Installing
cavity shielding into a Parker P38
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The Yamaha SG below
had a badly fractured neck, sustained during a drunken gig in
Scotland! It had been in the possession of the owner since he was young lad so it
was very sentimental to him, and he was therefore very upset when he was
told by various repairers that it was un-repairable. Whether they
were incapable or just couldn't be bothered with it because it has a set
neck is open to debate, but It ended up here and I set to work using my
own method of neck repair that I've used on a few broken necks with a lot of
success.
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This is quite a nasty
fracture, sustained at a gig in Edinburgh. The cracks go deep into the wood of the
neck, but the owner had
the good sense to slacken the string tension as soon as it became damaged
to prevent it getting any worse
After the repair has been done - stained, lacquered and polished. The frets needed
only very slight
dressing to flatten & re-profile them after the repair and the guitar now plays
perfectly again. My method of neck repair can't be used on all broken
necks but where possible it keeps costs to a minimum for the
owner
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As
well as carrying out repairs & restoration to the more general types of
electric guitar, I sometimes like to take on jobs which are bit different. This old mandolin
(below) was restored
here. It was once owned by a well known Liverpool Folk
singer so it does have some provenance although little intrinsic value. It was
also fun to get it back into a playable state again. It had lived in a damp loft for over 30 years before being
re-discovered, unfortunately in that time the wood had been damp and dried out
many times causing the top to warp and crack very badly. After a
new cedar top, bracing struts and a fret re-dress it now plays very well and has a
lovely tone.
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The old top removed and
new bracing fitted. Bit of an unorthodox way to do it but it was the
quickest and easiest method
All finished - complete
with nice cedar top and new handmade Rock Maple bridge
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Below - a 1963 Eko
Florentine Guitar, owned by a Liverpool guy who'd used it extensively for
gigging with local groups and bands in the 60s & 70s. When he'd finished
playing it was consigned to the loft and several dark and dusty cupboards, and
subsequently endured a few house moves. A couple of years ago he found it languishing behind
his bedroom wardrobe and started playing it. It soon became apparent that
time & neglect had done it's worst, and he brought it to me for some
restoration work. It was a purely nostalgic decision by him to have the guitar
restored, and although not in the same league as the top flight guitars, it's
surprisingly well made.
The
neck was dreadfully warped, the frets were worn out, the electrics were totally
useless, the tremolo was seized solid and the neck pick up had long since given
up the ghost. All that plus another few hundred things were wrong with it! The
guitar was stripped, the neck was re-flatted and the fingerboard cleaned and re-
radiused. It was then re-fretted and rewired, using a Fender Strat single coil
pick up to replace the non-working original at the neck. This was installed
without having to cut the guitar about in any way, should an original pick up be
required in the future......The guitar now sounds pretty damned awesome and plays better
than it has a right to!! The Trem was also stripped and rebuilt so it now
works perfectly. It wasn't re-lacquered, instead the original lacquer was cleaned
and polished, leaving the original "character giving battle scars" in
place.
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The repair on this acoustic below was an unusual one. The truss
rod had burst through the back of the neck making playing the guitar
impossible without getting splinters! A new piece of Ash was
inserted then stained and lacquered
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Mandolin Banjo having it's
frets re-dressed
This guy plays his guitar
hard! Not much that can be done with it except to fit a pickguard.
Even if it was repaired the same thing would only happen again
The gouged wood is filled with a special wood fibre based filler, which after this stage was flattened off, taking care not to
do too much damage to the rosette
The cardboard template for the pickguard
Pickguard made and fitted, the material is so thin that it doesn't alter the
guitars tone too much
A Hohner headless bass
guitar that was brought in for a set-up to cure rattling strings,
a few dead notes and repairs to a seized tuner. The truss rod was also
found to be seized solid. It's no wonder the strings rattled, there was
no relief whatsoever in the neck. After freeing off the truss rod and
setting up the strings, it was a very nice guitar to play
This Gordon Smith 6
string electric guitar was taken in to have new picks-ups fitted and to be
re-painted. Here the pick up cavities have been made deeper to
accommodate the new Seymour Duncan pickups that are going to be fitted
After the re-spray and polishing
Fitted up and re-wired
This Gibson Les Paul
was treated to a bit of TLC, a few years of gigging had taken
their toll
so it was just about ready for a good clean & set up
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Page 2
Repairs & Rrestortion
