Telecaster Custom – Rebuild 6th update

Well I finally think I’ve got it worried.  I did hope to have it finished this afternoon but then, what was I thinking, anything on this guitar was always going to take twice as long as planned! Next then the neck picukup cavity.  Needs to ba at least this much bigger… With a small router […]

Epiphone Les Paul – Setup

The first step is to check the amount of curve in the neck.  It should bend up slightly and is measured half way along the neck using a notched straight edge and a feeler gauge. The tension in the strings pulls the head up, increasing the curve.  This tension is balanced against the truss-rod which […]

USA Fender Telecaster Tuning problems

A really nice Tele’ but the owner’s unhappy as it won’t stay in tune. There is always the problem with the standard Tele’ bridge.  The Intonation is always a compromise so I’m going to change them for a compensated set…   With the strings off I’ve had a good look at the machine heads.  They […]

US Stratocaster Setup

Had a rather nice US Stratocaster on the bench today.  Nothing major, just a clean and setup. I rather like the body, nice paint finish over a very nice piece of wood…. The fretboard was a little grubby… A quick rub down with some steel wool will remove that and polish the frets at the same time.  […]

Fender Flame

Wow, what a fantastic guitar!  I guess I’m lucky, just now and then someone brings in something really nice….  All it needed was a new jack socket so it was an easy fix..

How many strings can you change in a day?

I think I’ve set a personal record, 72 strings in all… A dozen guitars from Lincolnshire Music Services, a quick cleanup, new set of strings and fix a few minor problems.  Most of them had very rusty strings…. and grubby, dry fretboards. The bodies will clean up easily enough…. The fretboard will also clean up […]

When is a speedloader really slow?

The answer is, “When you can’t get the strings anymore”. It’s a great idea, you can change strings in seconds, just hook the string in at the nut and clip the bottom end on the bridge.. It was a fairly simple conversion,  Change the nut for a locking one… and install a set of machine […]

Very Green Ibanez!

Quite a long job this one, been on the go for a couple of weeks.  The customer wanted a really nice setup, which really ment a fret dress before he had the body re-painted.  I though it was a bit daft to do the setup twice so ended up pulling it apart and doing the […]

Fretless Hofner

Well it was fretless when I started! Someone elses project, already started, so all I’ve been handed is a body and neck. The first stage of the project is to fit new frets.  So, step one, make sure the fret-board is nice and level.  There are a couple of deep points but it’s mostly in good condition. […]

Squire Strat with new Tele Neck – Update

Had a spare slot this week so managed to finish off the Strat’.  What a job, I like a challenge sometimes but not like this one… Not only were the frets very uneven but the truss-rod is stuck solid.  There is a slight back-bow without the strings so I bolted it on the jig to […]