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 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.

kits, cats, sacks, wives....

There are thousands of guitars and each guitar can have anywhere from fifty to three hundred parts. When you, dear owner, inquire via email or telephone about the availability of a particular (non-vintage) part for a particular guitar ninety-nine times out of one hundred we will beg to see the instrument. Though it takes up some of your valuable time the diagnostic or recommendation is free (you only need pay for the part) and you get to enter into our cave of musical toys.

the vestigial limb

Lying, momentarily forlorn on the workbench, at an odd angle and still in the neck-rest, does this neck, awaiting reattachment to its body, still feel, like an amputee, itself as a complete instrument?

the alchemical mage

Here's Tim calling down the spirits in his sekret lair while retorts bubble and the jacob ladder fizzes quietly in the background. The steam in the foreground is for breaking the bonds of neck and body on an acoustic guitar. Tim manipulates materials, bending the elements to his will.

personal expression taken to extremes

This decimated Telecaster is the result of the owner becoming excited during a performance. When the smoke cleared, appalled by what remained, he quickly became contrite. Tim spent a little time with the pieces and judged that it was possible to reassemble and refinish, though the trained eye would still see some evidence of the repair.

D.I.Y.

Here's Gary taking matters into his own hands regarding an upgrade being foisted upon a recalcitrant iMac. While we love our Mac network (we remember our 512E w/ no hard drive!) we also recognize that, like love, a certain amount of capricious whimsicality is involved ("Macs Happen") and occasionally are inspired to take steps.

the wood burned Aztec basses

Here's Tim (all the way below) holding a wood-burned bass destined for stages around the world (see man onstage). The man liked it so much he brought us another one to do the same thing once again (the other three).

Tim applied the burst style finishes by hand with a special blend of shellac and dye. Once the finishes are complete he installs all the hardware, wires it up according to the owner's unique tastes prior to a computerized fretmill on the PLEK machine.

These instruments play like cheese dreams.

see notes

Here Gary has taken detailed notes and loose estimates based on the owner's desire to have the wiring harness, pickup system and hardware of one of his custom instruments perform certain tasks in specific ways. Thankfully Gary can decode as well as encode. An attractive frame may set off the piece to maximum effect...say, displayed near the guitar wall.

"I get music from it"

What is it that makes a guitar feel good? Loren Jones (shown here with his beloved Guild G-37) says it well. Why take care of an instrument? Why invest resources when it may be cheaper to purchase something new? Some guitars make music for us.

2009 Best Year Ever!!!

This upcoming year we're going to increase transparency, begin the Re-Org in earnest, clean up our act, reconfigure our core competencies, pull the wool over our own eyes and maybe even grow up. Well....one out of six ain't bad!

(photo: Matt Zipkin attempts to decipher Gary's notes for installing two Thingamakits into Timmy Pizza's unsuspecting tele)

the cool mod completed

Here Justin Oakley shows off his completed modification: a brand spanking new Fender 12 string Strat, with an entirely non-stock pickguard/pickup configuration and wiring harness. We routed the pickup cavities in the body, installed his carefully chosen Lollar Jazzmaster-style pickups into a special order pickguard, wired & shielded everything, put it all together and performed a complete set-up by hand. Because Justin is very clear about what he wants the odds of personal instrument satisfaction are vastly increased. See our entry about his mod from Saturday, October 25th, 2008, for all the details of his control array.

these things happen...

...a noise was heard in the shop, not unlike the slow sliding of entropic dissolution or a machine taking itself apart. The sound of an endless crushing falling reverberance; inexorable, unstoppable and taking forever to end.

A stack of empty cases comes to rest. No one was hurt.

"It's exactly right!"

Here Chris Palmer is displaying his parts strat-style guitar with a freshly installed EMG 60 in the bridge position. Chris wanted the guitar's original pickup system to sound more sparkly in the high end. The original pickup sounded dull to him. Gary mulled over Chris's request and suggested the EMG 60 and Chris's reaction is recorded above. As Gary has mentioned regarding the fantastically subjective nature of pickup choices: "you give us adjectives, we'll give you answers."

what are the odds?

