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Last time, I left you with the bridge area of the ‘Techno’ clamped – with the bridge removed – as corrective surgery for the bridge footprint.

If you wish to read about what transpired earlier, you can do so here

Guitar repair – Tackling Techno trouble – I

After a couple of days, the clamps were released and the process began to remove the belly (a major cause of elevated action).

Forty-eight hours in this position and the belly was all but gone.

Next step in the ‘healing process’ was the glueing of the bridge to the top. Enough glue, tight enough clamps, ample time is the recipe to do it. And so it is usually.

For a little over five days, the instrument remained in clamps, and while it was in that position, I got other work done.

A new piezo element was installed

The fretboard was cleaned and moisturised, and the fretwires were shined up some.

A new nut was installed

After the clamps were taken off, the piezo element was threaded through and a new bone saddle was installed. However, when strings were thrown on

the action was a mile high. After the saddle shave, the saddle looked like this

and there was no way to make the guitar play right without cutting string slots. I took permission from the owner and cut slots for the two outside strings as well as for the ‘B’ string.

In the photograph above, you can probably make out the slots cut for the ‘e’ and ‘B’ string, but look carefully and there’s a slot cut for the ‘E’ string as well.

Meanwhile, the headstock looked neat with the strings wound cleanly.

The one blemish I saw in the guitar was the fall-away after the body joint. I wonder if you will be able to pick it up in the following photograph

I kept the instrument with me for two days, observing it, even playing it, apprehending that the bridge may lift but it all stayed good.

Yet, the second day after the owner had taken it home,the bridge began lifting again!!!

The July-October jinx had returned!

I have asked the owner to return by the end of this month or early next month, by which time the humidity would have settled, which will allow glue-up jobs to proceed unhindered.

Some time back, as I stepped out of my house to run an errand, I spotted this man on a scooter with what looked like a guitar gig bag slung over his shoulders. He seemed to be searching for someone or something – phone in hand.

Something poked me and I went up to him and asked him ‘Lucknow Guitar Garage’?

He gave me a broad grin and nodded in the affirmative.

The man – an armyman – had just been posted in town. He brought me his guitar

If it isn’t clear, the name on the headstock reads ‘Techno’. Now, I have seen a few of these: laminate guitars but not too bad. This one too fell in the same category – at least it looked the bit. It must have been 4 – 5 years old but even though it neither had strings, nor a saddle, nor any bridgepins, it seemed cared for.

The owner brought it in for a belly bulge and high action. I checked within the guitar but all braces were securely attached where they needed to be. I asked my man if the bridge was lifting and he said, ‘No’.

Just to check, I slipped in a paper and

that was how much the paper was going all the way around the business end of the bridge.

Now, this was an electro-acoustic instrument. The owner complained that sometimes the pick-up works and at others, it doesn’t.  As I fetched into the saddle slot and pulled out the piezo element, I saw that it was pretty hefty and pretty chewed up ( I thought I had clicked a photo of it?). I told the man that replacing the piezo element should do the trick and he agreed to the replacement.

Underneath the piezo element, was hiding my friend – a card shim!

Along with the belly, the bridge, the owner also decided to put in a bone nut and saddle. With so much to be done, I decided to start right away, and to gain access to the all-important bridge area, decided to first take off the bridge. With the bridge out of the way, tackling the belly would be that much easier.

Talking of the bridge, there was a canyon of a crack between the bridgepin holes, which also needed to be addressed.

But the way the bridge ‘crackled’ when my tools tried to make way under it, I knew that nothing but super glue had been used to set the bridge in place. But boy, this bridge fought me tooth and nail before it decided to give in (up?).

Naturally there was tear out but nothing which could not be handled.

And do you see the clean margins all around on the bridge and its footprint? That is where the glue never reached, or, was never applied.

But we’ll come to that later. First, the footprint of the bridge needed to be repaired.  After the necessary steps, the bridge area was clamped down and left to rest.

In the meantime, I got down to cleaning and repairing the bridge.

I must confess that a little dab of dye never hurt any bridge. What say you?

Besides, I also noticed a crack/gouge on the fretboard which would have to be addressed too.

All this and more, next time. Stay tuned!!

That is a hobby file – not very thick, but with at least a 1.5-mm thick blade – going easily under a lifting bridge.

That was one problem and the other was a huge belly for which the owner had brought in this instrument. It was a Hertz and an old one at that, with string windings over windings.

And as soon as I see eight white dots instead of six, I know my favourite things are hiding in the bridge – nuts and bolts.

Allow me to rant! This hardware, ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, does precious little to keep a lifting bridge from lifting. What it does do for sure is that when the bridge lifts, and because it is being held down by bolts, it does so ripping out everything, bolts and the guitar top.

Thankfully, we hadn’t reached that stage in this guitar.

Otherwise, it was a clean and a well-kept guitar

The long and short of it? The bridge had to be taken off – nuts and bolts and all – then the belly needed to be removed – as much as the instrument would allow – and then the bridge had to be reglued.

The bridge came off, screaming and protesting, glued with CA glue as it was and did take some wood off the laminated top.

One can easily see where all the glue was applied and where it did not touch. Besides the bridge and its footprint, lie the set of nuts and bolts that came out of it. Here’s a closer view.

To give you an idea of the belly I was talking about, sample this

Not in very sharp focus but you get the idea.

The top was clamped down with the aid of a plank of wood

and left to ‘recuperate’ for two days.

Meanwhile, the cleaning of the bridge and other work on the guitar continued.

Now, it was time to release the bridge area from the clamps and ‘prepare the ground’ for the glue up. The first thing to be done was to fill up the holes left by the bolts.

You can see in the photograph above that the footprint of the bridge has been cleaned and cleared, creating a very sharp margin, which matched the extremities of the bridge.

While looking inside to check if the dowels had not gone beyond the thickness of the top, I found something else: the loose treble arm of the X-brace.

You can make out how a feeler gauge goes right under the arm to come out on the other side. Carefully, the clamp was positioned and the mark of its foot marked so that I could get the placing of the clamp perfect, when it came time to glue up the brace.

That done, it was time to glue up the brace but how do you get glue into such a slim space? By approximation, I painted (lots of) glue along the bottom of the brace and then with a toothpick shaved in half I pushed it under the brace. Then came the easy part: clamping the brace to the underside of the top.

Again, this was left for a couple of days to dry and cure.

With all in readiness, it was now time to glue on the bridge.

For four days, the instrument stayed like this and on the fifth day it was released from the clamps to let it breathe. On the sixth day it was strung up.

Another four days of observation followed. All good and I had my fingers crossed.

On the fifth day, the bridge started lifting!!!!!!

My jinx of the rainy season continued where no glue-up job I do seems to stick!

I informed the owner that he had two options: I do it again, right now and risk failure again, or, he could come and take back his guitar to bring it back once the humidity settled down (October).

He took 10 days to come to me and decided to take the guitar back with him, and return another day. And for my labours he said he did not have money and would pay me later!!!!!

Ah! Not all days are Sundays. You get rainy days and Mondays too!      

If you didn’t know what the picture above shows, it is the neck block of a guitar, and loose from the bottom at that.

Incidentally, this is just the second Paul Reed Smith that I have seen in the six years since I have returned to India.

This was parlour-sized electro-acoustic instrument and the owner came in with a complaint of high action. But as I looked at the bridge to see if it was lifting, there was only dust that I saw.

Yes, but it did have a tall, handsome bone saddle and a nut to match

and more dust on the headstock!

