The Hub

I've been slowly chipping away at a rebind on a Gretsch streamliner with full on rotted binding. The repair was started by a luthier in KC that passed away a couple years ago and I inherited the repair after it sat for a few years. I've glued some binding back in place on martins with the Pacer canopy glue, and that has worked out fine in the past. I did a test w/ some new ABS from stewmac that I was going to use for rebinding the gr…

Listening in on the great zoom call today, a question was asked by the Stewmac representative, if the shop in the hot seat was an authorized repair center for any major brands. How many of you shop owners are authorized repair centers for the major brands? Gibson, Fender, Martin, Taylor and so on…. Do you have any wisdom you can share or contacts to get signed up to do work for the major brands? Also do you find doing warranty repairs i…

I'm in the process of setting up a Parker (PDF-80 Maxx Fly Floyd Rose Special; Early-2010s) and one of the Floyd Rose saddles (G string) are stripped. Found exact replacement parts on StewMac and ordered in hopes of just swapping out one of the saddles and not having to replace everything: https://www.stewmac.com/parts-and-hardware/bridges-and-tailpieces/bridges-and-tailpieces-for-electric-guitar/floyd-rose-tremolos/floyd-rose-special-s…

Hi! I just made a headless electric ukulele by misusing Steinberger's headstock tuner drop-in replacement: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD0nVr_NWnV/ It's fun, and I'd like to make more, (maybe even actually sand and apply finish to one!) but it sure would be nice to get the tuners at a wholesale rate if there's a possibility of selling an instrument. I got these at 6/$100 from Stewmac (https://www.stewmac.com/parts-and-hardware/tuning-m…

Hey there folks - putting together a couple of StewMac ukulele kits and my partner asked a great question about whether to apply finish to the inside surfaces like we do the outside. We will be staining and applying wipe on poly for protection. The logic seems reasonable - protect from moisture inside and out. Only concern I could think of was trapping moisture between the layers but that was it. Anybody have experience with applying a…

Posted this to my timeline instead of here.. woops I got to shielding a guitar of mine that has a laser etched piece of plywood for a pickguard (it looks really cool – I didn’t do it/design it, it came that way; pics can be added soon). I did the cavity with shielding tape but alas it did not stick to the plywood. This may have also been because I oiled it with Howard Feed-n-wax but jury is out. So I got StewMac’s conductive paint and…

Stewmac #0882 Set of 6 nut files for medium electric guitar. $65 includes postage in US Fret Guru Dagger 2.0 Crowning file. $35 shipped Stewmac #4490 narrow/medium crowning file. $30 shipped Stewmac Nut files 4541, 4542, 4543. $20 each, shipped They all have lots of life left in 'em!

Hey All I am finishing a ukulele and I am getting all these weird pits. I was able to drop fill a lot of them but most of them do not want to stay filled and it is driving me mad! Anyone have an idea as to what may be causing these little pits? I used StewMac's dry power pore filler and their lacquer. I'm about to strip it and start over because at this point I've been chasing my tail so much I'm going crossed eyed. Thoughts?

I'd like to start a discussion about guitar polishes. We have always been careful to use only non-silicone products on nitro finishes. We previously used Stewmac Preservation polish for years, but they don't offer that product anymore. We recently had maybe what was a bad batch of Stewmac "Clean and Shine" that was softening nitro finishes so we trashed it and haven't purchased anymore. The first bottle we got worked great, but the s…

Hey guys, Sorry, this may be a dumb question. I'm cutting some new frets for this D-28 with a bound fretboard. Does anyone know of a good way to prevent the fret ends from twisting when cutting the tangs? They're stainless steel frets, not sure if that would matter. I'm using a fret tang nipper from StewMac. It seems like no matter how little material I try to bite off at a time, the tang nipper twists the fret, which leads to the ends s…

If you're like me, you've acquired lots of small luthier tools over the years from StewMac and other vendors. Having a place to store them has always been a problem for me. I stopped drinking soft drinks years ago because they're bad and I recently found out I'm diabetic so they're definitely off the menu. I swapped out soft drinks for water and Crystal Light a long time ago. In our throw away culture, single use plastics are a huge pro…

I've done a few neck resets lately, (new territory for me) using the StewMac Heat Stick. It does a fine job releasing the glue, my problem is filling the hole in the 15th fret slot so that it isn't noticeable. I did a lighter colored rosewood board lately that certainly could have been better. I'm thinking of trying the needle/ steam method instead but haven't found a controllable source for steam. I would appreciate any advice with…

Hey everyone, I could use some advice as far as the fretting process is concerned. I’ve been doing guitar repair since around 2008, I opened my business doing guitar repair in September of 2021, and I’ve always felt that fretwork has been the most challenging part of this job. I’m getting to the point now where I finally feel like I’m getting the hang of it, but I’m not where I want to be yet. I should mention that I use the Erlewine…

Hey all, I’ve got a Prewar Martin on my workbench (1932/33 0-18) and this thing has unfortunately been through the guitar center wringer. I’ve had to reset a fretboard that was glued down with Gorilla glue and as well, rejoint the neck and underside of the fretboard. I had to repair a large deal of tear out that was sitting underneath their fret job and because of that I now have a brittle fret slot all up the board that will not hold a fr…

I have some acoustic building templates for anyone that's interested. I bought these from Allied Lutherie before I got into CNC work. Now that I'm drawing my own stuff I don't really use these at all. Maybe someone would find them useful? Includes: 1 - L-00 template for outside form (1/2" mdf) 1 - L-00 template for side bending form (1/2" mdf) 1- L-00 body profile template (1/8" polycarbonate) 1 - J-45 template for outside form 1 - J-45 temp…

Someone came to me with an old Gretsch afflicted with binding rot. The cream binding was mostly intact, with some pitting and discoloration in various spots, and only a couple of pieces loose. The owner was aware that the only sure cure was the removal of the old binding, and then rebinding the guitar. They didn't want to invest that much money into a repair. I rediscovered a StewMac video from 2017 called "Guitar repair using kitchen…

I am a relatively new ”looth”…an amateur/hobbyist at this point, but have recently retired and plan to do much more in retirement. One thing that I am needing at this point is to equip my shop with some better vises and other work-holding equipment. So far I have just used a parrot vise, which has been okay (but not great) for the work I have done so far. I was about to invest in StewMac’s classic Guitar Repair Vise, but one thing I’m r…

I have dented the finish in the soundboard of one of my current builds while trying to clean up glue squeeze out after clamping on the bridge. I used a long piece of binding and I guess I held it at a bad angle and there you go. This is only my third guitar build and have steamed out countless dents already in unfinished wood, but I am unsure what to do to get out this dent in the finish other than sand it back at the dent and rebuild f…