Acts of God and other Mysteries

There are many ways a guitar finds its way to us, and many stories. Stories create their own set of questions, ones that, without the ur-story, would not have been asked in the first place. In this case, one of those questions is certainly: "Is there no other place besides the bathroom to store your guitars?"

Taylor T5, RMC Piezo Pickup install with 13 pin Roland/Axon output for midi conversion.

with this device in my guitar...

...I should be able to see through time.

Guitar Tech-ing for Billy Bragg

The wonderful and outspoken Billy Bragg came to town to play a solo show at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass followed by 2 nights at the Great American Music Hall. While in town I was hired to guitar tech for him. Billy came to town with his stage manager and get it done guy Vaughn and his "able to dial up great sound anywhere" long time engineer Grant. My job was to be sure the guitars were always in tune and ready to go from sound check to pack up. The other job was to be sure they went home with at least as much as they showed up with. Everything went great and I saw some great performances.

The Devo Potato Chip, Cloud electrical problem.

We had fun working on this blast from the future. Devo was in town for 2 days and had a frozen pot issue.
The little circuit in there controls the flashing blast off lights that comes on with the pre-amp. What could go wrong?

Happy Halloween!!!!

A few random shots

we're just going to leave this right here...

two great tastes that don't necessarily taste great together

When it comes to Gibson guitars one may well think of innovation, occasional brilliance, and a remarkable musical longevity. And one may well think of Moog Music as equally brilliant and an organization comprised of fearless risk takers. If we add these two together it stands to reason the results will be orders of magnitude beyond what either entity might accomplish on their own.

Not so. Here Mr. Bill T. has kindly requested that we remove the perfectly enormous motherboard and wire the late 1970's era Gibson RD Artist as a simple two humbucker solid body electric guitar; the kind we are all so familiar with. Mr. T. would like the instrument to be a player. Sometimes the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts.

Halloween 2009 in the Bay Area

The San Francisco/Bay Area comes together for Halloween, and all the freaks come out even more than usual. This year, however, there'll be another opportunity for community for those celebrating in San Francisco but traveling from the East Bay: a BART commute. Our lovely bay bridge, part of which is in the process of being replaced, has developed a potentially dangerous flaw and so must be shut down for a time, and at the height of our traditional revelry. Taking public transportation is good for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is running into people you know. It's community, and that's what we're all about.

(above: the quiet bridge toll booth and repairs, pics coutesy of Caltrans)

to make it your own

Mr. P. Chan preferred his own pickguard design over the stock shape (his design is the lower pickguard in the bottom photograph) originally installed on his new Rickenbacker 620 12 string. He brought the guitar to us, along with a graphic of what he desired us to accomplish and Tim fabricated the custom pickguard using material from the Big Box of Plastic we keep upstairs. Mr. Chan is pleased!

"with rings on her fingers & bells on her toes...

...she shall have music wherever she goes"

Here at the shop we encourage musical development in our country's youth and, to that end, we'll move heaven and earth to make a kid's guitar play correctly. How your child expresses themselves through music is pretty much up to them (see pic) but we'll make sure the tools are working right!

stay!

A technician (in this case, Trevor H.) prefers that a bridge clamped stay put. These particular clamps, manufactured by Stewart-MacDonald www.stewmac.com, perform their task in a special way, making them uniquely suited for this kind of work. Not only are they lightweight and shaped correctly to fit inside a soundhole but they also have adjustment screws on both ends of the clamp to clear internal braces. The right tool for the right job.

a bin of beans

like pushing your hands into a bin of pinto beans...you know you love that feeling.

like brothers...

...but which one is the elder? Working together for decades, the two of them trading insults and stories, and all of those guitars...we're very happy for his band's resurgence.

"it's exactly what I wanted Gary to do - I'm going to go home and play it for hours."

So said Raleigh E. upon receipt of his beautiful Gibson ES355. Gary completely rewired the instrument using volume pots manufactured by Hamer, tone pots manufactured by Mojo and a long-threaded no-load pot (carefully modified by Gary) installed in place of the stock Varitone switch to act as a sweeping master tone pot. Doing delicate work correctly inside of a hollow body guitar is time consuming, painstaking and requires a keen focus.

"put the good stuff on it 'cuz i'm gonna play the shit out of it"

A lot of folks bring their instruments to us for parts upgrades. Their are many levels of build quality in aftermarket products and, while the most expensive is only occasionally our sincere recommendation, sometimes the owner knows what she wants. (pic: three of a perfect pair)

"you have failed me for the last time..."

because it's Fall

Here's three small pumpkins stacked up on the dining room table with a big knob on top.

some of our extended family

Edith isn't semantically articulate or even always phonically comprehensible, but she likes her BC Rich guitar and we keep it running for her. She appreciates being treated like a human being. We thought we might someday ask her what she was up to in the Sixties but well...maybe better not to ask. She's a member of our downtown San Francisco extended family and has the coolest taste in jewelry.