A man named Smith confers with us regarding the pickup in his Martin acoustic guitar. It's a normal day at the shop, well...busier than usual but progressing smoothly. Several minutes later another man named Smith appears to pick up his Martin acoustic guitar and it, too, has a pickup system that engenders some discussion. The two Smiths cause the shop mgr's. brain to misfire. Lunch: forgotten.

(above: the two Smiths. Richard[L] & Steve)

This 1976 Gibson Les Paul arrived at our shop for a much-deserved refret. During the refretting process the ever vigilant Tim noticed that the Dimarzio Super Distortion neck pickup had been worn away through years of heavy picking. By clicking on the picture to enlarge it, you can clearly see a small area of exposed winding on the end of the top of the right-hand coil. That winding, comprised of 42 gauge copper wire and thinner then a human hair, is extremely delicate and will practically snap at a glance. If that wire breaks the pickup is dead. It could be rewound or replaced of course but we offered to sidestep that expense by building up a protective shell around the hole by coating the area with a layer of cyano acrylate (superglue).

"Buy Nothing Day" equals...

...turkey sandwich for lunch. Yummmmmmm.

knowledge base

The PLEK device is a spectacularly accurate machine for smoothing and shaping frets on a guitar. Whether electric or acoustic, six-string, twelve-string or a bass guitar of four, five or more strings, this Northern European invention (straight outta Berlin!) sharply reduces the amount of time required to bring a guitar up to its all around best possible playability with a greater accuracy possible than even the most experienced technician can approach. Like any tool, it's usefulness is explicitly defined by the user. Here Gary(R), an early adopter with around three thousand guitars successfully completed using our in-house PLEK machine, explains the process to Trevor, who is learning to do the work himself. Knowledge is at its most powerful and useful when shared.

Contact us: brawer [at] brawer [dot] com for more information.

Further reading (in amusingly translated English) can be found at: www.plek.com

levity schmevity

pressure too much? worries too overpowering? attachment too desperate? sing along with us...

The Strat that weighed the least.

The owner purchased a Mark Knopfler Strat, new, online and felt that the instrument was not as advertised. Namely, the weight of the guitar did not match up to the advertising claim of "lightweight" playing. He returned the instrument, through the online retailer, and the replacement instrument he received felt still too heavy. He then contacted Fender who contacted us (since we are a warranty station for their guitars) and requested whether we would provide excellent service by facilitating the return and delivery of a third Mark Knopfler Stratocaster. Fender would ensure the satisfaction of this particular customer by going though their entire stock of these instruments at the warehouse, weighing each individual guitar and shipping directly to us for him, the Strat that weighed the least. See how helpful Fender can be? All is forgiven (almost).

Does Ed Roman do this on purpose?

Plotting from his Seekret Lair deep in the desert of the American West, does Ed Roman, in his nefarious wisdom, organize the Byzantine logistics required to have the proud owners of his instruments show up at our shop at the exact same moment? Is it espionage? Favored Nation Trading Status? Is he just trying to keep us on our toes? (Tony [L] and Ron compare their Roman guitars upon showing up simultaneously Saturday at the shop)

start the day right

Sometimes the best defense is a good offense...the morning playlist, nice and loud.

are we smart?

Maybe. But we certainly know the truth when we see it.

occupational hazard

These things happen. You wouldn't want your music to be completely and monochromatically saccharine either.

"I love it!"

Intones our customer John Rongley as he checks out his Dean five string bass after having us reinstall the bridge, mill the frets using our PLEK machine and have a graphite nut installed. His demonic demeanor notwithstanding, John is a happy person with a smile for all.

here kitty kitty....

nice kitty....you hold down the fort, okay? we'll be back soon...there's plenty of food and water in the kitchen...we'll see you soon....goooooood kitty!

Celebrate!!!

The election is over and one of our customers shows his appreciation of us, the election results and the state of the Human Condition in general by hooking us up with some of his own brew.

Weather: cool and partly cloudy.
Listening to: Stravinsky's "La Sacre du Printemps" (Valery Gergiev with the Kirov Orchestra)

Halloween around the shop and home

It's Halloween and we are up to all that wacky Halloween hijinks.

