Month: August 2021

We all know what fret buzz is but many times it is caused by a raised fretwire. It isn’t as if the fretwire is ready to pop out of its slot but just that its end (usually, either) leaves the slot and rises – just a hair, and that is enough to give rise to a pesky fret buzz.

It usually happens at times of the year when it is extremely dry or terribly humid. In our (Lucknow) district and surrounding areas, these times are March to May (dry) and June to September-October (humid).

How does it happen? When there is too much humidity in the atmosphere, your acoustic guitar soaks it in. The wood on the fretboard swells and as it does so, the fretwire becomes loose at one end (sometimes both) and rises, giving rise to fret buzz.

At times of the year when it is very dry, the fretboard wood loses its moisture, shrinks and pushes one end (sometimes both) of the fretwire out of its slot, thus, giving rise to fret buzz.

While many times ‘tapping’ a fretwire into its slot helps, many times it doesn’t. Then, one just has to level, crown and polish that one offending fretwire (and possibly its immediate neighbours). 

One such guitar came to me recently. When the owner called and told me that he had a ‘PRS’, I was mentally prepared to work on an electric. When the instrument was brought to me, it was an acoustic!

Yeah! I had never heard of a PRS acoustic!

After I had got over my surprise, I loosened the strings and tried tapping the offendig fretwire (12th or 13th) in. When it refused to get back in its slot, I had to file, crown and polish it.

And that was the job done. Apologies. In my surprise, I forgot to take photographs of the instrument body – both before and after, but it was a nice sounding guitar.

This Washburn was in recently for a set-up and the owner wanted to get the action reduced a bit (and the headstock photograph is the ‘after’ shot. Forgot to take a ‘before’ shot!!!)

The action was high. At the first fret, on the bass side, it was more than 0.035″! How do you measure with a feeler gauge? Keep using incrementally thicker ‘feelers’ and stop when one pushes a string up. The ‘feeler’ just before the last one gives you the action of the string at the fret.

And there was this problem. The plastic saddle had taken as much tension as it could take and had buckled under pressure. And if you think these were heavy strings, you’re wrong.

So, naturally, I had to pull the saddle and nut and put in a solid bone nut and saddle.

If I remember correctly, this instrument was just a couple of years old, which the owner had been playing constantly. It was strange, then, that he had not noticed this

This beautifully figured piece of wood is actually not a piece of wood, it is Richlite. Look it up!

 https://lkoguitargarage.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1692&action=edit

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not blaming the crack on Richlite; it happens to the best of rosewoods and ebonies. In this particular case, either the bridgepins were a little too thick, or, the bridgepin holes were a little too small.

Even the fretboard was Richlite.

But, thankfully, the neck was very straight.

I began work by attending to the crack on the bridge, filling, sanding and finishing. When I was done, even I was surprised with the results

Almost no trace of there ever having been a crack! To its credit, Richlite sands even better than wood!

With the new nut and saddle in place and with a fresh set of strings thrown on, here’s how this boomer turned out

And here’s another look at the repaired bridge. Boy, I’m still surprised!

 

Stylistic elements are great brand identifiers. Take the Gibson headstock. You can recognise a Gibson headstock from miles off, but there’s something about it that makes it snap exactly at the point where the headstock meets the neck. Yet, Gibson refuses to modify the design or incorporate something in the area that would prevent its headstocks from breaking.

Another example is where Fender places the strap button on its acoustic instruments.

Fender owners and particularly those that play the instrument standing up, will concur that while playing, their instrument has a tendancy to fall forward. That is due to the placement of the strap button – right on the shoulder of the guitar closest to the player.

I am sure that the fact has been brought to the attention of Fender but since it has become a stylistic thing, the company is sticking on with it.

Not on the shoulder, not even on the heel but the ideal placement for the strap button is on the opposite face of the heel, ie, the face of the heel farthest from you when you hold the guitar in playing position. Placing the strap button here ensures that the strap, passing over the heel as it rises to lie on your shoulder, locks the instrument against your belly.

This instrument came to me recently for a set-up and I explained my strap button theory to the owner. He confessed that indeed, his guitar had a tendancy to fall forward, and agreed when I suggested that the strap button be moved to its rightful place.

But that would come later.

First, I decided to focus on something that was marring the overall look of the guitar.

Some wood plaster, some paint and some colourless lacquer and

it looked much better. At least the chip would no longer draw your eye to it!

Next, it was the turn of the spot on the shoulder of the guitar, from where I removed the strap button. More wood plaster, paint and a drop of super glue.

Certainly not an invisible repair but structurally sound and something that would prevent moisture from getting into the open wood.

Next came the strap buttons (yes, plural). The one placed at the end block was not of a very good quality and had certainly seen better days. It made little sense to have a shiny, new strap button on the neck heel and an old one at the end block (unless one was sentimentally attached to the strap button).

So, I changed that

while at the shoulder, I placed this

It was now the turn to swap out the plastic/micarta/nubone saddle and nut with pure bone elements. The sound that you get out of cattle bone, no man-made substance can provide. Buffalo horn, too, falls in the same category of great, naturally occurring nut and saddle material.

Action was measured, noted, measurements of both the old and new elements were jotted down, some substraction, and once the magic numbers were in hand, the bone elements were dialled down to near perfect dimensions.