change the tone

Jim B. brought us his 5 string Modulus bass the other day. He wasn't pleased with the overall sound and told us he was looking for more warmth, more clarity and more fullness. As Gary is fond of saying: "You give me adjectives, I'll give you answers." Of course we looked under the hood first and, whaddya know? What the hell is that? Also, it did have a lot of knobs and, while many controls and switches are not necessarily a sign of less than appealing tone, simplicity does have a habit of cleaning things up. We ended up removing the original motherboard and running the perfectly good Bartolini pickups through an Aguilar OPB-3 onboard preamp. We also used one of the existing switches to make it possible for Jim to run in active mode or bypass the preamp altogether. This bass sounds great now.

a straight up mod

Trevor has fabricated an angled block of cocobolo wood to raise the back of the vibrola tailpiece on this Gibson Firebird. Raising the tailpiece up allows for correct downward pressure on the saddles which, in this case, helps the string to ring true by fitting solidly in the saddle slot.

it's not just about the instrument

Gary is conferring with Lucille H. during work on her Fender Stratocaster. She plays music in hospitals, safe houses and prisons, and is active in her community as an advocate of music as a tool of healing. A person (who shall remain nameless) painted Ms. H.'s first name in a naive, spidery and white cursive on top of the body of the instrument using entirely too much acrylic paint. She was not amused and came to us to remove the offending (and uninvited) graphic. Here Ms. H. and Gary find a common language in the repair of her guitar.

what kind of a statement do you want to make?

This guitar strap was handmade using custom parts carefully chosen to establish a unique mood.

that's a lot of guitars!

Since January 1st, 2006, we've performed a minimum of 2599 set-ups on various stringed instruments. That's a lot of set-ups, and doesn't account for the other 6500 or so other guitars that we've adjusted, finished, glued, smoothed, replaced parts on, etc. within that same time period.

We love our work.

(pic: Gary carefully guides the PLEK machine through its paces on a child's beginner Brian May solid body electric)

"it's just what I hoped you would do with it"

Here's Jay D. with his now clean playing Fender Tele Deluxe. We used the computerized fretmill device (PLEK) and followed up the process with a hand set-up, as we will. If you require low action and clean playing there are ways our little shop can help!

"I never thought I'd play this guitar again"

Here's Clark A. with his beloved ES 135 after Tim has completed a neck reset and repaired some cracks. "It's surreal...", he was heard to mutter on his way out.

ship in a bottle

Why does it cost more when working with the electronics on a hollow body guitar as opposed to a solid body guitar? In this photo Trevor has carefully eased the wiring harness out of the body of a Gibson ES 137 prior to replacing the stock pickups with a new Gibson 57 Plus in the bridge and a new Gibson 57 in the neck. The surgical tubing assists him in keeping track. This way he'll be able to gently extract the disparate parts of the wiring harness and then (most importantly) get it all back into its correct location. It takes more time, but time is something else we manipulate.

lined yellow paper and a pen

With these simple implements our Chief Technology Officer, Kirkwood Rough, whips up a twenty minute design for what he terms a "junk amp." An hour or two of retrospection later, he emails us a new design that he thinks may be an improvement. Kirkwood is the de-facto chairman of our brain trust, always at the ready.

Archtop Fever w/ Tim Frick

This image shows Tim testing out his most recent creation, a seventeen inch acoustic archtop guitar. The top is sitka spruce, the back and sides are European maple and the neck is mahogany. Tim's choice for a pickup is a Kent Armstrong humbucker, carefully mounted to the pickguard so that it "floats," and also including a hidden disk on the underside for volume control. We aren't engaging in hyperbolic rhetoric to call this instrument a work of art. To see a detailed explanation of the building process, please visit his photo essay (with handy informational captioning by the builder himself). Note: facebook registration is required to view the photo album.

Trevor's New Do!

With Burning Man coming right up, it's time to get your freak on! And what better way to say: "I'm a playa on the playa" than iridescent hair color? Light up the day! Glowstick your night! He's a natural!

(er....actually a trick of the light shines inadvertently in Trevor's hair. In this photograph he is testing a completed set-up on a Peavey JF1EX, a pretty guitar and brand-spanking new. One of the nice things about completing a job is being able to spend a few minutes fine tuning one's work by mind-melding with the instrument. We still love guitars, even after all this time.)

A Trip to the NAMM show

Bob Sperzel explains the finer points of tuners to Tim



Michael Manring wows them



the author pays attention to the details



the author with Roger Sadowsky



Tim Frick and the Great Wall of SVT


(byline: Trevor Healy) - In January 2009 Tim Frick and I drove to Anaheim for the 2009 Winter NAMM show. Neither of us had ever been but we’d heard many stories from Gary Brawer and others. We walked in and slammed right into the insanity that is NAMM. Ampeg built a 15 foot tall SVT stack, bikini’ed Jaegermeister girls were pulling in crowds at the booth and the NOISE! I should have grabbed those earplugs.

After moving past microphones and PA’s, the first guitar I saw was the new MOOG guitar which we’d heard about. I was surprised and dismayed by its poor set-up and total lack of innovation it’s reported to have (and which MOOG is famous for).

My main thoughts were on heading downstairs to the custom builders’ booths. I first headed to Sadowsky Guitars to say hi to my old boss, Roger. It was great to see him and we caught up on the last few years. Roger’s long time customer Will Lee was playing a set at the booth on his new signature model. I enjoyed seeing the new instruments they’ve been working on since I left 3 years ago.

