David Ross David Ross Musical Instruments
Forum Replies Created
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Commenting because I’d be curious to hear answers to OP’s question. I currently use StewMac Clean & Shine which works well, and I’ll also use naphtha from time to time.
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Update: The situation got resolved.
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Hey guys, thanks for the responses @urquidi_guitars , @DangDecent , @ianhatesguitars . I spoke with the person who contacted me a couple of days ago and ultimately decided not to pursue it. The biggest reason why was because since I’m already an established shop, it would’ve been too much of a conflict of interested for me to split my time between my own shop and GC, especially since I was told that they had hoped that my customers would over time become GC customers. A couple of other details, they would’ve wanted me to work full time which is fine, but I would’ve only been compensated for the repair work that I did, and there was also an expectation that I would have to work on two store owned guitars per day. Additionally, I was told that GC would put out the word that the store had a new tech (which seems quite limited in scope), but that any further advertising would be through word of mouth. I get the feeling that there could’ve been a significant amount of time with me just standing around waiting for a customer to come in while not making an income.
Ultimately I think that this position would’ve been worthwhile 4 years ago or so before I officially started my business, but now it seems like a bit of a step backwards. I may inquire about a referral type of deal, but I’d need to figure out the parameters of that and whether or not the juice would be worth the squeeze. Thanks again!
-David
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I try to stock popular gauges for electric and acoustic guitars and usually make a very small profit when I use them on customers guitars. I’m fine with them bringing their own strings along. Things can sometimes get tricky when a customer uses a hybrid set, I either have to order online or make a stop at a local guitar store. This usually isn’t a problem since it’s right next to the grocery store I go to, I plan the trip accordingly.
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Some more pictures:
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I have a variety of social media pages including a website, Google business page, and Facebook business page. It is silly that Facebook requires you to have a personal page along with a business page, I use the business page 99% of the time. It’s worth having in my opinion, I’ve definitely gotten leads through my FB page but I don’t have a huge following there. Facebook Groups are really where I’ve seen the most engagement on that platform. My overall feeling is that I want my customers to be able to find me wherever they may be, if you’re missing any of these platforms, you’re missing potential clients.
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Hey Ian, thanks for the response. What you said makes a lot of sense and I’m glad I’m not the only one who has been thinking about this type of thing.
-David
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Thanks everyone for the responses and sharing the info, it’s very much appreciated!
-David
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Last couple of questions, given the state of the guitar, should I take the strings off to alleviate the pressure on the top? Also, I noticed this nylon strapping material throughout the guitar body. What’s the purpose of this?
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I decided to take a look at the rest of what I
could see through the F holes and I noticed something far more concerning. What
the customer was unaware of perhaps was that the bracing on the treble side,
from about the neck pickup volume control, all the way back to the strap
button, has completely delaminated and there’s about a 1/8″ gap at the
very end (which I couldn’t easily photograph). I’m wondering how to proceed
here? My initial feeling is that this is beyond my current skill level and I’m
inclined to not attempt to tackle this. I’m not experienced with archtop
guitars in general and I could use some advice on the procedure to fix this. My
best guess is that this would involve removing the back, cleaning up the glue
joints, regluing the bracing, and then reapplying the back and possibly doing a
partial refinish. Does this seem logical?
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Are you guys regularly using an automatic string winder? I’ve tended to prefer manual ones because I feel like it’s very easy to either slip or accidentally wind the wrong way and snap the string.
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I’ve been doing guitar building/repair for about 15 years now, and about 7 years ago I decided to get into making guitar pedals with the intention of creating my own line of products. Today I have two models available on my website with a third (the Submersion) currently going through a funding period on Kickstarter. This for me was a fairly natural progression because it’s tangentially related to what I was already doing. I already had many of the tools needed as well as a working knowledge of guitar electronics. I also liked (and still like) the idea of having a product in addition to offering a service. When one thing slows down there is the other to fall back on. I’ve also considered getting into tube amplifier building and repair since I chose my business name with the purpose of doing multiple things, but I’m not sure about it at this point. In the words of Roy Blankenship, amp repair is “the most amount of knowledge for the least amount of financial return of anything I’ve ever done.” I feel like tube amps are in a weird spot at the moment and I’m curious to see how it shakes out. Anyway, something to think about. If you’re ever interested in learning about guitar pedals, either from a business standpoint or a design/sonic standpoint, let me know, that goes for any of you.
-David
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What would you recommend as far as a commercial neck heater is concerned? A local luthier friend of mine uses this Aria one. I tried to find something similar online but never could.
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I’ll give that method a shot and see what progress I make with it. My understanding is that my customer bought the bass several months ago and the fretboard was off back then. I don’t know exactly how long its been off but quite awhile I’d imagine.