And that was not all. Take a look at the fretboard

Strangely, the young man did pull out the instrument from a gig bag, which may only mean that only recently did the instrument find its way into the bag, after it had collected enough dust.

Anyway, pushing the dust out of my mind, I got thinking, ‘if the bridge has not come unglued, then why is the action so high?’ Still thinking, I turned the guitar around, more absent-mindedly than with the hope of finding something.

And there it was

If you can’t see it the area under the heel both to the left of it and right – a good six inches – the binding had come loose. As I pointed it out to the owner, he pointed out this to me

There was a very faint crack adjacent to the heel. But it didn’t strike me. I told the owner that he would have to live with it because there is no way to get any kind of glue into it because it is not a complete crack. In fact, I remember picking up the thinnest feeler gauge and trying to push under the neck block just to show that that area was solid

Later, after the owner had gone and I began pushing and prodding, I noticed the back move upwards in the area under the neck block, when I tried pushing it up. Indeed, the neck block had got loose from the bottom, and thus the raised action.

Immediately, I glanced at the left shoulder of the guitar. And there it was: the twin of the crack on the right shoulder.

I then went about looking for loose braces that may have got dislodged in what must have been a bad jolt the guitar suffered, but thankfully, I didn’t find any.

And so began the glue up(s).

After I did the binding and clamped it up, I left the instrument to rest for two full days.

Then it was the turn of the neck block to get back into position.

Another two days and things seemed to have come together nicely.

Next came work on this portion of the binding

That too was glued.

The owner had also talked about a buzz on the ‘e’ string. As I went about with my rocker finding  a high fretwire, I found two.

Can you see the marker on the outside two fretwires? Those two were higher than the Burj Khalifa!

And so, work was put into them to get them to fall in line.

Later, it was the usual cleaning and scrubbing, polishing and oiling.

But I must point out this one spot on the back of the guitar.

It looked exactly like coffee had fallen and had stuck to the back. But it was easily removed

Before I threw on the strings, I decided to give the tall saddle a little shave – no measurements just a sliver taken off the bottom.

Also, the bridgepin holes of the bass strings were a little too small, holding the pins too tightly. A reamer was taken to them and the pins sat better after the treatment

The strings that the owner had chosen were these

Strung up, the guitar had the near perfect action.

The owner was pleased with the results and told me he also owned dreadnoughts from the Martin and Hertz stables. He threatened to bring those over too.

Any time, brother!

And here are the final shots of the work done and the guitar itself

Worked on this Cort recently, which had a belly and a lifting bridge – naturally, throwing the action out of sync.

It also had a tilting saddle

And it had seen cleaner days

 

But first take a look at this colourful thing.

You know how sceptical I am about bridge glue-ups in the July to October period, but since it was here, I agreed to do it with the disclaimer that I don’t guarantee a fix in the first attempt.

So, the first order of business was taking the bridge off and cleaning its underside as well as its footprint on the top. Now, this was an electro-acoustic instrument. To take the bridge off, I had to take out the piezo element. The hole through which it was threaded through the top was just large enough to pull it through, but to push it back out, it was nearly impossible.

I tried pulling out the jack to which it was attached to the EQ unit and tried pulling out the piezo element wire, and jack and all through the hole in the bridge but even that did not work. In fact, due to the pushing and pulling, this happened.

Talk about inauspicious beginnings!

I replaced the broken piezo piece with a replacement

The bridge came off  but not without leaving behind an imprint of its grain of wood in the CA deposition on the top.

And then began the arduous task of cleaning the underside of the bridge and its footprint.

When you have put in the long hours, scraping and sanding, things begin to look a lot cleaner

But there was time before the two could be brought together. First, the belly needed to be tackled, and it was.

The guitar was left clamped like this for 48 hours, yet wood is a strange thing. You might think that you’ve straightened out a curve but once a familiar stress returns (read string tension), so does the belly – if not completely, partially.

Now with things nice and flat, the bridge could go on the top.

Four days of pressure and the bridge seemed to hold. Again, this season (July to Oct, of the rains) is such that one can never be sure of any glue-up job.

While it was under clamps, it seemed the right time to take care of other smaller but important tasks, vital to contributing to the playability of your instrument

hardware on the headstock was tightened,

the headstock was cleaned up,

bridgepin ends were given a shape to give them an angle, and the tilt in the saddle was sorted out.

This is the bridge reglued, and measuring the belly, it seemed to have gone down appreciably.

The new piezo element was connected to the EQ and the element was threaded through the bridge to sit perfectly in the saddle slot. If anything, the owner is going to find the guitar more playable than he ever has. The new piezo piece is much thinner than the original, leaving more room for the saddle to sit in its slot.

Now, all that remained were strings to be put on. The owner had chosen these

However, the ‘E’ and the ‘G’ tuning machines seemed to jam halfway through the tuning. These were taken off, dismantled, treated, reassembled and put back on. Again the strings were put through them but the two tuning machines refused to work as desired.

I called up the owner and told him of the situation and he instructed me to put in new tuning machines.

And so a pack of new swanky tuning machines were pulled out

and put in place of the old ones. Thankfully, the screw holes lined up perfectly and I did not have to toil.

Here are a few last images of the guitar before I let it go.

 

You probably remember this one from before.
So it returned for a bone saddle and nut, and a free set-up (you get one when you get a bone saddle and nut installed at the Garage).

As you can see in the picture on the top, the ‘G’ and ‘A’ strings have managed to crush the saddle.

The owner also complained that there was a slight intonation problem, to which I frankly told him, ‘Let me change the saddle and nut, if there’s still a problem, we’ll look at it then’!

It also took some new strings.

But before they went on there was a little work to be done.

The hardware on the headstock was tightened, the fretboard was cleaned off all deposit, and then the new saddle and nut were calibrated to be installed in place of the plastic elements that gave way under string tension.

And as strings were installed, the bridgepins were given the customary shave so that ball ends wouldn’t catch on the ends.

Here’s the new saddle holding up fresh new strings

  

and this is what this baby looked like when it left me.

Perfect sound, perfect intonation!

After last year’s failed attempts at glueing up a bridge and a broken headstock, during these rainy months of July to October, here in North India, I had vowed never to attempt any glue-up job during these months.

In fact, I had returned a number of repairs asking them to be addressed elsewhere, or else, to be brought back after October.

As June was ending, this young man, a return customer brought in his guitar

which had this for a problem

This is the bass side of the guitar, while the treble side was fixed solid to the top.

The young man reminded me that when he had last visited me, I had found the bridge lifting but not very much. He recounted that I had said then that he should visit me a couple of years later, or earlier, if the lifting bridge made playing near impossible.

I told him about the July-Oct period and how it was fraught with dangers, but the young man wasn’t too convinced, and had quite set his heart on getting his guitar repaired. I wasn’t very comfortable looking at the hygrometer in the workshop

but I didn’t quite feel like breaking his heart so I accepted the instrument with the caveat, “Don’t kill me if…”!

When I took off the strings and the saddle, the health of the saddle concerned me.

But I realised that neck angles dictate such things. If the headstock had been any lower the actual saddle would have looked closer to the one below, rather than the actual saddle on top.

Also, as I pulled out the piezo element from the bridge, it seemed to have a kink in it.

As I began work on the instrument, pulling out my knives and such, I thought it would be a good idea to see how far the bridge was lifting on the bass side. This particular knife does the job well

So, almost a third of the length of the bridge was free. I rubbed my hands in glee at the prospect of another 30-second bridge removal, but maybe, I rubbed them a little too early.