There were many familiar faces and it seemed like everywhere we turned someone from the San Francisco area was walking by or showing instruments. Tom Ribbecke had his new Halfling basses and guitars which feature a half flat, half arched top. The sound of the guitar I played had a very full and warm tone. Right across from Tom was Blackbird Guitars, now building their instruments in the Dog Patch area of San Francisco. They make a travel size, fully graphite guitar which really throws people for a loop. The guitars are well designed, comfortable to play, and have a clear bright tone.

I next visited Zon Guitars, with whom I worked when I first moved to CA. Joe Zon and Mark Gullo, two very hard working guys who build beautiful basses, had sold most of the instruments by the time I got to the booth. Walking through hoards of punks with mohawks, tattooed rockers, and relentless salesmen we began to feel a bit claustrophobic. Tim and I headed off to find some beer for a little relief. I had heard there was a bar in the Dean booth, but that was about a mile away so we took what ever was closest. A bar just happened to be right next to a huge line of people waiting to get a signature from Mick Mars of Motley Crue, one of the many strange sightings throughout the weekend.

We met up with Gary shortly afterwards and headed off to the Gibson rooms. They have half a floor to themselves and have filled every inch with new gear. Gary talked with Edwin Wilson about the new Jimmy Page relic Les Paul while I checked out the Robot guitars. We’d been eager to see the new PLEK machine as well. Joe Glaser demonstrated the new system and its improved speed. An entire fret mill can now be done in 12 minutes.

It was almost 6pm now and the show was closing for the night so we headed up to meet Gary again in the Executive Lounge at the Hyatt. Our good friend Kirkwood was there too, along with friends Liz and Gary’s sister Audrey. I headed off to LA to see a friend perform and Gary with his gang went across to another hotel to check out one of the many concerts.

The next day was a blur but the highlight was meeting Bob Sperzel, designer and founder of Sperzel Locking Tuners. He was very gracious and talked with Tim and myself for a while. We learned about his new bass tuners and a new metal nut for all guitar styles that allows for easier string bending. I tried a full-step bend on the G string at the 2nd fret and it really was easy. To meet someone with his energy, enthusiasm and durability is a real treat.

We headed back over to the Zon booth to check out Michael Manring playing the Zon Hyperbass, which Joe designed for him, allowing many different tuning options both at the bridge and the Hipshot D-tuners. He dazzled the crowd with right hand harmonic pops and surely helped take in a few orders for new instruments. It was hard to avoid the big companies like PRS and Taylor but they suck you right in. I had no idea PRS made acoustic guitars and that R. Taylor Guitars was an offshoot of Taylor. The Martin booth had some stunning inlay work, and it was good to play some instruments from two of my favorite acoustic makers, Santa Cruz and Collings.

I finished off the day downstairs by saying hello to Robert Mazzulo of MUDD Guitars. He was an instructor at the Robert-Venn School of Luthiery when I attended in 1999. He was saying how much he enjoyed seeing so many former students stop by his booth as well as showing instruments of their own at the show. I’m not sure if I would go to NAMM every year but it was a good first trip and I was glad to have seen so many old friends, new products and experience all the event entails.

there are many creative ways...

...this could be explained but the truth is more interesting. A large (some would say major) guitar manufacturer has released a line of handmade-in-America guitars that look like they are forty years old and extremely well-loved. The manufacturer has taken the time to make every part of the guitar look aged and in so doing, odd things happen, even under normal use.

leave the light on for the Muse

Because you never know where she'll alight. And you have to stop whatever it is you're doing and allow her full sway. You could be anywhere...doing anything...she will have her way. (here the Muse strikes Chela on a beach in the middle of the Pacific Ocean)

“I’ll give you the groceries and you cook it up”

So says Hadi D. (L), here giving Gary carte blanche to install a sustainer system of Gary's choice into this Paul Reed Smith single cutaway. There are several choices of sustainer systems, and Hadi trusts Gary to choose the system appropriate for this particular instrument and, of course, taking into account how Hadi plays and what his expectations are from his guitar. It's a big job and requires routing into the wood of the body to fit the onboard electronics, switches and a battery box.

moral support

Tim is refretting a mid-Seventies Precision bass with the assistance of his pal Aura, who is almost five. Aura snacks on roasted pumpkin seeds and takes keen pride in getting the husks into the dustbin without hitting the sides. Work is punctuated with Life and Life is a continuous infinitely variegated panoply of joyful times. Long life to you!

Les Paul is dead.

long live Les Paul!

one is the loneliest number...

Resting quietly atop Tim's bench, this neck awaits union with its body.

a neat trick

On a tremolo where the strings' ball end is not removed (Parker, Kahler, etc...) there is occasionally an issue where the string consistently unravels at the ball end during use. This is irritating at best and Gary has a nice trick for it, dropping a small bead of solder on the wind prior to stringing up the guitar. This solidifies the spot and eliminates the unraveling.

is this our core competency?

Joseph really wants to go the old school analog synth stylee squeak, grunt and beep by triggering this frowsy 360 Systems Spectre from his Fender Strat. Gary has mounted the pickup for this suitcase audio bomb and a few connections inside the vintage circuitry had to be traced down and repaired, as well as a LEMO connector that had to be procured and spliced on to the existing cable. The unaffected sound is an inadvertent cross between an unreasonably harsh Tangerine Dream melody and Steve Hillage on a bender. Awesome.

