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Choosing a guitar – for kids!

January 14, 2019January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is the-jr-takinglessons.com_.jpg — Image courtesy: takinglessons.com

YES! I know I have written about how to go about choosing a guitar, but I am being forced to write about it again with a special focus on children, thanks largely due to the sudden flood of queries from parents.

FOR SMALLER CHILDREN

What size to buy

The ideal age to start learning any instrument would be six years, once the child has attained a degree of motor control. The ideal size for the child would be a smaller guitar – referred to in the guitar industry as a 3/4^th guitar. But there is a certain shelf life to the instrument because just as the child outgrows his/her shoes and jumpers, so will he/she outgrow the instrument too.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is compare-gumtree.com_.jpg — picture courtesy: gumtree.com

Not that he/she won’t be able to play the instrument but there are two scenarios here: a) either he/she is so comfortable with the small-sized instrument that he/she finds it rather cumbersome playing a regular-sized instrument, or, b) they are so cramped for room that they are terribly uncomfortable playing the small instrument.

So, the downside of buying a small instrument is that in the end IT HAS TO GO! It might adorn a wall but will be seldom played. If there is a younger sibling/cousin/friend the economics of buying a 3/4^th guitar work out that much better.

A word of caution though, A TOY GUITAR IS NOT A 3/4^th GUITAR!

What type – steel-string, nylon string or electric?

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 3-4-steel-gear4music.com_.jpg — 3/4 steel string guitar. Picture courtesy: gear4music.com

The steel-string guitar is more for accompaniment – to sing along to – while the nylon-string guitar is more a specialist classical music instrument, meant to sound finger-picked notes that make the basic melody of the song. It is ideal for Western Classical Music.

While the steel-string instrument is generally played with a pick or plectrum – never overruling the fingers – it is a SIN to even lay a pick or plectrum on a classical guitar, which is (or should be) played only by the fingers.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 3-4-nylon-fineartsmatter.com_.png — 3/4 nylon string guitar. Picture courtesy: fineartsmatter.com

There are basic differences in how the steel-string and the nylon-string guitars are constructed, which dictate the way each is played.

The sound thus produced from a steel-string guitar is happier and peppier, while the sound of the classical guitar is softer, mellower, meant to be consumed personally.

The electric guitar has its own image, personality and points to consider.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 3-4-elect-gear4music.jpg — 3/4 electric guitar. Picture courtesy: gear4music.com

In the end, choosing a guitar is for you and the child to decide together.

What price range?

This is something that I leave parents and guardians to decide, for it is they who will have to shell out the moolah. It is not wise to buy a really cheap, or a really expensive guitar; for the simple reason that a cheap instrument may not last your child’s childhood!

Also, it is likely to put off your youngster for various reasons like comfort, sound quality, etc, etc. Never, think that your brat won’t know the difference. They’re into YouTube as much as they are into Cola, and they listen to stuff!

Expensive stuff: not worth it, for, in the end IT HAS TO GO!

It is then wise to walk the middle line and try and find the best instrument that you possibly can in the middle range.

FOR CHILDREN 11 YEARS OR OLDER

Full size! No question about it. Children this age have grown enough to be able to handle a full-size guitar. If they are facing a bit of a problem forming and holding chords, it will disappear within a few months as their hands dial in the ‘stretch’ required to hold chords and shapes.

The more they practise, the more they will acclimatise to the instrument, the sooner their playing will become ‘clean’ (chords and notes ringing out clear).

And if it wasn’t evident from these couple of paragraphs at which age the switch from a 3/4^th to a full-size guitar should be made, it is age 11!

And since it is a full-size guitar that you are looking to buy, all the recommendations I made in the earlier piece, become considerations.
Read that piece here:

Choosing a guitar

The saddle, slot, are talked about the least. Let’s talk!

January 6, 2019January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

Happy New Year, good people (even you baddies!)!!
May all of you have the best year yet!
My New Year resolution: not to miss my date with the Lucknow Guitar Garage, ever again!!

But without ado, let’s talk about saddles and their slots. But first…

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is intro-pic.jpg — pix courtesy: graphtech.com

…for those among us still uninitiated in guitar anatomy, the white, round things are called bridgepins, the other white long piece is called the saddle, while the wood they both sit in, is called the bridge.

With that out of the way, let’s get into more technical stuff (without meaning to scare you!).
The three things in bold (above), along with the strings, basically, constitute the quartet responsible for producing sound. But as that adage goes, there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip!
Distances, depths, breadths…many possibilities for a slip.

Have you seen/heard of bridges getting cracked?
This can happen for more than one reason. The incorrect size of bridgepins, saddles vis-a-vis their respective slots, is one major reason which can cause havoc.
Picture this:
a) a thick saddle in a thin bridge slot
b) a thin saddle in a broad bridge slot
c) an optimum-sized saddle in an optimum-sized bridge slot, but which is not deep enough…
…MANY A SLIP BETWEEN THE CUP AND THE LIP!
With this pictorial representation, try and grasp the second scenario…

The thinner saddle in a broader slot tilts the saddle, exerting extra force – thanks to the tension of the strings – on the area of the bridge nearest to the soundhole.
However, if the bridge slot is shallow, this extra force of the saddle is absorbed without damage. But, if the saddle slot in the
bridge is deep, the front edge of the saddle is where a fault line is created. Not immediately, but it is along this fault line that the bridge cracks. Just like this:

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is crack-bridge-richboromusic-2.jpg — pix courtesy: (richboromusic)