Fifteen minutes later, I was still wiping sweat off my brow, working the blower on the treble side of the bridge, trying to get even the tip of the knife under the bridge.

All the time just one thought kept coursing through my mind: how can a bridge that is so loose on one end, be so tightly stuck on the opposite end? Did they forget to put glue on one side, or did they use all their clamps on one side???

More heat, more elbow grease and finally the bridge came off to reveal the horror underneath: SUPER GLUE!!!!!!!!!

The whiteness that you see (more on the bridge than is evident on its footprint on the top), is dried CA glue. Regular readers of this blog know how much I love it. Others will read for themselves, why.

And so began the arduous job of cleaning it off from both faces. Super glue tends to permeate surfaces and sink much lower than can be seen by the naked eye. You keep removing layers and it will still be there – though in lesser quantities.

Multiple tools and devices were employed to rid the two surfaces of the glue

And while this was in progress, preliminary work to glue the bridge in the right place began

When the bridge and its footprint had been cleaned, they were cleaned once with alcohol to rid it of any oil, grime and dust.

Now everything was ready for glue-up. Glue was spread generously on both surfaces and then the two were brought together. Clamps were strategically placed so that there was enough pressure to make the two stick together.

Also, a little prayer was said.

Given the rain and the moisture in the air, the instrument was left clamped for a little over four days, after which it was unclamped.

An hour or two’s rest later, strings were put on. The owner chose these

The guitar was strung up and then rested. The following photographs were taken after a couple of hours of the guitar being strung,

 

 

A return customer brought in his two Sire guitars with the same problem: string buzz. All through March-end till now, I have had to deal with this problem.

Many times, the dryness of the wood makes the fretwires stand, and a strategic tap is all that is needed to seat them back in place.

At other times, you can tap all you want, but the fretwires will not seat. In that case, they have to be filed, recrowned and polished. In earlier posts, I have explained what a pain it is levelling fretwires: for when you file fretwires, you do so in relation to the neighbouring ones. Invariably, after filing one, you will find another one standing proud two fretwires down the line – at least that has always been my experience.

Though both instruments were beautiful in their own right, the one with the natural finish was buzzing only on 1st fret of the treble ‘e’ string, while the one with the sunburst finish was buzzing around the 11th-12th fret of the bass ‘E’ string, the owner informed me.

I decided to work first on the natural finish guitar. Getting to work, I found some six or seven fretwires between the 3rd and the 14th – 15th fret. However, some of them readily sat down when tapped. For the stubborn ones, I knew I would have to sweat a lot. But, no sweat!

I pulled out my tools, sandpapers, polishing compounds et al and got to work. Do remember that both instruments had used strings on them. I couldn’t take them off, or I would have problems when it came time to test for the buzz (you can never really test for string buzz without strings). So, loosening the strings, the first round of levelling was completed. Strings were tightened but the buzz was still there.

Again I set about finding high frets and found it at the 3rd or 4th fret.

As I tightened the strings, I broke the ‘e’ string

and had to replace it. As I continued work and continued finding high fretwires, the loosening and tightening continued and I broke the ‘e’ string again. Again it was replaced, more work was done, more loosening and tightening and the ‘G’ string broke.

At that point, a cheap set of strings was thrown on in consultation with the owner.

Finally, I could not find any more high frets and the guitar played buzz-less.

But before I had strung it up, I performed this simple operation to ensure that string ball-ends did not catch at the end of the bridgepins.

Also, I snugged up the hardware on the headstock, while it was accessible.

After all that work, the buzz was reduced but not gone completely. I looked at the nut slots and they were a little deep for my liking.

On the left is the original nut and on the right is a new nut, to show you the difference between the slot depths. Maybe, I thought, because the instrument had a very low action (both at the 1st and the 12th fret) that it was buzzing.

As I took off the nut, I noticed something strange. While cutting the nut slot, someone careless at the factory had dug in too deep. Then it seemed, he cut from the other end, leaving a step in between. I measured the two ends of the slot and both were the same height.

If the treble side of the slot had been lower, one could have presumed that the buzz was due to this, but that wasn’t the case. Also, the owner had confirmed that the buzz was a recent development.

For my own satisfaction, I bridged the step with a little piece of pickguard material.

I tried on the new nut and the buzz was all but gone.

Again I tested for high frets and found two truant ones. Once those were brought in line, the guitar played like a dream.

The fretboard was cleaned and oiled and while I was at it, some love was also shown to the bridge

I left the cheap set of strings on so that the owner could check the string buzz.

The Sunburst Sire was next on the work table. If you remember there were a couple of fretwires on the bass ‘E’ string that were causing problems. There turned out to be six of them

Unlike those on its Natural cousin, fretwires on this Sire refused to be beaten down and had to be filed, recrowned and polished. The same back and forth as before. But the buzz refused to go. Again, the relief in the neck was optimum.

Then I turned my attention to the saddle and realised that it could be raised a little without raising the action too much.

For trial’s sake, I swapped the original saddle for a new slightly taller saddle, and lo and behold, the buzz was gone!

So, it wasn’t just a low saddle and it wasn’t just high fretwires; it was a combination of both that was causing the guitar to buzz.

The new saddle stayed and I called the owner to come and pick up his guitars. He was happy with the Natural but when he sat down to play the Sunburst, he checked the treble ‘e’ string first, which buzzed like if it had a buzzer in it.

To my shock he told me that this was the problem area in the guitar and I had to tell him that he had, in fact, pointed it out on the bass ‘E’ string, which had been corrected. Anyway, since there was a problem, it had to be corrected. Besides, it was my fault that I did not check the entire fretboard properly.

The work began all over again, this time on the treble side.

That is the before and after of the work done on the treble side.

And, of course, the extra work on the guitar was also done

Hardware on the headstock was tightened,

the fretboard and bridge were treated,

and bridgepin ends were given an angle so that string ball ends would stay off them.

The owner had also provided me with two sets of these

He requested that I put on one of these on the Sunburst, and so it was.

But I was truly happy with the break angle achieved at the bridge with the new, taller saddle. The owner came, tested the guitar and took it home, but I will wait for his call to tell me that magically, the sound and sustain on the instrument has increased appreciably. That is what a healthy break angle does to an instrument.

It was hard work over some five or six days but then there is no greater pleasure than to see instruments that come to you with a problem, get cured.

As always, I leave you with last images of the Sire Siblings

 

 

PREFACE: This blogpost comes to you a day late – for no fault of mine. Saturday night, as I was giving finishing touches to the post, this website stopped responding. In response to my SOS, the website hosting this site, got back to me on Sunday afternoon, worked through the day to find the fault and rectify it. The good news is that your favourite guitar site is up and running again.

 

Last week I left you at the point where I measured the length of the slot in the bridge to select a proper saddle.

After I selected an excellent bone saddle, I got thinking. Does it make sense – financial and otherwise – to put in a bone saddle in an instrument that will be played only sometimes and has more sentimental value than practical value?

At the last moment, I decided to install a plastic saddle that may not be the best but was functional. Going by the neck angle I knew that even this saddle would need to be shaved down.

Now, I own a small belt sander with variable speed, but even at its lowest speed, it tends to melt the plastic rather than sand it. So, it was the old fashioned way that I went: sanding by hand.

The work that remained was purely cosmetic, namely, covering the footprint of the old bridge immediately surrounding the new bridge. After taping off the margin, I hand-painted the area.