"It's better then I could've imagined!"

...exclaimed Brent R. as he picked up his Gibson Firebrand after Tim's completion of a particularly heavy duty headstock repair. Tim had glued the large and ugly crack and also fabricated a strengthening laminate (the technology of which is documented elsewhere within this blog). When pressed for details (an endless source of fascination) Brent had allowed that roommates had been at fault and, thankfully, the roommates had expressed appropriate contrition, even to the point of offering recompense, which is only right. Brent was exceedingly complimentary of the quality of Tim's work (he is that good) and, as he departed the shop with his guitar he was heard to suggest that: "I may have to consider naming my first born after him."

hey that guitar looks familiar...

Duncan H. (L) brought in his blue Gibson robot(!) guitar for us to swap out the stock humbuckers for a brand spanking new set of TV Jones Classics. Little did he realize that earlier in the day Trevor had benched and was now at this exact moment re-fretting his beloved ES175D. Duncan paused briefly to wonder at the beauty of his guitar, helplessly laid open on Trevor's bench and being carefully and lovingly improved. Simultaneity is our middle name!

an appropriate mod

Here's Trevor (R) going over an appropriate modification of Jackie Greene's super light and supercool '66 Gibson SG Special. The slots on the original studs didn't fit the original bridge very well. Trevor has installed a TonePros non-compensated aluminum wraparound bridge along with the matching TonePros locking studs. The bridge improves tone and the studs hold the bridge down to improve stability and intonation. Jackie favors older guitars and has us make non-permanent modifications (pickups, hardware, etc) to enhance overall instrument stability and consistency during touring and recording.

some things you always remember...

"Trigger" came to us just before soundcheck for a show Willie & Friends had at the Fillmore Auditorium, here in SF. Willie's trusted cohort/runner never allowed the instrument to be more than three feet away from his body while Leo was repairing the output jack. We were, however, able to document the occasion by stealing a memorable photo of Leo holding Willie Nelson's famous guitar. Naturally we stayed open after hours to do it.



Speaking of staying open a little late, we (as we've probably mentioned already) are predisposed towards the Macintosh OS and use Filemaker Pro on a Mac network to keep track of all our data on instrument repair and modification. Naturally we're interested in streamlining our operation for the sake of working smarter. One of the ways in which we'll improve is by modifying our Filemaker system. So...we're looking for a crack Filemaker maven who likes guitars! Email us at brawer@brawer.com if you'd like to work with us.

ask for him by name!

Kevin P. (L) knows how Tim works. Every time Mr. K. falls in love with another foundling instrument he wraps it in swaddling clothes and brings it directly to Tim. He says to Tim: "do what needs to be done.", and Tim makes it so. These beautiful guitars then reveal their hidden powers; reminding us why, after all these years, we still love them.

"josie and the pussycats!"

Every once in awhile an instrument comes along so full of charm, good tone and feel it requires a mention of its own. We all fell for this Hagstrom at first glance (it had us from "Louie, Louie") but when we saw the original case, we flipped. While we were bickering it was purchased, right out from under our noses. She deserved it, she's the right person to have it, and the instrument is right for her. At least, that's what we'll tell ourselves tonight as we drink ourselves to sleep in grief.

Billy was a Seabee...

...in WW2, out in Hawaii and Ruthie was his girl. He liked to sing and play guitar. He etched his name, and her name, and his general service location into the metal of his Slingerland-built May Bell acoustic. He also placed a small sticker of his military unit on the pickguard. The guitar wasn't with him when he lost his life in action, far from home. But it's made it to 2009, a reminder of humanity in the face of violence.

cooperation is the seat of work!

Here's Tim happily assisting Gary attach a custom fabricated thickness sander. If it takes two to tango this dance wins the first place ribbon.

Dark Star Pickups for your Bass.

Hammon Engineering has recreated the Dark Star Bass Pickups. They were the Hagstrom single coil bass pickup used on Hagstrom Coronado IV, Guild Starfire and M-85 basses. They are tone!! They are also kind enough to make the shims that fit under the pickup to mount the pickup at the correct height and angle. Here is a Stock Epiphone Jack Casady reissue bass. We left the stock pick configuration completely intact and added the Dark Star pickup harness around it. This bass can now go into 2 channels of a mixer or 2 channels of an amp. If you are really feeling it how about 2 SVT's!!

Quality control, using the "good" part

Here are a pair of 1/4" jacks the kind you would see in your average electric guitar. One is an actual Switchcraft and the other is a reproduction by a major distributer. About 1/3 the price and claimed to be the same, as good, etc..... So we checked it out. Guess what, not a good fit. Sure we could bend them all into place and hope it is as strong.....But why... I called the company to try to explain the problem and even sent photos. Of course they took them all back but it was a frustrating experience... I am sure they cared , but it was a tough sell, I would hope that would want to not sell inferior product.......
The point is we try to check out the parts we stock and make sure it will last and keep you up and running.