The night before Halloween I had to come up with a cool guitar for my 9 year old son Harlan.
His costume is Zora, the guitar playing fish thing from the video game Zelda that plays
a guitar made of fish bones and claws n'stuff . Zora plays in a band
the Indago-go's. I found a photo of a Jackson guitar that had the same Idea we were trying to build.
I blew up some photos sections on photo paper, cut it out, glued it on foam core and cut that out.
On one side is a mini Fender amp, on the fingerboard is an ipod that has the songs from Zelda on it.
It was a big hit!!!!!

We just refinished a customers Les Paul, Cal Trans Orange. Tim happened to wear his fathers
actual flight combat suit that had a perfect match. This is helped out by our fellow acoustic guitar repair pal Mark
from Seattle juiceing up Tim with an orange recharge...

Some friends came by for a costume photo op.
Our Trev "Springstein" and Lt. T. Frick. pose with Yoshi "Jet Boy" and friend.
Oh yeah, hippy boss there in the back.

a cool mod

Here is Justin Oakley holding up his brand new Fender Stratocaster 12-string electric guitar. Justin knows exactly what he wants and that increases his potential for happiness. It also assists us in seeing his vision through. While we can (and routinely do) provide all manner of pithy and cogent advice for the lovelorn guitarist at free (or even cheap) rates the likelihood of a happy outcome is increased by orders of magnitude when the instrument's owner knows what they want.

In this case Justin is having us install a set of Lollar Jazzmaster-style pickups. We are providing a pickguard to hold the different pickup configuration and routing the body. We'll wire the 5 position switch so that position 1 will be neck only, position 2 will be neck and bridge in series, position 3 will be neck & bridge in parallel, position 4 will be neck & bridge out of phase and in series* and position 5 will be bridge pickup only. We'll also shield all of the electronics cavities on the guitar.

After that we'll do a hand set up on the instrument; always a good idea with a new purchase.

* wiring the pickups "out of phase" cuts the signal in half for that tight, nasally sound while simultaneously having the pickups in series increases the volume and also fattens up the tone.

nice to meet you, too...

Here a chance meeting between two different aesthetics finds Billy (L) and Luke swapping knowledge and experience over a pile of used pickups. A meter is close at hand to test for DC resistance and also whether or not they work. We don't have uber-valuable vintage stuff in those boxes but we manage to keep a large assortment of serviceable single-coil, hum-canceling and bass pickups for all budgets.

"That's the best I've ever felt this guitar since the first day I bought it!"

Here's Dan Pickell expressing his pleasure upon playing his Carvin DC-400 following our PLEK (computerized fretmill) and hand set-up. These Carvins are very solid guitars. Dan's expostulation reminds us why we love what we do.

Our Reality Demo !!!!!

Our up and coming Guitar Repair Shop show has a little tiny teaser...
Thanks to Sam Franzen!

"it's how I always envisioned it"

Here's Dan Feeney paying us a beautiful complement. He's holding up his Tele Deluxe in one hand and the original pickguard in the other. The new pickguard we installed for him has a humbucker (Seymour Duncan '59) in the neck position. We built the wiring harness from the ground up with all new parts. When he opened the case out of his mouth came the quote above. That makes us feel great.

materials (number 47 in a series)

You gotta have fretwire and there's multiple flavors. We have it in different sizes, hardnesses and various alloys. We've even custom ordered special fretwire to our own crown and tang measurements for special needs. Our suppliers (Stewart-MacDonald, Jescar, Dunlop and Luthier's Mercantile) can get us fret material in sizes from tiny mandolin wire all the way up to big fat Jumbo-style rails. Nickel-silver is the usual alloy for most frets but we stock and install stainless steel frets and can supply other, weirder stuff upon request. We keep the tubes of fretwire in a drawer but Fern recently moved the loose coils into the back stairwell where they can actually be somewhat categorized.