Now, the bridgepin holes needed to be drilled to be ready to receive strings. However, care needed to be taken that the pressure from the drill didn’t dislodge the freshly glued bridgeplate. So, I clamped up the bridgeplate with these clamps

Before I strung up the guitar, there was one last job to be taken care of: shaping the bridgepins so that the ball ends of the string did not catch onto them

The strings that the owner had chosen were these

The action, as I saw it, was not ideal but the neck angle being what it was dictated it. It was certainly not unplayable, but most certainly difficult on the upper frets.

As always, I leave you with a photo of the finished job

 

Once every four score and some repair jobs comes a challenge that tests your patience as much as your abilities. What pushed me to take it on was the fact that it brought back memories of my own first guitar, how I lost it, and how it all gave rise to the Lucknow Guitar Garage.

The job was so painstakingly laborious and slow that I have decided to divide it into two parts.

The young man who brought me the instrument was himself very talented and accomplished. He wished for his ‘first love’ to breathe again, and as that storm of emotions rose inside me, I knew that I must do this.

But it was in a pitiable condition.

The truss rod cover was missing

The bridge was lifting (it gaped much more than it seems to in the photograph)

It had no bridgeplate – no, I don’t mean that it was broken, but, in fact, it seemed that men at the factory had forgotten to put one in!!!! I know you can’t make out much from my crappy photograph but what I say is true. It was amazing that the guitar had withstood the wrecking tension of the strings for any period of time; 20 years was unimaginable.

It was as dust-laden as anything would be after years of standing around

The purfling was coming loose, which had been held in place by ordinary scotch-tape.

So, the first order of business was to take the bridge off. It came off easily but left a horrifying sight. So damaged and flimsy was the top that I had no option but to cut it out

What was left of the top underneath the bridge footprint was so flimsy, brittle and worthless that without a patch underneath to shore it up, it would never have stood against string tension. Also, since it did not have a bridgeplate, there was need to install one.

For the choice of wood for the bridgeplate, I thought hard and I thought long. Finally, I decided that putting in a maple patch into a guitar which will serve as a leave-at-home guitar and be sparingly played, would be a waste and rake up the cost too.

I decided to go with these

These look like ice-cream sticks but these are actually craft sticks – much sturdier than your usual ice-cream sticks. Yes, these can also be used as ice-cream sticks.

Both sides of each were first sanded and then their edges too, to roughen them up so that they would hold glue and stick better to each other. Three layers of these were stuck together, slowly

which finally resulted in this

These are the two sides of the bridgeplate. While the first one was the face which got stuck to the top, the second one is the face where the string ballends would rest.

But the bridgeplate was too big for the space in between the braces, and so, through trial and error, the right size was sawed and sanded out and stuck

Now, came the difficult part: recreating the top in the part that was missing. That too I decided to fashion out of the sticks.

Fitting in the last bit of the ‘top’ was more laborious than the entire bridgeplate. First, I cut out a dummy on a piece of card, refined it, tried inserting it into the gap, refined it again and again till I thought it was perfect.

Transferring the shape onto wood, I discovered that it wasn’t as perfect as I thought. More refining, more sanding till the piece fit in.

The little spaces all around were filled in too till I had something that looked like a top, on top of which, the new bridge could be glued.

Meanwhile, as I was working on the bridgeplate, I also moistened the top and clamped it down, so that it would stay straight. 

   

Once the bridgeplate was ready, it was carefully glued in

Next came the new bridge. I drilled out the holes and scored the back, but by just placing the bridge on the top, I knew that it was much smaller than the footprint of the original bridge.  The owner was okay with me painting the overshooting border of the top, in black, by hand.

But before I glued the bridge, I marked its position in tape.

Inside this boundary, the glue was smeared and the bridge glued on

Thankfully, with the amount of glueing that had to be done, I had the humidity on my side:

While the glue under the bridge cured, I got to the other smaller jobs.

The purfling on the side was glued in,

a truss rod cover was fashioned out of some pickguard material I had lying around,

the hardware on the headstock was oiled and tightened,

the zero fretwire (which had developed divots) was filed and polished,

 

and, the new saddle’s length was recorded.

Read about the rest in the next post. Until then…!

 

   

 

I have written about this earlier too, but never actually dedicated a post to it. So, I decided to do so now and explain to my younger readers what all the brouhaha is all about.

So, the first frertwire on the neck of your acoustic guitar stays where it is, but right after the nut, another piece of fretwire is installed, over which the strings ride. And because this piece of fretwire comes before the first fretwire, it is called ‘zero fretwire’.

It does the job that the nut ordinarily does, for the strings ride over it, but it is not as if the nut is relegated to the dust bin. It stays very much where its spot is, only, the string slots in it are considerably deeper. This is to keep the strings in place without allowing them to slide off the fretboard. The slots in the nut are as deep as the height of the zero fretwire.

Contrary to popular belief, the zero fretwire is exactly the same height as the other fretwires and generally made of the same material.

 

So what does a zero fretwire do?

Think of the zero fretwire as a very low nut. As the strings ride over it, they are much lower than what their height would be, had they been riding a traditional nut. What this does is ensure that all strings are relatively low all along the fretboard. And if you take care of the height of your saddle, you have comfortably low action all along the fretboard.

How this particularly helps is that you can barre your ‘F’ chord with an ease hitherto unknown.    

Of course, rhythm players love it but lead players love the arrangement the most. 

 

Disadvantages of the zero fretwire

Like I said earlier, the strings ride on the zero fretwire and that the zero fretwire is generally made of the same material as the rest of the fretwires on the instrument. Now, the preferred material for fretwire is cupro nickle though stainless steel is also available. Given the ease with which cupro nickle can be worked with (as opposed to stainless steel), it is used on most instruments. 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, is also the undoing of the material. Because it is easily adaptable and tractable, the strings rubbing over it also damage it, demanding that it be replaced.

 

Why is the zero fretwire not used more often?

What I am about to say is entirely my observation of things. You are free to criticise it or agree with it. 

One: Guitar-building is comparatively a new art form, borrowing its learnings from violin makers and lute makers of Europe. Innovation does not play a part when it comes to changes in the basic structural format. Embellishments and minor deviations are followed at best.

Two: There seems to be an underlying fear that given the wear that the zero fretwire will face that it will have to be frequently replaced. To put things in perspective for you, how many times in your guitar’s life have you had to have its fretwires replaced? So, if it the same material used for the zero fretwire, how often would you have to replace it???   

Me? I have loved working on zero fretwire instruments and I have loved playing them equally!

 

P.S.: This post is a special post for the Lucknow Guitar Garage website had crashed and could be revived only after the intervention of the web-hosts. In the process, I lost the last post (of last Sunday) only.

Hopefully, now it will continue to run smoothly, without any hinderance. 

How many of you rhythm players, who play with a plectrum/pick, find the bone saddle and nuts are a little too responsive and the sound a little too loud? How many of you feel that it would be so much better if the response was mellower and even a little subdued?

I think I have the answer.

If you have been a regular visitor to this blog, you know how much I fancy bone for nuts and saddles over any other material. However, for a good part of a year, I have been messing around with the thought: what if buffalo horn was used in its place?

I studied some, listened to what respected luthiers had to say, and talked to some guitar-builder acquaintances here in India. Almost everyone had the same idea that buffalo horn was much softer than bone, and thus, much harder to carve. This further prompted me to think, and the result is the following.

In Western country music (as in other genres too), a technique called palm muting is used, where the palm of the playing hand partially rests on the strings near the bridge. This has a dampening effect on the sound that is produced. While using a horn nut and saddle, you can play freely without concentrating on palm muting but still get SOME of that effect.

