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Private member DiscussionDiscussions

Finishing over Signatures

I was approached by a local music venue about finishing over the signatures on this Dean guitar. I have finished over signatures before, but never an entire guitar. The main challenges, as I see it, with this endeavor is prepping the existing finish. Cleaning the existing finish without disturbing the signatures will be time consuming enough, but abraiding/sanding the finish will be cost prohibitive. I have already experimented on a test…

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Private member
Why do you think they faded? Sunlight, chemical issue, abrasion?
Private member DiscussionAcoustic Repair

acoustic guitar body repair

good evening to all. This one showed up on the marketplace. I'm wondering if its too much to chew for me at this time. Is it a very difficult repair? Is it worthwhile pursuing? It's another $25 crash test dummy. Please, don't hold back. I can take it.

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Private member
If you can push the crushed bit out and it looks level with the surrounding surface you are in good shape. If not, you can (carefully) force the issue with a tool like this: https://loothgroup.com/loo…
Private member DiscussionElectric Repair

Dunable Yeti with a backwards rod???

Hello! Im working on a repair for a cutsom build for a customer. Its a Dunable Yeti built in 2022. Anyway, all work was going fine till testing the rod... i discovered that the rod is working the opposite of how it should function on any other guitar. CCW is tightening (and no, no a dual action rod) Tightening this rod is adding relief. The guitar already had too much when disengaged. Trying to figure out how to approach this as this is a f…

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Ian Davlin
It could be that the rod is really high on the center mass of the neck. This will produce this effect in extreme examples. This should be considered a probable defect. Are you able to set it somewhat…
Private member DiscussionDesign and Testing

Incoherence between CAD and test-piece

Good morning everyone, I was taking some measurement on production necks with scarf-joint (13° headstock angle) to add some machining process with the cnc. I so recreated the standard neck blank feature (100mm wide and 20mm thick), then drawed the 13° angle. Everything correspond the to the real piace but two measurement: the startingcut behind the break angle is ''off'' by 20mm +/- as well as the cut on the bottom, still off by 20mm…

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Is it possible that the angle of the scarf joint is different from the angle of the headstock on the real piece? Could be a manufacturing quirk
Private member DiscussionGeneral Business

Fender, Schmender

Since most of us fix or make guitars, we have probably heard something about the cease and desist letters Fender has sent out concerning the Stratocaster. I thought I would offer some thoughts. As always, caveat emptor. There are three basic ways to protect intellectual property under Federal law. Patent, trademark, and copyright. Each protects different things, and has different underlying legal theories. Lets begin with pate…

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Private member
There is also a time limit to both Patents and Copyright (and Trademarks, though Trademarks can be renewed). Don't know how long they last in other countries, but Canada is normally 20 years. Copy…
Private member DiscussionElectric Repair

Lollar Monolith HB coil split I need help!

Gah! I need help wiring Lollar Monoliths to coil split each pup at their own 2 way mini switch...client brought it in wired to a card ( based on rough drawing ) said he "tested it"....I had to clean up his wiring and soldering some...both pots, 3-way and 2-way switches are functioning but I get a weak signal when plugged in....what am I missing here? I redrew it ( nicer drawing ) with the black hots going to the 3-way ( swapped with gre…

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Private member
I'm not seeing an actual ground going to the black leads for the pickups (unless there is an internal connection at the pickup). Try putting a jumper from the ground to the black lead at the switch.
Private member DiscussionAcoustic Builds

Replicating Kurt Cobains 59 Martin - bad idea?!

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…

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Private member
Seems kinda annoying to me. The guy wants to spend a ton of money building a replica of a guitar but he's going to not use a guitar by the actual brand to do it? I'm going to go with this is going t…