Ian Davlin The Looth Group
Forum Replies Created
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Are you using a spiral bit or a straight ?
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Man, that looks clean. If you have time, keep us updated on the conversion to bolt on. Sounds interesting.
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You might try a little of the two part wood bleach. Test on some similar spruce first though. https://www.amazon.com/Zinsser-300451-Wood-Bleach/dp/B01MXDS72Z/ref=sr_1_1_sspa
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You do see that from time to time. It isn’t great, but probably not the end of the world. If I was being cautious, I would glue it up and then cap over the top of the X with some ebony.
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You are right to be concerned about taking them out sideways. Sometimes you can get them out through the top, but the only way to find out involves higher risk than tapping them out sideways.
To remove them sideways when they are low, use a very sharp awl and the metal fret mask. Heat also really helps.
With new frets, you should be able to use any crowning file without tape. Also tape is no match for a crowning file with low frets and will give you a false sense of security. I would also use the metal mask for polishing. It takes a lot to get me to put tape on a finish these days.
So this project is where you need to make a decision about risk. Taking frets out sideways comes with risk, but taking them out through the top comes with even more in my estimation. There is no shame in passing on the project if you feel the risk isn’t worth it.
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Repairing that old guard may be an exercise in futility. It looks pretty crumbly and it seems like you could fix one spot, just to have another spot break off.
If you’re looking for good replacement material, I just put a new link in the usefull links section for axiominc. Their guard material is going to be redder than that, but you can modify the color a little with dyes+thinner.
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Email me at ian.davlin@gmail.com
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This does sound promising. Im going to grab a bottle.
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I haven’t glued a fret down in ages. Most frets are up due to having the fret with a different radius than the fingerboard. If there are only a few loose frets, sometimes I will pull them, re-radius them and put them back in. If there are more than 3 or 4 I just refret.
edit: I also wouldn’t perform any work, but a refret on a guitar with loose frets.
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Awesome! Thanks for the intel.
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Id say there is a good chance there is a dovetail or a mortise style joint in there. Might be a good idea, if you know any dentists, to get an xray. Also, you could pull the fingerboard and peep the joint from the top.
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Is it possible to get a shot of the neck block ?
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Man that should have some kind of threaded insert. Not sure if the one I linked is the right kind. You’d have to either check the threads or commit to changing over to the new hardware. It occurs to me that in an absolute pinch you could add another thumb wheel on the inside of the guitar. That would be pretty barbarian though.
stewmac.com
Nashville Tune-o-matic Studs and Bushings - StewMac
Nashville Tune-o-matic bridge replacement parts.
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I got to great lengths to avoid tape on finish because of pulling finish off way to many times. I like using the metal masks. I’ve never used the ones with the rubber band holder, but I always wanted to.
I’m sure someone has a really good recommendation for ultra low tack tape.
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I can certainly do a consult. This is a fussy bit of work though and is the type of thing that, on guitars, has broken the soul of quite a few repair people over the years. I don’t want to do any gatekeeping, but it would be good to be up front about what can be accomplished with a consult. It’s tough to encapsulate 30 years of experience in a zoom meet. Im willing to try though.
In terms of supplies, I wouldn’t attempt best results on this without an airbrush, all the equipment that goes with it, an assortment of dyes and pigments, a few different cans of lacquer from Mohawk, some very high powered lights etc. It’s also the type of thing I would have to take a couple swipes at to get to best results and best results still wouldn’t be 100% invisible. You could spend a couple hundred bucks on this.
Feel free to email me at ian.davlin@gmail.com to set up a meet.
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It is a nice looking chair.
Black is a tougher than you would think color. There are a ton of different black, from what amounts to a very dark purple (see the black of a sharpie pen) all the way to that new fangled black that is so black objects look weird because a lack of shadows etc.
What I see in your project is a common problem which is your black is actually a very dark version of grey. There is a slight white component to the black of the original chair color.
There is another problem, which is sheen mismatch. Because of some boring stuff about light I don’t fully understand, if the sheen of the finish over the touch up is mismatched from the original, it will be impossible to tell if your colors are the same. One easy way to normalize sheen is to make the entire area wet with either water or naphtha. Naphtha if you have exposed wood is ideal.