However, if the saddle sits tall and upright in its slot, there’s nothing to fear. In fact, if the saddle position on your guitar looks like this, you can feel good about it.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is how-the-saddle-should-be-acousticmasters.com_-1.jpg — pix courtesy: acousticmasters.com

In extreme cases of saddle-slot mismatch, this may happen:

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is crack-1-frets.com_-2.jpg — pix courtesy: frets.com

And yet, not always can you attribute such damages to physical dimensions of components. That old devil, Humidity, plays a part too.
Lesson learned?
See that your saddle width is just enough to make it sit snugly in its slot. The saddle should not drop out of its slot, neither should it require needle-nose pliers connected to a suction pump to pull the saddle out of its slot!!
And this is how your bridge assembly should look like:

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is upright-frets.com_-1.jpg — pix courtesy: frets.com

And then again, the health of the bridge is secondary. Once the saddle is near perpendicular to the bridge, the transfer of sound from the strings to the saddle, to the top…ah, the ball is well and truly set rolling!

UNTIL NEXT TIME, keep checking your saddles (and their slots)!

Which strings to use; how often to change

September 26, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

Those, in my opinion, are the two most FAQs by newer guitar players. Often, even experienced players don’t ‘know’ why they use the strings they use! Ask them and they say things like, “I have always used these”!!

Here, I will concede that the range and types of strings available in the market can make choosing a set a formidable proposition. You must consider things like gauge (size), material, coatings, and brand names. If you are a new player it becomes that much more confusing.

The best way out is to read up and educate oneself about the strings available and find out which type of music you like to play on your acoustic instrument. ‘Knowing’ the strings is also important because using the wrong strings may damage your instrument.

String sizes are measured in thousands of an inch and it’s common to refer to an entire pack of strings based on the size of the first string. For example, if you want to buy a pack of new strings, you could ask the shopkeeper for a pack of ’10s’ of a particular brand.

The chart above is representative as string manufacturers tend to have slight differences in thickness of strings of the same gauge from their competitors.

Heavier strings are louder and richer in tone though they are tougher on the fingers. This may increase frustration among beginners. In contrast, lighter gauge strings don’t produce as much volume and the tone is considerably jeopardised. However, they are easier for beginners to play and to bend.

parlor-guitars

Different acoustic guitar bodies require certain gauge of strings. Bigger or jumbo sized bodies are usually better suited for medium or heavy strings while smaller parlor sized guitars tend to perform best with light to medium-light gauge strings.

Your playing style

depositphotos - fingerstyle player — The finger-style player – depositphotos

This too, is a major factor in choosing strings. If you prefer to play finger-style, you should go in for light or medium-light gauge strings. If you usually strum your guitar, you should try medium to heavy gauge strings. If you do both, you might want to find a set that’s the right balance between light and heavy.

The heavier the gauge of string, the more tension it will produce from the guitar headstock to the bridge. Neglecting to properly set up your guitar when replacing strings to a heavier set, or, downgrading to a much lighter set could damage the guitar. Talk to a guitar tech before making dramatic string size changes.

I would suggest for newer players to play everyday at least for an hour, and to change strings every two months. Each time, pick a different type of string set, play it and record it. Once you have tried all string types, you can go back to your recordings and choose the string type that best pleases YOUR ears.

Yes, the initial investment will be a lot and frequent but you and your playing will gain a lot from the process.

How often to change?

This is a very subjective question and the answer depends on how much and how often you play your guitar. Professional players are known to change strings every two or three days!

More casual players, who pick up their guitar twice or thrice a week for 30 – 45 minutes must change their strings every three months. Experts are of the opinion that every two months is the ideal time but I would suggest a string change every three months.

Whether 2 – 3 days or 2 – 3 months, know that a change of strings is mandatory. With usage and being under constant stress, strings undergo a lot of wear and tear which is not apparent to the naked eye, but you can certainly ‘hear’ the strings go ‘dead’ after a certain period of time. They will just not ring out the way they used to.

TIP: If a string breaks, never try to change just that string. Change the entire set!

Just like after a period of time your shaving razor gets dull and you have to change it, so also it is with strings. The following chart will help you understand string changes better.

Changing Strings

TIP 2: Once you have decided on a string type, don’t just buy one set. Buy 3 sets at one go. While you put on one set on your guitar, there will be two sets waiting, just in case you break a string. Even if you don’t break a string, you will have two sets ready to put on once it is time to change the strings. You will not only save on time but even on effort.

Recognise this?

September 6, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

I will be installing a pick-up in this baby. The pick-up resembles one from the L.R. Baggs’s Anthem series greatly.

I have already drilled the hole for the pick-up

But before anything else, try and identify this beauty. That is the whole purpose of this post!

I have purposely blackened the logo and the name on the headstock, as also on the label inside the soundhole. But, to aid you in the identification process, I will tell you its salient features:

Solid Sitka Spruce top
Mahogany neck, back and sides
C’mon! Look at that beautiful sunburst!Think about it till Sunday, when we get into the business side of things.

A simple job but not so easy

August 26, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

This Epiphone came in for a general check-up, cleaning, fresh strings and a bone saddle and nut. It had been in disuse for a number of years and now that the owner had time on his hands, he decided to make use of it by brushing up on his strumming skills.

Otherwise a solidly built guitar, I was surprised when I could not knock out the plastic nut installed in the instrument, using the usual means that I employ. I had to hold it with a pair of pliers and with much effort, prise it out of the slot. It came out, eventually, but in pieces. Take a look at the photo above and see if you can count the number of pieces it shattered into.

