instrument I'm working on has shed the mute at some point in its history and I'm needing to replace the grub screws and work out a way of mounting that doesn't chew into the top. A couple of questions: a) would any…

I made a press along the lines of what was described in a John Calkin article in the Ken Parker issue of the American Litherie magazine. Today was my first chance to give it a shot and it seems to have done a great job. I diverged from the article by using Nylok nuts, which ended up being a total pain, definitely not worth The Certainty of it Staying Put. I also added 3D printed feet, so the threaded rod ends wouldn’t scar every surface…

I'm working on a Japanese Strat with a Kahler tremolo I've never seen before. I'm trying to find where the adjustment point for the saddle intonation is. The back side has openings for each string for... something. It's not an allen wrench, and it's not a screwdriver of any kind. The threads are 6/32" and when I tighten a screw into the holes, nothing happens. I haven't been able to find anything on google about this particular bridge.…

I'm working on a repair to a Washburn EA50 headstock. Someone previously tried to repair this with a dowel, which likely worked until it was strung up. I've routed a slot and created a biscuit, and built a jig to hold both parts of the headstock in the same plane and clamp everything tight (some cauls and threaded blocks of maple with 1/4-20 machine screws). The plan is to use System 3 gel epoxy (a'la Beau Hannum) and then add a coup…

Ian - that was some really interesting stuff he presented today. I plunked down the $ for his book and will be picking up the recommended USB microphone- oh, some oregano too. So here’s the suggestion: maybe every broadcast/recorded program should have a thread for q and a and discussion. I assume you would want to start a new section an populate it with all of the programs in advance - yeah, we love making busy work for you. And I am rea…

I’ve come across several Takamine lawsuit guitars needing neck resets. These lawsuit guitars are from the 1980’s and are basically a copy of a Martin. Pictured below is a 12-string Takamine that came in for a neck reset. After several hours using heat rods at the 15th fret all of the the wooden dowels would not release. My solution was to take a putty knife with a sharpened edge and using a hammer slice the dowels at the joint. As you c…