The Hub

Hey All! I hope everyone has been loothing and living as well as possible. I'm checking in to ask for an opinion. I have been asked to fix or improve some top sinking/splitting of a Mahogany top 1930ish L-0 that sits between the bridge and the junction of the X-brace. It's showing signs of wanting to crack further but neither seems to be all the way through the top. I have removed the bridge plate cleanly and have tried wetting the…

Greetings fellow Looths! I recently received a request from a customer to replicate Kurt Cobains 59 Martin, starting with a Sigma DM3. I have pasted the customers email to me below. While I have been a looth hobbyist for many years, I just recently opened my official business, Finger Lakes Guitar Works, and am just getting off the ground and a good flow of repair work is already coming in. While I feel 100% confident in my abilities to…

Hi, I have a 1950's Gibson LG-3 that's had some poor work done to the spruce under the area of the bridge where the spruce has pulled away and or been sanded excessively. It's missing about .020-0.30 thou of spruce and I'm wondering/looking for advice about how to go about splicing in a thin piece of spruce before I re-glue the bridge. Please see pictures attached. My main questions are: glues for the patch, should the patch be mitered…

A customer brought this Gibson songwriter deluxe in, it’s approximately 20 years old to his recollection. It needs a few things done including fret work and a bridge re glue. At some point the guitar was lent out to a friend who dropped it then tried to fix the finish themselves. It looks like they used some kind of cleaner or something that didn’t get along with the lacquer at all. I’ll attach pictures but it’s kinda hard to get a pic…

I have a customer with a 2018 Gibson SG special with mini-humbuckers who is complaining about the pickups being too hot (distorting their amp too easily). I took resistance readings and, to my surprise, the readings are very high. The neck humbucker (see photo) reads over 16kohm and the bridge reads 23kohm. From the specs I've seen, mini-hums more typically come in around 6-7kohms. Has anyone seen this with Gibson mini-hbs that appear t…

Hey all, I’m curious to know people’s general thoughts on the appropriate or ideal saddle height after a reset. And, when to replace a bridge that’s been shaved down. I know there are a lot of factors (for me anyhow) and this question could open a whole can of worms when it comes to the specifics of the guitar, its age, style of bridge and desired sound. I’m providing an example I encountered recently, but would also like to know people…

I need some advice on replacing some saddles. I have been restoring a "dumpster dive" 1972 Gibson SB-400 bass, with a Multiplex bridge. It has nylon saddles, one of which has a crack. The screws upon which the saddles ride are not removable, as the end has an enlarged cap (see picture). How do I replace the saddles without destroying the screws? I repaired the cracking nylon saddle by supergluing two layers of fiberglass wrap (used for f…

This 60's Gibson LG0 mahogany came in with a little bit of the finish scraped off just to the right of the bridge as you can see. I'm curious if anybody has any tips on how to touch this up? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Folks. I have a new Gibson L-00 retro on the bench. It came in because the saddle had pulled forward and was extremely loose in the slot. the saddle was a narrow affair measuring out at 3/32. It had buzzing issues as well because saddle was low and neck angle is actually high (straight edge is 5/32 above bridge). Previous looth tried to correct by shimming saddle but recommended me for bridge work. I re-slotted the saddle slot wi…

I'm refretting an all-original Gibson L-7 from 1934, and it has a 9.5" or so fretboard radius. However, the bridge, also original, has a 12" radius. I need to flatten the board, as it has a hump at the tenth, but I'm wondering if I go with the 9.5" radius, or try and get it to 12". I'm a little worried about sanding through the Nick Lucas style inlays, so I'd like some input here. If I kept the 9.5" radius, I'd likely have to radius the…

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…

I was finally able to model something like a Gibson L7 top plate! Now I'm trying to build my f-holes... My only reference is the Benedetto archtop book, where it puts a few rules of thumb about how the f-holes should be placed. My question is, how precise are we talking here? One of the rules of thumb is that the bridge intersects at the midway point of the f-holes. Does this imply that the f-holes are at a certain location on the plate,…

Good Morning - the guy that runs the GuitarTechWorkstations channel on YouTube suggested I reach out to y’all to find a good luthier in the Houston area. I’m wanting to replace the plastic bridge & adjustable saddle on my ‘64 Gibson B-25. Any suggestions? Thank You! Thank You! I can be texted at 281-784-2306 or emailed at [email withheld]

Hey Looths, I have on my bench a 40's Gibson Banner J-45. At some point someone glued a supplemental bridge plate onto the original plate. I assume this was done in an attempt to reinforce with string balls having torn up the OG plate. My customer would like me to remove this and uncover it's secrets. Client usually brings in very nice instruments and understands the nature of guitars from this era so communication on this is pretty str…

This is a local musician's main acoustic. It's a 2014 Gibson J-29. As you can see the bridge was lifted when I got it, and the top has been pulled up into a bulge. The bridge came off pretty clean, but I noticed how the spruce broke behind the pins. I didn't score this side of the bridge, but it looks like it must have been scored for the wood to break that cleanly. Could this have come from the factory like that? I don't know why Gibso…

Customer brought in on this '70s Gibson Heritage acoustic with severe bridge damage. I need to replace the bridge, but I don't have the tools to cut or design one in shop. Any help would be appreciated.

Hard to get a good recording of it but clear as day in person, I assume truss rod rattle? Checked braces, piezo system, bridge bolts,tuning machine ferrules all seem tight, anything else to check off? And as for fixes, what to y'all prefer these days?

I've got a bit of a head-scratcher here. Gibson 498T bridge pickup with low output and thin sound. It ohms out to spec (14K), each coil individually measures fine but in situ it is very weak compared to the much lower output 490R in the neck. I even tried wiring it to it's own pot and jack outside of the circuit and it's still super weak compared to the neck. Any thoughts?