To my horror, I saw that some HII (high-IQ individual) had used epoxy to glue the nut in and there was enough residue in the slot to fill a gorge in the Grand Canyon! To my eyes it seemed as if I was the first repair person to have touched the instrument, and so, could it mean that people at Epiphone used the epoxy? There was no knowing.

Just cleaning the slot was a tedious 50-minute procedure, employing various means and tools. The problem was that I could not get too happy with the tools. Just a little extra sanding and I would be sanding away too much of the nut-end of the fretboard, which would mean reducing length of the fretboard, which meant reducing the scale length. When I was done, I had managed to work up a healthy sweat, not due to exertion but due to nervousness.

While replacing the nut, ideally, if the slot is cut correctly, one does not require glue. The nut sits snugly in its slot and is held in place by the strings. However, glueing it in place is not wrong either…BUT…only with two little dots of glue – NO MORE – on the side of the nut that will sit against the fretboard.

The cleaning, oiling and polishing of the guitar took me another hour, give or take a few minutes.

With a spanking new nut and saddle in place, I restrung the instrument with 0.12 – 0.53″ gauge strings.

A proper set-up and a string-stretching followed with the action reading 0.79″ at the 12th fret and 0.15″ at the 1st fret.

A mighty pleased owner picked up his instrument later in the day, bringing smiles my way too!

The shift

August 8, 2018January 22, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

It’s almost a month since I posted and if you have visited the home page of my blog recently, you may have noticed a very stark address change. The shift was in the pipeline and happened just at the right time for me.

Yes, I won’t be there to help people in Qatar and the region, but the internet is a wonderful thing – you’re never far. Through this blog and the email, I will still be able to solve most of your problems, or, at least, guide you into solving issues you face with your acoustic instrument.

As I write this post, I sit almost 3,000 km from where I began writing this blog, but I am home, I am happy, and I am raring to go.

There will be a change in the day of posting, though it will still remain a weekly post. Instead of Friday, you will now be able to read new blog entries by me on Sundays.

As you may have noticed, there is no phone number in the contact details. It’s coming soon.

Just a little update on what’s been happening. Until Sunday then, keep it here!!!!

A bridge too far…from the top!

June 30, 2018February 16, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

This pretty guitar with an equally pretty bridge of nicely figured rosewood came to me looking like this. The gap between the bridge and the top was big enough to let you drive through a truck and must have resulted when the owner left it standing for months with the strings in full tension.

A word of caution here: if you know that you won’t be playing your guitar for a few weeks, PLEASE loosen your guitar strings. It takes away the stress the strings put on the bridge, on the crucial neck-to-body joint, the neck itself, and stops the guitar top from bellying up behind the bridge. Basically, loosening your instrument’s strings is good all round.

Besides, this instrument had a few other problems but none as major as the lifting bridge. The cheap plastic strap-pin was falling off, the fretwires and the chrome hardware was tarnished and needed burnishing, a fresh set of strings was needed, and the plastic nut and saddle needed to be replaced with bone elements. However, the owner did not wish to replace the nut and saddle.

When I began removing the bridge, it offered little resistance and popped right off. But what I saw underneath left me wide-eyed.

There was a disconcerting shine on the top where the bridge sat, as well as under the bridge, and as I took a closer look, it seemed as if the manufacturers had tried to save money on the glue. It appeared as if the entire top had been sprayed with lacquer (varnish) and while the lacquer was still wet, the bridge had been placed and pressed in, in the hope that as the lacquer dried, it would work as a glue. All this is pure conjecture on my part, but to be very frank, there were few traces of glue both on the bridge as well as on its footprint on the top.

Now, granted that this was not a famous brand name, but it was a very well constructed instrument with good wood used in it. Why somebody would go through all the trouble of selecting good material and make an excellent instrument and scrimp on glue, beat me.

Whatever! My job was cut out – or, rather – gouge out all the glue. A painfully slow process, I scraped, filed and sanded close to three hours to get all the lacquer off from underneath the bridge and the top. Here’s proof:

When I finally sat down, perspiring and hot, the sight in front of me was indeed heartening.

Clean, wholesome wood shone through. Do appreciate the highly figured rosewood used for making the bridge.

Cleaning the two surfaces to be joined thoroughly, I applied glue, brought the two together, clamped them up good, and left the joint to cure for almost two days.

While the glue was curing, I worked on the fretwires and hardware of the instrument, giving it some polishing cream, some TLC and lots of elbow grease.

Just look at them shine!

The fretboard oiled and nourished, and the fretwires burnished and shining like new.

The clamps came off and with a good polish of the body the guitar shone with new light, with new strings completing the picture. Do notice the shiny new strap-pin. Its twin sits as snugly on the side of the cutaway.

A set-up…a new life

June 22, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

This Ovation look-alike came in for new strings and a general set-up. It was pretty much like Ovation down to the fiber bowl-shaped back.

However, most amusing was the strings’ artwork on the headstock.

The extra length of the strings needs to be cut off for it is of no use and can only cause problems. And do notice how the D string tuning machine is bent at an angle.

The little screw holding the tuning machine had got bent and in doing so had bent itself out of its slot, creating a deep furrow. The only thing stopping the tuning machine from coming out of its slot was its nut on the front face of the headstock.

I took off the tuning machine and filled up the furrow and the screw slot with wood and glue. After the glue had dried, I re-drilled a hole in the proper place and replaced the old, bent screw with a new one. I also oiled, tightened and polished all the tuning machines.

Also, there were major divets in the first four fretwires and even though this is not a very clear photograph, I think you will be able to make them out.

