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I consider myself to be a professional and so, I do exactly what the customer wants me to do: not one bit less, nor one bit more. However, I do go over the instrument with a fine-tooth comb and if I find something that requires attention, I bring it to the notice of the customer. And that is where my job ends.

If the customer takes my advice, the instrument will go back in ship shape; if not, the second visit is likely to cost him/her a lot more, because in the time that would have elapsed between visits, the problem would have certainly deteriorated, causing greater damage!

But, frankly speaking, such situations are a predicament for me. If I insist on a job too much, I come out appearing money-minded, as if I want to make as much money out of him/her as is possible. If I do not, I feel the instrument will suffer, as will the customer (financially, later), most especially when there is a sentimental value attached to it.

I came face-to-face with my dilemma recently when this Ibanez (model no MD39C-NT 3U-04) came in with a broken G string, for new strings and for action correction.

As I poured over the instrument, the micarta nut and saddle caught my eye and I suggested to the customer that it would be a good idea to switch to bone. Since the customer politely refused, I did not press the matter further.

While the customer was there, I got so involved with the minutiae that I failed to spot the thing staring me in the eye: the crack in the bridge! Later, I called up the customer and asked him whether he knew about the huge crack in the bridge? He did and he did not want me to work on it.

I even suggested that I could put in an old G string and get the guitar functional, but the bridge needed immediate attention. However, the customer, again, very politely, decided that that work could be done another day. So be it!

My reading of the situation is that the bridge on this instrument is going to last unattended a maximum of 12-18 months. After that the instrument itself will be good firewood – unless we can get Ibanez to send us a replacement bridge. Possible, but not entirely sure whether they do that.

Anyway, as I tuned up the instrument and played it a bit, I noticed that there was an odd flatness to its tone (sans resonance). And even though it was not a full-size guitar (it was 39″, called a 3/4th guitar) and had a cutaway too, I have played other instruments of the same model. I didn’t remember the tone being so without oomph.

I put it down to the material of the nut and saddle and possibly a badly cut nut (the slots). But since the customer had refused the suggestion of a bone swap…(shrugs!!!).

You must have heard of that saying: there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip. Well, here was my slip between the cup and lip.

Just as I was set to take off the strings, my mechanised string winder went kaput! There was little else that could be done except take the manual route, and so the old string winder was pulled out, dusted and put to work!

As far as action correction went, the action wasn’t too bad to start with.

But since the customer wanted it lowered, lower I did. Thankfully, the saddle had enough height in it for me to perform the operation.

And while the strings were off, and as I repeatedly advocate, this was the perfect time to get to places where one can’t get to with the strings in place. Also, the perfect time to snug up the hardware on the headstock.

Again, there wan’t much tightening required, and if at all, some keys needed loosening a bit.

That done, I turned my attention to the fretwires and the fretboard. It is amazing what a little bit of attention, some boiled linseed oil and lots of elbow grease can do.

With snazzy new strings, the guitar looked good and to the owner, sounded well. He was very happy with where I had got the action to rest. He was happier when he got 20 per cent off the cost of the strings I put on.

But my fears for the guitar persist.

 

POSTSCRIPT: This was the third guitar to come in as part of the ‘Diwali Bonanza’ campaign being run at Lucknow Guitar Garage. For those who don’t know about it, there is a free guitar care camp on since Diwali day (Nov 14) and will last till the end of the month. You can get your guitar’s tuning machines tuned up, or get its body buffed, or fretboard nourished, or action corrected, or all of the above for FREE. Additionally, you get 20 per cent off on whatever accessories you purchase – except bone saddles and nuts!

So, what are you waiting for?????  

It struck me just the day before yesterday that all these years, while I have been talking about swapping plastic elements for a bone compensated saddle and nut, I have never really explained compensation, what it is, its importance; intonation, and what part a compensated saddle plays in intonation and all of that.

Before we launch into any of that let me put this out there that these are issues best left to experts – people who really know what they are doing – as opposed to music shop salespersons.

Simply put, compensation means that the saddle is placed at an angle to the strings rather than perpendicular to them, to give more length to the thicker (lower) strings and lesser for the thinner (high) ones.

Whenever a string is pressed to a fretboard, the tension in the string increases. This causes the fretted note to become sharp (slightly) compared to the open string note. This must be ‘compensated’ for. To compensate for this sharpness, the distance from the nut to the bridge saddle is made slightly longer than the stated scale length for the instrument. This lowers the pitch of the fretted notes slightly.

In an acoustic guitar, there are the many ifs and buts that must be factored in before we can say that a saddle is truly compensated. These include how far the string must be pressed to the fingerboard (action), the thickness (gauge) of the string, the tension (tightness) of the string, the scale length, and a person’s playing technique.

In the process of addressing a player’s particular playing style, a knowledgeable guitar technician will cut more accurate notches into the saddle, to properly  ‘compensate’ each string. After the tech finishes working on the saddle, the top of it will have a shape akin to a lightning bolt.

Compensating notches on a saddle are generally seen where the e, B and G strings rest. This adjusts the length of the string ‘compensating’ for accurate ‘intonation’ so the guitar sounds in tune when notes are played down the fretboard (closer to the guitar body). The biggest culprit is the B string, which is quite a thick plain-steel string, and on a compensated saddle, it is given a bit more length compared to its neighbours (e and G strings).

A non-compensated saddle doesn’t have any grooves and is flat across the surface.

The guitar tech is then supposed to check the pitch of each string at the 12th fret (the halfway point of a string’s length) to ensure that it’s in tune with the pitch of the open string.

Intonation is the extent to which a particular note continues to remain in tune – down the fretboard – as opposed to sounding flat (lower) or sharp (higher). Usually, intonation issues are seen while playing down the fretboard.

The closer a string is to the frets, the less it needs to stretch since it doesn’t have far to go. This means that low action tends to produce more accurate intonation. And thus, intonation issues can be subtle or dramatic depending on a guitar’s set-up.

And that is why it is imperative to have a guitar set up by someone who knows what he/she is doing as opposed to someone who is just a salesman in a guitar store.

 

Did you know there are compensated nuts too?

At the nut, where the strings rest before being held by the tuning machines, a thorough inspection is critical. String slots that are not shaped properly, too shallow, or too deep, and the improper placement of the nut, will adversely affect intonation on an instrument.

So, when the compensation on the saddle is near perfect, and yet the intonation on the guitar is off, then compensation in the nut is dialled in. That generally happens because the construction of the guitar itself – the placement of the bridge on the top – is faulty. 

The only way to tackle compensation at the nut is to throw the old nut and put in a fresh bone piece, which is then cut to the specific needs of that guitar. The comparative price of taking off the bridge and re-glueing it in the right place vis-a-vis making a compensated bone nut is more or less the same, BUT, a compensated nut is not so big an eyesore as a bridge that has been shifted from its original position. That can be seen from a mile off, unless you decide to refinish the top.  

The photographs below show you (clockwise from left) a regular nut and the various modifications that can be made to nuts (compensation) to make the instrument play perfectly in tune.

Before you drive your swanky new two-wheeler/four-wheeler out of the showroom, the mechanic there, almost always, makes some very small adjustments to the engine that makes the vehicle run the best that it can.

No two vehicles, even the same variants from the same manufacturer, are the same. And so, some may require a little more attention than the last one.

Guitars (acoustic ones especially) are not very different. They too MUST be ‘tuned-up’ before you tune them up.

I often draw this parallel, and I’m going to again, just to emphasise the rationale behind it.

Except for boutique guitar makers (who typically make no more than a couple of dozen guitars in a year), guitars roll out in the hundreds. Do you think manufacturers can possibly ‘tune up’ guitars before shipping them out? In the time they spend on these minor alterations, they’d be able to roll out 10 more guitars!

And even if they did, would it suit YOU, specifically?

What about retail music stores? Don’t they do it?  In the West, they do it without saying. However, here, in India, a salesperson who doubles up as a ‘guitar technician’ can do precious else except change strings and work the truss rod. Chances are that he won’t be able to pick out a solid top instrument from a bunch of guitars. Now, I am sure there are exceptions to the sweeping generalisation that I have made, but they are few and far between.

 

So, why is that fine-tuning required at all?

As I explained, the assembly line keeps pumping out acoustic guitars and the one you buy could well have been taken by the previous customer, or the one coming in next. You play finger-style (for example) but the next person is a hardcore rhythm guy. Though both of you may be able to play that instrument, you certainly won’t relish playing it because it has not been ‘set-up’ to your playing style.

A new guitar – and especially for a learner – MUST be set-up so that the play-ability and the instrument’s sound appeals to him/her, and does not become the reason for him/her becoming disenchanted with it.

 

Can only new guitars be set up?

The short answer is ‘No’! Guitars can be set up at any age. If you have never got your guitar set-up, you’ve learned to play on it, and you have acquired a certain degree of proficiency, you’ll be amazed at how well and how comfortably a guitar can play once it has been set up.

In fact, serious players take their guitar in for a set-up at least once a year. It’s like your routine check-up by the doctor. If there is something that needs tackling, it gets done then and there, before it turns into a bigger problem.

Getting your guitar checked periodically by a person who knows what he or she is doing, is a good habit because wood is an organic substance and it keeps changing with changing seasons, weather patterns, temperatures and humidity. The slightest expansion, contraction of wood can have a big impact on the instrument’s action and play-ability.

And now to this beauty lying on my counter (and apologies for the long lecture).  This is a three-piece back (usually backs are made of two pieces) and like the rest of the guitar – beautiful!

Some of the tuning machines were slightly loose – some screws and some ferrules – and were duly snugged up.

It’s a brand new, very well-constructed guitar. There was lots of extra relief in the neck (the curvature of it) which had raised the action (the gap between the bottom of the string and the top of the frets). All it needed was for the extra relief to be taken out.

Once the relief was where I wished it to be, I checked the intonation and it was off by some distance on the B, A and D strings. I also noticed that despite dialling in the right relief, the action was still a bit high – both at the nut (1st fret action) and at the 12th fret. That called for the nut and saddle to be pulled out and shaved down a bit.