Additionally, what you get is an accentuated bass response and a mellower treble response. Again, this set up helps those players who play with a pick or plectrum.

If you ask me, the arrangement is perfect for when you are accompanying yourself/somebody on stage and even when you are recording. Also, the music will be that much more uplifting if you’re playing for yourself, by yourself.

Needless to say that the arrangement is not so great for finger-style players.

If you wish to have a go at horn, Lucknow Guitar Garage will be happy to accommodate you by fashioning a nut and a saddle meant just for your guitar – to your playing style. What’s more there are bone bridgepins to indulge in too to complete the set!

Believe it or not, Yamaha can make a good acoustic instrument too!

That was a joke! Yamaha makes excellent stuff once you cross the Rs 22 – Rs 25K price threshold. I am the unfortunate one that I have encountered only their Rs 9 – 10K models, of which I have opened my heart out on more than one occasion (Search ‘Yamaha’ on the blogsite).

So, when the youngster was pulling out the guitar from the gig bag, unconsciously my eyes rolled up, as I spotted the ‘Yamaha’ logo on the headstock.

But this was a different guitar. Imagine my surprise, when I discovered on inspection that it had a solid spruce top!

It was basically in for a “buzz on the 3rd fret”. I surmised that like all other instruments, this too was suffering from low-humidity weather. A little turn of the truss rod and the instrument was well, thrilling the young owner.

But actually, the first thing that I noticed in the guitar was the plastic nut and saddle in it and the eye-poker that the extra length of the ‘e’ string was. The owner was chided for it.

It also needed a string change (the youngster had not changed them in a year!).

But, the thing that actually jumped at me was the “noose around its neck”. I explained to the young man the dangers of the move, and he agreed to get a strap button installed.

It’s a simple enough procedure but not if you do it for the first time.

I also noticed that the fretboard hadn’t been cleaned in a long while

With the strings off, the divots beginning to form in the first few fretwires also sprang into direct sight.

The fretboard was cleaned and the fretwires were burnished, removing almost all of the pitting. A very small dimple remained but I purposefully let it be.

After the fretboard was squeaky clean, it was given a rub of the love potion, as was the bridge, and then it was ready for new strings. The owner had chosen these

I had tried to explain the wonders of bone elements to the owner, but I had also told him that it could be done at a later stage too. I think he chose to do it at a later stage.

I leave you with the customary last views of the instrument

Remember how I say trouble comes to me in twos and threes?

Well, soon after the visit of the Fender CD140,

Guitar repair – The pain of fretwire-levelling!

as I sat down to wipe the sweat of my brow, came in this Yamaha FX 280. The complaint: terrible fret buzz all along the thinnest two strings.

The guitar seemed to be a seemingly new buy with the staple plastic nut and uncompensated plastic saddle in place. It was a very pretty guitar but full of smudges. The thing with sunburst finishes is that though they look stunning, they are fingerprint magnets, requiring constant cleaning.

I explained the wonders of bone and compensated elements to the owner and he agreed to have them replaced.

On the first run with the fret rocker, I found these (look for the fretwires marked in red)

I won’t bore you with the details, but if you wish to know the rigorous back and forth dance that fretwire-levelling can lead, the link is above.

However, before I even marked the high fretwires, I checked for neck-straightness. It had a little more relief – not too much – than what I would have preferred to see. I dialled that out.

And so, when you level, crown and polish the first few ‘upstanders’, others seem to magically appear. When you level, crown and polish those, some among the first set that you seemed to have dealt with, have gone out of sync.

Treating the entire fretboard at one go, on a new guitar, is a bit harsh (in my opinion). If in the initial set-up one has to shave down all the fretwires, what will happen 10 years down the line?!

By the time I was through with the fretwire-levelling I had pulled out much of my remaining hair and I was breathing ragged!

After a break, I began work on the bone nut and saddle. Now those of you who own/have owned a Yamaha acoustic, you may have noticed that the company uses a very slim piece of plastic for a nut. Measuring how much I had to shave off it, I discovered that half the nut would have to go to dust.

The second photograph of the nut (though not very clear) shows how much the height needed to be reduced. These dimensions I got measuring the old nut.

Likewise, the saddle was measured and marked.

Looking at the mark, it should have occurred to me that the saddle slot was canted towards the treble side. It didn’t.

After everything had been sanded and shaved and put in place, the time was right to clean up the body of the guitar before strings got in the way. A good warm water scrub and the body was shinning again.

The owner had provided his strings of choice

which were thrown on after a slight twist in the tail.

Once, I tuned them to pitch and went about setting it up, I noticed that the action on the bass side was considerably higher than the treble side – which was just right.  The strings were loosened, the saddle pulled out, shaved and returned to its slot.

Then when I tuned up the strings, the action was just right – both on the bass and the treble sides.

It was a happy owner who picked up his guitar, and nothing makes one happier than a happy customer!

Here’s a final look at the guitar

There come moments in everyone’s life which test a man’s patience and abilities. I think this instrument brought along with it one of those moments for me.

This guitar –  a Fender CD140 – was good-looking, well-kept and clean,

and came in with the complaint of a buzz on the B string on the 13th fret. By experience I have learned that once it gets that specific, there’s bound to be a raised fretwire somewhere.

Still, following due process, I first checked neck straightness. It was straight enough with the right amount of relief, and true enough, there was a God Almighty buzz on the 13th fret.

The owner had informed me that the guitar had been standing for a few years, and I guessed that by standing uselessly, there would be more frets than just one creating problems. As I went about checking higher fretwires, I counted six – one which got tapped in and five that required the ‘full treatment’.

Now, fret-levelling, as you might know is probably the most painstakingly-repetitive and tedious work in guitar repair. Level the fretwires and then individually crown them and then individually polish them.

It began with levelling them with this, concentrating on the higher frets.

Underneath the beam is sandpaper stuck which does all the hard labour. I just put in the elbow grease. However, one has to be very careful about how hard and how long one is going on the fretboard. A little extra effort and the fretwires have gone much lower than where you need them to be.

After the beam has done its work, this is what the ground looks like – silver dust all around.

And then follows the crowning process, which again one has to execute very carefully so as not to overshoot the mark. More often than not, it is experience which tells you when to stop crowning a fretwire. More silver dust.

Then came the polishing of the fretwires that were worked upon. The polishing removes file marks from the levelling and crowning, making the fretwires nice and slick. This step in the entire process is the most tedious because you work through five or six grits of sandpaper on every fretwire that you have levelled and crowned. If there are more than five or six fretwires that you need to work on, the digits on your fingers start complaining (at least mine do)!

That done, it was time to clean the fretboard for the last time, give it a drink of the elixir, and while you’re at it, show some love to the bridge as well.

 

Strings came next and the owner chose these ones

As I tuned up the instrument and played it – horror of horrors – the buzz was still there, and if anything, more robust than before. This meant that there were other raised fretwires that I had missed, or those that ‘got raised’ due to the work done on their neighbours.

The strings were loosened enough and out came the Fretrocker

and carefully, all the fretwires 11th fret onwards were tested. Three more truant ones were found. Carefully (now with the strings on), the entire process described up till now was repeated and the strings were again tuned to pitch.

I tried loosening the truss rod and the action went up dramatically. I tried tightening the truss rod and the buzz screamed at me.

Again when I tried to check for the buzz, it seemed to have moved from the original string to a different string, different fret, but still in the same zone! Again, the strings were loosened, again spot-levelling, crowning and polishing of the fretwires took place.