IMG-20180529-WA0006

I had a chat with the owner about working on them and about replacing the cheap, plastic nut and saddle with bone elements. He agreed and I set about my job.

With a little love, some ‘0000’ steel wool, oiling and lots of elbow grease the fretboard and the fretwires were shining again.

The guitar looked and sounded better than it ever did!

Run, if you see your guitar tech doing this

June 15, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton 1 Comment

action - thebasicsofguitar.blogspot.com — Measuring the action – thebasicsofguitar.blogspot.com

The action on your guitar is high and you take it to your technician to correct it. If he says it is a two-minute job, and picks up the hex key (Allen wrench), stop him then and there.

By picking up the hex key, what he intended to do, most probably, was to work the truss rod one way or the other. The truss rod is an iron rod with a hex nut on one end and sits in a groove in the neck, right under your fretboard/fingerboard. It can be accessed either through the soundhole, or from the headstock end.

where and how the rod sits - project electric guitar

trussrod as seen through the soundhole - tdpri.com — The trussrod end as seen through the soundhole – tdpri.com

The truss rod with access from the headstock end of the guitar – thbecker.net

The purpose of the truss rod – in any guitar – is to dial in the right amount of relief (the string-to-fretwire gap) in the neck. IT IS NOT A PROCESS TO CORRECT ACTION, no matter what your tech or anyone else says.

Why n when to adjust truss rod - www.talkbass.com

The right way to correct action on your instrument is a three-step process, correcting

a) action at the 12th fret (adjusting saddle height)

b) action at the 1st fret (adjusting the string slots in the nut), and

c) dialling in the right amount of relief in the neck.

I will discuss these in the next post with a set-up undertaken on a customer’s guitar.

This troubled Takamine!

June 8, 2018February 16, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

This troubled six-string came in with the complaint that the action had got particularly high on it. During routine inspection it became clear why.

Apologies for the bad shot but this was the best among three or four that I took!

The bridge was lifting badly all round the end facing the end block. When a bridge lifts like this, the action is bound to increase, making playing the instrument a pain. In order to correct it, the bridge had to be taken off and reglued to the top.

But to be fair, this instrument was a mystery to me. The headstock read ‘Takamine’ (pronounced ta – ka – mee – nay), a respected Japanese brand founded in May, 1962, but the label inside the soundhole read:

‘Made in China’! Made in China??

Whatever!!!

I had a job to do and the quality or the make of an instrument should never be a concern, and it never is.

As I continued to inspect the guitar, I saw the usual things: plastic saddle and nut, grime collected over months of playing, huge divets in the fretwires, and of course, the instrument needed new strings.

The grime and the divets in the fretwires

However, the biggest surprise awaited me when I took the bridge off. It popped off with little resistance but both the top of the guitar as well as the underside of the bridge were coated with an odd, shiny substance, which resembled varnish. Only, varnish can never function as glue!One look at it and I was grimacing for I knew what lay ahead: hours of scraping and scratching and cleaning before it was completely rid of the goo. Exactly two hours and forty-five minutes later, the bridge and the area on the top where it would be stuck, looked like this – finally!I glued on the bridge and clamped it down to be left for 48 hours like that. In the meantime, I went about working on the dented fretwires.

Only the first four or five needed attention and so I worked only on them, some financial respite for the customer.

Also, the plastic saddle and nut were replaced with bone elements that would not only last a lifetime but provide quality sound too.

Your guitar’s action has gone high…overnight!

June 2, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

action

Yes! It does happen!

You played your guitar the night before and when you pick it up in the morning, the action on the instrument is sky-high.

This happens more often than not due to humidity – too much humidity – which is not often discussed. It is also possible that the neck may have moved during the night, causing the strings to rise over the fretboard.

A friend had this very expensive guitar which he used to religiously humidify. In fact, when he used to return the instrument to its case, there was a humidifier waiting there to feed it!

So, one fine day, when he picked up his instrument to play, he could hardly play it. Astounded, he checked everything and when he could not find the problem, rushed over to show it to me. Here is what I told him:

“When you are hungry, you eat, and you continue eating till you are full. What would happen if you continued to eat even after you were full?”

“I would bloat,” he said, still puzzled at where I was getting with me targeting his gastronomical proclivities.

“Exactly!” I said. “Your guitar has had too much to eat, or rather, too much to drink. The bloating is due to the fact that the wood in your instrument has taken in way too much water than it required. In fact, you can see it here”. And with that I took a 12″ ruler and laid it across the top just under the bridge. While the centre of the top was in contact with the ruler, the ends of the ruler were high in the air, just like this:

belly

My advice to him was to loosen the strings, take the humidifier out of the case and not to humidify the instrument at least for three weeks.

My friend got back to me in two weeks to report that the instrument had lost its belly and the action too was back to normal. I asked him maintain the no-humidity regimen for a week more before he started humidifying his instrument again.

My next piece of advice to him is also the advice I give you.

“Of course, you must humidify your guitar but then you must know when your guitar has had enough to ‘drink’. You will only know this if you have a small but reliable hygrometer kept INSIDE the guitar itself. Having a humidifier in the case of the guitar will never give you a very accurate picture of the humidity level of your instrument.

hygro

This instrument might appear large but fits easily in your palm and also inside your guitar.

After every four or five days check the reading on it, and once your guitar reaches that optimum range (45% – 55%) of humidity, stop feeding it water.

Relatedly, the tension of the strings acting on the neck might cause it to bend one way or another. A simple, 1/4 turn of the truss rod should be enough to correct the problem.

Tips, tricks & tools

May 27, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

A guitar player of any proficiency level must have a few essential tools to help him/her maintain the instrument.