I did notice that the nut and saddle were made of micarta – a man-made material which is much better than plastic, but still, not a patch on bone. (While you’re looking at the nut, do admire the fine binding on the fretboard).

So, I talked to the owner and convinced him to have a bone nut and saddle put in place of the micarta elements. I removed those and put in a truly compensated bone saddle and a matching bone nut.

Once I was through, the instrument had a wonderful action – one that the owner would love to play on.

But as I ran my finger along the fretwire ends, I noticed many were catching the finger: a very dangerous situation. I took the fretwire-end file that I made myself and sanded the ends flush with the fretboard.

And while I was at it, I took off the strings and oiled the fretboard and gave a little rub to the fretwires too. Purrr…fect!!!!!!!!!!

Also, I noticed that the strapbuttons on the guitar matched the tuning machines – gold – and there were two of them and not just one as most manufacturers provide.

What made me happier was the fact that the shoulder strap button was exactly at the spot where I like to see it: on the side of the heel farthest from the player (right-handed in this case), when held in the playing position.

 

You may have noticed that nowhere in this post have I mentioned the name of the instrument that I worked on. No photographs, no nothing! That is because the owner requested that the identity of the guitar be kept secret as far as possible. However, he did allow me to document the work that I did on it!

 

 

 

Around the time when America was at the peak of The Great Depression (1929-39), Gibson, then a 30-something-year-old guitar manufacturer, incorporated a few design changes that stuck on for a few decades. One of these was the use of nuts and bolts as fastners in an acoustic guitar bridge.

How do you know if your bridge has nuts and bolts in it? Look for two white dots, one each on either side of the bridgepin holes (In the photo below, there are three).

When Gibson launched the concept, they covered up the bolt heads with a little, round piece of Mother of Pearl. The economics of it soon forced them to discard Mother of Pearl as an option, and later versions used celluloid instead.

Luthiers and the global guitar community is still debating whether the rationale was for the bolts to act as locators or fastners. Gibson itself says that the idea of the bolts was to locate the bridge exactly where it needed to go.

As fastners, the idea was that the hardware would help hold the bridge securely to the top, even if the glue dried up. How wrong that thinking was, we’ll soon see.

As locators, the idea seemed to be that the nuts and bolts would help keep the bridge in exactly the spot that it needed to be, disallowing the possibility of bridge creep under clamp pressure (If too much glue is used in bridge glue-up jobs, before it cures, the glue acts more like a lubricant, allowing the bridge to shift from its actual position).

That, according to me, is flawed reasoning. The same job could be done easier and almost as well with two bridgepins stuck in the 1st and 6th bridgepin hole. If there was a fear that the pins would get stuck in their holes, they could have been waxed.

Seen with the help of a mirror taken into the guitar body through the soundhole, the whole bridgeplate assembly would look something like this.

Those backing the use of nuts and bolts aver that it improves sound quality. I will not dare comment on that for I have never had the occasion to study differences in sound of a guitar with a bridge affixed with nuts and bolts, and one without.

What I will say with a certain degree of conviction is that the difference in sound – if any – would be so minuscule that the average player would never be able to make out the difference in sound of a guitar with the hardware and without it.

In fact, I will go out on a limb and say that if the hardware is removed from an instrument and it is given to the owner to play, not even he/she will be able to perceive the so-called change in sound!

Why nuts ‘n’ bolts are dangerous

In any acoustic steel string guitar, the force exerted by the strings is nearly 80 kg. Due to that constant 80-kg tension that the strings exert, it is a natural process that with the passage of time, the belly of the guitar (the area directly behind the bridge) starts lifting. Nothing very dramatic, but it is a very gradual but perceptible change. This happens when the bridge is stuck very well to the top.

In instruments that do not use nuts and bolts and the bridge is not stuck very well, the bridge just lifts and finally comes unstuck.

However, in case the bridge is not stuck very well and lifts, and it is being held down with nuts and bolts (yes, even with nuts and bolts, the string tension will lift the bridge), the hardware will rip through the bridgeplate (below the top) and the top. The owner, then, is left with two options: throw the guitar away, or, have it repaired at great expense. This is major surgery we are talking here!

So, why do manufacturers continue to hold down bridges with nuts and bolts? The world over, most manufacturers have given it up as a bad idea. Only in India, do we find manufacturers clinging on to it. Simply put, there are two reasons for them doing so. 1) It is easier to use nuts and bolts than to REALLY clean the two glueing surfaces of all paint and finish to get a good wood-to-wood joint, and 2) in the mistaken belief that they are lending solidity to the structure!

Here’s one from an Indian manufacturer that I had the misfortune of looking at. Not right away, but a couple of years or so down the line, I won’t be surprised if it comes to me with a ripped top. The lines on the paper strips represent the amount the strips slip under the bridge.

I won’t name the manufacturer here, but I am sure they will be able to recognise their product.

The famed Gibson company may have learned its lesson and discontinued the practice of fastening bridges with nuts and bolts. When will Indian guitar manufacturers learn?

This Fender CD-60 came in with a complaint of higher than comfortable action.

Sure enough, as I checked it, the bridge was rising under string tension and even without it.

Not much, but it was.

As I went about checking out the guitar, I could only nod my head in appreciation. What added to the pleasure, was the fact that the owner was an aware individual and had taken good care of the instrument.

What pleased me most was the discovery of a proper-sized piece of hardwood used as a bridgeplate (reflected in the mirror).

I know I have said this before, but let me repeat myself for the sake of first-time readers of my blog. The bridgeplate in your instrument determines how your top will respond to string tension after a few years: how soon it will develop a belly. That the bridgeplate also plays a sure part in the quality of sound produced also cannot be debated.

Thus, the bridgeplate is the most important thing in an instrument to be looked at while buying a new one, after the quality of the top and its braces. And since most people don’t know this fact, manufacturers (Indians especially) will use anything – plywood included – to put a ‘piece of wood’ there. No wonder then that you don’t find a ‘bridgeplate’ entry in the product brochure of even the most acclaimed names in the business!

A healthy sized, hardwood bridgeplate will easily counter string tension and prevent a belly from developing (thus keeping string action in check) for at least 8 – 10 years. An instrument with an inadequate (-ly sized or constructed) bridgeplate will start sporting a belly in six months or even less!

But back to the instrument on the counter-top, the first order of repair was to re-glue the lifting bridge.

But for that I needed to take the saddle out of its slot. As I touched the saddle, it moved, showing that it wasn’t sitting in its slot very snugly. Sure enough, I could slip in a fret protector behind the saddle, while it was still in its slot.

In any case, I had convinced the owner to swap the Nubone saddle and nut for bone, so they had to go. Nubone is the name the company Graphtech gives to its TUSQ-like nuts and saddles. Basically a shade better than plastic, both  TUSQ and Nubone are man-made materials with some tonal qualities – buth nothing to match bone.

Their places would be taken by plush bone elements that sat perfectly snug as a bug in a rug!

Here, I would like to elaborate the strategy that I employ in all repairs. I like to do the easy thing first and if it doesn’t work the complicated (and expensive) route is always available. Going the easy way is not only easy for me, but easy on the pocket of the customer too.

In the process of repairing the bridge, I pumped wood glue under the bridge, clamped it down and let it rest for a day. Taking the bridge off completely, cleaning the mating surfaces and re-glueing them again is the proper way to do it but then it takes quite a bit to go that route. And if the bridge has not lifted too much, getting glue under the offending areas and clamping it down, does work alright.

The customer also wished for a different pickguard to be put on the guitar. For that, I had to remove the manufacturer-installed one. And boy, what a royal pain that was!

Stuck with double-sided tape, while the original pickguard came off without much protest, cleaning the tape residue off the area was the real deal – I have learned through experience. I have tried petrol, nail polish remover, lighter fluid, white vinegar, after shave lotion/perfume (alcohol), and either they have only a marginal impact, or manage to make a bigger mess.

So, rubbing with fingertips is all I could do – painstakingly slowly!

Finally…finally, the top was clean again and I put on the new pickguard.

While I was at it, I buffed out the entire guitar and paid special attention to the headstock area and the fretboard. I tightened up the hardware, polished up the fretwires and oiled the fretboard.

I strung her up with 13s that the owner provided and the overall look and how the instrument played appealed much to the owner. A few days later, he messaged, telling me how much he was enjoying the ‘new’ sound of his guitar.  

While I was impressed by the overall construction of the guitar, one thing left me shaking my head in disbelief. Why would anyone put a strap button on the shoulder of the guitar – and that too on the shoulder closest to the player? The propensity of the instrument, then, is to fall forward.

I asked the owner if he had had the button installed and he said that it was factory-installed. Not to take his word, I checked the Fender site, and sure enough, there was the button sitting proudly on the shoulder. But since the owner never played standing, I let sleeping dogs lie.

What brought a smile to my face was the lettering by the owner on the label of the guitar. At one end was the name ‘IRENE’ and on the other ‘G.R.A.C.E.F.U.L’. Care had been taken that the lettering would be legible to a listener sitting right in front: ‘Graceful Irene’. Who was/is Irene who inspired the owner to christen his guitar thus, I never asked. 

 What would we guitarists be without such etchings? 

 

 

As promised, here is a review of LAG Guitars’ T88D, which I repaired last week.

At the outset, let me clarify that I am not linked to LAG Guitars in any way, and by doing this review, I am not benefiting in any way.

However, I will go on record to say that I (personally speaking) have not played a prettier sounding guitar. The balance (between the treble and the bass response) of the instrument, its resonance, sustain, construction, looks…it just blew me away.

As I played it, I was reminded of my childhood and how my father had bought me a parchment bat. I was thrilled with it until, a few years later, he bought me an English willow bat. I can still recall the awe and sheer pleasure I felt the first time I played with it and saw the ball race to boundary. Effortless ease!

The difference in performance between a Rs-3,000 guitar and the LAG T88D is exactly the same as what it was between my parchment bat and the English willow! Everyone will wish to own the LAG T88D but only a few will be able to, for priced at (around Rs 30,000), it is certainly not your run-of-the-mill Rs-3,000 guitar.

And thus, the headline to this post, and my advice to all.

But let’s start from the start, shall we?