The last thing that can make a subtle difference is to color of the finish. If the finish has yellowed over time. Or has a difference in clarity. Or really just any subtle differences, it can affect the visibility of the repair. The biggest one is yellowed lacquer though. You can replicate this by overspraying the touch up with some yellowed lacquer.
BTW. Degree of difficulty for this project is about a 7 out of 10. Very challenging to make unnoticeable. If the chair isn’t super valuable, I’d just add a little white to the black, get some GB fillnfinsh thin on it and buff it out. Unless you are super retentive, you will forget about it in a week. If you are super retentive, or related to someone super retentive, you might consider replacing the chair.
Hope this helps
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I’d probably scarf on a new headstock at this point. Julie Skarry has a pretty good look at this move.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CzeWwfsuMRX/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
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This sounds like about an hour and a half. $150 sounds like a nice round, fair number.
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Im going to be out for a few hours, but can help you later. What time zone are you in?
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Interesting. Must have just had that plate kicking around with holes already in it and they decided to reduce, reuse and recycle it.
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Ive done some crazy repairs on some expensive guitars and I’ve never installed a strap button with any amount of confidence.
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That is super short and certainly need something to leave with any hope of not returning.
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You might try drum wraps. https://precisiondrum.com/high-quality-musical-drum-products/drum-wraps/
precisiondrum.com
Drum wraps - Precision Drum Company, Inc. - Since 1961
Drum wraps for recovering and new builds. Sparkle, Glass Glitter, Pearl, custom, Drum wraps for Roland V-drums & more.
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I still use a fairly basic approach that only uses 600, 1000, 2000 and a buff on a drill at a low, very low speed.
First I wrap 600 over firm but thin and flexible backer. Like the squeegy that comes with bondo. This goes back and forth over the length of the fingerboard with the frets acting like little speed bumps. The squeegy allows the sandpaper to get right up next to the fret, but still maintain the sanding motion in the driection of the grain orientation.
The next move is to use some kind of fret mask and then go backyforthy with the 600 taking out all of the leveling marks. This can be quite laborious and it is really easy to miss the scragglers. If you miss any leveling marks at this point and move on to the other grits, it will be for naught and you will have to slum it back with the 600. On a side note, since I got some really nice DMT diamond sharpening stones, somethimes I use those to do some fine leveling before polish, but I apply them to the fret going against the grain of the fingerboard to have the marks left go with the string bend.
I repeat for 1000 and 2000. Then I use a buff on a drill at a very low speed to apply polishing compund. I use the menzerna fine wax compound, but anything will work. #7 Maguires will actually work quite nicely. The key is low speed, generating no heat and not hogging off any metal, which posishing will do. .001 isn’t that much, easy enough to take of with polishing and can throw frets out of whack.
Hope this helps. I agree the 180 is probably too much for frets.
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It comes down to the amount of time spent and the guarantee of results. I found over time that I spent a lot of time on glueing down frets and then leveling them. Almost always, after glue down, the frets would be so unlevel that I would have to do a shit ton of leveling and crowning. Leveling and crowning produces heat, so if the fret is being held down under tension by glue, chances are that the heat from crowning is going to change its level. Anyway, the time I spent got so close to the time I would spend refretting and the results were so crappy, I just quit doing it.
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Try now.
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Make sure to post pictures of the one you made. It looks fantastic.
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Outstanding work Elaine ! Excellent color on that shim.
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Excellent reply!
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Current market value of Gibson guitars being in a bubble not withstanding, one of the things that the top I removed had going for it was that the top was glued on with cascamite and came off super easy. Modern construction means modern adhesives. Chances are really good that only way to get the top or back off of this guitar is to take the binding off. This means, at least for me, finish work and some kind of apparatus to get the plate back on and the sides lined up.
Even with the ability to roughhouse the finish on this guitar because it isn’t vintage, it’s a ton of work. I’d still bid this at $3500-$4000 and then when I was finished there would still be an ill-conceived modern Gibson at the end of the project. It’s hard to overstate how dumb kerfed tone bars are even on laminate instruments and it’s an indication of how bad things were at Gibson around this time. 2015 is also in the sweet spot for truss rods that don’t work.
In a side observation, one of the main problems with high dollar turd painting projects is that when the shit eventually squeezes through the cracks in the paint, all the customer know is that the bill was high and now the guitar doesn’t work again. Like when the windshield wipers break after my wife gets an oil change. The first thing she thinks is, “the windshield wipers worked before I got the oil changed.”