IMAG1365

The No. 9 wrench is used to keep the tuning machines snug and doing their job properly.
The stringwinder is used to hasten a job that you would otherwise do by hand
A brush is always handy to dust places that are hard to reach (for eg, the area underneath the strings)
The wire cutter is needed to snip off the extra length of strings when you change them. A tip: Please desist from creating modern art with strings on the headstock of your guitar. There are other places that you can show your creative talents.
The hex key or Allen wrench is used to work the truss rod of your guitar.
The needle-nose pliers are essential for holding and turning small pieces like strings.
A small Phillips screwdriver is most handy for it can be used at various places to tighten small screws in your instrument
The feeler gauge is another inexpensive tool widely available at hardware and motor stores. It is useful while measuring action at various points on the fretboard and other such.
A good quality 6-inch ruler, preferably steel, which is calibrated clearly, will always come handy.

A COUPLE OF TIPS

You have put in new strings and as you are tuning up the instrument, there is a sharp ‘thud’ and the string that you had been tensioning, suddenly goes slack.

string ends — A look underneath the bridge. (pic courtesy TDPRI.com)

Ideally, the ball ends of your strings should sit like these above, except for the 3rd string from the right. That is the position of the string just before you hear that ‘thud’. When you start tuning the string, the ball end caught on the bridgepin is released and it hits the bridgeplate with a ‘thud’.

Nothing wrong with the phenomenon but continued occurrence can lead to substantial damage to the bridgeplate.

umgf — An example of the damage the ball ends of strings can do to your bridgeplate.

To avoid the situation, here are a couple of tips, and though these are two, they are inter-connected.

Firstly, see that you bend the ball end of the strings like this.

IMAG1263

This helps avoid the strings getting caught on the pin edge.

Also, shaving the bottom of the pin at a 40 – 45 degree angle ensures that the turned string end slips past the end of the pin and sits comfortably and easily against the bridgeplate.

IMAG1259

Here’s how to go about it.

bridge

Sentimental treasure restored…almost

May 18, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

This photograph was sent to me to see if I could rectify the problem. For the life of me I could not fathom what fungus could have caused the fretboard wood to lose its colour like this. I called the instrument in for closer inspection and when I saw it in person, I slapped my head at my own idiocy.

The fretboard wasn’t losing colour – well, in a way it was. The wood was light coloured and had been painted dark. As the paint flaked off, the natural colour of the wood was showing through.

With the owner’s permission, I decided to scrape the rest of the paint from the fretboard. A time-consuming process, it had to be done to keep the instrument presentable.

Once done, the natural beauty of the light-coloured wood shone through and made the instrument look much better.

What do you think?

Here is the guitar with the fretboard oiled and the frets polished.

The owner also wanted to change the tuning machines on the guitar as the original ones were a mix-and-match set, and some had even got twisted over time.

He wished to replace the originals with these ones.

However, as expected, the holes for the screws did not match up. So, I filled up the original holes.

I drilled new holes and then installing the new tuning machines was just a matter of screwing them (pun unintended).

While working on the instrument, I noticed that 40+ years of playing had taken a toll on it (It belonged to the owner’s mother, who used to play it as a younger woman!).

I decided to touch it up a bit and the result was not bad.

And look what fell out of the guitar while I was cleaning it from the inside…

At its sight, I shrank as if I was staring at a King Cobra! This was not good, not good at all. Wonder how long it had been living there and what it had done to the wood.

The owner had also provided a new set of very jazzy black nylon strings to be put on the instrument. As I put them on and began tensioning them, I heard weird groans, creaks and crackles. Those kind of sounds are only caused by the bridge lifting off the top. But I had checked the bridge earlier to see if it was lifting and it was stuck solidly to the top.

When I finally checked the guitar, the bridge had managed to rip the top in an effort to counter the tension of the strings. The silica gel had done its bit!

There was nothing that could be done except feel sad about the instrument and the owner. Maybe, just maybe, if I had tried humidifying the instrument for a couple of weeks when I saw the silica gel sachet, this would not have happened. And then again, that would have been a big ‘if’, for as I said, there was no knowing how long that sachet had been lying inside the guitar.

Naturally, it was a disappointed owner who came to pick up the guitar. My advice to him was to play it as much as the instrument would allow, and later, to hang it up on a wall as a showpiece.

My advice to you, my readers, never, NEVER, put silica gel or other desiccants inside acoustic guitars, especially classical guitars, for these are delicate instruments and do not have the brawn and muscle that flat-top, steel string instruments are lent.

Three-fourth misery

May 11, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

The Little One

This baby of a baby was brought to me with the complaint that the thinner strings were buzzing. A very pretty, all-mahogany, three-fourth size guitar, I was surprised to see major divets on the frets over which the ‘e’ and ‘b’ strings ran.

The surprise was due to the fact that the owner’s father informed me that it was a new guitar, bought from a shop locally, and the child had just started learning how to play it. Also, look carefully at the guitar and you will be able to spot the film still attached to the pickguard – a sure sign of the newness of the guitar. The divets, then, were a shocker.

Gunk removal from the fretboard.

The fretboard was very dry and a light scraping and oiling helped condition it back to prime health. But do look at the fretwire closest to you. Amazing!

Anyway, it had to be cured of its ills and so the fretwires across half the board were levelled and crowned to remove the huge pits in them, and then the fretwires were polished up to a decent shine.

A little one's little one

The Mummy Returns - Part II — The Mummy Returns: The fretboard taped-off and the fretwires levelled.

The Little One's frets shine — After the crowning process.

