Ethan Muter Muter Music
Forum Replies Created
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Oil finishing the guard definitely prevents the shielding paint from sticking. That’s really one of the advantages of using this type of finish on a guitar or furniture, it prevents dirt from sticking in the first place, kinda like oiling a skillet to prevent sticking.
Yes you do want to try to break up the solids in the jar of shielding paint. I use wooden coffee stirs to stir and break up chunks, works like a champ. Fortunately though, blotchy, uneven, and non-competely mixed paint still works about as well. You’re just using it to block unwanted electrical noise, so good conductivity is not essential.
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You don’t need any resistors, and if he just wants 2 volumes with no tone, you should have everything you need. Pot values are really a matter of personal preference. A larger value, like the 500k, will give you more output and more higher frequencies, where a lower value like 250k reduces the output and higher frequencies. Strats use a 250 to tame some of the brightness, Gibson humbuckers are usually paired with 500 to add back some of the highs that are canceled by having 2 coils. P90s are somewhere in the middle, naturally warmer sounding than a Strat or Tele single coil. 500k on a P90 give you the hotter more aggressive sound a lot of people (myself included) prefer.
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I completely agree with Ian, this probably happened at the factory when they scored the lacquer around the bridge placement. They finish the top without the bridge on it, then score around the bridge to scrape the lacquer off. Just a bit too much pressure and they cut into the wood.
The top has a slight dome to it whhen built, so realistically the bottom of the bridge should have a slight concave shape to it. It it’s truly flat, there’s a good chance that’s what caused it to come loose (along with the cut fibers of the spruce top). Some areas of the glue are shiny, which means they were not actually in contact with the top when the glue dried, like a small void between.
For checking the top flatness, have you looked inside to see what kind of shape the bridge pad is in? Or checked to see if any of the braces are loose? Again though, there is supposed to be a bit of a dome, even brand new. Any idea how far the middle protrudes above the sides?
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I’m sure it’s possible, but I haven’t tried anything like it before. Have you tried searching Google? For the blower switch, do you mean to run the bridge humbucker straight to the output, bypassing volume and tome controls? If so, that’s not that hard to do.
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I have a Squier Strat where the trem springs vibrate all the time. Sometimes it’s almost like a built in reverb, others it just sounds like a buzz. Try stuffing a rag between the springs to see if it cuts the buzz.
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Update, found one!
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Yeah it’s just the physical properties of the wood. Some more porous woods might need a second pass at pore filling or a sanding sealer after pore filling, before applying lacquer. I’ve even used vinyl sealer on more porous stuff like black limba.
Are you thinning the lacquer when you are trying to fill these spots? If so, less thin would not tend to sink in as much. Similar to CA glue- the thin stuff wicks into pores, but the medium stays more on the surface. I do like Ian’s advice on epoxy sealer next time around before applying lacquer, that would stay on the surface more as well. I wouldn’t recommend putting it on this guitar, as putting epoxy over lacquer probably would not adhere as well. Lacquer breathes a bit, it can flex a bit with humidity changes, where epoxy would not.
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Headstock is currently undyed ebony with a single sealing coat of shellac.
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Hi Matt. Since you already have your own shop, and especially since it sounds like they sought you out, I say it’s worth it to at least do a couple repairs as a trial basis. Set rates for setups, nut replacement, etc should be arranged before taking in any of their business, but if you are doing more thorough repairs, I would suggest an hourly rate. Some major structural repairs can be pretty time consuming.
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I haven’t tried this, but I wonder if a gentle wax potting would work like it does for magnetic pickups. Piezos work from changes in pressure caused by the vibrating strings, so I don’t think wax would affect the sound much, but…. Ya never know until you try.
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I miss the old Gibson polish in the aerosol cans. That stuff worked really well to clean and shine old nitro finishes. I don’t like their pump bottle polish they replaced it with. I’m currently using the Meguiar’s stuff too for restoring old finishes and final polish on new finishes, but I haven’t found a good replacement for light cleaning like the Gibson stuff.
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I actually am wrapping up an old Harmony with a similar poorly repaired headstock break. For best adhesion and stability, I highly recommend taking it all the way apart and cleaning out the old glue. Mine had some sort of glue that never completely hardened, any attempt to reglue that without removing the old gunk would have failed to adhere. On the upside though, the nail and staple holes can be filled with bamboo skewers and toothpicks respectively. That helped me quite a bit- bamboo with wood glue is incredibly strong, much more so than the original mahogany.
Mine did not have a headstock veneer originally, so I sanded it down flat (the break went through the face of the headstock, with bondo on both sides) and added a black veneer. I then shaved down the back and applied a 1/8″ thick ‘veneer’ that I curved to follow the transition to the back of the neck, making it a continuous backstrap. Since I had it available, I put a paper thin veneer of walnut between the original mahogany and the back plate, just to give it a bit more stiffness. This one fitted well enough that once the front and back plates were added to the headstock, I did not feel it necessary to add splines. For yours though, every break is different, if you can’t get a good glue joint, splines would probably be a good idea.