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Hey Alex, yeah this was one of the options I was thinking of. As far as applying heat and/or steam, when in the process would you recommend doing it? Would you do it and then clamp, or do it after it’s already clamped?
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Hey Ben, thanks for the reply. The endoscope is really cool, I haven’t seen a commercially available wireless one before. I’ll definitely look into your suggestions.
-David
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That’s a very good point Ian. I’ think it makes sense to see what they have to say and report back.
-David
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Thanks for the advice Bryan, I’ll look into these!
-David
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@Als_guitar_workshop I’ll see if I can catch him on there. The bass I’m working on is troublesome apart from just the setup concerns. The fretboard is uneven which in turn means the frets are uneven, but not in a way that’s easy to deal with. Roughly speaking, the fretboard/frets are low from the nut to fret 3, then high from 4 to 9, then low until 16, then gradually increasing to 24. If it were my bass I’d resurface the fretboard and do a full refret, but I don’t think the customer will want to go for that so it’s likely going to be a matter of making the best of a bad situation.
Also, I’m a bit late in responding but thanks for the advice @parrisguitars
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Hey Ian, if you want to send them over I’d definitely like to check it out. I don’t know that I’ll use it on this job however since I’m likely getting into a situation where the cost of repairs exceeds the value of the guitar. I’m going to talk things over with my customer and see what he says…
-David
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Thanks for getting back to me Nate, I think this is the way. Splitting the difference is a sensible approach, having things misaligned is unfortunate and has been a bit of a mental hang up for me in the past.
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@guitarspecialistinc
Hey Doug, that’s an interesting perspective on the issue, especially the part about focusing more on the customer and how they play and less on the guitar itself. I’ve often found that customers seem a bit sheepish when it comes to playing their guitars in front on me, perhaps because of the anxiety that comes from playing in front of others in general. I think a lesson to be learned here for me is to be a bit more forward in asking them to play so that I can see exactly how they interact with the instrument.As far following up with the customer, what I ended up doing was speaking with them in person for quite some time and going over several things including string gauge. I’ve often felt that the more knowledgeable the customer is about their guitar, the easier my job is. I think making an effort towards educating my customers will be more of an emphasis for me moving forwards. The customer is intending to bring a bass to my shop and have me work on that and I’ll keep all of this in mind for the future. Thank you!
-David
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Thanks Ian, I’ll check out the article and post an update if I’m able to figure this out.
-David
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I hear you. I’d prefer to use tape simply because I don’t like the idea of leaving a bare fretboard. I see that StewMac sells low tack tape in 1″ thickness, but that would mean I’d need to slice it in half on the upper frets which I’d rather not have to do. I’ll poke around online for the time being.
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Hey Doug, I’ll definitely check out the videos and see how I can improve my process. I haven’t yet gotten too deep into the video content here on TLG but it looks like there’s a lot of good content. As far as meeting up, I’d be glad to! My brother lives in Queens and I usually try and make a trip down at least once a year. I may be heading down your way in the spring so I’ll keep you in mind if and when I do!
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Hey @ianhatesguitars one last question on this. I was reading through an old Frank Ford article where he reinforced the bracing on a 175 and it got me thinking. Would it be feasible to reglue the bracing on the treble side by dropping out the bridge pickup, applying glue to the bracing and clamping it in place? I know that this would be less than ideal and may ultimately be futile with the inability to clean the glue joints properly, but I figured I’d ask because I’m getting quite a bit of sympathetic buzzing when I play the A string, or the 5th fret on the bottom E string, and I believe this is not an issue with the bridge but rather the interaction between the note, the top, and the loose bracing.
Link to the article:
http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Technique/Guitar/Structural/ES175Top/es175top.html -
This makes a whole lot of sense. I hadn’t taken the year (2015) into account when examining this guitar. I believe that was the same year as the infamous robotuners were put on. It seems that the issues at Gibson ran up the ladder. Thank you very much for the insights Ian!
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Are you sure? The customer paid about $5000 for the guitar back in 2022 and while I think this would be a very expensive repair, I don’t know that it would be more than the value of the guitar. These have apparently shot up in price over the last few years and I’m seeing a mint condition one on Reverb for $6000. Regardless I think that this one is beyond me so I’m going to be leaving it alone. Keeping that in mind, is there anything which should be done? How much worse is this likely to get?
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Hey Ian, thanks for getting back to me on this. Unfortunately as I was posting this last night the website went down and I was only able to post the first half of what I intended. Could you take a look at the rest of what I wrote and give me your thoughts? I’d very much appreciate it!
-David
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I wasn’t aware of this resource, thanks for the heads up!