I did point out to the owner the badly cut plastic nut but then I did not expect him to ask me to change it. It played well enough as it was, and for the child learning, it was good enough.

End result: another satisfied customer!

Trauma in transit

May 5, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

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This li’l one was brought to me by a harried husband who had bought the ukulele online as a gift for his wife. It was a well-constructed, high-gloss instrument with solid spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides, and a rosewood fingerboard and bridge.

The problem – as was all too evident – was this trauma caused in transit.

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Look carefully how the binding is raised and how the lacquer is cracked both on the top as well as near the end-pin of the instrument. It tells you that the force of the impact was along the side of the instrument – probably on the end-pin itself. Consequently, the side had got pushed in, pushing out the binding and the top. Though the maximum damage was to this region, it extended till say midway to the lower bout.

No matter how much I pushed and pulled, the side refused to move out and the top refused to be pushed in. Thankfully though, the binding could readily be seated in its slot.

With the binding seated, I sanded lightly along the edge of the top and finally, after many attempts, got the top to sink into place.

Then began a long and slow process of filling in the missing lacquer with three grades of super glue, wet sanding with three grades of sandpaper (grits 3000, 4000 and 6000) and then buffing and polishing the instrument.

My worse-than-amateurish photography skills do not do justice to the finished product.

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The result pleased both me and my customer!

Humidifying – how to

May 4, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

So, humidity is important. And how do you get it into your instrument – humidifiers. There are as many type of humidifiers as there are guitar models.

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Planet waves — This one too hangs into the soundhole while resting on the strings

dampit — This one lies in the body of the guitar while the plastic cover lies over the soundhole, stopping the moisture from escaping, retaining it within the instrument

All of these work but they are expensive. What if you can get a bigger bang for a smaller buck?

Take a look at my favourite humidifier.

My1 — The humble kitchen scrub in a soapdish is the perfect humidifier

You can save still more if you replace the soapdish with a zip-lock bag punctured in places to let out the moisture.

All that you need to do is to soak the sponge, leaving it just moist enough – as opposed to being dripping wet – and leave it inside the body of your guitar. If you want, you may cover the soundhole with a lid of sorts.

Check the moistness of your sponge every few days and when you find that the sponge is almost as wet as when you placed it inside, rest assured that your instrument has had enough to ‘drink’.

But if you wish to be 100% sure, use this:

hygrometer-18 — Another version with a temperature reading

A digital hygrometre is a wonderful instrument: cheap and reliable. You slip one of these through the soundhole of the instrument and leave it there for a few days. To get a very accurate reading, cover the soundhole of the instrument with a lid. After a few days, the reading that you get on your hygrometre, is the humidity in your guitar.

NEVER keep both the humidifier and the hygrometre in the instrument together, for the hygrometre will keep reading the humidity content of the humidifier!!!

The devil in (the lack of) humidity

April 27, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

It is only creatures of the animal kingdom who find high humidity hard to bear. Acoustic instruments are uncomplaining. However, acoustic guitars react badly to low humidity and in case of continued low-humidity conditions can crack at various places, or, in extreme cases, come apart completely.

The most common of such places are the joints in the neck of the instrument, the top and the bridge, as seen in the photograph above.

It is also not uncommon to go to bed with the guitar in perfect condition and wake up the next morning to find one of the joints in the neck having developed a crack, exactly what happened to this poor instrument that I tended to recently.

The owner told me that the night before he was playing the guitar but when he woke up he found the action on instrument alarmingly high. As he went about inspecting the instrument, he found the scarf joint on the neck had opened up.

Thankfully, he had the sense to loosen all the strings and take the tension off the neck. When I got it, I had to tighten the strings beyond full tension to get the crack open wide enough to push glue into.

But here came the problem. The surface of the fretboard over which one jaw of the clamp would sit, was flat enough for the purpose, but how do you get the other jaw to hold tight the curve of the neck?

What followed was a fashioning of a neck caul out of two pieces of wood glued together and then carving the piece of wood so that it could support the neck. Do notice the cork, stuck to the surface to protect the surface of the neck.

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With generous amounts of glue forced into the crack, the next thing to do was to clamp the joint together, take the strings off completely, and leave it untouched for a couple of days.

The owner also complained that the bass strings had a tendency to buzz every now and then. While working on the guitar, I noticed that the slots cut into the cheap plastic nut were way too deep. So, out went the plastic nut and in its stead came in a swanky bone nut.

In a couple of days, the clamps were taken off, the guitar strung up and handed over to a happy owner.

To read more about humidity and how to tackle it, enlarge the following picture.

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Black Beauty gets a new saddle (and nut)

April 20, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

Black Beauty came in the other day, looking rather in bad shape, and needing some serious TLC. Its coat too had not been rubbed down in a while and was dusty, dirty and dank, and with enough scratches on it to rechristen it ‘Scratchy’! Of course, The Guitar Garage is just the place for getting all the love and attention that every instrument deserves.

The complaint was that the first string was buzzing, and as the eye automatically went to the problem areas – the saddle and the nut – I was shocked to find tissue paper stuck under the high ‘e’ string, where the saddle should have been. As I looked askance at the owner, he said that the saddle had got chipped in a fall and so he had stuck some tissue to help the string to ride the saddle better!

Doctoring the saddle is never a good idea (1)

Apologies for the shaky shot, but I was literally shaking in anger at the presumed ingenuity of the owner.

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FOOLED YA!!!! I do have another, clearer shot!

But jokes aside…PLEASE…don’t just try stuff…there’s a load of information available over the internet, rummage through it, you will be none the worse, and what’s more, your instrument will thank you for it.

