Fender Acoustic – Setup with lower action

There’s nothing worse than trying to learn the guitar on one that’s really hard to play!  The action on this one was very high which is only ever going to give you sore fingers! Measuring up at the 12th fret the action’s way too high… The frets are a little uneven so I’ll never be […]

Santa Cruz – Setup and action lower

What a beautiful Guitar.  Really nicely made, but with a rather high action. The neck set was about right, so nothing I can do there. The frets are nice and even so I can afford to bring the action down by quite a bit. Up at the 12th fret the action is much too high… […]

Classical Acoustic – New Nut and Saddle

This needs a little TLC if it’s going to play again.  The bridge saddle is badly damaged so I’m going to make a new one. The nut’s broken as well, so that’ll need to be replaced as well. First the nut.  From a bone blank. Next the saddle, using the old one as guide. One […]

Gretsch Country Gentleman – Neck binding

Finally got back to that old Gretsch.  Rather fragile, just handling it and bits of the binding are just falling off. The only way to be able to play it, is to strip it all off and replace it. I found some modern binding that just about matches the colour of the old stuff. It’s […]

Texas Custom Telecaster – Setup

What a lovely piece of wood, a really great looking guitar. It’s got a couple of problems, mostly just setup, but the neck isn’t on straight either.  Since the truss-rod adjustment is on the heel of the neck I’ll have to take it off anyway. I don’t need to measure that with a feeler gauge, […]

11 String Tanglewood – Bone Nut

An odd one this, one of the strings wouldn’t stay in it’s slot.  I thought the nut was broken but the slots were at a bit of an angle.  Easy answer, a new bone nut. A nice guitar though. While the strings are off, a good clean. and oil… I don’t have any 12 string […]

Epiphone Les-Paul, Fret dress and Bone nut

Epiphone make some great guitars, they can just be a little inconsistent sometimes. The action on this one’s way too high. I don’t need to measure the amount of neck set, I can see it’s way to large. It’s also got a broken switch, but that’s an easy fix. First thing then, take off the strings, […]

Fender Acoustic – Action Height

Here’s a common problem.  A nice guitar but the action is a little high.  It can put you off, you’re not going o persevere if the guitar is hard to play.  However don’t worry, as long as the guitar is basically sound and the frets are level it can be sorted. Looking up at the 12th fret the […]

Squire Mustang – Setup

Here’s something a little different, rather than the usual round of Stratocasters etc.  An odd scale length for Fender as well, just a little shorter than the usual.  However it just wasn’t playing properly. While the string were off I also gave the fretboard a good clean…. and oil…. The scale length means none of […]

Custom Shop Fender Stratocaster

WOW What a great guitar!  It’s not often I get such lovely guitar on the bench.  However It wasn’t quite playing as well as it should, so I gave it a bit of a tweek here and there. This really is something special, when Fender put you name on it for you.  out of deference to […]