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Private member DiscussionGeneral Business

Client booking Questionnaire

Good Day all. I am just about to undergo a small project with a local programmer to make a simple client booking and job sheet creator. The idea is not to compete with shop flow etc but to be a simple solution for booking, assessment, job sheet and tagging guitars. I'm sure some of you like me book with a calender write out an assessment sheet and a bit of sticky tape on a case. Then an invoice to boot. The goal is that once a booking i…

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Private member
This is all great info guys and I will take a look at the podcast. The more data like this I can get the better I can hope to make the program/app Andy
Private member DiscussionAcoustic Repair

55’ J-45 basket case

Well, it is what it is, I seem to have found myself “the guy” to bring basket case Gibsons too….. I have the following 55’ J-45. The top has some serious belly, and has had not one, but two different directions of bridge on it at various points. I’m trying to flatten the top out with Thompson belly reducers. I first tried the standard plates used for the bridge plate n the guitar, and although it helped, I still found the top to have a m…

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Ian Davlin
I was going to say. If it's hide glue and you're pulling the neck, I've got a move for pulling the top that is a ton easier than pulling the back. If it was in the cards, I would pull the top and pull…
Private member DiscussionAcoustic Builds

Brazilian Rosewood sides thickness

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.

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Private member
Hi: I treat side thickness on Braz like any other wood and have not found that it needs any special treatment (other than your bank account). Of course, if the sides are figured or has flatsawn area…
Private member DiscussionAcoustic Repair

Loose Truss Rod Nut

Hi Folks, I'm new here so I appreciate any input upfront! I had this guitar come through the shop and I've run up against something for the first time. The neck needs a little relief but when I went to adjust the truss rod the screw was already completely loose thus I couldn't perform that action. I tightened it just enough to get the truss rod nut to connect to the truss rod without making an actual adjustment to the neck in the wrong dire…

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Ian Davlin
Sometimes the truss rod can hang up the adjustment if there is surplus glue etc in the channel. Sometimes you can free up the relief just by flexing the neck. I usually grab it by the headstock and pu…
Private member DiscussionAcoustic Repair

Please share your processes for cracks that need splints

Hello good people, My shop’s in Quebec City, so I get to repair an ungodly amount of cracks thanks to our brutal winter and customers being largely unaware of the requirements of maintaining proper RH. Now for the first time (call me lucky) I have two very good guitars in the shop whose cracks won't close up after having been rehumidified for a few weeks. I have tried over-humidifying and it does it, but once returned to proper RH (50%)…

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Thanks Dave, I'll dive back into Pat's book to see if he covers his technique in there.
Private member DiscussionElectric Repair

Electric mandolin headstock repair - a previous glue and screw job used....

Hey! So I've got a customer who has dropped off with me one of the nastier headstock breaks I've seen in recent memory. There is excess glue of some sort (rock hard, clear) all inside the break, along with the threaded tracks of the screws. I'd usually just recommend a replacement neck in this case, but the customer is desperate to keep this neck as it holds some sentimental value to him. He's aware the repair will not be invisible, how…

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Ian Davlin
Some people have painted over faux wood. It would certainly be acceptable on this instrument to give that a whirl. We did an episode with joe glaser on the subject. Nikki Walters did a fine article on…
Private member DiscussionGeneral

Neck Shim spreadsheet

First time here on the forums, not sure how often I'll check in, but thought this the best place to post it. Was playing with an idea proposed by Buck Van Laarhoven on a parametric model for bolt-on neck shims, and found the formulas I wrote up translated easily to Taylor and conventional acoustic neck joints so decided to add boxes for those as well. I'm not well versed in Google Sheets, but couldn't see a way to upload the file direct…

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Private member
Hey Dave Recommend you make a copy of the file to load up. Then your original Google sheet won't be altered by another user in the shared file. You can do that by going to file and click 'make a copy…
Private member DiscussionElectric Repair

Floyd Rose Special Replacement Parts

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…

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Private member DiscussionTools and Jigs

Broken hex wrench piece drill jig

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…

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Slick move. What a clever setup, well done!