The strings needed to be changed too, dirty and gunky as they were. So, off came the strings, and as they did, what did I see:

Does your fretboard have enough DNA to write your family tree (5)

enough DNA reserves that had the ability to map the owner’s family tree!

Does your fretboard have enough DNA to write your family tree (6)

Does your fretboard resemble this? If it does, when you take off the strings the next time to change them, please make a little effort, take a wad of ‘0000’ steel wool (available at most supermarkets and corner stores) give your fretboard a thorough rub down – right from the 1st fret to the last one on the fretboard extension over the top – and see your frets and fretboard gleam like new.

But as I looked and pondered a formal chastisement of the owner, what did I see, but royal divots, from the very first fretwire (Yes! the space between the fretwires is the ‘fret’, not the wires themselves, as people erroneously refer to them), to say, the 8th or the 9th fret in the area in which the ‘e’ and ‘B’ (the two thinnest) strings would float.

Royal divets

And so, followed the painfully slow and painstaking process of levelling, crowning and polishing the frets to take out the gouges in the fretwire. Two hours later, I was hot, perspiring and panting, but satisfied: the fretwires were done.

Frets levelled (7) — The fretwires captured before getting crowned and polished

But as I went about the chore, what did I see: Do you see it too? Look closer at the high ‘e’ area of the nut. MORE TISSUE PAPER!!!!!!!!

Exactly what the nut of your guitar should not look like (3)

The more I thought, the more I was convinced that this man got his tissue paper for free!

Also, how deeply the strings sat in the nut slot was worrisome to me. Your strings should never sit more than half their circumference in their nut slots – the three thickest ones at least.

Once the fretwires had been taken care of, pulling out the saddle and the nut was a simple process. While the originals were cheap plastic elements, I replaced them with bone elements which would last much longer and lend greater volume and sustain to the instrument.

With some elbow grease put into rubbing down of Black Beauty’s coat, she looked truly resplendent! Wouldn’t you say so?

A new, handsome saddle sits smart in the bridge (2)

With a new compensated saddle installed

With the new nut things start to look up (4) — A new nut in place

El Classico had a great fall!

April 13, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

A very common acoustic guitar affliction is it tipping over, and the headstock cracking, or breaking, or the neck cracking or breaking. 99% of the times, carelessness on the part of the owner, is the reason for the damage – both to the instrument as well as to the pocket. The funny part is no owner is willing

El Classico had a great fall and broke his crown

to admit that it fell and broke.

In a month I see at least one such case in varying degrees of damage.

El Classico, here, came in looking in rather bad shape. The first order of service was, of course, taking off the hardware to be able to reach the problem area. The problem is compounded when the break has an open end: the crack has broken off clean at one end. Thankfully, this crack was joined at both ends but a bad crack nonetheless. Pressed together, the sides of the crack refused to align.

El Classico - another view

What’s more, for a good repair, I needed the nut out of the way so that I could clamp down that lifting end and make it a seamless joint. But you just can’t ‘lift’ out nuts, the way you lift out saddles. Nuts are knocked out of their groove. However, knocking this nut out would mean more damage to the already lifted edge.

After much head-scratching and chin-stroking, I decided to tap the nut out from the side. With gentle repetitive taps with a hammer to a padded screwdriver end butted up against the nut, I managed to dislodge it.

Then began the slow and arduous process of dry runs to see how the misaligned sides of the crack could best be brought together. More knitted brows followed as I tried this and that and more.

Half-an-hour later I finally had it together. Glued, clamped, it stood there for 48 hours before I released it.

El Classico - in the operation theatre

Providentially, I had just acquired these small C-clamps recently, and specifically to tend to headstock and neck repairs. This online order came just a few days before this Yamaha arrived at my doorstep.

El Classico - sutured and bandaged — Another view of the neurosurgery on the Yamaha.

After 48 hours, when I did release it from the clamps that held its head together, so happy was I with the results that I forgot to take photographs. Some light wet sanding later, it looked the best that it could have.

The owner, when he came to collect the instrument, concurred with my view.

Choosing a guitar

April 6, 2018January 27, 2019 Amit Newton Leave a comment

An acoustic instrument’s sound is due to the wonder of material used to build it and is never dependent on electronics – not even in electro-acoustic instruments.

Thus, I always advise beginners and others wishing to purchase an instrument to blindfold themselves and see with their ears! You go into a shop and even as you are glancing over instruments, your eyes will stop over one or two instruments. Believe me when I tell you that you have already chosen the guitar to purchase! Such is the power of vision that it overpowers all other senses, and so, blindfolding yourself takes sight out of the equation.

It is actually a very simple process. Go to the shop with a friend, sibling or spouse and ask them to blindfold you before you enter the shop. Sit down and give the salesperson a price range in which to show you instruments.

Of all the instruments that the salesperson shows you, some will have a bell-like clarity (due to the highly accented treble range), some will have a drum-like booming quality (due to the accented bass range), while still others will be a very happy blend of the two. So, which one should you choose? Let me take the mystery out of the choice-making and tell you that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ sound. Whatever appeals to your ears is the right sound.

So, choose the three best instruments that your ears pick up for you and have them kept aside. Now, go over the other guitars once more. Choose the best-sounding instrument from the ‘rejected’ lot and have it kept along with ‘the chosen ones’. It is time now to take your blindfold off and actually see what you have chosen.

Of the four guitars on show, you will reject at least two for one reason or another (that’s the way the human brain functions). The remaining two, pick them up and play them, looking for exactly what made your ears choose it.

