This baby of a baby was brought to me with the complaint that the thinner strings were buzzing. A very pretty, all-mahogany, three-fourth size guitar, I was surprised to see major divets on the frets over which the ‘e’ and ‘b’ strings ran.
The surprise was due to the fact that the owner’s father informed me that it was a new guitar, bought from a shop locally, and the child had just started learning how to play it. Also, look carefully at the guitar and you will be able to spot the film still attached to the pickguard – a sure sign of the newness of the guitar. The divets, then, were a shocker.
The fretboard was very dry and a light scraping and oiling helped condition it back to prime health. But do look at the fretwire closest to you. Amazing!
Anyway, it had to be cured of its ills and so the fretwires across half the board were levelled and crowned to remove the huge pits in them, and then the fretwires were polished up to a decent shine.
I did point out to the owner the badly cut plastic nut but then I did not expect him to ask me to change it. It played well enough as it was, and for the child learning, it was good enough.
End result: another satisfied customer!