RMC install in a Parker Guitar

The tricky part was getting the new pickups to fit and mount clean. We broke off the the legs of the pickups and mounted them into the wood with 2 of the pole-piece screws. The holes were enlarged to fit the larger and deeper pickups. The Rmc piezo loaded saddles are a little bit taller than the stock ones. We deepened the bridge route to keep the action low. The wiring harness we built up from scratch to keep all of the signals, piezo acoustic, neck mag, bridge mag and midi assembly separate. The pre-amp is the RMC Poly Drive 1.

How to make a Firebird rock a little harder

We have here a before photo of the stock Firebird, white, mini humbuckers and the stock bridge and tailpiece. The client took a photo of the guitar and drew up what he wanted in photoshop and here is the real thing reproduced. I had the tuning machines gold plated, painted a black "racing stripe" down the center, routed the body to fit 2 full size humbucking pickups and a battery box on the back for quick change at the gig. The pickups are EMG 60 in the neck and 81 in the bridge. Notice the pickup selector has been moved to the bridge pickup volume position. The old switch we left in as a dummy. Last but not least the Gibson gold vibrola trem tailpiece. WHat you can not see is the trem has been stabilized by screwing down the spring section to the body and filling the hollow section of the spring with a solid piece of wood. It was a great tip from the Gibson guys in Europe. Thanks!!

Making a thin weak bass neck practically unbreakable

About or at least twice a week, ok sometimes even daily.....some kind of broken guitar neck comes in. This one was carved thin before the break so we took some extra measures. It will be painted black to match the body. I like the way it looks in this state. We glued up the neck, carved it back to make room and laminated in the graphite layers. Then sand it smooth so it feels seamless. Just that easy, so it looks. On other guitars we laminate matching wood on the back to reinforce the break.

Very Old Musical Instruments, Guitars and fun in NYC

Here are a couple tourist shots from NYC. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a great exhibit of the history of Musical Instruments. In the showcase here is a Martin from 1848 along with a couple of very old ramirez guitars. It was great to see these as well as a great display of the history of many instruments. It was very cool to see that, Bruce BecVar, who was a Northern California guitar builder and musician has a guitar that he built in the permanent collection of the Met. He is still making some amazing music. Check Bruce out at the Met
Also having not a-lot to do with guitars.....Seeing dinosaurs all put together is a mind bending experience even if it is not the first time.

Has everything already been tried?

Certainly there are still some experiments worth attempting...it is, and will always remain possible, to tease just one more element of tonal variation out of the sum of available parts.

Gary gets to have one little (well earned) vacation...

...and look what happens. Timmy drops by with a flat of gorgeous produce (he knows how to make us happy) and, while putting uncoated strings on this handmade Ribbecke Testadora prior to having the PLEK process done (coated nylon strings prevent conductivity and a very light current is run through the strings so the sensor finger of the PLEK machine can determine where, exactly, those strings are) Jimmy's trained eye sees an opportunity for beauty and, unbidden, creates a pleasing arrangement which is a joy to behold. It's a beautiful day outside and tomorrow is the Summer Solstice. It's been very busy (lots of guitars coming and going and the phone's been ringing off the hook) and everything's fine here boss...see you next week!

sometimes

it's necessary to keep track.

Great minds think alike...

...and occasionally look alike (at least from a specific angle). Here's Joe and Gary listening intently as Chris plays some American blues through a vintage Fender tube amplifier on an orange solid body Ibanez electric guitar. Chris was comparing two similar instruments and felt that the other guitar had "more wood in the sound."

The Lam(inate) Lies Down on Tim's Bench (part #2)

Here's the guitar and the work all done. Can you see the border of the laminate? Now the neck is stronger than the original with no loss of playability or tone.

vegetable raga

today meaning is suspect; so here's a video of a tomato dancing on the strings of a drawer.

color coded contents

Hidden in corners of the shop are objects whose provenance is unknown and whose presence cannot be accredited to organizational forethought. It's a clearcut case of simple accretion. Eventually the things become part of the craptacular ornate feng shui of the place and we cease to see them.

does this career make my butt look big?

ah the stories....get your mind out of the gutter, Harrison, it's not bragging if it's true!

a continuation of a previous post

Back in late March of 2009 we posted, perhaps irresponsibly, regarding an element of furniture requiring amplification. Eating crow, it turns out the idea is feasible and even fabulous. Trevor fabricated a strip of aluminum to hold the tuning pegs on firmly and amplified the item with transducers. While he obviously hasn't tuned it correctly (see video) he is, however enjoying himself immensely. If he had another one just like it he'd have a pair of drawers.*


* - thanks Benny!

The Lam(inate) Lies Down on Tim's Bench (part #1)

The almost brand new Gibson J-200 presented with the headstock broken completely (and rather messily) off of the neck. Also, portions of the celluloid binding around the edge of the headstock were either missing or dangling off in sections. We didn't ask how it happened. Tim, empathetic to the owner's grief, shakes his head and gets to work.

First Tim glues the headstock back on to the neck - a tricky proposition requiring special attention to the alignment of the two pieces. Even using small wooden blocks between the clamps and the wood of the guitar the tendency of the parts is to slide apart under pressure. Tim takes extra steps to commingle the parts for positioning accuracy.

