Setup :: 2007 Gibson Robot Guitar [8.0 lbs]

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Bleep, blop, bloop!  A Gibson 1st production run "Robot Guitar" in for a setup.  What makes it a robot?  It can tune itself automatically.  Just pull the grey knob, select the tuning, press the center button, pluck the open strings and the tuning knobs take care of the rest.  Certainly a novelty guitar but the auto tuning works fairly well.  Sometimes it doesn't find the pitch on the first pluck but just hit the string again until the knob light of corresponding string turns green.  A concern I would have on these guitars would be the availability of the proprietary Tronical tuning system components should something fail.  Both the bridge and the stopbar are part of the system along with the motorized tuners and circuit board.

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Brand spanking new setup :: 2016 Gibson Les Paul Standard [9.3 lbs]

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A gorgeous brand new flame top Les Paul in for a setup.  The original setup was actually pretty decent but a little too low for this player.  I ended up straightening the neck and raising the bridge slightly.  I also filed and polished out the saddle slots to keep the strings from binding.  My only pet peeve with this guitar is the bridge location.  Note that the saddle positions are pushed all the way to the rear of the bridge.  This guitar is properly intonated with 10's and I'd like to see these saddles end up more in the middle of the bridge to allow for more flexibilty in string gauges (ie bigger strings need the saddles to be pushed back further).  Kind of odd considering Gibson has state of the art manufacturing facilities, but maybe I'm missing something in their decision.

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Bridge Radius Mismatch :: 2012 Gibson Les Paul Studio [8.0 lbs]

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Bridge Radius Mismatch :: 2012 Gibson Les Paul Studio [8.0 lbs]

The A string was significantly lower on this gold top Les Paul Studio with respect to the fingerboard and was causing fret buzz.  The other saddles notches were filed down to match the radius and the action corrected.  This was the most mismatched bridge radius I've seen yet on a tuneomatic.

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2005 Epiphone Les Paul Classic [8.6 lbs] :: setup

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2005 Epiphone Les Paul Classic [8.6 lbs] :: setup

Like many Les Pauls, this has a slight fingerboard rise over the body that some refer to as a "ski jump" or "body hump".  This effect was lessened on this setup by straightening the neck via the truss rod and then raising the bridge to account for the truss rod adjustment.  The neck now plays well without fretting out up high.  This truss rod adjustment trick doesn't always work out though as some players require more relief in their neck (to prevent lower fret buzzes) or the "ski jump" is just too extreme.  In that later case, often the only solution is to remove the frets and plane the body hump out and install new frets.

Broken headstock & upgrades :: 1992 Gibson Les Paul [7.7 lbs]

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Broken headstock & upgrades :: 1992 Gibson Les Paul [7.7 lbs]

Another Gibson, another broken headstock. The neck break was repaired along with an odd break in the control cavity.  While the guitar was in the shop, the player decided to make a few upgrades, including a Tonepros bridge, amber bell knobs and cream appointments (pickup rings, switch plate, output jack plate - all originally black).  The player will be swapping out the Dimarzio "Mega Drive" (DP107) bridge pickup himself for a classic '57.  In order to cosmetically match the new pickup, the player had me install a gold cover on the neck pickup.

Below is the headstock repair.  We opted for no finish touch ups, so I just wet sanded and buffed the area to improve the feel.

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