"Fender" Strat [7.8 lbs] :: late-night quick setup

August 14, 2014

"Fender" Strat [7.8 lbs] :: late-night quick setup.

A player stopped in last night as he recently noticed that his Strat was beginning to fret out with big bends on the upper frets. I removed the neck, tightened the truss rod, and raised the saddles back up to the original action. This helped clean up the sustain in his bends.

I love being able to support gigging players.

Note this is a Chandler Industries body and a Warmoth neck. I didn't have time to pull the pick guard and check the pickups.

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1987 Carvin DC-150 :: strip and refinish

August 14, 2014

1987 Carvin DC-150 :: strip and refinish.

Here I'm sanding off the clear poly finish to prep it for a transparent nitro sunburst. At first I tried the heat gun / pallet knife trick but it was not going very well. Like, at all. Could be that the finish is fairly thin (for poly) and my knife had a thing for trying to gouge into the quilted maple. No good.

Luckily this is a flat top and back, so sanding goes fairly quickly. But my poor little compressor can't feed the orbital sander for very long so I have to take frequent breaks to let it build up pressure again. This places a larger compressor firmly on the shop wish-list.

I hope to get this into the booth this weekend.

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

August 14, 2014

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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