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1st August 2012

Tasty Guitars!!

We've had some rather nice guitars in recently for set ups and servicing, including

Martin 00028 EC

Gibson Chet Atkins

Caparison

Gibson Midtown with fitted Stetsbar trem system

Paul Reed Smith

Gretsch Nashville 6120 which had a dead neck pickup. A new pickup was sourced and fitted along with the set up.

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19th July 2012

A whole lot of painting going on!!

It has been a busy painting time recently. The Danelectro guitarlin now has its copper burst edge and awaits top coating in clear nitrocellulose.

We have a number of bodies finished in thin skin nitro hanging up drying.

In between the painting other tasks have included setups, rewires, refrets, crack repairs etc., and we've fitted an LSR roller nut to a Strat neck. This relies on accurate calculations for machining the slot to ensure optimum performance with perfect intonation.

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6th July 2012

1972 Dobro 33D, Fender and Washburn

This Dobro hadn't had much use but the last fret was badly seated causing some string rattle. We removed the fret, recut the slot, reshaped and refitted  the fret then levelled fro fret 12 to the end. This now means a low action can be achieved without the rattle!

The guitar was playing sharp too so the saddle/slots were recut to improve the intonation. New strings and a truss rod tweak, and it's ready for action!

The Fender Telecaster needed a service/setup to maintain optimum playing order. It's a rare colour too "gunmetal Blue"

The Washburn was hard to play as the nut slots were high. These were recut and the guitar was set up....It now plays great, sounds good too as it has Di marzio pickups with coil taps.

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6th July 2012

Martin 000X1.....ready to go...

The Martin 000x1 which had the back parting from the sides is now finished. After gluing and clamping, the edges were cleaned up. The first few frets were a little worn so a light fret dress has restored their surfaces and it has been fitted with 12 gauge strings.

The same customer also brought in the old Stella acoustic which was in pretty good shape apart from a broken bridge section, high action, a loose brace and broken end pin. Once we attended to this we strung it up, lowered the bridge and it plays and sounds great!

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26th June 2012

Double trouble!

The 2 to 1 pickup conversions on the Gretsch jet and Epiphone gothic Les Paul are now complete.

After filling the neck pickup cavities and tone/vol/pickup switch holes, the body fronts were refinished in black nitrocellulose paint. The Gretsch has been overlacquered clear and buffed to a high gloss. The Epiphone paintwork has been buffed to a satin sheen in keeping with the usual satin gothic finish. We also blacked out the headstock on the Epiphone which was requested by the customer. Both have a single EMG 81 active humbucker with a volume pot.....awesome!

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25th June 2012

EUB, and Martin acoustic

The Harley Benton was suffering from a poor sound and a high action. We lowered the strings at the nut and the customer requested that we replace the height adjustment wheels/assembly with maple to make a fixed bridge. With the nut slots recut, we calculated the height of the bridge and removed the adjustment wheels and their threaded inserts. We replaced the assembly with maple of the required thickness and pegged the bridge top and feet which also filled the holes left by the removed adjuster threads. The result is a nice easy action and better sound due to the full contact of the all maple bridge.

This Martin acoustic arrived with a badly repaired loose back. Luckily the glue previously used was rather soft so the join came apart without too much difficulty. The joins were cleaned and all the old glue was carefully removed. The back and sides were realigned, glued and clamped. Once dry it will be cleaned up and the repair should be undectable.

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