Once you have made your choice, go through the instrument with a fine-tooth comb.

Here is a list of things to look for:

Is it a solid wood instrument or is it made from laminated wood (layers of woods)? A solid wood instrument will be costlier but the sound quality will be appreciably better than that of a laminated wood instrument. If you are unsure, ask the salesperson.
colour inconsistency, if it is a painted guitar
Scratches, dents, dings in the finish. Give the neck of the guitar a proper once over both with your eyes and fingers because that is the area where your hands will stay the maximum amount of time.
Take a piece of paper and try pushing it under the bridge, under fretboard extension that is stuck to the top of the guitar, and at the joint where the neck heel is stuck to the body of the guitar. No more than 1 cm of a corner of the paper should go under any of these three places. If it does, reject the instrument outright.
Check the tuning machines for extra play/looseness. These can give you tuning nightmares later on. Have the salesperson tighten them.
If there are electronics on board, plug in and play away. Check that the pick-up system is ‘picking up’ all the strings by playing each string individually.

Once you have made your choice, don’t forget to buy a semi-hard or a hard case to go along. It’s like buying a helmet when you buy a motorcycle!

Debunking a few myths

1) I am learning to play so I don’t need to spend so much.

You buy a guitar only once. Buy good. If you must, wait another six months and buy the better instrument.

2) That child will grow up fast; the guitar will never

Initially, six-year-olds will look odd holding an instrument much larger than themselves, but children grow up faster than you think. Don’t make the mistake of buying a small guitar and later not knowing what to do with it. Besides, when children play a full-size instrument, it forces them to stretch the fingers on their fretting hand. Consequently, they learn to ‘get there’ faster than they would have if they had been playing a small-size instrument.

3) This guitar is old and looks used.

If it is a solid wood guitar, or even if it has a solid wood top, chances are that it will have a sound so beautiful that you will fall in love with it. Sound is produced when the top vibrates and pushes the air out of the soundhole of the guitar. The more the top vibrates, the bigger will be the sound. Additionally, the more the guitar is played the more the top moves and gets used to moving. Thus, a used guitar would be my choice of instrument. Don’t trust me? Check out the prices of guitars made in the 60s, 50s, or even in the 40s or 30s!

This should give you a clearer picture.

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Happy choosing!

Acoustic Guitar

Fabri-cobbling…tools, tools, tools, and more tools

March 31, 2018January 27, 2019 prosenjeet Leave a comment

I do a lot of repairs and modifications. I can usually bring a badly damaged instrument back from the Hades and make it sing again.

I also do instrument modifications, like upgrading the factory-installed plastic saddle and nut to bone elements, swapping plastic bridgepins with rosewood, ebony, metal or bone bridgepins, removal of dents and dings, and a lot more.

Most mass-produced instruments are made keeping the price point at the minimum. Selling for less yet being able to make a profit demands that the cheapest (in every sense) materials are used. We can’t do much about the woods used in making the guitar, but replacing the plastic nut and saddle with bone elements, increases volume and sustain dramatically. This happens because bone is a much denser material as compared to plastic. The density of bone helps transfer sound much better than plastic. Most times, a moderately priced instrument can really benefit from an upgrade.

So, if bone is all goodness, why isn’t it used in the first place? Because bone is much more expensive than plastic!

I also make customised scratchguards. There are many designs that a customer can choose from, or, he could bring in one of his own and I will make it for him.

But instrument repair goes much beyond a flat-head or a Phillips-head screwdriver, and even farther than a few F, C and G-clamps thrown in.

Any guitar technician worth his tools will tell you that for exactly the same job on different instruments, a different approach, a different set of tools, cauls – sometimes even the glue – are required.

In the course of repairing instruments, not always did I have the wherewithal or the luxury of time to place an online order with that very wonderful but forbiddingly expensive store, StewMac. Amazing tools but much beyond my reach.

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A little common sense and enough time to think about the repair, and I have almost always seen light at the end of the tunnel. Not all the tools that I have fashioned can I claim to be my inventions, most being a result of descriptions, diagrams and explanations over the internet. Result: Happy customers!

The photographs accompanying this post shows some of my favourite fabri-cobbled tools. I’d love to stay and show you more but I’m still learning how to navigate this site!

What is a set-up? Why is it needed?

March 16, 2018February 6, 2020 Amit Newton Leave a comment

If there is one thing and JUST ONE THING that you should get done in your acoustic guitar, it should be a set-up. A set-up is required so that the instrument can play properly and easily, the best that it can. It usually includes adjustments to the saddle, nut, truss rod, adjusting action, adjusting neck relief (yes, the last two are separate jobs and different things to serve separate ends) checking and tightening of hardware, conditioning the fretboard and the bridge and, of course, intonation. All of this is done, keeping in mind the playing style of a guitarist.

The instrument of a finger-style player, with a light touch, will be set up dramatically different from, say, a country balladeer, who plays with a heavy hand and demands a lot of volume from his acoustic guitar.

Why is a set-up required? It’s like you saved and you spent big bucks on the guitar of your dreams, but without a customised set-up, created specifically for the way you play, it’s been a waste of time and money.

Mass produced as they are, guitars are not generally set-up at the factory, or in the showroom. My advice to youngsters and people who are contemplating purchasing a guitar is to have it set-up right after they make a purchase. That way, the guitar plays perfectly to their particular style and technique. A guitar that is properly set up is a real joy to play.

Even if you already own a guitar and have been playing for years, it is never too late to get your guitar set up . The difference that a ‘good’ set-up makes can only be experienced.

COME…experience that joy!