What's on your work bench?

[captainfruitbat]

20220314_140239.jpg (2.08 MiB) Viewed 1986 times

Fret ends snipped and beveled. Now for my least favorite part - masking off the board ready for level and crown.

[Lawrence]

What's tis then?

20220313_145020.jpg

string retainer hor a headless?

[captainfruitbat]

20220314_142048.jpg (1.12 MiB) Viewed 1972 times

Masked up, Vivid marker applied to frets. Now I can't find my fret leveling file.... Bugger.

[Bg]

It'll be in the last place you look...

[calling card]

How the hell do you snip the ends of frets and they don't try & jump back out of their groove? Never tried it but my instincts of all steel chopping says this.

[Bg]

interference fit or interference fit and glue... oh and end nippers so you're not cutting downwards you're chopping in line with the frets

[Jay]

20220314_140239.jpg

Fret ends snipped and beveled. Now for my least favorite part - masking off the board ready for level and crown.

Nice work. If you don't mind me saying so... but in that photo it looks like the fret ends might benefit from a bit more rounding... or you might do that after the leveling?

[Jay]

What's tis then?

20220313_145020.jpg

string retainer hor a headless?

It actually is a Steel bar with tapped holes for pole pieces. The coil will be wound around it and the magnet will go underneath the bar.

[captainfruitbat]

It'll be in the last place you look...

Always is.....

[captainfruitbat]

20220314_140239.jpg

Fret ends snipped and beveled. Now for my least favorite part - masking off the board ready for level and crown.

Nice work. If you don't mind me saying so... but in that photo it looks like the fret ends might benefit from a bit more rounding... or you might do that after the leveling?

Yep, rounding doesn't happen until after the frets are leveled and crowned.

[captainfruitbat]

interference fit or interference fit and glue... oh and end nippers so you're not cutting downwards you're chopping in line with the frets

In this case, I definitely needed the glue. When the old frets come out as easy as these did, it's a given that the new ones won't want to stay in. Ask me how I know.....

[captainfruitbat]

20220321_114638.jpg (347.84 KiB) Viewed 1342 times

20220321_114626.jpg (254.98 KiB) Viewed 1342 times

I've been away from the President hollowbody for a while (missing fret levelling file, family funeral, missing cat, daughter's gymnastics competitions), but I got it finished this morning. Work done:

- Heat treat neck to remove major twist and forward bow
- full refret, level and crown
- replace tuners (owner supplied diecasts - headstock was too thick for those because of the multi-layer plastic veneer, so I had to recess them).
- make and install bone nut
- Fix vibrato ($5 compression spring from Bunnings works perfectly)
- Fix pickup selector switch that was just rotating freely without doing anything
- clean and set up

Of course this is way more work than would be justified on a guitar of such limited value. But it's for a friend who just wants it playable, so mates rates. Plus he is giving me a deal on a PRS SE Soapbar that I've been trying to persuade him to sell to me for ages.

[olegmcnoleg]

That's an impressive amount of work to get a mate's guitar going again. Do you do this for fun or are you a luthier by trade?

(I'm looking for somebody who can confidently & reliably do a neck reset on an acoustic, ideally in Auckland...)

[captainfruitbat]

That's an impressive amount of work to get a mate's guitar going again. Do you do this for fun or are you a luthier by trade?

(I'm looking for somebody who can confidently & reliably do a neck reset on an acoustic, ideally in Auckland...)

Wouldn't call myself a luthier, more of a hobby guitar tech. I used to take in occasional repair/upgrade work when I was importing and selling parts and guitars via TradeMe (as webdude/ATF Guitars), but I stopped that a couple years ago. Now that I've retired from my day job, I'm thinking about starting up again in a limited way, but a neck reset is beyond my experience I'm afraid.

[jeremyb]

Picked up a bench top belt and disc sander and a new angle grinder today… going to have a crack at knife making.