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, […]
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Guitar repair – One owner, two Sire siblings, similar problems: Big pain!
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 […]
Guitar repair – Putting a heart into a collapsing Tronad – II
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 […]
Guitar repair – Putting a heart into a collapsing Tronad – I
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. […]
Guitar repair – Zero fretwire: Pluses and minuses
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, […]
Guitar repair – Horn over bone: here’s the lowdown!
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 […]
Guitar repair – A Yamaha worth talking about!
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 […]
Guitar repair – The pain of fretwire-levelling-2!!!
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 […]
Guitar repair – The pain of fretwire-levelling!
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 […]
Guitar repair – Dryness leads to splits!
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 […]
Guitar repair – When it returns for some love!
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 […]
Guitar repair – It’s not always the instrument…sometimes it’s the sentiment attached!
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 […]
Guitar repair – A return from the dead for this one?
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 […]
Guitar repair – Another Yamaha, expect more problems (down the line)!!
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 […]
Guitar repair – Getting stuck in a Vault, mending it!
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 […]
Guitar repair – Cut ‘n’ replace strings one by one or all at once?
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 […]
Guitar repair – No string artwork on the headstock!
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! […]
Guitar repair – Getting Alhambra in tune again!
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 – […]
Guitar repair – Making ‘Sire’ sing again!
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 […]
Guitar repair – 13s or 11s? Which one should I use?
That was the point of conversation with a return customer. I will try my best to explain to you my answer that I gave him – as to all those who ask me. And in case it didn’t strike you, we are talking about string gauges. 13s (.013″ – .052/.054/.056″) These are BIG strings […]
Guitar repair – The belly bulge: whys and wherefores?
Happy New Year, folks! I’m back! Of late, I have had to tend to a slew of belly bulge cases. I hope to replicate for you all the explanation of the whys and wherefores that I usually give guitar owners. What is a belly bulge? A belly bulge is said to have occurred in […]
Guitar repair – Strings: Which ones are the best for me?
And, we return to that eternal question! I have dwelt upon this before (in the very early days of this blog) but since I have to explain to (almost) every customer which string would suit their style (and guitar) the best, I thought that I would put my thoughts down again for the benefit of […]
Guitar repair – A bridge glue-up in October (It went well)!
The last time, I had announced that I shall no longer do (any) glue-up jobs between July and September and that I would welcome these jobs October onwards. This bridge-glue-up job came in October when the humidity gods were more benevolent, but this was an odd one. Obviously, it had been standing lonely in a […]
Guitar repair – Pain in the season of fails: the final chapter!
I had been noticing for a couple of years now that each year, during July and August, all glue-up jobs would take two or three tries to get done. I always attributed it to my fault somewhere in the process. However, after two guitars this year led me quite a dance in the said two […]
Guitar repair – even the easy jobs ain’t easy!
This guitar came in while I was still getting back from a bruising bout with viral fever, and trying to dig myself out from under mountains of work that had piled up all around the house! This had to be a quick job as it had to be returned to the owner fast. He had […]