Here’s the headstock after I got it loose:
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Is it just separation of the laminates? Or is any wood actually broken? CA glue would put it back together either way, but if it’s deep enough the glue might get in to the truss rod. Who knows, you might get lucky, it might just be a crack in the finish where the laminated pieces did not move the same way from a change in humidity.
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I would suggest checking out Ted Woodford’s YouTube page. He has a couple videos doing this exact repair.
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It certainly would not hurt to at least start a conversation about helping with repairs. it does not mean you have to agree to anything. He would probably appreciate the offer, but if not, you really do not have much to lose by asking. If he is someone who would become angry with you for offering help, I would imagine he is not the most friendly with customers, which could definitely help your business. I do the loothing stuff as a part-time thing, not really making much money at it, but I do have good relationships with several local shops and could probably bring in some work if I wanted to. At this point in my life, my other job not only pays the bills, it supplies me with health insurance and vacation time. Just points to consider anyway.
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Great idea, and I love the idea of comically oversized F holes.
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So these are the same tuning machine but with a different post. These came off a Japanese bass with a flat headstock, the post for a slotted head has a hole in the main diameter of the post, just like a tuning machine for a slotted guitar headstock (compare to the existing ones).
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Those are the same tuners on my old Japanese violin bass. I believe Allparts has replacements, otherwise they are not quite as hard to source as you may think.
They are basically a copy of the tuners Gibson used on slotted head bassesin thelate 60s and early 70s.
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I have 2 Epi semi-hollows, a Riviera and a 335 Pro. Both have bushings in the wood where the bridge posts mount. Depending on what thread that one is (mine are both different) my local Ace hardware stocks bushings that fit imperial thread 8-32, but not sure about metric thread.
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Well at least the underside of the bridge was cut to match the dome. Their quality control has been really spotty for years, I think they are finally cracking down on it. Sounds like you are on track here, once you make sure the surfaces mate, a good glue and clanp job should do the trick.
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Box elder is great for guitar bodies. I’m in Oregon, so I get a lot of big leaf maple, which is similar in hardness and density. Made a couple bodies out of that. The pecan would be good for a fretboard, but since it is so much harder and heavier I agree it would not be a good choice for the body or neck.
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Thank you! I did find one, but I will still check them out. You can never have too many sources 😁
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You certainly wouldn’t be out of line for asking for compensation for your time. I know from personal experience that some estimates involve some pretty thorough poking and prodding before you even know what kind of repair might be needed. I wouldn’t expect a mechanic to get under my car or under the hood to evaluate an issue for free.
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That shelf stable hide glue from Titebond is not great stuff. I would not recommend it for use in instrument repairs. If you do not want the complications of using hot hide glue (which does require a bit of a set up and has a fair learning curve), and want an easy off the shelf solution, plain red label Titebond is a much better option. Fish glue will also work, but some people do not like to use it either. I do agree the neck should come off first, and the upper brace probably needs removed as well. Unfortunately at this point, that Titebond hide glue you used will need to be removed and cleaned off as best you can to get a better bond, otherwise it will probably pop apart again.
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Yeah stainless is a real pain. That Rockler set should be perfect for the job.
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There’s a drill bit under the post? Yikes! Anything is possible to repair, it just depends on how much time and money you want to put in to it. A screw extractor will most likely be able to get the snapped post out, but not the drill bit. The only real way to do that is to use like a coring bit to remove the drill bit along with the surrounding wood, then fill with a plug of like wood, drill a new hole in the plug to accept the bridge post. That metal flake finish is going to be pretty difficult to repair though, maybe just clear it? Let the adjustment wheel hide the patch? Anyone else have a suggestion?
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Certainly can’t argue with that, it’s really the scope of what he’s comfortable with. For my repair, this was an instrument I purchased for myself (for only $10 since it was in such bad shape), so I just fiddled with it when I had time. I had all of the bits of wood for it, so it was basically removing the parts that were still stuck together, cleaning out the old glue, and putting together a jigsaw puzzle. 😁
Fortunately for me, I have a full time job doing tech support, working from home most days. I can work on stuff like this between calls. As long as I get all my job duties taken care of, my boss doesn’t really care what I do on my idle time. If I was doing this as a paid repair for a customer, there’s no way this would ever have been worth the time or effort. I most likely would have turned down the job.
I have turned down repairs like that- one guy brought me a cheap catalog guitar that had a badly bowed top, cracks on the back, and badly needed a neck reset. That’s a lot of work, it would cost a couple times what the guitar is worth.
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Fortunately for me, unfortunately for the previous owner, the glue gave way without much trouble. I was able to wedge a small dental style probe (got a cheap set from Harbor Freight) to separate the wood pieces, and used the picks and narrow carving knives to get all of the old glue out. Steam would work with hide glue, it really depends on what the first repair was done with. My guess is that yours was not previously repaired with hide glue.
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I had to go look 🤣 I actually have 2 bowlback mandos in the queue. This one is lined, the other is not. And of course, part of the problem with the second one is seam separation. It needs a LOT of work though, so it keeps getting pused to the end of the line. Missing tuners, cracked fretboard, I think the top has issues too. Back to the first one, I might try to work some fish glue in between and just tape it closed, it really is just superficial at this point, but I don’t want it to spread.
Thanks Ian!!