LAG Guitars started off 39 years ago in the picturesque Southern France region, producing ONLY electric guitars. At the turn of the century, in what seems a magical transformation, the factory switched to making acoustic instruments, COMPLETELY! Some four years ago, master craftsman and luthier Maurice Dupont joined them, and after that there has been no looking back for them, literally!

So, what’s so great about the T88D? I would like to break it up under a few heads. But first the name. The ‘T’ stands for the model name Tradition (under the Tramontane series), 88 is the model number, while the ‘D’ stands for Dreadnought (the style and shape of the guitar).

1. Material used
2. Construction
3. Hardware

MATERIAL USED

The LAG T88D sports a solid Englemann Spruce top and Khaya (African Mahogany – ) back, sides and neck. Englemann Spruce, a soft wood, has traditionally been the choice of luthiers because of its acoustic qualities, while Khaya displays all the qualities of genuine Mahogany.

The fretboard and bridge is of Brownwood, a revolutionary wood which is a worthy substitute for rosewood. Brownwood has also been used in the detailing in the rosette around the soundhole and in the faceplate of the headstock. At 5% moisture content, your worries about warping in a totally dry or exceedingly wet climate are set at rest – not so with rosewood.

Also featuring on the guitar is maple – in the rosette and on the faceplate, spelling out ‘LAG’. And here I would like to attract your attention to the shape of the rosette – an oval one – recognisable among hundreds of guitars.

Brownwood and Blackwood

The addition of mahogany and rosewood to the list of species protected by CITES (Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species) has seriously complicated the work of luthiers.

Two decades of research has been necessary for Blackwood Tek company to achieve a revolutionary process that began with the planting of short-cycle pine forests in New Zealand (radiata pine).

First, the wood is dried to contain only 10% moisture and is then impregnated with catalyst and pigmentation agents in pressure vessels. Then, the wood is dried again to reduce its moisture by 2 or 3% before undergoing a second impregnation stage, this time with resin, in a pressure vessel. Then it is compressed in a hot press, which reduces by 40% its thickness, thus increasing its density. Last step: a fine sanding which gives the pieces of wood a perfect look and feel.

The result is a dense, hard, stable wood (5% moisture constant) which not only resists perfectly to humidity and temperature changes but also to UV radiation, termites and fire. Another important advantage is that it can be used immediately in the music instrument industry without requiring any prior drying. An adequate colouring achieves an ideal substitution for ebony (blackwood) and rosewood (brownwood) while offering the same acoustic characteristics.

Accentuating the woods is a graphite nut (43mm) and saddle (72mm). Now graphite, if you remember, is basically carbon and is known for its denseness and lubrication properties. So, what you get with graphite nuts and saddles is excellent sustain, and with its lubricant properties, there is no fear of strings catching in nut slots or on the saddle.

CONSTRUCTION

Going hand-in-hand with the choice of materials used is the quality of construction of the T88D. Scalloped braces in a forward-shifted pattern gives the guitar its characteristic tone. When we say ‘forward-shifted’, we are basically referring to the position of the X-brace under the guitar’s top, vis-a-vis the soundhole. Forward-shifted thus brings the main X-brace towards the soundhole. This increases the area of the top behind the bracing, freeing that area to move, resulting in a louder, responsive and more bass-accentuated instrument.

In contrast, an instrument with a backward-shifted bracing pattern would accentuate the treble response.

The Khaya neck is fashioned in a comfortable ‘C’ shape and with a satin finish, fitting in your palm easily, it makes movement up and down the neck a breeze. The neck also has a two-way truss rod, accessible through the soundhole.

HARDWARE

The fretboard sports 20 silver-nickle, very even frets, while the very handsome tuning machines on the headstock are die cast satin black, matching the black of the graphte nut and saddle. And don’t just go by the looks. These tuning machines have a gear ratio of 1:18, helping you tune your guitar that much more accurately.

To explain this a little, tuning machines have little gears installed inside them.

The more the number of teeth, higher is the ratio (1:12; 1:14; 1:18; 1:21) and thus, higher is the tuning ability and stability, for the gear moves a smaller distance from one tooth to another.

Also in the same brushed satin finish are provided the shoulder strap button and end block strap button.

What’s not right (according to me)

Strap button placement on the neck heel cap: It may appear as just something cosmetic, but it isn’t. Let me explain. Placing the strap button on the neck heel cap gives the instrument – any instrument – a tendency to fall forward. Nothing wrong there too, until it starts straining at the strap, which then slips off, and your guitar comes crashing down to the ground. OUCH!!!!!!!!!

When the strap buttoned is positioned on the farther side of the heel itself,  the strap tends to ‘lock’ the guitar into place, not allowing it to fall forward.

And if you would like to listen to how the instrument sounds:

If you’ve liked the T88D and would like to purchase it, in Lucknow, you will only get it at Seven Notes Musical Instrument Shop in Gomti Nagar.

LAG guitars are exclusively marketed in India by RV Distribution, Delhi ( www.rvdistribution.in)

 

 

T88D specs at a glance

 

– Top: Solid Engelmann Spruce

– Strings: Metal

– Fingerboard & Bridge: Brownwood

– Nut & saddle: graphite

– Finish: glossy 

– Body type: Dreadnought

– Tuning pegs: Satin black Die Cast

– Neck: khaya

– Back & Sides: Khaya

– Letfty : No

– Cutaway : No

– Radius: 350 mm

– Nut Width: 43 mm

– Number of frets: 20

– Scale length: 650 mm (25.5″)

 

 

 

 

This beauty was being shipped outstation to its owner when an in-transit mishap caused a massive break in the top board. Though in two parts, the break, thankfully, was along the grain of the wood and in one plane.

This France-made guitar, available only at a single outlet in Lucknow, was being shipped by the local dealer to the customer who had bought it. Just going by the way the top had broken open, it would be safe to surmise that something heavy had been thrown – and not just kept – on top of the box containing the guitar.

In defence of the dealer, the instrument was in its case and in two cardboard boxes, and separating the two boxes were stacks of newspapers, specifically to avoid such an eventuality!

For those who are not being able to make out from the photographs above, this is the treble side of the guitar: below the shoulder of the guitar and (right) in the same plane, in the lower bout.

A little something about this instrument: this was the T88D from the house of LAG, an all-wood instrument with a solid, AAA  Engleman Spruce top, with back and sides of solid honey Khaya (one of the five species in the Mahogany family). The elegantly designed and clean lines of the headstock and bridge were represented in Brownwood. The fretboard too was Brownwood (read about what this is in next week’s post).

The first order of business was to see whether the two sides along the cracks matched up and came together seamlessly. If they did not, it would be quite a job, removing the offending shards of wood, bringing the two planes together, and then filling the gap created with slivers of spruce wood. Just the thought of that rigour made me sweat!

When I pulled the two seams together, they did come together without a problem but without an external force acting on the two sides, they returned to their original position. What that meant was that while glueing, the two sides would need to be propped up in such a way that the joint was a seamless one.

I took wooden dowels thick enough and long enough to stand up inside the guitar, with a piece of wood wrapped in butter paper above them, used to level the two sides. With proper wood glue shot into the crack, the rods pushing against the butter-paper-wrapped piece of wood, it was time to wait patiently to see how the guitar would heal up.

It healed up fine but to make doubly sure, I decided to cleat the crack too. Cleats are little pieces of the wood that help hold two sides of a break and are put from the inside of the guitar. They must be of the same wood as the one in which the crack has developed, only, care has to be taken that while cleating the crack, the grain orientation of the cleat should be opposite to what it is in the area of the crack.

This is just to show you where the cleats are on the inside of the guitar, since I couldn’t show you inside the guitar.

The instrument was now structurally sound. Needed now were some cosmetic touches. So, I took some superthin cynoacralyte glue and ran a bead down the length of the crack. While the CA glue added strength and sealed whatever little opening there was, it needed to be sanded down and polished to come in level with the rest of the top.

Nothing that #2000, #3000, #4000 and #5000 sandpaper wouldn’t do but then these had to be soaked in water overnight for them to function right.

To minimise the area which would be acted upon by these, I taped off the affected area and worked within the confines of the taping. A large eraser served as the perfect sanding block.

After four grits of sandpaper worked their magic, you couldn’t feel a thing if you ran your hand over the surface of where the break once was.

Re-stringing this beauty, I could not help be amazed by the mellow strains it produced. Beautiful indeed!

 

Don’t forget to catch next week’s post when I review the LAG T88D!

 

What was that I said about guitars/problems/brands coming in twos and threes? 

So, here’s an Ibanez with a bridge that could have been split right into half, but just to complicate the problem, it is split in two places which is almost in line.

Though this was a laminate guitar (top, back and sides), it was well constructed and had a preamp attached (was an electro-acoustic guitar). 

Thankfully, the bridgeplate seemed solid with little to no signs of wear and tear.

And for those of you who like to look up model numbers, etc… 

…it’s 2Y-02 GS151202881.

The first order of business was glueing the lifting corner of the bridge from the bass side. I shot in diluted wood glue and clamped that corner of the bridge down and left it to cure for a good 36 hours.

That square black piece is leather, cut from an old belt that I almost threw out!

And as you can see, the instrument carried more than a couple of ‘endorsements’. 

What would we guitarists be without such ‘endorsements’?

Once that had cured and I pulled the clamp off it, I turned my attention to the bridge crack. I filled it up with my tea and coffee-stained saw dust, sanded it level and then polished it up such that even a person who knew there was a crack in the bridge, would never be able to make out.

Once this was done, I went about reaming the bridgepin holes that strangely looked more oblong than round to me (it doesn’t show up very clearly here in the photo, but in truth, they were). That was another reason to take the reamer to the bridgepin holes.

Oblong/oval bridgepin holes are a sure sign that the bridgepins don’t fit the holes very well and together with string tension, are a strain on the bridge. And that is what led to the bridge cracking. Q.E.D.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There were other big and small problems that I saw. More than a couple of tuning machine heads (buttons) were loose, there were divets (grooves) in the first five frets (along the ‘B’ string), there was a degree of DNA and body oil deposition on the fretboard, the whole body was in dire need of cleaning and some TLC, and the nut and saddle were plastic.