And this process went on for a few times more, but it took its toll on the strings and just as I apprehended, first the ‘B’ string broke and then the ‘A’ string. Meanwhile, the ‘G’ string was looking so frayed that I was afraid to breathe over it! But it could not be helped and so, I replaced the entire set of strings.

Finally, when the guitar was done, I was exhausted both physically and mentally, but happy that I had exorcised the buzz.

When the owner came to collect the instrument I related my effort to him. Along with the effort, the time taken to complete the job had also to be taken into consideration. I also told him about me putting on a fresh set of strings and gave him the option to pay for the second set of strings, or not. After all, the strings had broken while I was working on the instrument!

A thorough gentleman, he suggested that we split the cost of the second set. Fair enough, I said, and we shook hands on that.

He was happy with the work done on his guitar, and when I called him a week later to check how the instrument was doing, the ‘all is well’ reply was most comforting.

 

 

This guitar was brought in by an apprehensive young lady and it belonged to an elder sibling, who had since moved to foreign shores for better academic prospects.

If you did not look at the headstock, it looked much like the guitar from a couple of weeks ago, brought in by a father, who’s girl was to return shortly from the US.

Guitar repair – It’s not always the instrument…sometimes it’s the sentiment attached!

Only, this one also had no label to it – a nameless creation.

Like that one, it had all the tell-tale signs of not enough love being shown to it and some more. The young lady had brought in the guitar for just a change of strings but then, I had to point out this to her.

Just looking at the state of the instrument, I knew it was desperately in need of a drink of water, and that was the major reason for the bridge splitting.

Work began with taking off the crusty old strings and the bridgepins – one black one and all – and storing them in the order they came out.

I worked my magic, and like I had promised her, the crack disappeared like it had never been there. The guitar was thoroughly cleaned and polished, fretboard and bridge were given a double drink of elixir after which I put on new strings, and all was good.

The guitar was returned, but not before I replaced that black bridgepin with a white one. I just could not bear the eyesore. Additionally, like I often do, I forgot to take a final photograph. I called up the girl and asked for the photograph and she dutifully obliged.

To my horror, I saw this

Look carefully, there’s a crack appearing where there was one originally.

I had the girl bring in the guitar again, and thinking that maybe, the bridgepin holes were a little too small, I tried reaming the holes. However, except for the E string, which was a little too snug (expectedly so), the other holes were just right for their pins.

Anyway, the job was done all over again and returned to the owner with apologies.

Hope it stays intact!

 

So, this one returned. It was kind of embarrassing because I could not remember the instrument for the life of me. I was even more embarrassed when the owner was positively convinced that I did something to it akin to bringing it back from the dead!!

Incidentally, it was a trans-acoustic guitar – it was one of those things that not only carries its own equaliser but even its own speaker in its belly.

Any recollections? None!

Now? None, whatsoever! 

Maybe, I’m growing old!

Anyway, the problem (this time) was that it was buzzing under amplification and the action made playing lead a pain. The owner confirmed that when played without amplification, there was no problem.

I told the young man that many times, when guitar tops are braced and sounded, they tend to acquire a resonant frequency, and when this frequency matches that of an outside, nearby source, there is an odd buzz that occurs, one that you can go on a wild goose chase and never actually find.

To cut a long story short, this was a situation which would not get solved unless you took the top off or the back off the guitar, work and trim those braces till that pairing of frequencies stopped raising a buzz storm!

The action correction, though, was not that convoluted. In fact, it was a breeze!

And that ended the work on this one.

Strangely, when the owner came to pick up the instrument, the so-called buzz was all gone. He played it over and over again but no buzz. Maybe, the saddle-shave did something to pick-up or something. I’m yet to work that one out.

He was thrilled by the action on his guitar, though!  

And that statement is as true as the sun will rise tomorrow!

In this line of work, not often do I get the opportunity to interact with people my own age, unless it is a mother accompanying the son to ensure that I do not fleece him, or a father chaperoning his daughter, guarding her against the ‘evil eye’.

The other day, however, in walked a genial gentleman with a guitar that had certainly seen better days. He wished to have it ready for his daughter who was returning from the US of A.

It was in a gig bag but the bag itself was falling to pieces, remnants of which were seen stuck to the headstock. The adhesive holding the cheap transducer pickup had since dried over the summers and the transducer had fallen into the soundbox, the bridge was lifting, the wood of the fretboard was tinder dry and the fretwires were tarnished with time.

However, the gentleman assured me that the instrument had not been touched in half a dozen years or so. I believed him, for the guitar carried enough dust and mildew on the body.

However, what caught my eye was this:

a name slip stuck with scotch tape. I asked the man if the guitar had ever been repaired but he was sure that it hadn’t.

I let it go and began work. First came off the crusty strings. But as I removed the bridgepins, I noticed that they were not seated fully.

I tried pushing them in but they would not budge: the holes were too small for the pins. Another job to be done.

Next began a three-step deep clean of the guitar body. I was a little sceptical whether I would be able to get all that muck off the instrument, but fortunately for me, I was.

Next, the bridge needed to be taken off. For that the screws holding the bridge down had to removed first. If you hadn’t noticed, look at the photograph of the bridge again.

There are two plastic dots flanking the six bridgepins. Hiding under those are screws, put in there by the manufacturer in the mistaken belief that these will keep the bridge from lifting. For a period of time they do succeed in their intended work, but when the screws fail to hold out against the tension of the strings, they not only rip the bridge off but also a good section of the top too.

Why manufacturers insist on continuing with decades old thought and technology doesn’t fail to irk me, and is, in fact, one of my favourite rants!

With the screws removed, I tried to get my knives to go under it, but it was impossible. So, I pulled out the hair dryer and put it to work. Even with that heat, the knives refused to go under. Each time I tried to force the issue, there was a strange crackling sound.

The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that at some point in the life of the instrument, the bridge had come off and it had been reglued using epoxy resin. What sealed the argument was this stain.

It was a glue residue, left behind in the clean up after a bridge reglue. While it is very apparent on painted and sunburst finishes, it is harder to spot on natural colour finishes.

With the bridge refusing to move, I decided that it was best to let sleeping dogs lie. The little that it was lifting would not increase, at least for some time, I surmised.

What remained were superficial jobs. I began with reaming the bridgepin holes so that the pins sat better in them.

The tansducer pickup was stuck in place so that it didn’t flop around and a second cleaning of the body was undertaken to remove whatever fingerprints the guitar may have collected till now.

Then the fretboard was cleaned and the fretwires shone up, and the fretboard was given some love and a drink of oil.

When everything was squeaky clean, I proceeded to put on these strings on it

However, the action was not very desirable, though not unplayable by any standards.

I leave you with some final images

P.S.: The little plastic packet you see stuck on the shoulder of the guitar contains the screws that came out of it.

 

Sometimes, life presents you with a problem so complex that you’re left scratching your head about where to begin!

Recently, I was accosted by one such problem. It was called EX(tra)L(arge)????

I’ve seen a few guitars that carried signs of carelessness: a saddle that had dropped out, a black bridgepin standing proud among five white ones…But this one amazed me. It had all the tell-tale signs of a guitar that had been stripped (almost at gunpoint) of all that it possessed: saddle, strings, tuning machines, bushings, truss rod cover, heel cap…All that remained were three screws (the photo above) on the face of the headstock that once held the truss rod cover in place, as if to say, ‘Don’t lose heart, we’re still there’!

But these were all little problems. The big one was that it also had a broken neck.

When I tried turning the truss rod, it kept turning without ever catching, leading me to presume that the truss rod was broken too!

