The Hub

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…

Pretty standard dovetail. End of the pocket is right under 15th fret as expected. This one was already loose when I received it. A little wiggling and it came right apart.

Hello everybody, I have a 2001 Guild 12-string in my shop that I suspect got a little too hot in a car. The extent of the damage is what you see here, the two cracks in the top and some warped binding where it meets the neck. I don't see any loose or damaged bracing. After looking into it a little, I found Frank Ford's approach: http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Technique/Guitar/Structural/Cracks/D45FBTopCrack/d45fbtopcrack.html b…

I've got a 1970s Harmony Stella parlor guitar and the top seems to be buckling. There is (at least one) loose brace. I assume that there's something going on with the neck block, and that just re-gluing the brace isn't going to fix this. I have no experience removing necks or doing neck resets. This is my own guitar, and I bought it as a learning tool, so I am comfortable using it as such. So... Is my assessment about the neck block likel…

Hey friends, just wanted to share a thingy I made and have been finding very useful for a couple years now. Ive intended to remake it prettier ( former helper did the file work), but this one works fine and I'm busy. I call it the Brace Brace. It hugs a length of the loose brace, and puts nice pressure across the brace, but most importantly on the scalloped end against the kerfing. I loosen one side of the other, then tighten it in…

I’m struggling with removing a neck from an 12 string x series martin. I’ve tried using a heat probe on the 15th fret in multiple places and steam as well. It’s a bit loose, but still not going out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Does anyone have idea about this abr-1 saddle with each strings note on the button is the original? I never seen this. They are loose and produce huge rattle

Just realized that I posted this on the main feed earlier and should have posted it here. Apologies for my poor posting skills. Will go and delete the original now.... Hello all, I’m new around here and excited to continue lurking and learning, taking in all the great content and the knowledge of all you experienced looths. I am more familiar with building than repairing, but I am interested in learning all I can about both. I’m happy to…

Working on a Gibson acoustic with a loose pickguard. It appears to be adhered to the lacquer, but I haven’t focused on it yet. I’ll be working on removing it tomorrow so I’ll find out for sure. I have the 3M adhesive to re-adhere it if the guard is adhered to the finish. Anyone have insights, tips or thoughts? It’s been quite a while since I’ve done this, but seem to remember the adhesive worked well.

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 performed a fret replacement on a '70's Electra Les Paul, the notes on the G string at the 14th/15th fret have no clarity or sustain, same with the B string on the 13th fret. There is no interference from the frets themselves and is seems like a sympathetic vibration is cancelling out the notes. I have secured loose ground wires in the pickup cavity and put surgical tube in place of springs. I used fish glue to help secure the frets,…

I have a Hoffner bass with a neck that broke loose. The main problem seems to be that that neck was loosely fit and was relying on a thick layer of glue at the bottom of the neck pocket to hold it in place, it looks like some shimming is in order. My question is about getting the neck angle correct. With the bridge thumbscrews at the bottom of their adjustment, should a straight edge on the finger board touch the top of bridge, or the to…

Greetings y'all. A customer brought in a sitar to the shop recently. It had loose frets, missing frets, no strings, missing tuning beads, and the few frets remaining on the neck do not appear to be in proper placement. Has anyone ever worked with one? Or repaired one? I'd be ever so grateful for any help or direction. I know about retying frets when they come loose, and I can string and tune one. However starting from scratch is…

Owner complained about buzzing and just a thin, wimpy response....After getting the nut right and making sure the relief was in range, it was still suffering the same symptoms....Then I took a look to see what might be going on with the pins/ball ends, or if there was something loose, and found this.