I have said this before but I will say it again: wood has a memory. Once it attains a shape, it likes to stay in that shape. You can give it all the heat and moisture that you want and try to bend it the other way but soon after the external factors (heat, moisture, […]
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Guitar repair – The mystery of the missing saddle and a classical set-up!
It is always such a pleasure to know that not all people owning classical guitars (slotted headstocks and nylon strings) bought the instrument by mistake. 90% of classical guitars that come to me are people wanting an ‘upgrade’ – steel strings instead of nylon and other such. They wish to sling the guitar over their […]
Guitar repair – Bone nut, saddle & a set-up for Mr Fender!
The process of my blog posts is basically through photographs that I take of the job at hand and then try to spin a story out of them, trying my best to remember what happened and how. It had worked for me till now. I must confess that in the best of times, recalling events, […]
Guitar repair – Breaking a break angle on this Hummingbird
The angle that the strings make coming out of the bridgepin holes and as they pass over the saddle is referred to as break angle. The bigger the break angle, better is the sound quality, for the strings exert greater pressure on the saddle, driving it into its slot, providing greater/better contact. Consequently, there is […]
Guitar repair – My encounter with a Sire!
The owner brought me this relatively new instrument for an initial set-up and some snazzy bone bridgepins. When he pulled it out of the bag – headstock first – I thought to myself, ‘Taylor’ but when it was out on my workbench, it seemed like an instrument in identity crisis. The headstock made it look […]
Guitar repair – Setting right Humpty Dumpty – II
This is a bit of an anti-climax, but it is what it is! Humpty Dumpty had no will to be ‘put together again’! Jokes aside, as I mentioned in my last post, the main thing governing that this glue-up job went properly was removing the already existing Araldite somehow. Though I laboured more than I […]
Guitar repair – Setting right Humpty Dumpty – I
Humpty Dumpty…er…this Epiphone DR-100 VS came to me like this ‘Some of the king’s horses and some of the king’s men’ (with apologies to Lewis Carroll), had tried to put ‘Humpty together again’ (four times, according to the owner) but had failed in making the fix a permanent one. And so, it finally landed […]
Guitar repair – why instruments should not be left tuned up
Here’s a perfect example of why I keep stressing upon guitar players to de-tune their instruments if they know that they will not be playing it for three weeks or more. String tension is a very bad thing for the health of the guitar but when a guitar is being played, some of that stress […]
Guitar repair – dealing with over humidification!
Yes! That is a thing, a dangerous thing, and now is exactly the time (here in North India) when over-humidification symptoms begin to surface. Over a period of a month, I am expecting a lot of ailing guitars. Just like an exposed acoustic guitar (not so much solid-body electrics) can lose moisture, become dehydrated and […]
Guitar repair – What will become of this guitar?
I have stalled writing this post for weeks. It is about an instrument that came to me having suffered severe trauma after a dumbbell (no less) fell on it! The extent of the damage made the repair cost spiral out of the owner’s comfort level and he decided not to get it repaired (at least […]
Guitar repair: When fretwires develop pits
Pitting of fretwires, also referred to as formation of divots, is as common a wear-and-tear problem as the disappearance of tread from your car’s tyres. Irrespective of how much or how little you play, sooner or later, divots will form on the fretwires and it is pretty normal. Interestingly, you would have noticed that pitting […]
Guitar repair: This guitar and the missing blog post!
It is now 1 AM on Sunday, June 19th, as I begin to write this post. Till now I had been searching! I had worked on this guitar some time back. It was an Epiphone Dove. No matter how hard I have tried searching my blog, I haven’t been able to find a post detailing […]
Guitar repair: Two saddles for one guitar?
Long time back, I had heard that guitarists often keep two saddles for each of their (acoustic) guitars, which they swap when the action became too low or high due to the rise and ebb of humidity. Though theoretically I understood the concept, practically I couldn’t get my head round it because I had never […]
Guitar repair: Not all lifting bridges get reglued the same way!
I get daily calls asking me the cost of repairing this and repairing that on an acoustic guitar. Many times I am able to put a figure to it and many times I tell the caller that I would have to take a look at the instrument before giving a figure. But almost every week […]
Guitar repair: This Yamaha required emergency surgery!
This Yamaha came to me a few months ago in a great deal of distress. In between came a host of instruments with various humidity-related issues which leapfrogged this one. This too is partly a result of the lack of humidity as you will discover. A 3/4 guitar, it belonged to a lanky, soft-spoken recording/performing […]
Guitar repair: You do as the customer says – Part II
This is the second of the guitars that came to me where I did not understand the reasoning of the customer. I might add that this was a return customer on whose guitar I had worked a couple of years ago. For those interested in reading about that experience, here it is: 3/4th Ibanez in […]
Guitar repair – You do as the customer says – Part I
My experience with customers, usually, is that facts and logic will appeal to most, if the pocket allows. In my dealings with them, I place the pros and cons of going (or not going) down a certain route and then let them decide the path they wish to take. Mostly, the choices made are correct, […]
Guitar repair: The one hit hardest by (lack of) humidity, came in last!
For some time now, I have made my bias towards UK-based Tanglewood guitars apparent to you, readers. After a long time, I noticed guitars that used good materials, had good construction quality, sounded good, and the overall appeal of the instrument was good. Of course, you get all of these in high-end guitars too, but […]
Guitar repair: This too was hit by falling humidity – Part III
This instrument has come to me off and on for something so minor and insignificant that I never charged the ‘customer’, nor did I ever feel compelled to document the work done on it. Those visits could also be that the owner of this guitar was trying to ‘suss me out’, for we had long […]
Guitar repair: Another one hit by (falling) humidity – Part II!
Tis the season! As promised, here is another instalment of repairs undertaken on another acoustic guitar plagued by the vagaries of the North Indian Spring. This was a return customer, one whom I remember as owning the best kept guitar. And if you’re looking uncomprehendingly at the tuning machines, I swapped the not-so-good, factory-fitted ones, […]
Guitar repair: Dry weather problems; the first victim is in!
We, in North India, see extremes of temperature as well as that of relative humidity. While it may be a good thing to be able to experience every change of climate and weather, acoustic guitars are certainly not thrilled with the idea. This period – say from February 2nd week to May end – is […]
Guitar repair: Super glue – the latest pet peeve becoming a bane!
Though being something very practical and even prosaic, involving lots of measurements and mathematics, I see guitar repair more as a healing that I provide to the instrument and to the owner. That somewhere in the process, I, too, am healed, is also true. In the one-and-a-half decades that I have been repairing guitars, there’s […]
Guitar repair: The toughest bridge glue-up job I took on!
This is the second in the series of super glue/epoxy-stuck bridges. The famed moustache bridge does sit very easy on the eyes but if it is stuck with super glue and you have to take it off, oh…heaven be with you! Usually while taking off bridges, one has to be really careful to use the […]
Guitar repair: Why this one had to jump the blogpost queue!
Yes! This one has jumped ahead of a few instruments because I noticed a disconcerting trend in guitar construction that needed highlighting. It is most certainly a trend here in India, but readers of this blog the world over need to chime in and either confirm or deny whether they have noticed it in their […]
Guitar repair: Was it any use, repairing this?
Ever since I repaired a guitar and removed a ding in its top – one which the owner had fond memories of – I have made it a point to only do as much as I am asked to. Yes, I point out problem areas during the initial inspection and whatever else I notice while […]