When I looked at neck straightness, it was straight, except for the area between the 2nd and the 5th/6th fret. Interestingly, the break in the neck was right under there.

I had no idea what problems putting on strings would present. But for that I needed to have tuning machines.

So, the first order of business was to put on some tuning machines. But then if you know, not all tuning machine screw holes line up. The previous machines used were held down by two screws each, while the ones I was holding needed only a single screw to hold them in place – and those too did not line up.

Then began the long process of plugging those holes and cutting them flush with the surface of the headstock. Likewise the three screws of the truss rod cover were removed and their holes were plugged.

Trying on the tuning machines gave another shock. The holes from the earlier machines were at least 2 mm smaller than what the new tuners needed! I did not have a drill bit of that size (which would have eased my work tremendously), and so, I had to manually enlarge the holes with a reamer.

Each hole took me something like 25 – 30 mins to ream to size, and I could not do them all in one sitting. The holes got reamed over two days.

Once the machines fit in their holes, I marked where the new screw holes needed to be drilled and did that.

And then the machines were screwed in place

Now, the owner wished to have a plastic nut and saddle and I was nobody to argue with that. However, I do not stock plastic spares, so I troubled the owner to get me a plastic saddle.

With the saddle in place, a new set of strings were thrown on just to see how much the break in the neck opened up under string tension. Thankfully, it didn’t open up much. However, the string action was such that you could drive a double-decker through the gap!

Also, I did something I never do: leave strings unclipped at the headstock. There was a reasoning behind it. I would need to unstring the guitar when I was trying to repair the break in the neck. If I didn’t remove them, they were liable to break while clamping, or, in the process of tuning them up.

The strings came off while they remained threaded through the bridge. Glue was pumped into the break in the neck and with the help of strategically placed cauls and some precautions, the whole area was clamped

Helping me in my effort was the humidity. It was nice and dry with 39% moisture in the air.

The set-up was left to cool off, while I concentrated on other things: the saddle for example. If I cut its present height by half that would certainly improve the action, but whether it would make the guitar playable, I wasn’t sure at all. But it had to be done.

After two whole days staying clamped up, I released the clamps on the guitar and the joint seemed solid. However, there was still that extra relief between the 2nd and the 5th/6th fret. With the truss rod broken, I needed to apply external pressure to straighten the neck to the maximum.

When the clamp was released, there was some improvement but not as much as I would have liked to see.

Now, it was the turn of the fretboard to get some attention.

There was only one way to clean the DNA caked on it…

…by giving it a bath with soap and water!

That cleaned, I was ready to give finishing touches to to neck repair. It was flooded with glue,

scraped clean and then the crack was painted over and buffed out

Again the guitar was strung up and tuned to pitch.

And from here on, I don’t have any photographs of the instrument. I got so happy with the results of the glue-up that I forgot to take photos! But I must report that the action had come down quite a bit – certainly not what I would call optimum but not unplayable by any stretch of imagination.

Meanwhile, I also patched up the heel with some pickguard material.

 

And you all know how much I love the lower end product range of Yamaha, here in India! If you don’t, search for ‘Yamaha’ on this blogsite and read on!

And because I love the F310, F310P and the F280 so much, another one of those landed up on my work table!

It seemed that the young man who brought me the instrument had left it standing a day too long. A cursory inspection revealed that the guitar hadn’t been played much and the only sign that it was more than a couple of years old, was the belt rash (belt buckle scratches) on the back: a photograph of which I forgot to take.

He had brought in the guitar with the ‘e’ and ‘G’ strings broken and the others loose (first photo), and with the complaint that when up to full tension, the action at the 12th fret was “5 mm”!!!

‘5 mm! 5 mm?,’ I asked him incredulously, and he nodded in affirmation.

However, there was no way to check that with the old strings and I had no other option but to work with new ones. The young man chose these

So, the old strings were taken off and while the strings were off, it gave me a chance to get the dirt and grime off areas that seemingly had never been touched before.

Also, while the strings were off, it gave me a chance to look into the belly of the beast. 

Again, I was unable to put my finger on the type of wood used for the bridgeplate, but what really shocked me was the gouge where the ‘A’ string ball-end would rest. It certainly didn’t look like wear, and even if there is an element of doubt, I must say that it looked like a manufacturing defect.

How long before an ‘A’ string ball end chews through the bridgeplate and the top, is hard to say, but yes, it happening is a distinct possibility. And that is why the headline of this post.   

For now, the guitar had been cleaned, polished and oiled, and new strings were thrown on. As is their wont, even new strings are liable to breaking and so, the unlikeliest of all strings – the ‘B’ string broke. That was replaced and the action was measured at the 12th fret.  The young man hadn’t been lying when he called the action at 5 mm. It was very close. Measurements were taken on the bass and treble sides, some arithmetic and some numbers were arrived at.

The strings were loosened and the saddle was pulled out. The numbers arrived at were transferred to the saddle. This amount had to be removed from the saddle. Now, remember this was a plastic saddle we were working with. A bone saddle I could easily have thrown on my sanding machine and be done with in a matter of seconds. A plastic saddle needed more care because the high speed of the machine heats and melts the saddle more than cuts it.

And so it was sanding by hand, using elbow grease.

Some 20 minutes later, the saddle was ready to be tried on the guitar. I did and the action was near perfect. (My math teacher from school would have been proud!) 

And of course, the final look at the instrument

When the owner came to pick up the guitar, I think his comment was ‘Feels like a whole new instrument, man!’

I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you!

 

Recently, I received a call asking me if I would look at an acoustic guitar with a belly. I said that I most certainly would, but added that my efforts to reduce it may or may not succeed.

Despite the disclaimer, the young man – actually a chef at a city hotel – landed up with his guitar.

However, the belly was far less than what I had been given to understand. But I did peep inside to take a look at the bridgeplate and its surroundings to check if there were some loose braces.

From what I saw, I wasn’t pleased. The bridgeplate seemed to have been fashioned out of the first piece of wood that the manufacturer laid his hands on. It wasn’t a hard wood and it wasn’t maple (or at least the varieties I recognise). If the bridgeplate and the belly stays the way it is for a few more years, I’d concede and say that it was made out of stable material. Right now, I am very hesitant to make that claim.

However, there was a different problem that needed tackling. The bridge of the guitar was lifting and thus, the action had got raised. Again, though the action was high, it was not unplayable.

So, I explained to the owner the actual problem with the instrument and he gave his go-ahead to tackle it. Also, I told him that there were a couple of ways to handling it: I could try and push glue under the bridge and clamp it shut, which may or may not work, or, I could go the proper way, pull the bridge off, clean its underside, clean its footprint on the top of the guitar and then glue it back on. He understood the issue and chose that the problem be fixed properly.

He also pointed out that he experienced string buzz at a few places along the neck. As I checked it, the neck was straight and indeed, there were a few fretwires that were standing up.

Further, he pointed out that the tuning machines on the bass side were very stiff, and indeed, I had to use pliers to get them to turn. I told the owner that I would oil the machines and see if it helps, otherwise, he may need to get the set replaced.

After he left, I got working, and the first order of business was the bridge – taking it off. Out came the pallete knives, the heat gun and whatever else. As I slowly worked my way under the bridge, the odd but familiar crackling sound of the adhesive breaking up filled me with a kind of fear. Super Glue?

Indeed it was super glue. Once the bridge came off I could plainly see the tell-tale shiny streaks.

And because it was superglue, there was damage too, to the top.

Some part of the bridge was left stuck on the top, while wood fibres had lifted off the top, which needed to be stuck back in place.

