For the last couple of weeks, I have been unable to post because the website refused to open. I had to contact the hosting site and they worked on it, and now it seems to be ok. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed till this post actually makes an appearance on the internet.
This guitar was brought to me some time back with a host of issues which required that they be tackled in a proper order for the instrument to perform at its optimum.
So, you have the headstock and the label in front of you. What would you say the name of the guitar is? ‘EXL’, ‘XL’, or just ‘X’???!!
Whatever. What couldn’t be debated is the fact that it was in a great deal of pain and in dire need of healing.
The bridge was coming off
It had developed a decent belly.
The bridge, itself, had developed a crack.
And the fretboard and bridge were dryer than tinder. Also, needless to say, there was enough dust on it to give you asthma!
As I took the strings off and checked the fretboard for any humidity-related cracks, I saw this
On the last few frets, on the tongue of the guitar, these marks surprised me. It was as if someone had tried to scrape off something.
Anyway, it would all be dealt with in each’s own time. The first thing which needed to be done was to take the lifting bridge off the guitar completely.
As expected, there was a good 1 – 1.5 mm margin all around the bridge footprint that wasn’t cleaned up at the factory and would have to be taken off for the bridge to seat properly and as it should.
Now that the bridge was off, both the bridge and its footprint needed to be cleaned and sanded properly for a good glue joint to be achieved.
To get a clean sharp line demarcating the lacquer from bare wood, magnification is your friend. So, I called upon my friend to give me a helping hand
That done, I turned my attention to the belly. I peered inside checking for loose braces but thankfully, there were none.
I clamped the guitar top flat and left it that way for 48 hours.
After 48 hours, when I released it from its harness, the belly was gone.
I didn’t get overly happy with the results because I knew wood has a memory and would likely spring back – if not as much as it had blown out originally.
Then I went about doing the little things around the one big task of glueing on the bridge: things like glueing little chips back where they belonged.
and making the crack disappear in the bridge
Then without further ado, I glued on the bridge and clamped it down tight for a period of 48 hours,
While this was left to cure, the other problem areas were dealt with.
The fretboard was given a shave and a balm applied to the fresh new skin. The tarnished fretwires were also burnished.
Also, the headstock was cleaned till it shone and the hardware on it was snugged up.
Once the clamps came off, there was little else left to do but to string up the instrument. But as I picked up the saddle, it looked something like this
Earlier, in my conversations with the owner, he wasn’t too keen on a saddle and nut replacement, something which I always encourage people to try if they have a plastic saddle and nut.
Now, that the saddle needed to be changed, the owner agreed to have a bone saddle put, though the idea of a bone nut still didn’t enthuse him too much.
The new bone saddle was measured, shaved to size and installed, while the strings chosen by the owner were
As always, I’ll leave you with a few final photographs of the finished job
and a little teaser for you.
You’ve seen the guitar. What colour is it? Is it burgundy? Is it black, or, is it a burgundy burst???!!!
I still can’t make up my mind!
