Breaking strings :: 1998 Gibson SG [7.4 lbs]

January 2, 2016

The player of this SG has a heavy right hand attack and was having issues regularly breaking strings. When someone is having string break issues, I always ask them where they are breaking. Near the nut? Bridge? This one was breaking them at the bridge. First thing addressed was the saddle slots. They were pretty gnarly with all kinds of junk and burrs. Once they were dressed I moved on to the stopbar. Originally it was tightened down flat to the body. This was causing a significant break angle of the strings over the bridge and I raised it to allow the strings to decrease their downward force on the saddles.

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Soundhole damage :: Blueridge BR-OM

January 1, 2016

A dreadnought in for a setup last week for a grandmother's Christmas present to her grandson. The soundhole edge had significant damage near the pickguard. Most of the pieces were there but it wasn't going to result in a pretty repair. A couple custom plexiglass cauls to flatten out the area along with a few clamps and hot hide glue for the fix.

Above is my camera rig for this day's daily video. You can subscribe over at my Youtube channel to follow along.

Soundhole repair from the daily videos.

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Bigsby setup :: 2007 Gretsch G5120 [7.2 lbs]

January 1, 2016

A pretty little Gretsch holllowbody in for a setup. These Bigsby-equipped guitars can be tricky to dial in the tuning stability.

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Punch my pickup :: 2001 Gibson SG [7.3 lbs]

December 31, 2015

This pickup literally got knocked the fuck out! If you have been following me for a while you will recognize that this is the same blueish green metallic beat-to-hell-and-back SG back for more. It dropped in earlier this week for yet another fix for tonight's New Year's gig. This time the player punched in the bridge pickup at a show! He knocked it so hard that he broke 4 strings and bent the pickup's mounting tab and stripped out the screw. I've been trying to put together one big blog post with all of these repairs and every time I get ready to post it's back in the shop for something new. I've grown to love working on this beast!

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Refret prep :: 1939 Gibson L-7

December 31, 2015

It's been a mini run of early vintage Gibson archtops in the shop lately, and by a run I mean two (see the 1957 Gibson ES-175). This L-7 is in for new frets, new tuners and a K&K acoustic pickup.