Reorganization in a small space is not for the faint of heart.

don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln

Bill Kirchen, one of the Fathers of Tone in our Universe of Guitar, stopped by prior to sitting in with Elvis Costello at the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass concerts in San Francisco at Golden Gate Park. He brought with him his current favorite, a Big Tex tele- style relic for some maintenance. We shielded the guitar, replaced the two potentiometers (note reversed control plate - he likes to swell with his pinkie!) and plekked (computerized fretmill) the frets along with a full set-up. He's very happy.

While he was playing the guitar, post-maintenance and modification, another gentleman recognized the instrument, first, and then it's owner from a recent issue of ToneQuest magazine. In an endless example of synchronicity yet another gentleman brought in a copy of the exact issue of the magazine. We obviously need to subscribe to this periodical.

And we need to see Mr. Kirchen more often, whether or not he requires guitar assistance.

an early start

this young fellow has the look, the moves and the attention span required to turn heads as a guitarist. naturally he dropped by to trade war stories.

the girls on saturday

working on: three Les Pauls and a Jazz bass

"let's move the wax and put the fan on."
"am I going down, or up?"
"so that guy's living in a yurt behind her house?"
"he used to live rent free above the porn shop."
"plek has stopped!"
"he said he'd sell me his UV curing light when he's done with it"
"where's the two-headed fret hammer?"
"I set it up and Leo knocked it out of the park."
"a walk would do you good."
"no, your walk would do us good"
"what's for lunch?"

weather: sunny and cool
playing: right-handed fingerstyle arpeggio patterns on a lefty guitar
watching: vignettes of Paul Newman movies on youtube

glue starved or just couldn't take it anymore

This guitar came to us in two pieces. It's the original neck joint and it came apart extremely cleanly. It almost looks as if not enough glue was used during the original assembly. With this type of break we first clean up the old glue, shim the side to side part of the joint (since that's where most of the strength is required it needs to fit tightly) and then glue it up. This join will need no reinforcement since it is the original neck joint and fits together so well. Notice Tim's trick of putting a clamp on in the middle of the neck to use as a place to attach a separate clamp that pulls the neck into the body. Before putting the neck on it's also a good opportunity to check the neck angle to make sure the bridge will be the correct height off the body for desired action.

human nature and why it can be so good

Here's Tim playing one of his own custom built Tim Frick five string basses, brought into the shop today by Jim Cooper. Jim purchased the instrument after being approached by a person on the street. He paid an absurdly low price and was taking the bass around to various shops to affirm it's provenance. No one could tell him who the manufacturer was. Turns out the bass had been stolen from Tim two years ago. When the realization sank in Jim offered it to Tim for the same absurd figure, including the various pedals and the case it all housed. Jim believes in karma. Tim is glad to have his bass back. You never know what's going to happen, do you?

The challenge of assisted sustain, making Gary's brain explode

Allen our wonderful man of many hats and blogmaster has been in and out of town so I (Gary) have been at it.
Today I had to make EMG pickups work with a Fernandes sustainer.
Owners send me these tasks from far and wide and I'm not a stranger to them. Recently Gibson hired me as a consultant to assist in the prototyping of the Neal Schon guitar ( a very cool Les Paul with a Sustainer, Floyd Rose and smoothed out neck heel joint).

Always learning!!!!

Here we have to combine a sustainer with an EMG 81 and an EMG SA pickup in the neck of a Neal Schon Les Paul. The challenge: according to the fine instructions included with the sustainer you simply hook it up as shown and you're off and running. Well, that's okay if you like low pitch oscillation creeping in while playing in the sustain mode and a deafening high pitched squeal. Our solution: install a filter to decouple the power supply between the sustainer and the EMG pickups (sharing the same power supply made them oscillate to distraction). There were a few other options but this turned out to be the most stable (and we could get away with using one battery). Result: Low rumble & squeal gone!!!!

Other tweaks, mods, etc. involved in this particular job: I tried padding the EMG signal going into the circuit to make it a little more like the passive signal it expects but I found a better idea. I added a trim pot to to the gain circuit so we have the ability to further turn down the gain of the sustain. Since the drive was much higher with the active pickup input there was plenty to spare. Here are some work in progress pics. On Fernandes's behalf they do state how difficult it is to use the sustainer circuitry in applications that stray from how it was originally intended to be used (and that we did!). I'm glad they now make it available, because there was a time they would not sell sustainers outside of the guitars they built since it is so difficult an installation. There are also a few other Sustainer products on the market that in some ways are easier to install and work great. I will go over them in the future.

