September

September almost gone, and haven't posted anything. Waiting to load the last round of photos. meanwhile, I'm preparing a guitar for the fiestas del barrio. Going to give a small demo on guitar building, and then raffle off the guitar. Here's a few more photos of associates work. David acoustic, Sergio with a fine Tele type. Also a few more shots of the bass neck fitting. Thanks

Hofner Guitar

She came in with the neck pulling out from heat, and really bad glue. It was like glued in with rubber. Although it looked like an easy removal, I had a hard time getting it loose. Cleaned up, well shimed, and glued, really very little retouching was necessary.Afterwards had to have a compleat fret job to correct a bad backbow. Now she looks and plays great!

Double Bass Repair

Sorry that I've been a little lazy with the blog these days. Been on a little vacation to my parents home in N.J., and working hard on a couple tough projects. Bass repair almost done, I'll give you a look at the neck block reconstruction. Made the new neck block out of mahogany because I didn't have a piece of spruce big enough. Maby someone trained in Cremona would call this blasfamy, but it works very well on our guitars. The white piece of maple at the bottom is a very large button and top bout reinforcement. Thing really can get torn up when these babys fall over.

more j200

J200

This J200 had water damage, and had been very poorly repaired. The luthier took off and replaced the back o.k. but didn't do anything to the top bracing except stuff glue into the open spaces, letting it dry without clamping. The guitar came to me because the bridge was pulling loose. what a suprise we got when we started looking inside. Photos are of some tools I used, spatulas, glue syringes (right and left hand), to clean out the mess and close things up properly. Was a hard call, but I decided to do the work without opening the guitar again. Bridge plate r&r (came right out). bridge reglue, and alot of cleaning and regluing braces.

more stuff

As usual, some tough repairs. Smashed contra bass this time. Has to be opened up for interior reconstruction. Fender 5 made by Luis, Finally getting the decal tecnique down.

.Also a great photo of action out on the patio!

Thinline Tele

Roger has really done a lovely job with this one. And as it's the first sunburst I ever painted, I want to take a little credit myself. Ash body with maple top, doesen't weigh too much, and sounds awsome, with pickups wound right here in the shop.