Does anybody have any cool tricks to get a closer rough in saddle height when making a new saddle without the option of referencing the old one? Ex: replacing a lost saddle, making a saddle after a neck reset, making a saddle for a new bridge
Hi there folks! Many months ago I watched a video (or probably a live streaming) with Doug Proper -among others- in which there was a part where he talked about necks weak point in the heel area and other stuff such as neck relief terminology. That topic keep buzzing me in the head, is possible to have a proper (small) discussion about that? I have a couple question
Hey Alex, I'm always happy to have a conversation about any questions you might have. The easiest wat to connect with me is via email- [email withheld]
I bought a boutique guitar, used from Guitar Center. I really want to like this guitar. I just got it a couple of days ago. Looking forward to doing a setup. The neck is straight. I went to add some relief and found that the wood around the truss rod keeps the 4mm hex key from engaging. Any suggestions on how to hog out enough wood to get access? I was thinking of superglueing some 180 sand paper to a 4.5 mm hex key and sanding the…
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If I really liked it (or it was a client's guitar) - I might go fearless with a drill bit on a low setting to remove some material for access.
Hey guys, Up until now I've always tried to blend any repairs into the surrounding area when it comes to finishing and avoid refinishing as much as possible. However, im yet to be fully satisfied with the results or hit the elusive "invisible repair" So my question is, for this headstock fix in the image, would you simplly refinish over the splines or consider refinishing the whole neck to avoid the blending battle? For what its worth, its…
+1000 on Ian's comments. To add to that - I tend to avoid blending as much as possible. I underquote and takes "3 forever's" worth of effort to get a result that I AM HAPPY with. Now I quote a price f…
Does anyone have a vintage Gibson LP Special around to check the body edge radiuses for me? Is it a consistent 1/8” (or so) all the way around the entire top and entire bottom? Including the horn, ledge behind the neck heel, etc? Thank you! This 56 seems pretty consistently rounded over across the entire top and back.
Hi! Would like to drop a quick post if anyone knows whether the Proper’s Neck Relief gauge will be coming back instock any time soon? Would love to pick one up!
This repair came into the shop on Thursday. The crack appears to go most of the way through the neck but hasn't opened up at all. What is the current best practice to address cracks like this? Shout out to @member as the resident Taylor expert. Thanks in advance for your help.
If they do not want to pay for a new neck, and are up for a simple repair: prying it open a hair, inserting glue with a syringe, and clamping up is a fairly easy fix. I would use Old Brown Glue, as it…
Hi everyone - I recently ran into trouble making new nut for one of my necks that needed to be trued and re-fretted. I roughed in the nut as usual and then, with the bass guitar fully assembled and strung up, I started cutting the slots to depth. I use the StewMac digital nut slot depth gauge and have had good results in the past. I marked the nut's lowest points (radiused) using the guitar nut scribe tool (first time using this!) and c…
That's actually not how that tool was intended to be used. That is essentially plotting a like to the top of the fret. With a bass, you would need much more than that. When James and I came up with th…
I have an old epiphone archtop on my bench that I am struggling to get the neck off of. I think it's a 50's Zephyr (non cutaway, single NY pickup in neck position). Anyone have any experience with these? Is the neck not a dovetail joint? I'm no stranger to neck resets but this is putting up a fight as if it's been epoxied in place.
I managed to get it off after about 7 total hours of fighting it. Thanks for the link to the other repair, I really just needed confirmation that it was a dovetail. I ended up using a combination of d…
This jazz bass has come in with a cracked and separated fingerboard near the nut. I believe this is an early Bi-Flex but am not entirely sure or familiar with them. The truss rod is functional and tightens up when turned. Top of the walnut plug is missing and the washer appears to be crooked or dislodged. Not sure what purpose that washer serves. This is probably the thinnest bass neck I’ve ever seen and it’s no wonder that this fingerb…
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Good call Ian, I can definitely get strings on there. I suspect it won’t do well under tension. It’s incredibly thin, neck has pretty much a shallow v profile. Hardly any fingerboard too. Might need a…
Hi, I should do a neck reset on a Guild 512B from probably 1973. I have done neck resets before, but this is the first on a guitar that has some value. I want to look out for information about this specific model before i start working. Has anyone done a neck reset on a simular model? What kind of neck joint did they use, and what are the dimensions? Is there anything specific to look out for? I will probably not start working on the guitar…
Great answers from Ian and Tony!!!! If you can paint some reducer around the joint, wait until it activates and cut the nitro with a scalpel it will improve your chances with the finish issues. You'll…
Working through my first refret. Trying to straighten the neck before radius sanding. What should the natural relief look like when straight? Using a straight edge there’s always slight gaps somewhere. Does natural neck relief start at a certain fret?
Natural neck relief without strings sounds...not good. Most necks aren't stiff enough for the need to add relief without string tension. Said another way, string tension is almost always enough to give…
(Just to set expectations, I bought this for the sole purpose of learning. Not a client project) I got this Martin D28-12 in destroyed condition, after an airline did something awful. As I see it: - Top cracks - Back cracks - Top & side separation with some broken off kerfing - Brace ejected When I was looking at the pictures online pre-purchase, I thought I might take the neck off and re-top it, or at the very least, take the top off and fix…
Hey everyone, I had a question on guitar building and overcoming something of a mental hurdle that I have. Quite awhile back I had access to a CNC machine and routed some Stratocaster bodies which you can see in the pictures. I was mostly pleased with how these turned out, but there are a couple of issues. On the cherry bodied guitar, the seam is off center and I had some blowout at the upper horn location, which caused me to try and cu…
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I appreciate the response and the perspective, thank you! I am curious, since I'm a rather inexperienced builder, I'm torn between being a perfectionist, versus seeing a project through and cracking e…
A while back I saw a Canna Guitars video on Instagram and thought his use of the “wave” scarf joint between his neck and headstock was an interesting use of CNC. But it got me thinking about other options, and this idea percolated in my brain: Cut a regular scarf joint, but then using a CNC cut a tenon into the neck, and a mortise/dado into the headstock. (Obviously you could also do this by hand with a saw and chisel). The joint would i…
Before I hack into the Yamaha, I would like to get the opinion of the experts on a method of steaming the upper end of the guitar and ‘pressing’ the neck down to adjust the angle back to factory. There are several you-tubers that have tried and recommend it. My novice intuition is that even though it may work, wont the steaming of other areas of the body such as upper braces, etc, end up weakening the construction (glue stability) to…
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Thanks for all of the inputs. I am going to order the foam cutter package. I will try to post some pics of the FG200J. In the meantime, I just got done doing a neck reset of a crappy Fender that ha…
Hey everyone, I'm dealing with a Seagull acoustic guitar which has a neck design that I'm unfamiliar with. It has a bolt on heel but a seemingly glued in neck. The customer brought it in when his child knocked it off that stand and created a gap between the heel and the neck. It doesn't appear that these pieces were glued together so I'm guessing that I'm safe to just fit the heel and screw it in. I am a bit worried about a gap remainin…