Wish me luck...

[octavedoctor]

Re: Wish me luck...

The headstock has been cut back to allow the insertion of fresh timber.

The success of this technique depends on immaculate jointwork so it's not to be rushed





More to follow soon...

[Pierre]

Re: Wish me luck...

I feared for this guitar's life, but it seems that Dr Jones has things in hands.



Stay tuned for a page of commericals and we'll get back with 'Dr Jones: guitar surgeon'

[StrangeSound]

Re: Wish me luck...

I feared for this guitar's life, but it seems that Dr Jones has things in hands.



Stay tuned for a page of commericals and we'll get back with 'Dr Jones: guitar surgeon'

It´s getting much better (could it get any worse?)

Impressive work man.

[The Golden Boy]

Re: Wish me luck...

yeah, but that's not really a viable option in this case.

I've been slowly building a replacement neck for the ex-60ft Dolls guitar for the last 7 years (Gibson wanted about $1500 for an unfinished one) but i just don't get time to work on it with all the routine repairs I have to do...

Have you seen my 71 Deluxe? When I got it the neck was completely detached from the body, and the neck was in 3 pieces. I contacted Gibson and they referred me to a shop that "did their second work for them." (this was in 94). They put an genuine Gibson unfinished LP neck on my guitar for around $450 IIRC.

[ParameterMan]

Re: Wish me luck...

Wow. Impressive jointwork there. I, for one am aware of all the time and skill that went in before these pics.

[callous_frigid_chill]

Re: Wish me luck...

So what about the screws? I presume you will take those out?

[Innocent_Bystander]

Re: Wish me luck...

It already looks better, even with a huge chunk cut out! I can't wait to see the finished product.

[octavedoctor]

Re: Wish me luck...

Well, i've already had my first setback.

I spliced a lump of honduras cedar into the notch on the side



So far, so good



Trimmed it back



fitted the patch.

I chose to extend the notch to beyond the tuner holes as I foresaw problems when it came time to drill the headstock. It's not apparent from the photo but the plate of honduras cedar isn't exactly rectangular, it's taperd on three angles in three dimensions. The long edges are aligned on a very shallow taper which is intended to allow me to control the alignment of the joint, and produce a nice close fit.

What i had underestimated was the shear force delivered to the sides of the joint and as I slid it in for a dry fit the joint opened up along an inside edge under the stress. It was only a hairline crack and by the time all the patches are in place it will be well reinforced so out came the superglue and i saturated the whole joint with the stuff just for good measure.

The wood I'm using here is Honduras Cedar rather than mahogany. It's 30 yr old now and very rare. It's got a creamy pink texture and colour, similar to beech but lighter wit a similar density to mahognay but with a straight, reliable grain unlike Mahogany's random squiggling, sending the grain every which way. It was my favoured wood for Flamenco guitar necks and is really strong and carves and planes like butter.



Glued in and starting to take shape.


While waiting for this to dry i decided to address the notch in the edge of the fingerboard.

I pulled the two frets either side of the damage and cut back the fingerboard about 4mm, then spliced a new section of rosewood in.





the screws are out, obviously, and will be replaced by some tapered pins of walnut.

More soon.

[Pierre]

Re: Wish me luck...

The more I see your posts, the more I WANT to become a guitar tech/luthier, the more I realize I screwed up my life by studying something way too remote from it, and it's too late now

Keep on making me dream Great thread. I can barely see the difference in the rosewood, did you select a piece with similar grain?

[octavedoctor]

Re: Wish me luck...

Yeah, it's all the same batch of wood i bought form North Heigham Sawmills about 30 years ago when i was a student.

Trust me, you'll make more money in business. Keep guitar making as a hobby.

There's many times i wish i'd stayed as a psychologist.

At the moment i'm so sick of dealing with the ingratitude of my customers who I bend over backwards to help that I'm seriously thinking of packing it in and becoming a marriage guidance counsellor...

[ErikH]

Re: Wish me luck...

That is incredible work. You're making it look like that guitar didn't take that bad of damage. I'm liking what I see. The photos show lots of care and time and patience taken to make it right. I can't wait to see more progress photos.

[larry_emder]

Re: Wish me luck...

how much are you charging for this fix? looks like a heluva lotta work!

[choppermn]

Re: Wish me luck...

You are truely gifted at this, I have a local shop setup my guitars, and I never forget to be grateful, they do awesome work and make my crappy guitars play as nice ones.

[octavedoctor]

Re: Wish me luck...

how much are you charging for this fix? looks like a heluva lotta work!

The work so far hasn't been that big a deal; this is the easy bit. it's the refinishing that is challenging because there are so many things that can go wrong.

I think the reason i am posting this is probably quite selfish. I'm not known for rushing through work; i don't take these jobs on unless I have an open ended agreement that it takes as long as it takes. i spend a lot of my time fending off complaints from customers who are anxious to get their guitars back and really don't have any concept of how long it takes to restore a factory finish to something like this. There is a dramatic difference between the process of making a new guitar, where you start with a level playing field and the process of repairing one where you are concealing a variety of joints and splices, colour matching lacquers and shades of transparency and usually laying down new lacquer over or next to old. Lacquer shrinks into grain and cracks and one of the most common stumbling blocks i have found is the "half-life" effect. This refers to the way in which natural cellulose lacquers dry exponentially. There is an initial rapid drying stage followed by a slowing down of solvent release which continues for months and years. One of the most common mistakes made (and i've done this myself) is to lay the lacquer on too heavily, effectively sealing solvents into the lacquer film and retarding the long term post-curing. What happens then is that several weeks or months after you have polished the lacquer up and handed it back to the customer, a fault-line appears along the line of the repair, leading the customer to believe that the joint is opening up. Usually it isn't, its just that where the lacquer has filled the line of the break it has a slightly deeper profile so that as it dries it shrinks back into the line.

The only certain way of combating this is time. Thin coats, cut back frequently and allowed to dry for up to a week between. It's impossible to predict how long this process can take. I've had some done and dusted in six weeks, some go on for eighteen months. In a real sense it's the repair that dictates its own timeline, not the repairer who has a vested interest in shifting everything as quickly as possible.

Anyway I thought it would be nice for those of you who are interested, and particularly Ramin, whose guitar it is, to be able to follow its progress (and maybe sometimes regress if I make mistakes or have setbacks).

In answer to your question, i usually do these jobs for about £120 - £150.
(that's $280US, $340CAN, $372AUS, €220)

[ErikH]

Re: Wish me luck...

Any updates, Doc?