With the strings off, I had access to the fretboard and because it looked as dry as a twig, I nourished it with some love potion and shone up the fretwires. Also, I rubbed some of the potion on the bridge to make it a little prettier.

And those are the bone nut and saddle in place you see in the photographs.

A fresh set of strings and the beauty was ready to go home with a lovely, low action!

 

 

When you buy a readymade shirt, it is quite possible that the sleeves are slightly short, or slightly long, the collar is tight or loose, or overall shirt length is a little too much, or a little less. However, when a tailor stitches your shirt, such problems can almost never occur because the tailor stitches the shirt to YOUR dimensions.

Acoustic guitars – of any brand – are made much in the same manner and unless they are ‘tailor-made’ to suit you and your playing style, they can never give the output that they are capable of, and you can never enjoy them completely.

Once an acoustic guitar is set up, it can dramatically improve its volume, sustain and ease of playing. Here, I might add that my experience has been that, after a set-up, generally, a big-name instrument improves by leaps and bounds in comparison to a not-so-known instrument. That said, it does not mean that only high-end instruments need a set-up.

The bottom line is that a set-up does always help an instrument play better.

As an example, here is an Epiphone Hummingbird (a lesser creature than its famed sibling, the Gibson Hummingbird), which I had the pleasure of working on recently.

It was a well-kept instrument: not too old, but it was clean and had a hard case to live in.

The instrument was in for a set-up but I also managed to convince the owner to swap the plastic(-like) material nut and saddle with bone elements.

But as I pulled out the saddle and lifted the piezo element, there was something hiding there that should not have been there in the first place. It was removed and its thickness was added to the bone saddle.

As I went about cleaning the instrument, I heard the odd but familiar rattle inside it. I turned it over and shook the ‘rattle’ out of it.

   

I cleaned up the fretboard some, oiled it and polished up the fretwires

Strung up with strings chosen by the owner, I gave them a stretch with the ‘String Strecha’!

So, in this particular case, what a set-up did was enhance the existing sound quality of the guitar while maintaining a good, low but clean action. In the process, it also got its fretboard cleaned and nourished, and got its fretwires polished to a pretty sheen.

And that was a wrap on this beauty!

 

If you wish to use/enjoy something for long, then regular maintenance becomes a must. And if that statement is true, why should (acoustic) guitars be any different? With regular maintenance you will realise that an average guitar can perform well for longer, and a high-end instrument will last you a lifetime and more.

Sadly, in all the years that I have been working on acoustic guitars, I can actually count on my fingers, the number of instruments that I found ‘maintained’. All it takes is everyday tools, a few clean rags of an old t-shirt and some warm water.

This guitar – a well-made laminate – came to me for ‘servicing’ with many minor issues.

It was evident that this was the first set-up that the instrument was going to get of its life. I noticed that care had not been taken while winding strings

Care had also not been taken to ensure that the bridgepins go into the same hole from which they came out of. This often damages bridgepins and most times you will find that they sit deeper in their holes, which can be very troublesome while changing strings – as was the case with this instrument.

The white specs that you see on the bridge is evidence of my efforts to extricate the pins from the holes! They did come out after much persuasion. These would have to go and new bridgepins that fit the holes properly would need to be put in their place.

The tuning keys were loose as were the nuts holding the tuning posts

The plastic nut and saddle would have to be replaced with bone elements.

Also, the instrument required deep cleaning and a fresh set of strings.

I got started with the new set of bridgepins, shaping them so that string ball-ends didn’t catch on them.

Next, I cleaned up the entire guitar with a bit of warm water, wiping and rubbing as I went. But while I moved the guitar, it gave off strange noises of something moving inside it. I shook the guitar upside down, hoping to bring out of it whatever was living inside. I was half expecting a living creature but thankfully, it was only these.

For the umpteenth time, a dessicant (silica gel), ladies and gentlemen, is only meant for all-wood instruments and that too ONLY in months when the humidity goes above 70%. If you own a solid-wood instrument and live in a high-humidity area, you may require a dessicant to live inside your guitar; everybody else, go easy on the dessicants and keep them as far away from your instruments as possible.

Funny though, the owner never missed his picks! 

The fretboard was up next. I deep-cleaned it, burnished the fretwires and oiled the fretboard. But it was the neck which was a pleasant surprise. With the strings off it, it was as straight as an arrow – just like how I like it. Once you string it and tune up the strings, the strings will pull a bit of relief into the neck, and that is all the relief required to play without a buzz.

Up next were the nut and saddle. I measured the old nut and saddle and replicated the dimensions in the bone ones. It worked like a charm and the guitar played beautifully.

The owner was happy with the results, though I missed taking the customary final shot of the finished work! 

So, what all does maintenance (at string change) include? Here’s a checklist:

• cleaning all such guitar areas where you can’t reach when the strings are on
• cleaning the fretboard and fretwires
• cleaning the inside of the guitar
• giving the entire guitar body a good rub and polish (if it has a gloss finish)
• checking the hardware on the headstock and snugging it up (tightening it just beyond finger-tight)   
•  stringing the guitar ensuring that wound strings (E, A, D & G) get just 2.5 – 3 turns on the post and unwound strings (B & e) get 4 -5 turns.
• in electro-acoustic instruments, check battery periodically for leakage, etc. Snug up jack input sockets.

Do this and you will certainly feel the difference in the way your guitar responds to your touch.