The Hub

This guitar appears to have been assembled with urea formaldehyde glue, which is insoluble in water and doesn’t melt at any reasonable temperature. It is definitely not hide glue or resorcinol.The neck pocket is not under a fret slot. Luckily, very little glue was used to assemble the neck and it was all on the cheeks of the tenon and the neck came off rather easily using a combination of the StewMac heat rod and foam cutters, with smal…

I am repairing a damaged Stella parlor guitar. The original top was birch, plain sawn at 0.100 inches thick, ladder braced with multiple beefy braces and irreparably split, warped and generally separated from the sides. I want to keep the instrument ladder braced with a movable bridge and upgraded tailpiece, all firsts for me. I would be grateful for input on 2 issues. 1. The new top is Adirondack spruce that I’ve reduced to about 0.110…

I'm replacing the top on an old Stella with white painted "binding." Wondering what kind of paint I should use to come close to the original and be stable under finish. Images

This came into the shop. I did some research and the intranet said either "mis-identified" or "extremely rare". I'm going with extremely rare because I believe the label is legit and is extremely clear. Any other Japanese guitar collectors like me? Anybody else see anything like this? It's pretty cool. Made between 1958 and 1961.

Howdy, folks! I'm playing around with an old Harmony Stella, and when I couldnt quite get the neck off with heat (still a newb here), I just sawed it off. Underneath was a delightful green colored dovetail. Is that pressure treated wood or over the decades mold just got into the wood that deep?

61 year old Stella Harmony with brass frets. Fret board is poplar. It needs refretting and I want to try doing it myself given the cost of the guitar was $70 bucks, hiring a pro will cost way more. Any recommendations on Fret wire? I can't find Fret wire that is an exact match. Current frets are 1 mm wide, a hair over 1 mm high and the tang looks to be 2.5 mm deep. Has anyone regretted one of these guitars?

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…

I am getting ready to install a carbon fiber rod in an old 1920s Stella parlor guitar. My question is what are everyone’s thoughts on using hot glue to install the rod? My thought is since everything else on the guitar is stuck together with hot glue it would make sense. However, I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this.