Service Guitar Repair » Upgrades/Modifications

Honey, I ran over my guitar!

serviceguitarrepair — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:01:29 +0000

I recently got an e-mail from a good customer that was very worried about saving his guitar after backing over it with the family van! OUCH!

He stated that he had forgotten about setting it down after removing it from the back. Fortunately, it was in a hardshell case when this happened.

(Photo staged for dramatic effect!)

Crunch!

The case had definitely done its job and was destroyed beyond repair. The guitar had its share of bumps and bruises, including top and side separation, missing chunks of wood from the side and binding damage.

Laminated sides can get a bit messy

Binding separated and shifted from its track

After manipulating things back into place and gluing the top and sides back together, I was able to get the binding back in place and repair its distorted state back in to form. A bit of wood filler was required where the laminated sides had lost a chunk, but I was able to match the original color and feather in the lacquer finish around the repair area, quite nicely.

This was a happy ending to a story that had a very scary start. Brad was very happy with the results and is shopping for a new hardshell case, I’m sure!

Vintage Gibson Fix

serviceguitarrepair — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:41:11 +0000

Here’s a cool product I recently found very helpful for vintage Gibson acoustic guitars with the adjustable bridge. These guitars originally came with either a wooden saddle (one of Gibson’s brilliant ideas, from the 60′s) or ceramic. I much prefer the sound of the ceramic version, because it gives a brighter sound, much like a traditional bone saddle, and it doesn’t wear as easily as the wood version. Unfortunately, finding and purchasing a vintage ceramic replacement can be very difficult and quite pricey. I’ve seen people ask way too much for these. Some owners choose to completely remove the adjustable bridge system, fill in the entire original slot with rosewood and install a stable saddle in its place. I’ve never been a fan of doing this to otherwise perfectly original instruments. I’m very opinionated about being good stewards of vintage instruments.

GIBSON WOOD SADDLE circa 1960's

GIBSON CERAMIC SADDLE circa 1960's

Recently, my good friend Bruce brought in a 1968 Gibson B-45 12 String (see 1st photo) for a fret re-crown. He was excited to have newly acquired this cool old Gibson, but because this guitar also has a trapeze tailpiece, instead of bridge pins, to secure the strings, the sound was quite dull, combined with the wood saddle. Imagine the disappointment. Enter new product…

Graph Tech "TUSQ" replacement for Gibson adjustable bridge

The folks at Graph Tech; mostly famous for graphite replacement saddles for electric guitars and “TUSQ” material for acoustic guitars, have created a great alternative to the pricey, and elusive, ceramic saddle. It is made with their “TUSQ” material and costs only $12.95. We went with it and the results are quite impressive. I am now keeping them in stock, so let me know if you need one installed!

1968 Gibson B-45 12 String with "TUSQ" replacement saddle

Out Of The Box

serviceguitarrepair — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:23:54 +0000

Here’s a cool solution to a common problem. My good buddy Doug needed a 5 string bass with an active circuit. Problem: December is a tough month to be investing in an expensive bass, but his need was immediate. The solution: we found an inexpensive bass with lacking electronics and performed an upgrade. Doug has always been fond of Lakland basses with the pickup configuration of a Music Man Stingray style pickup in the bridge position and Fender Jazz Bass pickup in the neck position. So we started with this OLP brand passive version of a Stingray 5 String and gutted everything but the bridge pickup. Then the fun began. I carefully located and traced where I wanted the new neck pickup to go.

Then I routed the body and installed a compatible neck pickup. In this case the best match was a Fender Standard Jazz Bass 4-string pickup. The pole pieces easily covered the width of the 5 string’s span. I followed up with a 3-band active EQ circuit and a coil tap switch for the bridge pickup, allowing for the standard Jazz Bass configuration of 2 single coil pickups.

Lastly, I removed the soft plastic nut and replaced it with a hand-carved bone nut. After a full set-up package and a new set of strings it was time to plug in!

I must say that both Doug and I were more than surprised by the results. This configuration proved to be very versatile and useful. He called me the next day to say that it was the best sounding bass he’s ever owned. Doug has owned some pretty high-end basses in the past, so this is really saying something. This whole project cost less than $600, including the bass! It was a huge success!