The Hub

Hello, I have on my bench and es-125 with a concaved belly in the top where the bridge sits, I was able to fit a feeler gauge under one of the braces in the area, the brace above the bass side. The back of the guitar is loose for a stretch of roughly 5 inches. My thought was to take off the back and address the braces and somehow address the warp in the top. Any thoughts on how to unwarp it or better approaches to the whole job?…

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…

I recently picked up a Sterling Atlas 12 string that is in excellent shape except for some bellying, which once I get into setting action, may determine if I need to add a ‘bridge doctor’ to remediate some of it. However, I noticed that the saddle (adjustable but set to lowest point) has no curvature and there is not much down pressure on the center sets of strings which is causing some buzzing. My question is this (my first 12 string p…

Hello friends - I am a bass guitar builder who is considering building a neck-through Flying V-style guitar with a 25.5" scale length and a Floyd Rose tremolo bridge. I have not built any neck-through instruments and would appreciate any guidance on where to begin with respect to laying out the design, in particular, getting the neck angle right and the headstock angled properly. Any resources are welcomed and if someone has any interes…

Friends - My "go-to" truss rod for my basses has been the rod sold by LMII; however, since they are now out of business, I am evaluating what other rods are suitable for bass guitar necks. The attached photos are all showing truss rod lengths from the front edge of the nut slot location on the blank. One photo shows my last LMII rod (23 1/2" in length) vs. 2 other rods, one longer (23 11/16") and one shorter (22 1/4") -- all measured f…

I inherited a 70's D28 that is a players instrument. The action is too high for me, but the saddle is bottomed out. There is no obvious belly bulge. The top of the bridge has been shaved. Bridge pin holes are uneven in diameter. However, the bridge placement seems pretty close; within 1/32". A straight edge on the fret board sits about 1/8" below the top of the bridge. The fret board has plenty of finger worn wells, there is virtually n…

Friends, I am looking for a wiring schematic that shows how to set up 2 humbuckers, each with their own Volume pot -- no Tone in this circuit. Everything I have has some type of Tone control in the circuit. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Friends - I have an unexpected problem with my 1989 P Bass-Plus. I suspect that the Series-Parallel switch is grounding out (ie, short circuiting) when the 3-position pickup selector is in the P pickup position (disengaging the J pickup and all 3 pickups). I am waiting for feedback from Fender as to whether there is both a wiring diagram for this bass and the possibility of getting a direct replacement switch. Has anyone worked on these…

I've had a mini come in for setup...I know that the minis in particular are designed with top (lower bout) and back "bulge"...I'm wondering if anyone knows the "acceptable" (Taylor factory) range for this? cheers, Steve

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…

Hi everyone - although I am not the most experienced builder, I have made a number of bass guitars. However, I have now dealt with 2 instances of serious blow-out while routing the body edge. I use a pattern bit and mark the grain direction all around the perimeter of the Alder body blank -- the attached photo shows today's lovely result. I will be gluing on a figured Maple top and now need to trim away the bad section, changing the con…

Hello Friends – I am about to start a new bass guitar build using a flame maple top over an alder body. This is my first time attempting such a book-matched top. If anyone has some general tips on how to re-saw the flame maple blank for a well-matched pair I would be most grateful. Many thanks!

Hey all. I have a Martin D18 with a severe belly up. The bridge has nearly popped off all the way at the time it was brought to me. Looking inside, the bridge plate has a crack going across all the pin holes. There's a few additional cracks above them toward the sound hole. Replace, or not replace, that is the question? Is this plate salvageable, with a tool like StewMax's BridgeSaver? I'm planning to heat treat the footprint of the bri…

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…

I had a customer contact me and he told me that he has a Zager ZAD80CEOM and that the bridge is staring to raise at the back. He says the gap is about 1/32" and would like me to remove the bridge and reapply it. I have yet to see the guitar in person and I'm a bit hesitant to take it on. I've never performed this type of operation before, although I do have some theoretical knowledge of it, just not practical. Some of the question I hav…

I recently picked up an inexpensive acoustic with a belly bulge and lifting bridge for some repair practice. I got the bridge off and used the TJ Thompson belly reducer to reduce a lot of the bulge. However, some of the wood stuck to the bridge during removal and the wood left on the guitar is now uneven and has some chipping. Should I remove the wood from the bridge, carefully remove wood from the top of the guitar to get the bridge area…

I am currently drawing up my bridge design in Fusion 360. It has been a lot of fun and has gone really well so far. But I am a little stuck on rounding over the belly. I could easily put a fillet on it. But I want a little more round over on one side than the other. So I made a sketch on a plane of the curve I want to have. And then I try to sweep it across the belly, and it works, but it stops just shy of both ends where I want it to s…