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I need some suggestions from the many great repair senseis out there.The customer is fine with a structural repair and not concerned about making it invisible. I told him you will see anything I do. He was fine with that and has a budget of between $700-1000. It's a clean break. nothing missing, It closes tightly.. I was thinking either 1) the generic double splines one on either side of truss rod and touchup as best I can. Or 2) the ab…

Hey, I'm working on a 2017-ish Taylor GS Mini which has a delaminating headstock...see photos... I was surprised to see that the laminate was plastic... I reckon quite a few of the community will have done this job many times, so I'm after group wisdom :). Just a small request I know... Just Fyi...I haven't quoted the customer yet, but I reckon (with some other work I'm doing on the instrument)...our budget will be limited.…

Let me start with this; I'm trying to find the root cause of difficult fret wire installation of two different SM fret wires. I've spent a lot of time gathering dimensions and experimenting with techniques wich could cause the problem. I enlisted the help of a colleague who arrived at a similar poor performance. His solution was to glue the fret ends/ beat the frets in. My "rather" is to find the root cause so I don't have to go thr…

I have repaired numerous top crack on this instrument built by a customer at a guitar building camp. The bridge was off and warped. That has been addressed. After gluing with hide glue and splining the crack these top two did not closed as much as I would have liked. The bigger is about 1/32 at the widest and the other about 1/64. The crack is tight at the bottom. If I can help it I would like to fill it rather than spline it as I have…

Hello, Apologies if this has been answered before, I couldn’t find any posts covering it. I’m looking to get started with an airbrush for small finish repairs. AI is telling me to get a Fengda 186 with 3L tank and a Harder & Steenbeck brush (not cheap!). But would appreciate recommendations for a budget setup from actual human people also. Thanks!

Hello Friends, I've had a vintage Epiphone acoustic stored at the shop for almost two years and it's about time to wrap it up. That never happens, LOL. It has a few loose braces, which is a repair I've done in the past. The problem with this one is that no matter how I jack up the loose braces from the inside, some parts of some braces simply do not move enough to come in contact with the soundboard. This is happening in a couple…

I watched the Guild F-20 video (https://dev2.loothgroup.com/groups/repair-and-restoration/forum/topic/cracker-x-braces-on-guild-f20/#post-60310) with great interest since I've been working on a Gibson L-3 with a similar problem. A little back story - The original repair request was to address a small pickguard crack on the sound hole side. After peeking inside, I saw 5 loose brace ends on the treble side. Still a pretty standard repair…

This is equally suitable for "New Build" and "Repair and Restoration" sections of Share Your Content...! I have recently done a few posts on Instagram about my plan to build a number of "cheap and cheerful" ukuleles which will (I hope) promote both my brand and the little country of Luxembourg, where I live. They will be on sale in a craft fair later this year, so will be priced to attract casual passers-by. I made some fun marbled paper…

Hello all, new member here. I've been working as a touring tech for 20 years and just noticed this section of the forum was empty, so I figured I'd give it a kick. Are there any topics\questions\ideas\etc that people would be interested in hearing about or discussing from a touring perspective? If so, drop a comment here and I'll see if I can address it or post any relevant photos\content. I'm leaving Wednesday for a month in Europe fol…

Hey y'all, I've got a mid budget lefty acoustic in the shop for some work and one of the bridge wings is starting to pull up. I know some people are content to just squeeze some glue under and reclamp, but from what I can see underneath it the finish goes back a long way before we even start to touch the wood, if ever. So I'm leaning towards pulling it to be safe, but just making sure I'm not being overzealous before deciding on that co…

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…

Does anybody have any advice on where to start on repairing this crack. I have some ideas about what I would do but its pretty intense and am hoping someone might have some simpler advice. This is a friends guitar that is THE guitar and they're on a budget. So I'm trying to help them out. I don't currently have access to the instrument.

Hey y'all, Got a guitar in for repair, I've got nitrocellulose and experience with it, so can repair it one way or another, but would like advice on what's best. I figure the options are stripping the headstock by itself and respraying, or maybe doing the trick of very thinned lacquer hoping it will slip underneath and hold the existing stuff down. Owner is budget conscious but also not too concerned with originality so it's a bit of a t…

I have a friend who lives in Georgia and has offered to bring me some Everclear grain alcohol so I can start to explore French polishing. What proof should they get for me? I’m planning on upping my membership to Ding King status, but it’s not in the current budget. I’m sure it’ll be an enlightening experience once I do. Thanks in the meantime…