Not quite a guitar but the owner was unhappy with the action on this Ukulele. The slots in the nut are very shallow giving it a very action at the first fret and so making it very difficult to play barre chords at the top of the neck. Quite a simple job. I took the […]
1960’s Watkins Rapier – 4th update
Got all the frets replaced with the ends filed down with a 45 degree bevel. Its impossible of course to fit all the frets absolutely level so a fret-dress is always needed. Just adding the tape to protect the fingerboard. Thinking ahead the neck plate is missing and I’ve not been able to find one that fits the […]
1960’s Watkins Rapier – 3rd update
Had a spare afternoon so turned my attention to James’s old Rapier. I’ve got some ideas as to what to do with the body, but more of that later. Since the neck has no truss-rod the options were to either completely remove the fingerboard and install one or, the easier quicker, and from James’s point of view, the […]
Precision Bass Final Update
All finished…. Now that the frets and fretboard are nicely finished the last thing to do is get the truss-rod tension set. Back on to the jig, this time with strings at normal tension, and adjust the truss-rod so that there’s about .004″-.006″ gap at the 7th fret (half way up the neck). Some people […]
Precision Bass – 2nd update
Having been held up a little, waiting for a couple of spare parts, I’ve got back to the Bass at last. Got the fretboard finished. Frets levelled, re-crowned, and polished. Cleaned off the wood and added a little lemon oil to bring it back to life. While the neck is off I’ve cut and fitted […]
Precision Bass – Update
Having got the neck securely levelled I had a good look at the frets. Although not particularly worn they are a little uneven, not unexpected on a guitar like this. Using a Stew’ Mac’ fret rocker I marked up the high spots, just to get an idea of bad things are. For fairly fine jobs I like to […]
Precision Bass
A charity donation! The owner has given me this to tidy up and put on sale with the suggestion that any profits go to a service charity. It’s not a fantastic guitar but, since the owner is donating the instrument, then I think it only fair to donate my time to the project. The hardware will […]
Fiesta Red Strat – Final Update
Another job done. Looks and sounds great. I’ve included a small electrical mod I cam across recently, a resistor and capacitor in parallel across the live and output of the volume pot. It ensures you retain the quality of tone when the volume is turned down rather than it all go a little dull. Only […]
Spanish Acoustic – Final Update
Well its done. It didn’t come out quite as well as I would have liked. I just couldn’t find the right shade of wood veneer, but its better than the hole it had to start with! Click here to see the start of this project. A comment from the owner: “Thankyou very much George for […]
Fiesta Red Strat – Update
Fret-dress complete, they weren’t that bad but it’ll improve the feel. The owner also wants a bone nut so that’s another job while the strings are off. The blanks I found are just about the right size, the only problem as with many Fender necks the bottom of the nut slot has the same radius […]