The saddle, particularly, was in a pitiable condition and not even in one piece.

With that kind of a saddle, I doubt if the transmission of sound would be as good as it could be if a bone saddle, or, at least a single piece of anything was used as a saddle.

However, my brief was to work on the bridge and the bridge alone. So, I played as if I hadn’t even noticed those problems!   

But there’s a sweet little story that you all should know. 

I was told that this guitar was a young man’s first instrument. He has since graduated to ‘better’ guitars while this was sitting around. 

Meanwhile, the young man’s mother expressed a desire to learn to play the guitar. Respecting his mother’s wishes, the young man decided to get this instrument in playing condition, and hand it over to his mother.

Three cheers for the son, and bigger cheers for the lady for deciding to take up music!

From the Lucknow Guitar Garage, may your journey into the world of music be full of discovery and happy learning! 

 

 

Remember, how I had said that guitars (brands/models/similar problems) come in twos and threes? Well, here is another Yamaha F310!

Problems: Bellying, cracked bridge, saddle too low and miscellaneous.

ADVICE: Whenever you feel that you will not be playing your acoustic guitar for the next couple of weeks, tune down the strings. DON’T LOOSEN COMPLETELY, but tune down. You will prevent many problems from plaguing your instrument in times to come. For one, that belly, which is inevitable, will get delayed a few years at least.

So, how does a crack in the bridge, along the line of the bridgepins, appear? Just like too slim a saddle or too stout a saddle in the saddle slot will inevitably lead to the bridge splitting at the saddle slot, so also with bridgepins.

At the factory, when the holes for the bridgepins are drilled, bridgepins are pushed into the holes to check for fit. The fun begins when strings are thrown on. The pins that were fitting snugly without the strings, now, naturally, become too tight, holding the strings in their holes.

That combined with the string tension and multiplied by time and with weather changes, will ultimately lead to a hairline crack appearing, which, if not treated immediately, will either lead to a chasm so wide that it cannot be filled, or, in the worst case, split the bridge into two.

Thankfully, this instrument came to me while the split wasn’t too terrible.

I have told you that I collect all sorts of odds and ends, even pick up things from the road. So, the fact that I swept up and strained sawdust from work in the house, shouldn’t come as a surprise to you . I have a 1-litre pet jar full of it. It has been saved for jobs like these.

A quarter of that sawdust I have dyed, soaking it first in tea and then coffee and then dried . The result is that when I needed to repair this bridge, I just took a few pinches of that dyed saw dust, pushed it into the crack and sealed it in with super glue.

Then began the real work: hiding the repair! Ten grits of sandpaper from #80 to #3000 and a lot of elbow grease, some boiled linseed oil, and you tell me where the crack was!

Right! So, the bridge was fixed, almost as good as new but what would prevent a crack from not developing again?

I took my trustee reamer and reamed out the holes just a bit so that the bridgepins would sit in their holes a little easier and not exert as much pressure.

That taken care of, I turned my attention to the belly in the instrument. Into the jig it went and stayed there a good two weeks before I even looked towards it. When I took it out of its restraints, all seemed flat and good. I was keeping my fingers crossed for when I would throw on strings. Again, no 11s or 12s, it would have to be 10s.

The owner, looking for a lower action, had managed to sand the saddle down so much that the ‘B’ string was buzzing. To tackle the situation he had forced in a piece of paper on the saddle, under the string. Hello, string buzz! Bye-bye, intonation!

ADVICE: YouTube is full of videos telling you how to shave down a saddle. No harm trying but if you measure incorrectly, or go too far, there is nothing that can be done, except throw out the old saddle and start from scratch. Please, leave such exercises to the experts!

Thankfully, the saddle and nut on the instrument were cheap plastic and I wasn’t sad to see them find their way into the dustbin.

A swanky, compensated piece of polished bone replaced this straight, plastic saddle, while at the other end, the plastic nut was swapped out for a good, bone nut.

Then I turned my attention towards the other ‘problems’ that I saw in the instrument.

If you play your guitar standing and feel the need for a strap, this is NOT the place to attach the end of your strap. Usually necks are built out of three pieces joined together. This area of the headstock is in the vicinity of one joint. If you tie your strap here, you are letting undue amounts of stress act on that joint which can open up under pressure.

Yes, I know that you have seen many big stars tie their guitar straps at the headstock but they are those who have not had their guitar neck joint open up, just yet, or, they are just plain lucky. Since the time I have been repairing guitars, I have seen at least half a dozen such instruments.

To attach the strap, you require a strap button, which should be fixed on the side of the heel

and not ON the heel cap.

And so, a strap button was fixed on the side of the heel

While looking at the fretboard I had noticed serious divets in the fretwires along the ‘B’ string. These I removed by levelling, sanding and re-crowning the first five frets. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge the customer for it! #$&*%^%!!!

I also saw this and questioned the customer about it

Ladies and gentlemen, just 2 – 3 winds of the wound string and 5 – 6 of the unwound strings are enough to keep your strings in place. If you start wrapping the entire length of the string around the tuning peg post, your intonation will suffer, but first it will be a huge pain cranking that machine head those many times to get it all wrapped up!

I threw on 10s on this baby and I am happy to report that unlike the other Yamaha with a belly, this one’s belly did not spring back.

I had a very happy customer indeed!

OK! So, I called it a joke, laughed my head off at it, and now it has turned around and bitten me you know where. So, I am typing this standing; I can’t sit!

For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, this happened last week:

 

https://lkoguitargarage.com/yama-ha-ha-ha-ha-aha-aa-ha-ha-ha/

 

I received a tonne  of email saying how wrong I was pointing fingers at the ‘Ha-ha-ha-ha’ for calling a laminate top a ‘Spruce’ top. They said that that is what all builders are calling laminate tops.

I was shocked and I checked. Indeed, terms like ‘select spruce’, ‘spruce tonewood’, etc had disappeared from the sites of all big-name acoustic guitar makers. It was as if those terms had never existed!

Instead, when manufacturers wanted to convey that it was a laminated-top guitar, they preferred using ‘spruce’, and when they wanted to tell you that a particular model had a solid top, they used the word ‘solid’.

All of this has happened in the span of two or three years. Don’t believe me? Surf the Net and ask Google to search for ‘Select Spruce’, ‘Tonewood’…

The pages and pages of discussion about it will confirm to you that ‘Select Spruce/Oak/Cedar…’ was a term much in currency and very accepted. It wasn’t a figment of my imagination.

So, where, how did the term disappear? When and why did the terminology change?

My reasoning (and mine alone) is that after all those online forums let the manufacturers’  cat out of the bag, explaining what ‘Select Spruce’ actually stood for, manufacturers didn’t find it profitable to say ‘Select Spruce’ on their product brochures. Instead, it seemed like a good idea to fool people into believing that ‘Spruce’ meant solid Spruce. Enter ‘Spruce’, exit ‘Select Spruce’!!!

Understand this: (In India) If you have a budget of Rs7,000-8,000 to buy an acoustic guitar and want to a brand name, Yama-ha-ha-ha-ha it is!!!!

No one, who wishes to buy a 7K guitar, will look at Yama-ha-ha-ha-ha instruments that cost 20 – 30K. If they do, they would realise the difference.  On the company’s website and in the 7K price range, you have just two (popular) models. From my viewpoint, it is a choice between the devil and the deep, but you, as a prospective buyer, feel you are spoiled for choice!

WHATEVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back to the repair that I was at last week, I had put the instrument in that vice grip

on September 12 (Saturday). I pulled it out of the vice on September 18 (Friday), glued in the nut and strung it up with .010″ strings, just like I said I would. The instrument would never be able to bear the strain of .011” or .012″ strings again.

It was a disaster! Even with just the 6th and 5th string on, you could drive a double, double decker bus under the strings.

The saddle height was exactly what the original saddle was, and the action at the 1st fret was within specification. But as I observed, the belly was returning to the instrument, even as I watched.

It was very disheartening but there were two routes that one could take: return it the way it was to the customer, or, have another go at it, with renewed vigour.

I decided to take the the second route, called the customer, explained things to him, and he was most understanding about me wanting to try and correct whatever lapses in construction there may be.

As my effort continues, stay tuned for updates!

This landed up on the counter needing attention seriously.

The owner said that he had got the instrument previously repaired at that big music shop in the vicinity of Fun Republic but besides the old fault lines opening up, new ones developed (encircled in red).

If you hadn’t guessed it, the guitar was

But, more than the damage, I was surprised that it was a Yamaha. I had always thought that Yamaha’s F310 and F310P were solid top guitars. How wrong I was!

The ‘spruce’ veneer on the top was thinner even than the useless pickguard that had been put on.

Not to rest, I searched on the company website, and sure enough, I found that the company wants prospective customers to believe that they are putting solid spruce tops on these models. See for yourself:

 

https://in.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/guitars_basses/ac_guitars/f_fx/specs.html#product-tabs

 

Now to the problem at hand. The lifting of the top and the veneer peeling off like this was most likely due to two reasons: a) inadequate construction (read bridgeplate not big enough, or of good, hard wood), and

b) instrument not cared for. It seemed that the guitar had been left standing tuned up where the heat and humidity had got to it.

PLEASE…don’t let your acoustic instruments stand (or lie) in places where you wouldn’t like to be.

The bridge lifting under string tension and consequent cracking of the top veneer was proof that poor quality wood had been used to make the bridgeplate, or, that the bridgeplate was inadequately sized to perform its function properly.

Having said that it should also be noted that after a period of time, the best of guitars see a bit of ‘belly bulge’ (a rising of the area of the top behind the bridge). However, if the bridgeplate is made out of a good hard wood (mahogany, rosewood, maple, walnut, etc) and has proper dimensions, you will never find accidents like these happening. In fact, a ‘good’ bridgeplate will minimise belly bulge in an instrument to a great extent.

As you can see, the size of the bridgeplate (the trapezium-shaped piece of wood with six holes) is almost alright. It is the quality of wood used that is suspect. It is a practice with reputable manufacturers to use the same wood as the back and sides (in solid wood instruments) to make the bridgeplate too.

