Students Projects

Enough repair stuff. Have to get back to the real reason we're here. As usual, the people that come to build instruments leave me astounded. Up top we have the Overcaster. That's because his name is Claudi. Haha. Pablo finally got the pearl work done all around his flamenco guitar, Luis winding pickups, and Sergi and I gluing up the top of his flamenco guitar.

Caution Guitar Scavanger

Found this crazy animal on my bench one morning. Don't know how he got up there with wheels, but he ate almost a whole guitar!

Ibanez Bass

Oh Buddy. Bad news! Broken Truss Rod. This is an old Ibanez Rickenbacker copy. The neck is very long and thin, got a lot of upbow which someone tried to correct with a lot of force, and sheared off the nut. Fingerboard removal was hard because the truss rod extended into the fingerboard. Finally got it off, replaced the rod with a nice modern one, and glued the FB back on with some backbow to compensate for the string pull. You can see the feeler gauge spacers to hold the backbow. Came out fine. Did not have to refret it, which was fine because the whole fingerboard had a heavy coat of varnish.

Tele

After gluing on the FB, Very carefully had to level out the new maple with the neck without touching the old varnish. Did this with a variety of tools, plane, sharp chisel, and files etc. Then I was able to put back the 10" radius it had before, dots and frets. I had to get the neck perfectly straight because he wanted super low fret wire. I used Dunlop 6130. .036 height is the lowest fret wire there is. not much room for filing afterward. Drilled out the old side dots and put black ones. After fretting, ageing and varnishing. to age the wood a little, I used the old vinegar steel wool trick. The varnish was a tough one, sort of butterscotch. I couldn't get it right until I added a little white paint to the mix. Looked like coffee with milk in the jar. Later a little blending with steel wool. Owner was surprised it came out so well, and me too. Can't describe all the steps and techniques here, but I tried to give an idea.

New Projects

So many complicated repairs going on. The most time consuming has been the conversion of an old rosewood tele neck to maple. I didn't want to do this at first. Seemed to me to be better to leave it original, but for a year the customer was asking for it, and when he told me he would look for someone else, I finally agreed. It's a veneer fingerboard, so I started the project by choosing an old piece of maple. Thinned it out to a little over 3mm, wet it and bent it over a 7 1/4 radius form block. The rosewood FB I removed by planning and sanding with a radius block. After rough shaping, I glued it up. Took ALL day to work out a clamping system that would close everything up. You have to be creative and patient to do these things, but with some acrylic and shims it finally worked out fine.

 

  

TeleCat

As last year, I've put together a project to raffle off during the fiestas of my barrio. This guitar was inspired by the Catalan independence movement. I painted it on 11 Sept, while thousands were holding hands all across Cataluña. I didn't have to look far to check the colors, flags hanging out everywhere. Tickets cost 3 euros, available at my shop, C/Velia 3, local 3, or at the bar Tapeta, Plaza Dr. Modrego, across from Plaza Congres. Drawing will be in Plaza Congres at 10:00PM on 12 October. Thanks Everyone

Getting It Together

Just some nice stuff from our friends. Incredible to be part of all this!

Tor

My most lovely companion has left to look for better hunting. We liked to sing in the morning. His most loved friend was Emma, cooling him off with a spray of water. I'll miss you My Buddy. R.I.P.

Two New Guitars.

Friday, great day! we put strings on two guitars in one day. Claudi with his Overcaster! And Marc with a sweet LesPaul junior. Both guitars play great. Also Garci strung up his LP double cutaway T.V style on Thursday

, with Bigsby! The hardest part is taking them apart again to sand and paint.

More Latest

Getting everything adjusted to the old neck is a nightmare! Trying not to touch the old varnish on the sides of the neck. So far, O.K. Next leveling and fretting. Ready with frets cleaned, barbs narrowed, bent to over-radius. And fretted!

Latest Projects

A new fingerboard for a 66 tele. Old one very worn out, and the owner wants maple. I bent a fingerboard over a 7 1/4 radius, hot water and a week in the sun did a nice job. Planed off the rosewood board, and glued on the new curved board. Drove me crazy getting everything to close nicely over the curve, but finally worked out nicely.

Latest Stuff

We have found that the sound of our flamenco guitars is improved by acupuncture.

HaHa! Really this is the first step in doing a pearl segment binding to match the rosette.

This was inspired by an old guitar that I had in the shop for restoration awhile ago.

Pickup HB90

A friend needs a nice single coil pickup that he can fit in a humbucker rout. Here's how I did it. Actually there exits this, but I wanted to do it myself. First I trimmed off the bottom of a P90 bobbin, Made it about 3\32 wider, shortened it to HB size, then glued a new back plate of hardwood. Using the top holes of the bobbin as a guide, re-drilled for the screws. I used the bottom spacer to line up the holes for the HB frame. Then I wound the bobbin with 0.06mm wire(about 42 gauge. Got it up to about 7.6K about the same as a Tele bridge PU.After winding, I assembled the bobbin, magnets and screws,cut down a soapbar cover to fit inside the open top cover.  

Everybody!

Can't leave anyone hanging. Luis has finished his jazz bass. Hard to believe that it was all made in our shop.. Carlos doing a tele, and more. Very tired, I spend alot of hours here.