In the last photograph you can distinctly see the margin of finish left under the bridge, which keeps the bridge from adhering properly to the top. This needed to be cleaned, as also the rest of the footprint of the bridge and the underside of the bridge.

I began by just cleaning the margin of the bridge footprint.

Then the rest of the bridge footprint was cleaned from the top

And then it was the turn of the bridge itself

The last photograph shows the bridge cleaned of all super glue. The scratch marks that are seen on it have been intentionally put on it so that the glue has some space to get in and thus, the ‘glue-up’ is that much stronger and more effective.

After the clamping, I left the guitar undisturbed for 48 hours. Meanwhile, there were other things that could be done while the bridge was being glued to the top.

I cleaned up the fretboard and rubbed the tarnish off the fretwires. Earlier, I worked on the fretwires that had risen and were causing a buzz.

Also, now was the time to work on the tuning machines, tighten the bushings on the headstock and the sort.

The tuning machines were oiled and left overnight for the oil to seep in. The next day when I tried them, they turned well for a while but then got difficult to turn again. I was all set to tell the owner that he would have to replace those, but thought of taking off the tuner buttons and oiling the shaft too. Miraculously, that cured them of their malady.

It being time to take off the clamps, I took those off and let the guitar rest.

I had even convinced the owner to get a bone nut and saddle installed instead of the man-made set which had been factory-installed. I put in the new nut, knowing I would need to take it down for the action to be good at the 1st fret.

You may have noticed that I had not taken off the old strings. While I put in the bone nut and saddle, these old strings helped me reach very near where I needed to be with string height.

   

I leave you with one last look at the guitar

This question was put to me again by a steel-string guitar owner, and I don’t blame the questioner. There are as many opinions on this as there are guitarists or guitars!!!

But shall we put this debate to rest, once and for all?

IT’S PERFECTLY SAFE TO CUT ALL THE STRINGS ON YOUR WESTERN FLAT-TOP (STEEL STRING) GUITAR AT ONE GO!

So, how did the doubt arise in the first place?

The Western flat-top guitar, as we know it, is a contemporary cousin of the Classical Guitar (Spanish Guitar), having evolved from it. The Classical Guitar – having its origins in the Lute and the Arabian Oud – acquired its final shape by the 1790s.

Classical and flamenco guitars historically used catgut strings, but these have been superseded by nylon. Catgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fiber found in the walls of animal intestines. Catgut makers usually use sheep or goat intestines, but occasionally use the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, or donkeys. Despite the name, catgut is not made from cat intestines.

Classical Guitars were never constructed with a truss rod (which keeps the neck from bowing out of shape and gives relief to the neck) because the catgut strings never exerted as much tension as steel strings do. Ditto, nylon strings. And so, traditional wisdom said that while replacing strings on a Classical Guitar, strings should be replaced one at a time, to prevent the sudden loss in tension from misshaping the neck.

That knowledge continued to hold sway with the advent of Western Flat-top/Folk Guitars, even though they had a static steel rod or a truss rod in their necks to take the strain of the steel strings, and the same misinformation/lack of information keeps getting perpetuated by internet users even today.

So, to conclude, you can easily cut off all strings on a steel string guitar without fear of damaging the neck because it has a truss rod in it to maintain its shape. But one has to be careful while changing strings on a classical guitar.

 

Rave alert!

I have raved about it before and I will repeat myself for – two reasons – reader memory is short, and yours truly was, himself, reminded of this malpractice when more than a couple of guitars walked into the Garage with monstrosities like this staring at him from the headstock. 

It was frightening!

 

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the extra length of string is provided by the manufacturer just in case you have a guitar with a tail-piece (see below).

Never was the extra length of string provided for you to try and challenge the genius of #thestringartguy. Also, just because it is there, does not mean that you have to wrap all of it around your string post. 

NEVER!!!!!!!!!

2.5 turns on wound strings and 4 – 5 on the unwound ones is all your instrument needs to sound its best and sweetest! 

Now, let us see what all that extra length of string does, besides being ever ready to prick you.

A situation arises when you pluck/play your guitar which has any length of string hanging out from the tunning post. The hanging (or coiled) bit of string tries to pick up the frequency of the note you played, and begins to vibrate to it, causing an irritating buzz like sound. In guitarese (guitar lingo), we call it a sympathetic buzz. 

Only the experienced ear will be able to realise that it is the extra string vibrating, while most will go hunting for the buzz on each fret of the neck! 

Winding the entire length of the string onto the tuning post may present tuning issues, and you will be left scratching your head why your guitar won’t stay in tune.    

Until next time!

You all might remember this one from some time back. It returned recently for a change of tuning machine sets. The owner was not happy with the tuning machines and also the crumbling buttons on them.

If you don’t remember the earlier visit by this instrument, you can read about it here

Guitar repair – A novel problem in a classical Alhambra!

As you can see, otherwise, the guitar was in very good shape, being kept well.

However, the tuning machine set on the treble side was causing problems. As I looked at it closely, I discovered tell-tale signs of efforts to unscrew the set. The screwhead closest to the ‘e’ string tuning machine was all worn out – a sure sign that a much larger screwdriver had been employed to open the small screw.

Also, it was evident that when the screw could not be removed, someone had tried to prise out the machine set by slipping in something between the set and the headstock. Try and notice the area of the tuning machine assembly around the ‘e’ string tuning machine and you will know what I am talking about.

Thankfully, when that too failed, it seemed further efforts were not made.

However, the owner knew nothing about it. When accosted, he said that since the instrument had been previously owned, maybe, it was the other owner who may have tried a few things.

The owner also requested that the strings on the guitar be retained. That was a problem. Trying to string a classical guitar is a problem in itself. Trying to unwind strings from classical guitar tuning machines is a bigger problem. But since the owner had requested, it had to be done.

With the strings and tuning machine screws off, the three-in-one sets of machines came off easily. As I tried on the new set of tuners, I wasn’t surprised to note that the screw holes in them and those drilled on the headstock of the guitar did not match up…they rarely do!

So, I filled out the old holes with wood dowels and drilled new holes

And the rest was smooth.

If I leave you with the photographs, you’ll be able to make out the rest of the story.

 

 

A return customer brought me this to set the action on, for a set-up, and “do whatever I deemed fit”. I was struck by its beauty – especially the bridgepins

, but the action on the guitar was decidedly high,

while the nut slots were cut too deep

In fact, the B string was caught in its slot, sounding muted each time it was plucked.

This is my second encounter with a Sire and the more I see of it, the more I’m impressed by it. If you would like to read about my first encounter, it’s here

Guitar repair – My encounter with a Sire!

As I pulled off the strings and began to work on the instrument, I was convinced that the nut and the saddle were plastic or some synthetic material, but I was wrong. They were really of bone.

So, I marked off the portion on the saddle I thought needed to be taken off and shaved it down. Likewise, I shaved the nut but this I did from the top. After this, I had to refile each slot and then reshape the nut.

Before I put on new strings, there were other things that needed attention: the fretboard for example. There was quite a bit of dirt deposited on it. Also, the fretwires had begun to develop grooves in them.

After I was through and the fretboard and the bridge had been cleaned and oiled, they looked like this

It was time to put new strings now.  The strings used were provided by the owner

  

All that work on the nut had been successful, for the B string was ringing true and was no longer getting pinched in the slot.

Also, minor irritants like scratches on the body and snugging up/loosening of the tuning machines were taken care of 

Here is one last look at the beauty. The owner was pleased with the results.