Even in laminate guitars from reputable makers, much importance is given to the size of the bridgeplate and the wood used in making it.

So, why would a manufacturer put in a useless piece of wood as bridgeplate? It cuts the cost of production!

In this particular guitar, nothing can be done now, except change the bridgeplate, which is a very troublesome process and expensive for the customer. Unless one is emotionally attached to the instrument and wishes for it to play perfectly, I never advise such operations.

Inspecting the instrument, I saw more than the normal ‘bellying’. At either end of the ruler there was at least 1 to 1.5 mm of space. Ideally, you’d want no space at the ends and the ruler to touch the top all along its length.

As a result of the bellying, the action was a whopping 7-8 mm!

So, the strings came off, the bridgepins went into their hold and I pulled out the plastic saddle and nut to replace them with a proper, compensated bone saddle and a bone nut.

But while I was taking the strings off, I saw this. The string was in two parts, yet attached to the tuning peg!

Relieved of string tension, suddenly the cracks in the top did not look as ugly. But they still needed to get treated. An injection of glue was what the doctor ordered.

This is your regular wood glue, but with water added to it to make it flow better. This was injected (read flooded into the crack) and it looked something like this

Then to ensure that the glue reached even the smallest recess, I pumped it with my fingers and thumb just like this

and then putting a flat piece of wood over some butter paper, I clamped it down good.

To take some of the belly out of the instrument, I did not just clamp the repaired area but the entire bridge region.

After 48 hours, I turned my attention to the lifting veneer at the shoulder of the guitar.

The process was repeated near the fretboard extension

Six days later, all the ‘open gaps’ had been closed and the guitar no longer looked like an instrument that was going to fall apart any moment.

But while the instrument was clamped up, I continued working on other parts that were still accessible.

I had noticed that the fretwires – especially the first five – had managed to develop rather large divets. If these grooves are not removed, they have the power to alter your intonation. So, I gave all the fretwires attention, with special focus on the first five.

After that the fretboard was cleaned and oiled and the old plastic saddle and nut measured. These measurements were then transferred to the bone elements, and these elements installed.

What I also did was to take my biggest and heaviest clamp and clamp down the belly. Every 6 hours or so, I would go and give the clamp a one-and-a-half twist and increase the pressure on the top.

But after a few days, I decided to remove this clamp and put the guitar in the vice grip of a contraption that I made many years ago.

These are basically two lengths of hard wood with cork lining underneath so that the top and back do not get damaged. 

I don’t promise that the belly will go away completely, but it will certainly be reduced far greater than what it came in with.

Now, I await the customer to hand me the strings that he wishes to throw on. A simple set-up and I am sure this baby will sing again.

I think I have said this before but during the period of the lockdown, and even now – when people are avoiding physical contact – embers of lost passions are being rekindled: gardening, cooking, writing, music…Nice!

People are getting reminded of musical instruments that they had left standing in store rooms, years ago. They are being pulled out, being burnished and refurbished to breathe new life into them again. 

Take this one for example:

It came to me in this state. I have cringed at the sight of such so often that my face muscles refuse to contort into a cringe any more. Instead, I only smiled in amusement.

Whateva!!

This came in for a pick-up system to be installed but while I looked the guitar over (after not just cleaning but disinfecting it properly), I saw something that I have never seen: an instrument with serious identity issues!

 So, after scratching my chin for long and trying to figure out what may have happened to this poor guitar, I was still scratching my chin! So, I left my chin and the name of the guitar alone and decided to get on with the work at hand.

The pick-up paraphernalia had been provided to me, but some low-tack tape is excellent for such jobs. Why? It helps the marking process and all measurements and sundry jottings can be made on it. Measurements were taken and markings made.

Once it was decided where the pre-amp unit would sit, I drilled four holes at the four corners of my marking with a tiny drill-bit and graduated to bigger, thicker bits. I then sawed off the portion within those holes. A very painful process to watch for an owner, but thankfully, this one’s wasn’t around. 

Even after the space was created for the preamp unit to sit in, it had to be cleaned up to produce clean, sharp boundaries. Again, the tape played a role in protecting the surrounding area from slipping drill-bits, saws and files. 

Then there were holes to be drilled for the jack input and the piezo element (which was to run in the saddle slot, under the saddle).

A step-bit is a wonderful tool but requires careful handling. Marking off the distance I had to drill with tape, helped immensely.

The rest was just about putting in things where each needed to go. 

And now for some oddities that I found in the guitar.

I found this inside the guitar

You will recognise this from the shoe box and other such. It is a desiccant and its job is to keep the surroundings nice and dry. I wonder if someone had dumped a cup of tea or coffee inside and had dropped the silica gel sachet in too, to keep things nice and dry, OR…had deliberately put it in?

Never leave a desiccant inside your acoustic guitar, or you might go to sleep having played it, and wake up to find the guitar open at its seams!!!!    

On the left is the bridge with two extra spots on either side of the bridgepin holes. These plastic dots (in this case black) generally hide screws which hold it to the top. However, a peek inside showed just one screw and a dry wall type screw at that, clearly hanging down from the top. Staying with the bridge, it was lifting

and oddly enough, seemed to have moved from its place. It could be either – that the strings had pulled it forward, or, that it had been stuck in the wrong place originally.

However, it was not my brief to correct these aberrations, so I let sleeping devils lie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am outside the country for a little break, but while here, an interested reader raised a query which has resulted in this blog post. His question was which tool I used to lower the string slots of a nut.

I told him I used nothing, because I never lower the slots!

As eyebrow-raising as you might find it, I don’t like to touch nut slots. If I have to lower the first fret action, I take measurements of how much lower I want the strings, loosen them, knock the nut out, and sand its bottom as much as I wish to lower the strings, just like I would work on a saddle.

Let me explain this a little more clearly. When reducing the action on an acoustic guitar, changes have to be made at three places:

1. The truss rod (for dialing in the exact amount of relief required),
2. The saddle (shaving it to bring down the action to the required height at the 12th fret), and lastly
3. The saddle slots (to get the required action at the 1st fret)

While the first two procedures are relatively straightforward, the third one is seriously tricky. Ideally, you want the strings to sit just half their diameter in their respective slots.

So, if you bring down the action by lowering the nut slots, what happens to the half-and-half rule?

Yes, I know that the world over, action at the 1st fret is brought down by filing down the nut slots. But is there any harm in taking a different route from the known and recognised wisdom which may yield better results?

Of course, taking the first route, you loosen a single string, work on its slot, put the string back and tune up. In the second case, you loosen all strings, take the nut out and sand its bottom.

But it is quite possible that you may have to take off a little more from either the bass or the treble side than the other one. All that one needs to do is measure properly, mark accurately and sand slowly…you overshoot the lines and you are looking at making a new nut! 

But what is the problem in filing the nut slots, you may ask? The problem lies in the angles that you create with whichever tool you use to file down the slots. Instead of the slots being just lowered, your tool may deepen the slot at one side more than the other. It may even alter the points of contact of the string in the nut, affecting intonation.

Badly cut nut slots may also pinch strings in them, which is a major cause of tuning issues, string breakage. How often have you heard a string go ‘pinnnnggggggggg’ while you’re tuning it up? That sound is the effect of a string caught in nut slot and finally releasing. You may also recall the nightmare you experienced tuning that particular string.

The (bone) nuts I use, are cut through a CNC, and have near perfect string slots. The only alteration I need to make to them is to dial in the exact height they need to stand to, to give the perfect 1st fret action.

The only time that I work on the string slots, is if I have to lower between .004″ and .002″! Then, I just use old strings as saws! It takes a lot of attention and lots of elbow grease but the job gets done.

When you do such extensive work, like what I did on this Hobner, a little extra effort, a little something from my side, helps sweeten the deal for the customer. Plus, if there is something that does not sit easy in your eye, how can you just let it go?

After I had swapped the old, drab tuners for those snazzy, sexy things, I looked around at the guitar and decided that the old strap button was an eyesore with the rest of the flashy steel on the guitar.

So I swapped this

for this.

I looked at the headstock and in all that beauty, what stood out dirty and a blemish was the trussrod cover and the the oxidised screw holding it in place.

I cleaned up the piece of plastic and installed a shiny new screw that matched the rest of the glitz on the headstock.

Of course, the love potions – for the fretboard, bridge and frets – were mandatory

and the 12-string received these strings, as this is the customer’s preferred brand and gauge.

As I was stringing the instrument up, I noticed the nut

Not in the most healthy state but I was unwilling to pop it out and replace it with a bone nut that would have to be cut down to half its height. Let me explain. In an instrument with a zero fret, it is that fret that takes care of the intonation part. The nut merely serves to hold the strings in place so that they don’t fall off.

To cut down a bone nut just for the purpose of holding strings, I did not have the heart to do. I have ordered a plastic nut and as soon as it comes in, I shall call the instrument in and replace it.

I was still looking at the guitar, debating whether or not I should put a pickguard on it or not.

Finally, I decided to put one on because where the pickguard would go, was a crack in the top that ran the entire length of the top. The left picture shows the crack at the top, while the right photo shows the crack running right down to the very bottom of the guitar (the black line farthest from you).

Though the crack had been sealed but the pickguard would be added protection, holding things together.

I could have easily decided to throw on a ready-made, teardrop-style pickguard but that would have gone against the character of this instrument. This one was different, and thus, required something different.

So, I decided to design one, cut and fashion one by hand. But first, I had to put down on paper, what I had in mind.

After this was done, I traced the outline on the pickguard plate

continuing to make modifications to the design as I thought were necessary.

A new blade was put into the X-acto knife for a good clean cut and extra, focused light was arranged for

Once cut,

there followed the smoothing of edges so that nothing would catch on the edges.

Those two things helped me get things smooth and bevelled. Installing the prepared pickguard was no big deal.

I also noticed that the name of the guitar (on its shoulder) was disappearing. So, I pulled out my calligraphy pens and my lighted lens set-up and went to work

I could have left it like that but it was not a brand new guitar, so, before the ink dried, I gently brushed it off, giving it an aged look.

The pickguard, strap button, screw and filling in the name, I did not charge for.

With this, the three-episode serial ends, and I hope that the Hobner goes on to sing many, many more tunes.

