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Many guitars come through my shop, but
here a few few that I have found most interesting for one reason or
another.
Yamaha FG-110
Japanese Sakura SF-87
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Before
Photos
1971 Sakura from Japan. It is in bad shape.
The neck is wobbly, frets worn and tuners missing pieces. A neck removal
and re-set is the open heart surgery of guitars. It's time consuming and
expensive. This guitar would not be a good candidate as this is usually
saved for the most expensive guitars. But this is my favorite kind of
project - saving the lowly! Without a new neck joint, this guitar is
destined for the kindlin' pile.
This old guitar has a cool pearloid inlay on
the headstock. The guitar top is spruce with some nice bear-clay grain.
The tuners, if I can save them, are an old style open back. It has a
very simple rosette inlay. The label is in Spanish and reads made in
Japan ?? |
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| In The
Process
I set up some clamps and blocks to try to force the neck
dove-tail joint apart. After some time I managed to figure out that it
doesn't have a dovetail joint - it was held on by wooden dowels. So I
was pressing in the wrong direction. When I put force in the correct
direction, the 39 year old joint came off without much effort Rather than
just glue it back with new dowels. I removed a couple of dowels and
replaced them with threaded inserts. I drilled the other dowel hole all
the way through the headblock so I could use bolts to draw it together.
This is similar to how newer Taylor necks are joined. This will be
much stronger than the original joint. |
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Simon and Patrick SP-6 Cedar
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Before
Photos
Simon & Patrick SP6 is a Canadian guitar made using
great Canadian woods, including a cedar top. Unfortunately, this guitar shows what can
happen when you are running between worship sets and your gig-bag zipper
doesn't zip all of the way closed. This guitar slid out onto the
pavement. Although it was only a short fall, it cracked and busted the
top, rendering the guitar unplayable.
I'm considering taking super-glue to the zipper on my bags so that
they will only open about 75% of the way and the guitar will have to be
slid out at the top. That way it COULD NEVER slide out the bottom.
As you can see, there are several cracks and a chunk of wood
missing.
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In The
Process
First I glued everything back in place and glued the
cracks closed and tight. I am planning to patch-in a new piece of cedar.
I was worried about the strength in that area since it is so close to
the bridge, so I added a new brace that will cross the area with the
cracks.
I made a new brace and installed it with a clamp on the end with the
hole and pieces of wood wedged inside (there is a pic taken from inside
the guitar).
While I was waiting for the glue to dry, I also reglued the bridge as it
had lifted slightly in one corner.
Once the brace was set, I
removed the pick guard and sanded the top so I could try to match the
color and grain with the patch. I obtained a piece of quarter-sawn cedar
to try the patch. The color is close, but the grain on the original top
is much tighter. I am currently trying to get some cedar scraps in hopes
of finding a closer match. |
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I received an assortment of rough cedar soundboard pieces from Larry at
Valley Wood Luthier In British Columbia. You can check out his guitar
tops at his Ebay
Store Thanks Larry! I tried several pieces, but this top is proving to be really tough to
match. I am now trying to come up with an design that I can cover the
area using wood inlay.
Before I tried a wood inlay to cover the patch, I replaced the badly
worn rosette with a new rosewood and Paua abalone inlay. |
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The
inlay to cover the patch was very time-consuming and detailed work. Each
inlay took several hours. I used two different types of wood, including
a highly figured walnut. One inlay wasn't enough |
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It is ReBorn!
I have spent more time on this guitar (many, many hours) than on any
other guitar. It now has a new and unique look and it plays and sounds
as good as any guitar I own....and it has so much custom work that it
will stand out from the crowd.
The headstock
has a Paua abalone inlay to match the rosette.
You can see the rosewood, walnut and ribbon sapele inlays. I
have installed a Fishman Classic 4T pickup with
piezo and mic blend so it can be used on stage for worship.
It is ready to worship again!
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Art and
Lutherie Cedar
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Before
Photos
This is a great older guitar from Canada and is made from Canadian
woods. This was a serious player's guitar. I have never seen fret
grooves as deep as on this guitar's well used neck. It has certainly had
a rough life...the top is cracked and worn and the bridge is peeling
off.
Someone hacked
in a undersaddle piezo pickup with an end-pin jack. It was an off-brand,
but at least the cut is in a good place. I should be able to add a new
pre-amp in the same location and cut out the old hole. |
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In The
Process
The end-pin jack was an odd type that was pressed in
and had no nut to secure it. I could not get it to pull out, so I ended
up cutting it with a hacksaw.
Most guitar work should really be called "Creative Clamping". It usually
take some clever clamping to get a bridge back down.
I opened the
crack as much as I could by pressing down from the top and then forced
in some glue. I cut a small piece of wood to wedge in the inside to
close the crack. It took a little positioning and manipulation. but it
closed tight |
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With the crack repaired and the top sanded, the painted-on
sound-hole rosette was removed during the process. I inlayed a new
rosewood and mother-of-pear rosette. I removed the damaged pickup and replaced it with a Fishman Classic 4-T.
