Yamaha – Fret dress, bone nut & saddle

A nice acoustic, just needs a little work and some extras to lift it out if the ordinary.

The first thing the owner wants is a bone nut and saddle, to improve the tone a little.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA

The nut isn’t a problem but the saddle is a very complicated shape, I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to that one!  However more of that later… SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA

There are a couple of quite high frets which are causing some buzzing.   SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA Some of them are also a little worn fret dress will sort out both problems.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA

To that end I’ve taped up the fretboard to protect it while I’m working and made sure its level.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERAUsing the levelling beam I took off just enough to get to all the low points.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERAWith the frets at a common level I now need to round off the tops and re-polish them.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERAOnce the frets are done I’ll give the fretboard a lick of lemon oil.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERANow back to that saddle.  I’ve got some saddle blanks but it’s going to take some work.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERAFirst of all make sure that both sides are even and flat..SANYO DIGITAL CAMERASANYO DIGITAL CAMERAKeep grinding until the low points disappear and it’s the right thickness.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERANext that tricky narrow slot on either side.  It’s about 0.015″ deep so I’ve used 2 layers of sandpaper clamped under a straight edge with 5mm showing.  As I grind it down I’ll get a nice even lower strip.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERAWith that done I’ll get the shape of the top sorted out…SANYO DIGITAL CAMERAComing along…Next the bottom, it’s important that each of the lugs is even otherwise the pickup wont work properly.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERASANYO DIGITAL CAMERALastly the compensation on top, to correct the intonation.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERANext the nut.  Not nearly as complicated…

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Almost done, the last thing will be to cut the slots, but that’s part of the setup.

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So now to re-fit the strings and a setup…SANYO DIGITAL CAMERAThe neck had just a little too much set so a small turn on the truss-rod…SANYO DIGITAL CAMERAThe action at the 12th fret turned out to be just right,

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That bridge came out OK in the end.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERALastly the action back up at the first fret.  I deliberately left the slots too shallow, It’s not until the strings are back and at tension that you can tell exactly how deep they need to be.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERACut each one down to be the right size width and depth slot..SANYO DIGITAL CAMERAThere we go, a little polish and as good as new, or better than new.SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA

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