Next Tim carves out some of the wood in the area of the break prior to fabricating a strengthening laminate. To make the laminate he glues together a stripe of bubinga onto a piece of curly maple (using cyano-acrylate) and heat bends the resulting section to match the bend of the neck of the guitar. Cyano-acrylate (aka superglue) is used on the laminate so that it does not separate during the process of heat-bending.






After he has ascertained that the curves fit he places the curly maple/bubinga laminate onto the neck of the guitar and, to assist in making sure the fit and position is perfect, he first tapes the laminate into place and then drills four small alignment holes directly through the laminate and into wooden plugs he previously installed into four of the tuning peg holes. He then places toothpicks into those drilled holes so that the bubinga center stripe lines up precisely with the original. Once the glue on the carefully positioned laminate has set Tim then painstakingly cuts away the excess wood so the shape of the neck/body join is correct.

Now that the neck and headstock laminate is complete it's time to address the binding. Tim painstakingly cuts and installs new celluloid binding, taping it down while the glue sets. Tim has masked the pearl inlay and logo on the headstock with clear scotch tape and gently cut around the inlays prior to applying black lacquer. Once it has set he scrapes the extra lacquer off the binding and removes the tape. Then he sprays a few clearcoats of unthinned lacquer over the entire headstock and neck. As a final finish touch, he sprays amber laquer on the new binding to match the patina of the original sections.









Because of the laminate the headstock/neck join is now stronger than the original. The guitar is now ready for tuning pegs and a set-up. This process has taken Tim a fair amount of time, with breaks for lunch, sleep and diverting youtube goodness. Tim says of his work: "it's fun." He adds that it's important to remember that the good repairman "strives for his work to be invisible."

comfy

"Nothing is too good for you baby," he murmurs to his axe,"anything you need, I want you to be comfortable...and happy, I want you to be soooo happy! And secure too....look what I got for you to sleep in!"

you want flies with that?

Sometimes the summer weather in San Francisco is hot and sultry. Not often, but sometimes. When that happens bugs are not blown through the city by the constant seasonal gales, those same gales that never fail to astonish visiting tourists dressed as if they're in Hawaii. Here Tim is using the business end of Wap the Wonder Vacuum to creatively denude the shop of pesky hovering creatures while simultaneously getting some exercise.

miraculous transformation

we get mail and we like it. How else to know (the good, the bad and the ugly) how we're doing? Keep 'em coming...

ready for his close-up

While there is no honorarium in it, it's good business to cross-promote technical information among organizations. By sharing real-world technical information we advance usability across all disciplines (did we just say that?).

In this photo Gary is being interviewed by a team consisting of (but not limited to) an independent photographer, an Ibanez videographer and a phalanx of friendly Ibanez artist relations people. If Gary has butterflies it's but not because he's nervous, it's because he cares.

we've been t00bed!

one of our fabulous clients has taken it upon themselves to post a lovely video on yout00b...this interweb series of t00bz....it looks like it's really going to catch on!

innovation is not a crime

The folks at Scary Creative in Van Nuys sent us a helpful object they call a Fret Mask, an adhesive strip die-cut to exactly fit a fretboard. The point apparently is to eliminate the need to carefully tape off the wood of the board while working on the frets. It's actually a great time saving idea that works very well while simultaneously limiting the amount of adhesive tape that is typically used. Ecologically sensitive and temporally efficient, they're using their powers, for good.

this work takes time...

When Glade rewires a hollow body electric guitar he builds up the harness carefully, outside of the instrument. A wooden plate is fabricated and drilled with holes for potentiometers, switch and output jack in the precise dimensions of the stock electronics. This enables him to fit the harness with a minimum of fuss and be able to make appropriate improvements on the original design. For the Trad* in all of us it's blasphemy, we know, but when a player requires the instrument to be solid night after night, a little improvement over the stock design can be called for.

* - adj. in relating to musicians, the label given to those players slavishly obedient to an original form or design as in: "he's a Hawaiian shirt-wearing Trad surf player and doesn't like all that modern stuff."

I don't care what it does...

...or what it measures. I want my guitar hooked up to it.

This is not an indigenous Vulcan instrument.

This Ethiopian krar found it's way onto Gary's bench by itself. Okay that's not true at all. Actually it's on Gary's bench because the bridge pickup lead is too short. You see, in the course of play the bridge is moved back and forth across the frame-stretched skin. Gary added extra length to the cable that attaches to the pickup to facilitate the constant movement.

round and round

Here's Tim rewinding an odd old pickup from an odd old guitar. The guitar, an Ovation Breadwinner, presented with no output at the neck pickup. Deeper exploratory inquiry led to the conclusion that one of the two coils that comprise the humbucker pickup was dead, it's thin red copper wire separated at some point along the 3500 feet wound around the Alnico (Aluminum Nickel Cobalt) magnet. Tim has engaged the services of our Schatten pickup winder for this patience game.

clever and time saving

Trevor has fabricated a device to speed the process of bringing up to pitch the many strings of Gibson SG double neck guitar. In this particular example the headstocks are close enough to each other so as to hamper access to some of the tuning pegs. Here is Trevor operating his device.

cluttered bench: a sign of a creative...

...mind.

