Loose frets :: 2004 Squire Vintage Modified '51

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Poor fretwork is to be expected on a guitar that currently retails for $180*.  A bunch of fret ends were loose and caused all sorts of buzzing.  Here I'm using superglue and clamps to make them sit back down.  A very cool guitar once you sort out the factory's hasty setup work.

*this is a 1st generation '51 with the current reissues retailing $180.

Fret divots :: 1993 Martin HD-28 2R

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Heavy fret wear on a Martin that is well past leveling.  I'll pull these frets and prep the board for new frets.

Output jack repair :: 1983 Gibson Flying V

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An output jack repair on an early 80's Flying V.  I used the same technique (and jig) on a Yamaha Hollowbody that I wrote up over on the blog last year.

http://www.chubbuckguitars.com/blog/2014/07/29/output-jack-crack

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Video with a trippy intro of the repair from the vlog:

Getting lucky with a dead pickup :: Yamaha FGX-412SC [5.2 lbs]

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This pickup hasn't worked in years and the player decided to let me give it a shot.  I got lucky on this one.  First thing to check on acoustic pickup issues is the power.  A fresh battery didn't solve the issue so I started checking connections with a multimeter set to continuity (beeps when a connection is good).  The culprit turned out to be the battery box.  All of the connections were good, but their wasn't enough pressure to hold the battery leads up against the contacts in the battery tray.  I used some foam to take up the slack and push the battery forward in the tray and voila! 

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After resolving the pickup issue, here's a quick string-up from the vlog:

Setup :: Mitchell MD100CE [4.6 lbs]

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A quick and dirty setup on a new Mitchell.  This has an undersaddle pickup so anytime you make a change to the saddle height, you need to check the string-to-string balance.