Always a big thanks to our friend: Doc K.R.!!!

the wax man cometh (Tim has a melting moment)

Electric guitar pickups can squeal. The approximately 6,000 to 9,000 turns of very fine magnetic wire that make up a pickup coil can start vibrating within itself. As the gain increases so does the vibration and that brings with it the potential for microphonic feedback. Metal pickup covers, pole-piece screws or anything loose can also vibrate annoyingly on a pickup. Squeals are typically quelled by potting (or dipping) the pickup in a thin waxy liquid that permeates the coil and holds it all together. We use hot wax in a vacuum to get as much permeation as possible. Occasionally we may use lacquer or very thin epoxy - whatever is best for the job and will not compromise the pickup. Here Tim is mixing up waxes with different properties. Some experimentation is required to come up with the best formula.

a very strong neck repair

Gary was out on a mission in the South-Eastern United States and, as he will, visited a guitar repair shop. As repair peeps are wont to do they start comparing notes about what ever happens to be
on the bench at that moment. This particular visit they shared a way to inlay a graphite weave and epoxy resin into the back of a guitar neck to repair and reinforce a cracked peghead. We've tried various resin and cloth reinforcement methods over the years but usually stick to matching a wood lamination over the back of the break. With our newfound knowledge and a taste for adventure we put Trevor to implementing this graphite weave.

What's nice about this method is the way it inlays. You can control the distribution of strength of the graphite cloth by altering the direction of the fiber lengths. The cupping effect of the cloth running lengthwise with the neck will also add strength and support. The success of this repair also depends upon finding an epoxy with the correct characteristics.

The repair was a grand success and has the added benefit of a look of it's own. Think tennis racket vs spaceship. In theory this is now the strongest part of the neck. The added stiffness may add some attack and sustain to the overall sound of the guitar. I'm guessing we'll be sticking to our matching wood laminates for most of the severe neck breaks since the laminates can be stained and finished to match most wood grain. Of course we can always paint over anything. Most important, the owner that paid us do this to his guitar is extremely pleased and back on the road touring. This peg-head that had broken repeatedly is now the least of his concerns. He can get back to the important stuff like where the band is sleeping tonight.

Keeping it dry down the rapids!!

My (Gary's) girlfriend Ms. Liz just came back from a 2 week trip river rafting through the Grand Canyon. Boatman Extraordinare Matt Herman came up with a great way not to leave his guitar behind. He built a crunch-proof, boat-flip-proof, running-the-rapids-at-Lava-Falls-proof custom wood case-- waterproofed that and found a dry bag to fit the whole thing. So far so good.....and it floats!

It's you again!

Old friends sometimes come to visit, co-workers from the long ago time before time...they appropriate some free bench space (a rare commodity) and carry on the conversation that lapsed the day they left.

Here the inimitable Max Butler performs a quick pickup install into a much played and well loved acoustic.

fight or flight

cant take it....they'll understand...no one could carry on under this pressure...the dust in my eyes...a sweatshop...the brutality...and I hate guitars - there! I said it! I hate 'em...their little gritty strings and shiny round parts and the cases! Don't get me started on the cases....O! There's the phone...should I answer it? They might smell the fear....

yeah, the owner knows it's silly

This instrument (shown in its detached plumage) presented with a severe case of neck to headstock delamination. The join at the top of the original yellow neck where wood meets acrylic was like a science textbook image of a slip fault, just on a smaller scale. Plate tectonics notwithstanding, the challenge of separating and reattaching the acrylic with the wood would have been too great a financial burden to justify the repair. We chose to "drop ten and punt" (thanks Vince Lombardi) and ordered up a replacement neck from the manufacturer. Sadly, they were out of yellow acrylic. Permanently. Happily, the owner has an appreciation of the absurd and opted for the two-tone approach.

unsung heroes

Does a day go by wherein we do not casually and ofttimes thoughtlessly rely upon these icons of modern life? Like a parent smirking misguidedly in gratitude as a passerby admires their child, does the manufacturer of these incredibly important objects get to smugly grasp responsibility? No. These items exist in their own universe. If it hadn't been one womb, it would have been another. The essential nature of these two products called themselves into being.

deeper into the purple...

