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14th January 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL

Hope you all enjoyed the Christmas break....The new year continues to bring new customers with interesting projects.

A 6 string dulcimer which had an upward bow in the middle of the neck required some corrective fret levelling to restore the fretboard to level. The entire board was then dressed and the frets recrowned.

We also have a very old mandolin banjo-uke which has a concave neck. With the neck removed and de-fretted, the fretboard was levelled. It will be refretted and set up along with some general restoration work.

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21st December 2011

Fender custom shop Telecaster 12 string service and set up

This guitar was brought for a set up, but was suffering too from poor neck alignment, high action, a thin sound, poor intonation and the neck was loose.

Firstly the neck was removed and the worn holes in the heel were plugged. The holes in the body neck pocket were enlarged to allow correct screw clearance, necessary to enable perfect alignment. A shim was added in the neck pocket to allow correct bridge height adjustment for a low action. The neck was refitted with new fixing holes drilled into the heel. It was now ready for restringing and setting up. The poor intonation was due to the saddle springs being too long and becoming coil bound, this means the saddles could not go back far enough. The offending springs were shortened. The truss rod was adjusted and the 12 saddles set for correct intonation. The bridge was positioned for a nice low action. There was some fret buzz around the last few frets under strings E and B, so these were spot levelled. The thin sound was due to the pickups being too far from the strings so the pickup heights were adjusted and balanced.....The guitar feels totally different now and plays perfectly....sounds great too!

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14th December 2011

Gibson L48 Finished!!

The L48 has had its final stages completed. The bridge has been sanded to match the contours of the top for maximum contact, the last few frets have been spot levelled to ensure a low buzz free action and the pickguard has been made from a tortoid blank. It is set up and ready to go home.

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8th December 2011

Rickenbacker 4001 overhaul

The bridge has now arrived so after the refinished front was buffed and polished the bridge position was carefully marked out prior to fitting. The bass has been wired for a master volume control. The new truss rod anchor block ensures that the bass will set up to play with a low action. This work is detailed here. Under the pickguard the body cavities now appear original. The bass awaits collection by its owner.

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28th November 2011

Setups, pickups and pickguards

Over the last couple of days work has progressed on

• A custom built Strat in for a few improvements/tweaks and a setup.
• Tom Delonge Strat in for a pickup swap, new pickguard,  and headstock refinish in tinted nitro.
• An old Washburn bass which we have made a custom pickguard for, reprofiled the defretted fingerboard and set up.

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23rd November 2011

Gibson L48 progress

Work has continued on the Gibson L48, the loose braces have been secured, glued and clamped. Luckily they were accesible through the F holes. The rosewood fretboard has been scraped clean, sanded and oiled. There were some loose frets so these have been secured and the ends dressed smooth. The tuners have been serviced and the tailpiece polished. The bridge posts have been refitted and now the thumbwheels work correctly to adjust the saddle height. All the hardware is ready to re-fit. The entire body neck and headstock has been cleaned, buffed and polished. We are waiting for the pickguard blank to arrive so that a replica pickguard can be made.....

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