Viewing entries tagged
shellac

100 Year Old Restoration :: Lyon & Healy Bowl Back Mandolin [1.3 lbs]

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100 Year Old Restoration :: Lyon & Healy Bowl Back Mandolin [1.3 lbs]

100 Year Old Restoration :: Lyon & Healy Bowl Back Mandolin [1.3 lbs]

Whew! Finally finished up this ~100 year old mandolin restoration a couple weeks ago. Let's see ... neck & fingerboard reglue, missing soundhole pieces, cracked / loose top bracing, loose back ribs, new inlayed pickguard (courtesy of Dave Nichols Custom Pearl Inlay), new bridge and properly spaced new tuners (peghead had to be bunged & redrilled). A lot of hours into this little fella. Excited to drop it off to it's new owner. I went to high school with him in PA and this was his grandmother's mandolin. Always an honor to work on family heirlooms.

Until I gather everything into a single blog post, you can check out the previous progress of this project here.

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Removable side repair :: 1999 Luthier Music Corp TRVL01 Travel Guitar [2.1 lbs]

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Removable side repair :: 1999 Luthier Music Corp TRVL01 Travel Guitar [2.1 lbs]

Removable side repair :: 1999 Luthier Music Corp TRVL01 Travel Guitar [2.1 lbs]

This was an interesting project that made me feel more like a boat builder than a guitar guy.  The sides on this travel classical are removable and over time the tabs that fit into the body had become damaged and previously repaired.  One of the tabs was even cut off and super-glue-lap-joined to the side.  All of the tabs needed to be repaired, so each tab was epoxied and wrapped with fiberglass and mahogany veneer on each side.  I used InstaMorph (moldable plastic pellets) to make inner and outer molds for each tab (eight molds in total) to maintain the shape during glue-up.  The lap-joined tab was removed and notched into the side before reinforcing.  After cleaning up and fitting each tab, the repairs were sealed with a light coat of shellac and waxed.  Many, many hours on this seemingly simple project.

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New frets & bone nut :: 1967 Guild Starfire IV [7.6 lbs]

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New frets & bone nut :: 1967 Guild Starfire IV [7.6 lbs]

New frets & bone nut :: 1967 Guild Starfire IV [7.6 lbs]

Here's an all-mahogany 335-style Hoboken Guild in for new frets and unbleached bone nut.  Photos of the fretwork can be seen here and here.  This is also the guitar that I dumped kitty litter into in an attempt to take the curse off of a moldy smell.

The Melita Syncro-Sonic bridge radius needed to be adjusted to match the fingerboard's radius.  While working on the bridge I found that the foot was double-stick taped to the top.  In order to give more range to the action adjustment (and side-to-side), the tape was removed and the underside of the bridge foot was re-fit to the top in order to lower the overall height.

The exposed patches of mahogany on the body were lightly sealed with shellac and the guitar strung with Thomastik flats.  This is a great sounding guitar.  She will be missed ...

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1962 Guild M-20 [3.7 lbs] :: bridge reglue & top touch up

1962 Guild M-20 [3.7 lbs] :: bridge re-glue & top touch up

The combination of the Fishman magnetic sound hole pickup and drop DGDGBD, this guitar sounds incredible.  This player needed the bridge re-glue turned around quickly as he will be playing at a friend's wedding.

*Note the airplane in the photo.  My shop is south facing and right under Boston's Logan Airport flight path.  Sometimes when the sun is in the right position planes will eclipse the sun and almost blackout the shop.

Coincidentally the owner is stopping by tomorrow before he picks someone up at the airport.

 

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