So enough already about how odd, interesting and inspiring the finished work is...how about how the in the hell did you do that?

Our can-do attitude made it impossible to accept the manufacturer's claim that a nine volt battery will not power those Fulltone Deja Vibe stompbox guts steaming inside that poor exhausted Epiphone Sheraton. So first we wired six 1.5 volt AA batteries in series, providing nine volts at increased amp/hours above a standard nine volt battery. As a just-in-case fallback fail-safe we also wired a Fulltone standard power input jack into the side of the instrument body. If Matt Z. is oscillating a heavy ostinato he doesn't want to stop to change batteries. We also built a custom circuit to reference the voltage from the indicator LED connected to the Fulltone guts. The LED on the pedal guts gets brighter and dimmer corresponding to the modulation of that effect. And that voltage from the LED going into our circuit makes it possible to put out a specific amount of plus and minus voltage so our LEDs would alternate equally; also corresponding to the pedal effect. To get that characteristic psychedelic purple we combined red and blue LEDs using a diode on one of those colors so the two colors flash at the same rate. Red and blue LEDs react differently to the same level of voltage, no?

(Special Thanks to our Super Friend KR without whom this mod would be possible but improbable)

the amazing purple light-up guitar!

Matt Z. of The Bad Hand had a request (see our entry for Thursday, May 22nd). He acknowledged his odd request wasn't right for all but knew we were crazy enough to handle it. Using our super powers and putting our heads together with our super friends we were able to install the guts of a Fulltone Deja Vibe pedal inside the body of this outraged Epiphone Sheraton. And since too much is never enough, each F-hole lights up a purple LED array concurrent with the signal oscillation. This is our idea of a good time.

(to be continued: Deeper Into the Tech Behind the Mod.)

a syncretism of space & time!

We've mentioned before that it's a small shop but have we mentioned the often eye-opening amount of fecund psychic energy contributing to our seemingly random happenstance and synchronicity? This is only an everyday occurrence. If a name comes up it's usually because the person belonging to it is close by.

A perfect storm of Les Pauls, all picked up at the same exact moment: an action adjustment, a fretmill and a refret. Their Moms know them as: (L-R) Mark, Brian, and David.

dust flying on Saturday

"you okay Leo?"
"that bass sounded really dead when he brought it in"
"did I mention how much I love my incredible neck tweezers?"
"last night I woke up at 3 in the morning and thought: 'why don't I take the best bits out of the two boxes of forstner bits I have beneath my bench and make one box of good bits?'"
"is there a place where the razor blades are?"
"I don't suppose there's a cardboard box of Skyway saddles around here..."
"do you have one of the straight-edges and can I borrow it?"
"the back of this neck feels gooood!"
"hey tim have you ever waxed a superglue finish?"
"what's for lunch?"
watching: the Olympics

a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

Here our Fearless Leader sights down the fretboard of a tiger-striped shredder prior to giving it a last little nudge required to send that spandexed power ballad solo into the troposphere. The Eighties were hard on everyone.

We're not the first to point this out

but if you want a very low profile and low cost option to shiny metal knurls poking out the ends of your guitar strap simply purchase a pack of frosty cold Grolsch beer. After enjoying your adult beverage responsibly, prize the proud red washer off the top of the bottle and force it gently over the strap button while the strap is on the guitar. Works like a charm and won't set off TSA weapon detectors. Reduce/Reuse/Recycle...that's one of our mottos too.

weirder & cooler

After being bent by the notorious fastmatt (check out *his* blog) this charming preschool-level learning device does stuff it's manufacturer clearly never intended. Now, one of our more charming customers is interested in continuing the mod a step farther, this time to benefit a hands free performance environment. Clearly anyone would want their hands free while operating this machine. It's a simple issue of employee safety. Safety is our number one concern, after tone, playability, reflectivity, clarity and throughput.

inspiration

From the exalted to the base.