Bass finger ramp :: Bossa OBJ5 5 string [8.6 lbs]

View fullsize

A Japanese Bossa five string bass in for a setup and a "finger ramp."  Finger ramps are an additional piece of wood fit in between the pickups to allow the player to have a consistent anchor point for their thumb   As you move towards the neck, the tone is fatter and playing towards the bridges yields a brighter attack.  The ramp helps the player to have more consistency with the right hand technique.

View fullsize

This is an absolutely beautiful bass that I had not heard of before.  Super versatile.  Originally the player had it set up with higher action and a high C (tuned EADGC).  We dropped the action down considerably and set it up with a low B (BEADG).

View fullsize

View fullsize

Loose ferrules & setup :: 2011 Fender Jazz Bass [8.8 lbs]

View fullsize

A Jazz bass in for a fairly standard setup with low action.  One issue I discovered while changing strings was that the string ferrules in the back were super loose and fell out onto my bench.  Not a good thing as they can be easy to loose if you are not paying attention.  Similar to refitting peghead tuner bushings, I used some superglue snug them up.  Note that I do NOT glue the ferrules in.  The cured glue is used to add back material to the holes and give the ferrules something to bite into.  I often opt to add glue to the tuner bushings but on these ferrules I opted to add glue to the holes in the body.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Setup :: 2007 Gibson Robot Guitar [8.0 lbs]

View fullsize

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.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Dead pickup quick fix :: 1991 Fender American Standard Stratocaster [8.5 lbs]

View fullsize

View fullsize

An early 90's Strat in with some electronics issues.  The output was completely dead so I popped off the jack plate and found a broken connection that needed to be resoldered.  A fairly standard issue repair on Strats.  Another issue was that this player's neck pickup had been acting up for some time and finally cut out him.  When I pulled the pickup I found that the inside coil lead had been cut.  The flatwork looked like a cutting board where a nick perfectly matched the break.  A fellow local tech and pickup winder friend of mine, Chris Tatoyian of Black Cat Guitar, told me of a great fix he has used in the past.  Since it is the inside wrap, I can't unwind the pickup and resolder to the pickup lead.  His fix is to use copper shielding tape and make a soldering pad on the flatwork.  Total genius!  This trick saved the pickup from having to be rewound or replaced.  You rule Chris!

View fullsize

View fullsize

Pull binding tape :: Chubbuck Mousa 003 hollowbody

View fullsize

Here's a great trick I found on Instagram from Swedish builder Lars Rasmussen - using a heat gun to remove binding tape.  Although this is maple, there can be a risk to pulling up wood fibers on spruce / cedar / softwood top guitars.  The heat softens the adhesive and really speeds up this tedious process while saving your hands.