This is a nice pickup and the new 4-T has a built-in tuner. The original
pickup had a very thin piezo, so I had to remove a small amount of
material from the saddle. |
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When I got the instrument completed, it sounded ok, but it just didn't
seem to have the midrange punch that I had expected. I took the strings
off and inspected the bridge reinforcement inside the guitar. It is
difficult to see, but it was badly worn and I didn't think the string
ball-ends were seating properly. So, I created a home-made bridge plate.
I bought a piece of 1/2"x8" brass strap from OSH for $5.00
I cut it to the proper length, drilled holes corresponding to the bridge
pins, then cut a small notch with a file. I installed it with some
epoxy, using a couple of pins to line it up.
Wow - What a difference in sound! |
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It is ReBorn!
This was another project that took many hours, but it has
been worth all of the effort. The guitar sounds great and plays well.
The finish is much nicer, but still has the rugged
old guitar look.
I finished it with the Reborn Guitars cross headstock and the sticker
inside. |
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Orpheus
Archtop
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Before Photos
This is a vintage archtop, probably from the 50's-60's. I
don't know much about Orpheus. The guitar was given to me by Pastor John
at Temple Baptist Church in Sacramento. It has neck issues, electronic
problems, badly worn fretboard and the tuners are shot. The neck joint and back have separated so the action is too high to
even play. |
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In The
Process
I am trying a cheap way to fix the neck joint. I
removed all of the hardware and set it up on the bench so that I could
close the neck problems with clamps. I drilled a hole in the heel so
that I can temporarily use a screw to pull the neck into the neck block.
I used a short piece of old guitar string to force glue into the joints.
Then I tightened up the clamps and the new screw in the neck.
Once I see that everything will hold, I will replace the screw with a
wooden dowel and sand it to the same contours as the heel.
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Ukuleles!
I just bought 7
(yes, seven!) vintage ukuleles. They are Biltmore, Kay, Harmony (2), Rex and
a campfire and banjo. Several of them are from the 1920's. It looks kind of cool in my shop - like the guitars
had babies!
They all need quite a bit of work - cracks, missing bridges, bad
tuners, bad necks, and loose tops and backs. I don't know much about them, but I'm sure I'll figure it
out. Surely there is a Christian musician out there that is just panting
to learn ukulele :)
I've been working on these
ukes as I have time. It has been fun to
learn more about these great little instruments.
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| Several of the
ukuleles required that the top, back, and neck be removed. I would
re-glue the braces and then re-attach the top and back, and re-set the
neck. It's kind of a long process in waiting for the glue to dry in each
step. While I was waiting I would build new kerfing, bridges, etc. |
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| They Are ReBorn!
Several of the ukes are already gone and the rest are completed, just
waiting arrival of a case of new strings. I managed to get every last
one repaired and playable. I'm happy that these
50-90 year old instruments will soon be back in the hands of musicians.
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I am predicting that Ukulele is going to be the hip instrument for
2012!!!
There is a Ukulele Chord chart at left, so click it and get started!!
Want to hear how cool these sound?
Listen to Francesca-Battistelli
This is the Stuff |
Ibanez
Lancaster
| My friend Scott Miller brought over an
Ibanez Lancaster that he had for a while, but never played much. He said
it just didn't sound good. I looked it over and discovered that the
bridge saddle was in pieces, the first few frets were worn and the
action was generally bad. |
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The bridge was plastic and was a fairly
complicated compensated design. I decided to build a new one from a
camel bone blank. I glued the original back together to use as a pattern
and roughly sketched it on the blank. |
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| I used a belt sander to rough-shape the
blank and then used a fine bastard file to finish it. |
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You can see that the saddle has 4
different intonation compensation areas. I created these on the new
blank using a file. |
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| The real trick is to get the intonation
and action correct. I went ahead and strung the instrument and brought
all strings to pitch. Here, I can measure the string height and check
the intonation. Using a digital tuner, I check the note of each string
at the 12th fret. It should be the same at the 12th fret as the open
string. If it is flat, I change the angle slightly with a file to make
the nut-to-saddle length shorter, and the reverse for sharp strings.
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I use a capo to hold the strings while I
loosen the machines and remove the bridge pins. It may take a few
iterations to get it perfect. Then, the last thing I do is remove
material from the bottom of the saddle to obtain correct string height
and get a nice, playable action. When Scott picked up his guitar, he
couldn't believe it was the same instrument. A new bone saddle, freshly
leveled fretboard and re-crowned frets with final action adjustment made
all the difference! |
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1930's Maxitone Banjo Ukulele
Ovation Celebrity
| I have worked on several Ovation Celebrities. I
think this is one of the nicest guitars on the market in their
cost class. It is difficult for me to inlay a cross on the gloss
black headstock, so I have been putting them on the 5th fret. The
celebrity has small dot markers, so the cross is slightly wider
and completely fills the dot's divot.
I leveled the fretboard and recrowned the frets. I'm glad I
went through this step as there were a couple of high frets. This
makes the difference in a guitar that plays good and one that
plays great! |
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The Celebrity is a pretty guitar with nice
electronics and a built-in tuner.
The upscale models like the
CC 24, has leaf overlays and multiple small
sound holes. I restored this one for my wife. When I bought it, it
had a huge gouge from the top down past the bridge, ending with a
hole completely through the top. I patched the hole and made some
overlays that matched the others to cover the scrape and repair.
It saved the guitar and gave it a one-off look. |
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Tanglewood 12-string
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