 

Last week, you took a look at the problems. This week, you shall see me sorting them out.

The order in which I decided to go about the work was this:

1. Take off bridge
2. Clean bridge and area on top where it would sit
3. Clean guitar body of epoxy glue
4. Glue bridge back
5. Install new tuning machines

Taking the bridge off

It is never too difficult to take off a bridge that is lifting, but of course, there are exceptions. This one did not give me too much trouble. A few spatulas and palette knives and it was off.

The photo on the right gives you a very clear picture of where the bridge was lifted up from, how much and for how long. You may be able to guess the answer to the first two questions, for the third, suffice it to say, that you won’t see dust build up like that in a few weeks or even a few months.

 

Cleaning bridge and area on top where it would sit

Now that it was off, I set about cleaning first the bridge. Here is the bridge through a few stages of cleaning.

After it was thoroughly clean, I wiped it down with lighter fluid and scored the underside with an awl – not very deeply – but just enough for the glue to sit in and have something to grip on to. But very pretty wood.

Notice, there are two locating pins in the bridge that help seat it exactly where it should.

But that was just the underside of it. The top of it, which had collected dust over the years and had braved the elements, needed to be cleaned too. Here are some of the tools I used to clean it.

Sandpaper of different grits stuck on different contoured objects to reach every nook and cranny. That black pen-like thing is a nail cuticle remover. The middle one a PVC pipe leftover, and the one on the right is just a wood block I fashioned for the purpose.

Then followed the area of the top where the bridge would sit. Cleaning old glue residue completely off it and off the underside of the bridge is imperative because unless the old glue is removed, the bond with the new glue won’t be a very strong one.

The photo on the left is the bridge area cleaned, while the one on the right shows, how much glue and dust came off it. Blades, scrapers, knives: oh, I went to town on it!

And while I was armed with all these, I decided to scrape clean the binding too.

 

Cleaning the guitar body of epoxy glue

After that it was the turn of taking the epoxy resin glue off the front, sides and back of the guitar. Before I started on that, I thought long and hard about the tool(s) that I would use. After much choosing and rejecting, I turned to my trustee wood-carving micro chisels.

After that it was a good two hours of dripping sweat as I carefully peeled and chipped away at the glue. At places, it came off whole, while at others, it entailed more sweat.

When it was finally over, both the guitar top and me were breathing a little easier.

Once the top was clean, it was the turn of the back and sides.

And when you have a lifting seam like this,

you require a really thin and small dispenser to get glue into the opening. Something like this:

Installing new tuning machines

While this dried, I decided to take the old tuning machines off and clean up the headstock of the guitar. It was a good thing that I did that because, when I tried on the snazzy, new tuning machines, they wouldn’t go in. Holes for the old tuning machines were much smaller and had to be reamed!

Reaming is a painfully slow process and you have to go slow, otherwise, if you overshoot the mark, there is nothing else to be done but to fill up the hole completely and start all over again!

You can see the reaming taking place in the left photo, as also the new tuning machines waiting to be installed. The photo on the right shows the need for clamping the neck down so that the strain of reaming the headstock did not get transferred to the neck. If it did, it was quite possible that the neck would crack, or even break into two!

And that was not the end of the work on the headstock. The holes where the screws of the old tuning machines went in, did not match up to where the screws of the new machines would go. So, I had to fill up the holes with pieces of wood, mark the point where the new screws would go in, and then drill out new holes.

Fitting the new tuning machines was just a matter of 24 screws and a Philips-head screwdriver .

Here’s how the headstock looks now:

Later, it was time to give a bath to the guitar and clean it of the years of dust and grime deposition. But before that could happen, the area where the bridge would stick to the top had to be covered and protected from getting wet.

That’s painter’s tape and on top of it, packing tape, cut exactly to size.

Meanwhile, the process of ‘bathing’ the guitar included dry sanding the entire body with ‘0000’ steel wool and then wet-sanding with 2000, 3000 and 4000 grit sandpaper. 

That black block you see is hard foam, used in packaging, and something that I picked up from the road.

The final step was polishing the entire body. Of course, the intention was never to make it look like a brand new guitar but for it to look like a well-cared-for guitar.

 

Glueing the bridge back

Once everything was clean and smelling good, it was time to glue the bridge back on. But before that, both surfaces had to be as dry as they could be. So, I employed my heat gun to dry out the bridge area of whatever moisture might have crept under the ‘covers’.

And while that dried, I gathered everything that I would need for the glue-up job.

And the glue? Here it is, and more than was required. While doing a glue-up job like this, I have realised that there is no such thing as too much. If it is too much, it will ooze out and can be wiped away. If it is too little, the joint won’t hold.

The photo on the extreme right features a violin clamp. Not a very powerful clamp but then it has a lot of reach. You clamp bridges to tops by clamping through the soundhole, and usually, the distance from the soundhole edge to the farther edge of the bridge is 5 -6 inches. This Hobner’s bridge was fixed some 8″ away! Only a few of my collection of clamps had that kind of reach and so I had to ‘deploy’ my pair of violin clamps.

Put it in place, clamp everything together such that not even the air will be able to get through

and once the glue starts oozing out from under the bridge, wipe, wipe, wipe, and then wipe again. For once the glue dries, there’s no way to get it off, except with a scraper or a chisel.

While the glue dried, I went about shaping the new bridgepins.

Also, all that scraping on the top of the guitar had left scratches and marks just inside the margin on the lower bout that weren’t very pleasing to the eye.

I thought about it and came up with this:

My reasoning: 30+ years for a guitar’s age translates into it being a teenager. And like any teenager, there’s no harm if it experiments a little with its looks. So, I taped off the binding and the inside of the top, leaving a 1cm channel in between, which I painted black. With the white tape removed, it did come out looking nice.

HOWEVER…

I have done such glue-up ‘operations’ umpteen times without a single failure. I failed this time, and rather magnificently. The law of averages had caught up with me. And the only reason, I could think of why I faced so many failures was the moisture in the air.

In all, I had to reglue the bridge four times!  Here is the view of the re-glue efforts the 2nd time, the 3rd time and the 4th time, and each time I left it clamped for longer and longer: 60 hrs, 72 hrs, 96 hrs and then a full week.

And each time, these went under the top to provide support and increase clamping pressure.

It stuck the fourth time but I don’t think its going to stay that way for too long.

NEXT TIME: Some free gifts, some odds and ends!

 

The rains is a time when all glueing jobs should be avoided. If imperative, enough time and ventilation should be available for the job to succeed. REMEMBER YOU READ IT, AND READ IT HERE FIRST!

Despite knowing that I undertook this job, and boy, did this guitar fight back! Read all about it later. 

First, the Rule of Two struck again! 

Remember just a couple of weeks ago I worked on a Hobner guitar and gave you the lowdown on the company? Well, its 30-some-years-old, 12-string cousin came calling, and seeing the pain it was in, made me go ‘ooh’, ‘aah’, ‘ouch’!

While the earlier model was a F-hole, floating bridge-type jazz guitar, this one was the regular flat-top guitar (although the top wasn’t all that flat), with a round soundhole.

The history. A former Army officer’s instrument, it travelled with him through postings and remained his friend and confidante. And as can be imagined, he loved it very much. (And from here my guesswork begins) Somewhere down the line, the officer stopped playing it and the instrument was left tuned to pitch, standing in some corner (or hanging on a wall).

Weather can be very unkind to string instruments and it treated this 12-string no different. Under the dual impact of the weather and under-tension strings, the bridge lifted off the solid-top guitar (yeah, even I had my eyes popping out when I discovered that it was a solid top. I had never seen a Hobner with a solid top – not very good spruce but spruce nonetheless). The top itself too cracked open at multiple places – besides along the seams. 

And because of the bridge lifting, it had also managed to pull a belly into the top. Also, the fretboard extension was loose from one end.

(As my guesswork continues) The officer’s daughter, much in love with her father, tried to stabilise the instrument. Acting out of love (I am sure her intentions were all good) and with whatever she thought was the strongest glue available (I think at least 15 years ago), she used an epoxy resin glue – all along the seams on the top and back, the heel, and where the heel cap should have been!

Now, epoxy resin glues are fine for furniture, but for string instruments and especially on those areas which need to move, it does more harm than good.

She used the same adhesive on the cracks on the top and when the guitar did not look too good, covered it with some electrical insulating tape. The black lines in the first photograph (and below right) is the tape hiding the adventure! And the elements continued to act on the instrument and on the electrical tape-epoxy combine. When I tried to remove the tape, at places it came off and at others, something came off while the rest of the black remained ‘absorbed’ in the epoxy. 

Here are some other samples:

There were other abrasions too: like this section of the heel. Notice the discoloured margin on the left? It seems as if the heel wasn’t seated properly. But it was! Solid as ever and not wishing to budge no matter how much I pulled or pushed it.

Also, a 2-inch portion of the side (on the right) just below the binding (the white strip) had come loose and was loose till an inch below, where it opened up in a crack.

The headstock, as beautiful as it was, was a pain as far as getting strings off it was concerned. Someone had knotted all strings – increasing my BP!

The tuning machines that came with the instrument were cheap, flimsy things. At the time when Hobner must have made this instrument, these tuning machines must have been the only ones available. Not so now. Now, even the cheap tuning machines would be many times better than these and there are sets available now that cost three, four times the cost of a cheap guitar!  These had to go!

And when you have a 30-odd-year-old instrument, there are bound to be more hurdles than smooth sailing.

And so, it wasn’t a surprise that I pulled out this instead of a regular bridgepin –  a piece of wood fashioned to serve as a bridgepin: ingenious and practical, but hardly pretty.

And after 30-some years, there are bound to be more than a couple of dustworms inside the guitar!

My brief from the Fauji: ‘Yaar, you do whatever you want, but I should be able to play it’! As you can imagine, this will take some doing, and for you, some reading. So, we’ll break this one up in a few parts (at least two) so that it doesn’t become too laborious a read.

 

Next week: Tackling the problems

 

 

 

 

Ladies and gentlemen, another 12-string visitor that I had the pleasure of giving my attention to. And like I had said some time back, the same make and model guitars visit in twos and threes, by some quirk of nature. So, here is another Pluto!