Gary is incorporating mu metal, magnets, controlled voltage, black magic and not a little sonorous incantation to reconfigure a fantastically complex wiring harness that includes (but is not necessarily limited to) a sustainer system and a MIDI system as well as the usual electromagnetic pickups; all artfully crammed into the electronics cavity of this otherwise distracted custom-made solid body electric guitar. Naturally some divination is called for, and Gary has spread his hermeneutic material in the most appropriate place: on top of the guitar.

Note to self: Research instrument anesthetics. Do guitars feel? Would it be appropriate to limit a guitar's purported sentiency during a repair or modification?

"it's exactly what I hoped for"

That's Rob M. spontaneously expressing his satisfaction. His early 60's Stratocaster has benefitted with the addition of a Callaham replacement tremolo. The reason this particular modification makes sense is that many of the older Fender vintage instruments had saddle sets that spread the strings too wide over the fretboard making them easily slide off the edge during play. This particular Callaham tremolo (they have several flavors) has the same six mounting screw hole arrangement as most vintage Fenders but with slightly narrower string spacing. This means we can move the strings inboard slightly without having to cut into the wood at all, which is very appealing to anyone.

We have all kinds of ideas to make guitars better.

even Satan needs love

This heavy, monstrous seven string custom built electric solid body guitar is being plekked. Even though it is the Instrument of the Devil, and it's owner wields the mighty sword of its demonic power while channeling the Forces of Doom, this Avatar of the Seventh Level of Hades is not above improving its ability to give amplification to the Voices of Darkness by receiving the tender loving care provided by the Angels of Mercy in the Glorious Heavens of Guitar Joy-Peace. Indeed, by forging together in our little Stupa of Shred the mighty Energies of Darkness with the Omnipotent Universal Lovelight true Sonic Satori is realized.

hot hot hot!

This bass is more than merely distressed. Here Gary is installing the owner's standard EMG pickups and Bartolini preamp system used in most of his instruments. To match the look of this Flamethrower bass Gary whips out a handy dandy butane lighter (no bench should be without one) and is gleefully melting plastic.

if you can't fix it with a hammer...*

Occasionally a particular task calls for the Barbarian Approach. In this case Glade desires a used and somewhat corroded chrome output jack plate to be flat. It's original shape was slightly curved, not unlike the space time continuum and, like that hypothesis, while charming and elegant in it's consciousness/sentiency reality construct, not reliably serviceable for installation on a flat surface. Happily Glade is not afraid to get down with a hammer, but note his use of the rug to dampen and control the effect of the blow. In the time it took to take this photograph it was ascertained that Glade was facing southwest.

* it's either not broken or you need a bigger hammer.

darkness at the edge of SoMa

At about 4:20PM (heh) all the power went out in a several block radius around the shop. We trooped outside, hung out for awhile and took in some sun; all except for Gary that is, who hurried right back inside and, with the aid of a headset and a battery powered soldering iron, continued working. Such dedication, such fortitude! It was interesting, wandering around looking at all the instruments and thinking that now would be a good time to plug some guitars into some amps because the phone has stopped ringing and we can't do any work anyway but O! that's right...there's no power. Hmpf. Power was restored a little while later and then it seemed inordinately dark in the shop after all that sun outside.

The sunlit outside group shot below (R to L): Trevor, Allen, Tim, Fernie, Glade, Gary and a friend on his way to the ballpark.

































































In other news: Our little blog is being blogged about! Ava at Jemsite took the time to ask us a few questions and we answered in our way that we have. Take a look at: http://www.jemsite.com/blog/43-general/807-daily-guitar-repair.html

busman's holiday

Here's Trevor installing a Sadowsky bass preamp kit into a brand new Fender Jazz Marcus Miller signature bass guitar. Trevor spent five years in Brooklyn, NYC, slaving in the dungeons of Sadowsky (actually it was a great job!) and only recently (if you call three years recent) made his great escape to California, where, after many adventures, he ultimately landed here. And here is his past, tracking him down. Luckily he's got a lot of experience at this particular task and things went smoothly.

the frying of the chip...

...a wafer of silicon delaminates within a microlayer of the preamp chip in an Ibanez bass guitar (it can happen to anyone). Current shorts through the emulsion to where current doesn't belong. It burns. Smoke is probably involved and an acrid stench, which can be disheartening.

We replaced the preamp.

"I pity inanimate objects..."

The re-org has cast a merciless light upon the packrat living in all of us. And, because space is limited (to say nothing of time), objects, parts or devices that have outlived their usefulness or are merely dead must by needs be jettisoned.

(it was gone one hour later)

theme song: "...physics isn't fair...is the tree as a rocking horse an ambition fulfilled and is the sawdust jealous? I worry about these things..." (Godley & Creme)

working conditions

Sometimes we forget what the weather's doing....we used to have a handful of small windows but, with the advent of condominium building on the street where we live, even that marginal source of daylight is banished. All that's left is what appears to be a once a year event; the surrounding architecture on earth lines up with the sun, and in the back of the shop, Tim's eyeball sees the light.

(Tim's eyeball)

theme song: "...a tiny light from a windowpane a hundred yards away, is all he ever gets to know about the regular light of the day..." (Zappa)

you can't do it alone...