What made it special was that it was a daughter’s gift to her father!

And just beyond the lower end of the photo on the left above, lay the problem that needed to be addressed. Though a comparatively new guitar, the strings had managed to break the (plastic) nut on the guitar.

Sadly, the owner had failed to find a place in town to replace a nut for a 12-string guitar, leave alone a bone 12-string nut! It was then that the guitar came to me.

As I inspected the instrument, it was apparent that it had not received the initial set-up so necessary for it to function best. It had all the tell-tale signs: loose hardware on the headstock, dry fretboard and bridge, and tarnished frets. The action too was on the higher side and could have been much better.

Further, it did not make sense to just replace the nut and leave the (plastic) saddle in place. So, out came both and were replaced by bone elements.

As I pulled out the saddle, I was shocked to see something in the slot. A SHIM!!! And not just one, but two! After I prised them out, I noticed that they were nothing but visiting card strips. I remember thinking unconsciously, ‘That should take care of the high action’. And it did!

Replacing the saddle was the usual grind – pun intended – getting it to the same dimensions as the plastic one that had long been chucked.

The new bone saddle (the one on the right) was just a wee bit longer than the plastic one. Once the dimensions were met, I tried putting the saddle in its slot and was surprised to find the saddle rocking in it, as if there was a high spot in the slot.

In all my years of guitar repair and working on very inexpensive instruments too, I have never come across an instrument that had an uneven saddle slot cut into the instrument. I looked at the slot intently but I could not see anything wrong there.

Then I took my special saddle-slot chisel and tried scraping the bottom of the slot and sure enough, the chisel scraped up some pieces of wood that had been left when the slot must have been routed.

With this out, the saddle sat proud and straight in its slot. Perfect!

And as I have pointed out before, if you wish to determine whether it is a bone nut or saddle, or a plastic one, just look at its underside. If you see holes there, believe that it is synthetic. Some time back, I had talked about other ways as well to figuring out whether what you’re holding was plastic or bone.

If you wish to read about those, here it is:

Happy 2020, and let’s bone in on nuts and saddles!

That done, I looked at the hardware and gave it a gentle tightening. Remember, it is part of your monthly instrument upkeep: going over the hardware on the headstock. Using the right-sized spanner, test the nuts on the face of the headstock. They should be as snug you requiring just a little bit of force to loosen them. While tightening them, don’t mistake them for nuts on your car wheel, on which you use all the force you can muster to tighten! Just snug enough, and just like this:

Now, turn the guitar over, and  still concentrating on the headstock, take the right-sized screwdriver to tighten the tuning machine screws. Again the rule of thumb is snug and not overbearingly tight. Just like this:

With that out of the way, it was time to let the ‘Love Potions’ work their magic: one for the fretboard and bridge and one for the fretwires.

Look at how pretty the wood looks now. In fact, look at how pretty the whole guitar looks now, dusted, polished, tightened and oiled.

It wasn’t a forbiddingly expensive instrument but as I played it, sweet sounds emanated from it. I hope the owner thinks so too!

 

 

The footnote on this page – as also on all other posts – reads that if you are sentimentally attached to your instrument, its value in terms of money means nothing. 

It could be a Rs1,000 guitar or one hundred times that value but because it means so much to you, and you bring it to me in the hope that I would be able to make things alright, I make an extra effort to ensure that that faith in me is not dashed.

This is just a 6-month-old guitar that came in because the owner was beside himself with grief because this had happened.

How it happened and when it happened, he didn’t seem to know. 

While I promised him that I would take care of it, I inspected the guitar.

The bridge, though a handsome thick piece of wood, had these two plastic dots.

Now, every time I see these dots, just one word rises in my mind ‘SHIT’!!!!!!!! That’s because these dots hide screws under them. And sure enough

though it is not clear in the picture, what you see on the extreme left of the mirror is a nut and a bolt.

The renowned Gibson stable began the practice in the mid-30s (I think) and carried on with it till say a decade or two ago (again, not sure about the dates), because they saw the futility of it. However, guitar makers all over the world latched on to the idea and some in India continue to hang on to it, refusing to let it go. Here was one example.

Manufacturers put in a nut and a bolt on the farther side of the bridge in the mistaken belief that the hardware will help counter string tension, consequently preventing the bridge to lift. 

I am not one hundred per cent certain how far that approach worked, what I can tell you for a certainty is that if the bridge lifted despite the hardware, it would do so ripping through the top.  I have seen tens of guitars like that which cost double and sometimes triple the cost of repairing a lifting bridge.

Anyway, that was your history lesson for this Sunday. Getting back to the young man’s instrument, there was nothing that I could do about the hardware, but for his sake I hoped that the bridge would behave itself and didn’t decide to lift.

I told him how there would be a dramatic increase in volume and sustain if he allowed me to swap the plastic nut and saddle for bone elements.

He agreed and out came the cheap plastic

to be replaced by a bone nut and saddle.

As always, there was little work to be done on the nut but the saddle took a lot of time getting to the right height. 

That was the simple part. Now, to repair the banged-in lower bout area.

 If the wood had broken or cracked, it would have been a much easier repair. Only, it had been crushed in very slightly. Crushed and decompressed like that there was no way I could straighten the wood fibres.

And so I turned to my trustee wood fillers.

The one on the left is the real deal, while the one on the right is also a wood filler, but I use it more to give a tint. And on the right of the tube you see how I try out the shade.

I marked off the area with some painter’s tape and filled the affected area.

Not pretty? Yeah, I know! But things always get worse before they start looking better! After filling in the ‘dent’, I let it dry.

As it dried, I took out my ‘tools’ to work on the area.

This is a piece of plastic – not too stiff and with enough give in it – that I picked off the road. The photo on the right shows what I intend to do with it. That’s #600 sandpaper stuck on it and I used it as a sanding tool.

An interesting tit-bit about me: I am quite the junkie and when I walk on the road, I usually do so with my eyes glued to the road. Nuts, bolts, erasers, washers, odds and ends, I pick up almost everything: you never know when what will come handy!

Anyway, I sanded the area flush with the top and then on the surrounding area I went about removing sanding marks with progressively higher grits of sandpaper: #800, #1000, #1200 and #1500. I could have gone up to #8000 but it was good enough at #1500.

And mind you, the ‘operation’ was performed under magnification. After I was through sanding, I brushed on a little lacquer (varnish) and all was good!

While I was at it, I noticed a little dent exactly where a pickguard would have been. It was either a fingernail mark or a plectrum mark. And since I had seen it, I filled that in too and sanded the area smooth.

 And then it was time for the ‘Love Potions’: one for the fretwires and the other for the fretboard and bridge.

Amazing what they do to the fretwires and fretboard.

The owner chose to put these strings on the guitar

and also took my suggestion to put on a pickguard. 

That is how the pretty one looks now. I dare say, the owner seemed happy with the outcome.

But what of the dent? 

WHAT DENT???!!!

 

This is the last of my friend’s guitars that I attended to, and it sent me back some 30 years, when I started playing the instrument myself. Then, in India, a proper guitar meant a Hobner. 

Here’s a little side story for you.

The German brand Hofner was established in 1887 and gave Sir Paul McCartney his signature bass instrument that he continues to play to this day. Such was the success of Hofner that their models were exported worldwide and became models for guitar makers all over the world.

In the India of the late 70s, Hobner was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), and for the 80s teen, it was his/her first guitar. Hobner has since given way to Signature a name that today’s teen/youngster will quickly recognise.

Hobner was just one company. Guitar enthusiasts may also recall seeing Hobner’s cousin, ‘Hovner’: again modelled after the acclaimed Hofner, and also a Calcutta-based company, and thus, my quip about it being Hobner’s cousin. For all you know, cousins may have owned the two brands!!!!!!!!!

All, I needed to do with this f-hole, floating-bridge guitar, was to change its strings and give it a once over.

Giving it a once over, I saw that it had seen many summers and many bonfires. The battle scars were all too apparent.

The little chip on the headstock, where it met with the neck of the guitar, had been taped with cello-tape. I thought long and I thought hard about removing it and fixing whatever was broken under the piece of the tape but finally decided against it.

You never know what little piece of history you may be pulling off by pulling off the little piece of cello-tape. Besides, my brief had not included fixing anything, anywhere.

But it was a beautiful headstock – very different and…warm!

Meanwhile, I also saw this

Look carefully at the feet of the bridge. My friend had marked exactly where the feet of the bridge should stand. A wise move. However, as the guitar lay before me, I noticed that the bridge had moved back a little on the treble side.

I asked my friend if he had noticed intonation issues, and he said ‘yes’! So, that was another little but important adjustment to be made.

The second thing that I noticed was the condition of the fretboard (deplorable)

and the ‘zero fretwire’. The guitar had a lovely, low action, thanks to the ‘zero fretwire’ because of which I did not think the odd plastic nut needed to be changed into bone. The zero fretwire, wherever present, acts like the nut as the strings ride predominantly on it than on the nut. The work of the nut in such cases is merely to ensure that strings stay in one place and don’t fall off the fretboard.

I got to work and with a little love potion for the fretwires

and a different love potion for the fretboard, it looked like this

The intonation turned out to be vastly different from what it initially was. Now, to wait for my friend to play it and say what he thinks of it.

Anyway, this beauty is ready to sing for a long time to come

So, the next of my friend’s guitars that I took a look at was called an ‘Ashton’. I was unfamiliar with the brand so I looked it up.

I learnt that it was an Australian company based in Sydney, which got its instruments made in China (at least that is what the label inside the guitar said), which got sold in India!!!! That’s cosmopolitanism for you!!!

As I went over the guitar, there was just one adjective that sprang to mind: Neat! Nothing fancy, no frills, no trims, yet, all quite there. I remember asking my friend how old it was, and if I remember correctly, he said that he bought it for 10K a decade ago.

As he gave me that figure, I thought to myself: ‘Certainly a solid top’! And as I looked at it with a magnifying glass, sure, it was a solid top. But then something caught my eye, right at the soundhole. See if you can see it too!

It was not only not a solid top, but it was a double laminate!!!!