...and when we need arcane wisdom from the bizarre tech worlds beyond our ordinary capacity we go straight for the source. We go to men who have been there. Men who have returned from there with the hard won wisdom of experience. Men with large brains and great powers. We go to the technological wizards of the electromagnetic signal path.

(Gary, flanked by George Munday [L] & Kirkwood Rough)

theme song: "...lowkey discussions - rumble round the testbed - eggheads in a huddle..." (Godley & Creme)

samurai sherpa of shred

The re-org is shifting the shop topography. At the center of our tectonic organizational transformation is this man. Tirelessly moving objects from one place to another in an actualized desire of a more efficient operational capacity, he protects himself with a unique system of vestments designed for maximum utility, comfort and style.

In this candid photograph Fern attends as Gary (off camera) expounds.

waste not...

We may not have a smelter at the shop (maybe it's time for a portable cold fusion smelter manufactured using sustainable materials, processes and labor) but we recognize a reuseable resource when we see it. We go through about seven pounds of this stuff a month.

there are many choices for pickups

don't ask...

it's a look!

Robert P., on his way to work, sporting his notorious shiny kitchen clogs and clutching a strange hybrid. As the head chef of two popular local restaurants (Bungalow 44 and The Buckeye) he's under a lot of pressure. It's important to be able to blow off steam in a creative and life affirming way.

ouch!

an improvised guitar string acupuncture...Trevor's finger after he reached down to the floor to pick up a screw that was heading to the "floorth" dimension.

Part 2 of "Man I can't put this thing down."

"This thing is so cool, it just pops in out of its screwed in magnet holster. I went out and bought a bass amp last night, sounds really good. I must have played it for 5 hours yesterday. Instrument repair is the happiest place in the world!"

Here are some photographs of the removable prototype Gary fabricated as a pickup modification for an upright bass.

"Man, I can't put this thing down."

Gary fabricated a prototype panel to slide under the fingerboard of this acoustic bass which, with volume pots attached, controls the individual output of three (count 'em three!) discrete pickups on this upright bass. He's running it through several different amplifiers, each pickup in a different amp, and bowing it with, what he terms: "super milky tremolo," and a bit of distortion and reverb.


And then he put the stuffy on the bridge and took it to a whole new level.

use what you've got

Here Tim has ingeniously attached the mouth of the vacuum close to the business end of a dremel cutting wheel. It's not uncommon for an old nut to require being cut out of the slot. This causes a lot of particulate matter to be ejected into the close atmosphere of the shop. Having the vacuum handy and running limits the amount of bone dust we breathe. Remember that sharp, gagging smell while the dentist is drilling on your teeth?

testimonials on a busy day

In five years we've never seen it this busy...but we're not complaining.

"Plays better then when I got it" - Dave P.'s (with Gary) Spector bass

"Plays like it should've when I bought it" - Steve V.'s Gibson 336

"It's exactly what I wanted" - Sean B.'s (with his biggest fan) Martin D-41

And in the course of regular conversation we got to turn on one of our players (not pictured) to a piece of music by Kate Bush whose name and subject matter ("Hammer Horror") mirror his band's name. He became immediately enthusiastic to cover that song.

help in a hurry

Here Gary is discussing with Mark Ribot some adjustments to his Gibson Melody Maker to be effected in a Big Hurry. Mark has a show tonight in SF. The open high E string was vibrating (sometimes we refer to that sound as "sitaring") where it went over the saddle and the bridge itself had an odd and not groovy sympathetic vibration. Gary used a diamond file to correct the saddle slot and added a small piece of wood to tilt the tailpiece forward thereby increasing the downward pressure of the string in the saddle. Gary also added a pair of Hipshot locking studs to hold the bridge firmly in place.

Mark made it to the soundcheck on time.

A stiletto heel...

...kicked through the back of this Martin steel string acoustic has made a little hole. Does it correspond to a hole in her heart? Did he have it coming? Regardless, we'll fabricate a wooden pad to reinforce the area. The hole won't disappear but the instrument's structural integrity will not be compromised, and the sound of the guitar will not be decreased. Don't know if the relationship can be saved, however...a different kind of shop works on that stuff.

routing...

Here's Tim working with plastic to create several color and material variations of a specific pickguard shape. The owner wants to see what various pickguard colors look like against the body and color of his instrument. We can fabricate almost any kind of pickguard (materials, color, shape, etc...) for a guitar. Look at those hands!

one of these things is not like the other....

Alright, very amusing of course, but did you know??

Here Gary is holding is an extremely rare Kramer guitar called an Enterprize. Designed by the notorious Floyd Rose, it is highly prized by the distinctly unique breed of collectors that find these instruments desirable. A grand total of ten of these eye-catching devices are thought to have been made. With such delicacy of design something this fragile could break so easily (indeed that's why we have it - for some light touchup) that the number of remaining examples are probably considerably less.

Take a solo that boldly goes.

do we not bleed?

And do we not sigh as well? Thanks for your notes. We never take it for granted.

it didn't sound like this at the shop

There's a lot of reasons to play your guitar in a public place. You can hear how it sounds in very reflective environments, help to pass the time while your friend trades in his de-magnetized train pass for one that works, or maybe even get some lunch money. Here Trevor patiently strums a wistful tune in the Civic Center station in San Francisco, CA.