Here, let me go off on a tangent and explain, plyboard, laminate and solid guitars a little. I have done it several times before, but I received a request recently to explain that concept again. So, get your popcorn and your favourite beverage and let’s get rolling.

PLYBOARD GUITARS

In producing anything for commercial purposes, the investment in raw material is of prime importance as far as the end profit is concerned. The cheaper the raw material, the larger is the profit margin. And so, in India at least, a majority of guitars are made from plyboard (what we erroneously refer to as plywood): 9mm.

Next time you’re near a hardware store just ask to see a piece of ‘9 mm ply’ and you will understand what I am talking about. It is reclaimed layers of very, very thin wood that are pressed into becoming one piece of wood under pressure.

Yes, you cannot separate the layers but that does not take away the fact that THEY ARE different layers of wood pressed together, and that is what affects the overall sound of the instrument, if one were to build an acoustic instrument out of it.

To explain this, let me take another little diversion and take you right back to school, into your Physics class. Refraction, and we learnt about different mediums and how the ray of light bent, passing from one medium to another.

That is pretty much the case with plyboard and sound too. Imagine sound waves traversing a homogeneous material and travelling though a heterogeneous piece like a plyboard: it is bound to affect the sound.  No wonder, you get such guitars for Rs 3.5 K and from a reputed house like Martin, the very base model will cost something like 10 times that amount!!

LAMINATED GUITARS

This is what you would actually call plywood: several distinct layers of different woods of a specific thickness mashed together. Again, if you are near a hardware store, ask to see a piece of plywood. Compare it with the 9mm piece and you will understand what I am talking about.

For construction purposes it comes in various thicknesses, but for the purposes of guitar building, what manufacturers do is press in a layer (referred to as veneer) of spruce wood or cedar wood with any ordinary wood. The idea is that the spruce/cedar will retain some of its properties while the other wood will support it. Unfortunately, it does not work that way. Remember refraction?

But upright manufacturers say upfront that ‘x’ guitar is a laminated guitar, which means that the top, back and sides are not single pieces of wood but laminated.

But to give the devil his due, laminate guitars don’t sound half as bad as plyboard ones. Why? To answer that let’s see who makes these guitars. It’s big brand names who wish to put an affordable piece of their know-how in your hands, or those, who produce for a market of ‘hobby players’, as is the case in India. 

Real serious players, who know what they wish to buy, are few and far between. Most go into a shop asking for an acoustic guitar and walk out happily clutching a classical instrument, when what they actually had in mind, was a steel-string American folk guitar!  

SOLID WOOD GUITARS

One-wood guitars. No pressing, no mixing, just solid wood. And how do you confirm that it is a solid-wood guitar? Look for a wood pattern on the top or the back of the guitar. Now look for that same pattern on the underside. If you see the same pattern there too, it is indeed a solid-wood guitar. The sound of an instrument made from this wood is a pleasure to be heard: the volume, the sustain, everything. And let me leave it at that.

Try finding one in town and play it for sometime. Tell me what you felt!

Back to the Ashton on the counter; it was a double laminate. Let me explain. So, instead of the regular lamination of a single layer of spruce/cedar and some other wood, it had a top and bottom layer of spruce sandwiching a layer of ordinary wood.

Now, there can be two reasons for doing this. a) A mistaken belief that an extra layer of spruce/cedar will lend a better tone, or, b) to fool people into believing that it was a solid wood guitar! In both instances, a wrong move!

Whatever be the reason, there was nothing to rave about in the guitar, except its simple, clean looks. What was more, its plastic saddle was too thin for the slot and was tilting over.

Thankfully, it had not reached the stage where it could force a crack into the bridge. So, I just loosened the strings and pulled out the saddle and the nut, replacing them with bone elements.

Like always, the nut did not require too much work, the saddle though had to be cut down some, and then some. The black that you see in the nut slots is carbon, which acts as a lubricant for string movement, not allowing strings to get pinched in the slot.

Again, with this one, the corners of the bridge had started lifting and 12 to 18 months down the line, should pose a risk. For now, I let the bridge be.

A little love potion for the fretwires, and some love potion for the fretboard, and look at it shine!

 

Recently, a former colleague landed up at my place with not one, not two but three guitars for me to have a look at!

So, the next three guitars that you are going to read about in this blog, all belong to him.

The first one that I took a look at was this one.

It came with a complaint that the pick-up installed in it was not working. I pulled out all the wiring but there was no break anywhere that I expected to see. Of course, that just left the battery compartment connection with the rest of the pick-up as the possible culprit.

And since the battery compartment would not seat completely, I could not check it at all.

I tried finding a replacement but it was not available locally. I have since ordered it online and going by the shipping times these days, God alone knows when it is going to arrive.

And as usual, my eyes went to the saddle and nut. Plastic…and leaning further than the tower of Pisa! But wait. What was that?

Yes! It was a crack. Under string tension, the leaning saddle had managed to crack the bridge. So, the first order of service was to take off the strings and saddle and repair the bridge.

Nothing that a little rosewood dust, some cynoacrylate glue and five grits of sandpaper – #800, # 1200, #1500, #1800 and #2000 – won’t solve. 

Now, see and tell me where the crack is.

Jokes aside, it was in the very nick of time that this instrument came to me. A couple of weeks more of string tension and maybe, it would have come to me in two pieces – still stuck to the top. Then, I would have had to scrape them off the top and glue in a new bridge.

NOTE TO READERS: Whenever you buy a guitar – new or used – one other thing to check is how well the saddle sits in its slot. If it leans, check for a crack along the length of the saddle slot. Ideally, you want to see the saddle sit absolutely perpendicular to the bridge, for it perform the best in transferring sound.

There were other issues too that required attention, but nothing as dramatic as the bridge going Splitsville!

Of course, the saddle and nut would have to go: the saddle because it had served its time and looked as if it would crumble in my hands as I took it out of the slot, and the nut because it too was ‘broke’!

In fact, my friend had been most ingenious in slipping in a piece of string, between the actual string and the nut to keep the string from buzzing.

Then there were minor dings that were more cosmetic than anything

the fretwires needed attention and the fretboard was a little dry…

But there was a little problem that will most likely become a very big problem 12 to 18 months down the line.

The bridge was indeed lifting. The pencil lines on the pieces of paper show you just how deep an ordinary piece of paper managed to slip underneath the bridge. 

I informed my friend about it but decided not to do anything about it. There was nothing I could do except the actual procedure of taking the whole bridge off the guitar, cleaning the mating surfaces and then gluing the bridge back on. I decided that my friend needn’t spend all that money right away.

So, I replaced the nut and the saddle with solid bone. The nut sat perfectly but I had to cut down the saddle quite a bit for the guitar to have the same action that it had with the old saddle and nut.

The dings were touched up and while they disappeared at most places, at other places, a shade or two of lightness remained.

Maybe next time! For now, it looks like this!

Most guitar repairmen often say this, but I am only realising it now: guitars come in batches!
Last week I worked on the same model of the same company and this week, its sibling lands up.

The week before last it was a Yamaha F310. If you consider price range, all three guitars are more or less the same.

Before the Yamaha, I had worked on three toy guitars (Rs 3 – 3.5K), the ones that I love so much!

So, yeah! guitars do come in batches, I do agree.

Having bought this previously loved Ibanez MD3NC-NT, the owner was wise to have it shown to someone who knew a little more about acoustic guitars than himself. 

NOTE TO READERS: Guitars – like shirts – are mass produced. If you want a really proper fit, you have to take it to the tailor to get little things done. Even a brand new guitar – electric or acoustic – needs to be looked at and set up to play the best that it can ACCORDING TO YOUR PLAYING STYLE!

As I inspected the guitar, I noticed that there was nothing wrong with it, except, the action was a tad high. I measured it at 2.25 mm.

However, it was the action at the first fret that alarmed me. Quite easily, I managed to slip in a .025″ feeler gauge under the first fretwire.

I played the instrument, and to my ears, it seemed that the 5th and 6th strings were oddly subdued. I thought that maybe changing the strings and putting in a fresh set would do the trick, but the owner clarified that he had changed strings just last month.

That got me thinking. If D’addario .012 – .053″ strings are sounding like this, maybe it’s the nut and the saddle. Of course, they were plastic!

I suggested that I could bring the action down and I would like to change the nut and saddle to bone components, to which the owner agreed.

And then I went about my routine. Loosen strings, pull out the bridgepins and keep them in order;

pull out the saddle and clean the bridge slot in preparation of receiving the new saddle. But wait!!

What is that in the saddle slot – right where the 5th and the 6th string would be?  I pulled it out with a pair of tweezers and to my astonishment, it was a piece of card paper, cushioning the saddle on the bass side. No wonder the 5th and 6th strings were sounding dead!

A closer inspection of the saddle revealed that a manufacturing fault had left the saddle shorter on one end (bass side) than on the other end. Naturally, the saddle rocked lengthwise in its slot in the bridge and to stabilise it, the card bit had been shoved in. While the saddle rocked no more, the piece of paper managed to all but deaden the bass strings.

It was a 76 mm saddle and was replaced with a bone one of equal length.

Removing the nut from its slot, I found a strange white, powder-like residue, and even as I write this, I am sorry to inform you that I still don’t know what it could have been and where it came from.

Anyway, I scraped it clean and glued in a new bone nut.

Thankfully, the neck was as straight as an arrow. Not a bad thing at all. Once the strings are put on and tuned to pitch, the tension, invariably, pulls a little relief (a little gap between the strings and the fretwires) into the neck.

Installation of the new saddle entailed a bit of work and a lot more calculation and marking than I am used to.

See what I mean?

With the new bone nut glued in, I stuffed its slots with graphite so that the strings would not have any problems running through them.

Meanwhile, the fretboard and the bridge were given a much-needed ‘oil massage’.

Stringing it up with the strings that were originally on it, the action was exactly where I wanted it.

The owner hesitantly acceded that yes, the action had improved as well as the volume, and particularly the sound of the 5th and 6th strings.

Two days later, he messaged me to inform that indeed the sound had improved tremendously and he was enjoying playing the instrument.

I patted my back!

Here’s me signing off with one last look at the guitar!