Gibson J-200 lacquer cracks

The top on this Gibson J-200 has bellied a bit, so much so that the lacquer on the top has started to crack.

Consequently, I had trouble getting a low action and thought the guitar might be suitable for the JLD Bridge system, which can correct bowed tops.

Installing the JLD system was straightforward enough. I removed the endpin jack to be able to align the bridge system inside the guitar, with the rod contacting just below the endpin jack.

You should be able to see the body of the Bridge System in the lower photo.

The JLD bridge system won’t fix all guitars but in this case, the installation was a success and not only was the string height reduced but the guitar sounds better with an improved, tighter bass. I’m hoping that as the top responds to the tension of the bridge system, the action will come down even more in the coming weeks.

J-200 with JLD Bridge System installed

Gibson J-50

This vintage Gibson J-50 played great but the lower frets were getting worn and needed attention. The original frets were wide and low, and if I dressed them, it would have resulted in very little height indeed.

I agreed with the guitar’s owner that a partial refret was the best option.

I replaced the first six frets with Stewart Macdonalds wide-low fretwire which was a great match for the original in height and width. Once installed, the new frets needed only a light dressing and good polish to match the old fret. As always, it’s hard to see the join!

Gibson J-50 partial refret

Lucille Varitone true bypass modification

The owner of this Gibson Lucille wanted to get a better sound from his guitar. Although position “1″ on the Gibson Varitone switch is supposed to be bypass, it does leave the choke in the circuit which loses volume and precious tone.

As the guitar’s owner didn’t find the stereo feature of the guitar useful, there was an opportunity to convert the guitar to mono, and use the now redundant other half of the Varitone switch to switch the choke in and out of the circuit.

I found a post on the Les Paul Forum where someone had done a similar job on his Gibson ES-345 and kindly provided a wiring diagram.

The modified guitar now has a lot more volume in the bypass position and suffers no loss of tone.

Fender LSR before

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, or so they say.

The owner of this guitar fitted a Fender LSR roller nut himself and I have to say showed some skill in cutting the wood away.

Unfortunately he misunderstood how the nut should be fitted and cut away far too much wood.

I tidied the bottom of the hole let in a piece of maple to fill it. I profiled the top of the fillet using a radiused sanding block before gluing then once the glue had dried, accurately cutting the slot for the LSR nut.

The repair was lacquered over using my Clear Satin nitrocellulose lacquer and flatted back smooth.

I did consider replacing the maple up to the first fret to hide the join, but the issue is only cosmetic, the join cannot be felt and to replace more wood than necessary would have increased both risk and cost.

The finished job looks like this. I have used no shims and the action at the first fret is spot on.

Fender LSR after surgery

Using Stewmac saddle routing jig on Epiphone EJ 200 left hand conversion

Here’s another Epiphone left hand conversion I did recently, this time a natural finish guitar. I invested in a Stewart Macdonald saddle routing jig and yes, one day I’ll take the protective paper off it!

I used a Graphtec Tusq nut and saddle as I like the consistency of  the material, plus it’s easier to work than bone.

You might be able to see from the picture below that the factory had placed the bridge slightly askew.

Also, in order to get a low action, it was necessary to remove about 3mm from the top of the bridge. Luckily the bridges on these guitars are really thick and sturdy so removing a bit of height will cause no problems.

Epiphone EJ-200 left-hand conversion Natural

Les Paul Traditional split neck

All that was required was to glue and clamp both sides before refinishing the back of the neck using my nitrocellulose lacquers.

Les Paul Traditional fixed neck

Unusually, the fall was so severe that it broke the fibre headstock face right across between the E tuners.

Les Paul Traditional broken headstock

Although not an easy repair the break had plenty of surface area for glue.

The repaired headstock was relacquered and the repair is only visible under close inspection.

Les Paul Traditional fixed headstock rear

I did consider replacing the headstock facing but decided to fill the repair and paint it black to keep the costs down.

The pearl Gibson logo was scraped clean and a new “Les Paul model” transfer applied and lacquered over.

Les Paul Traditional fixed headstock front

Once the lacquer had hardened, I flatted it, and buffed to a high gloss before reassembling the guitar and restringing.

Hofner Model 4575 65-3

This Höfner Model 4575 “65-3″ guitar which dates to 1965/66 and I’ve just rewired it as the controls were unreliable. despite a good clean.

Alan at Project Guitar Parts supplied the switches and also a reproduction pickguard and bracket. The pickguard needed to be cut to accommodate the pickups.

Eagle-eyed aficionados will spot that the tremolo arm is not correct and the owner’s next job is to source one to fit.

Fender USA Deluxe Jazz Bass pickguard

I made the Tortoiseshell pickguard for this Fender USA Deluxe Jazz Bass the other day.

For some reason, Fender don’t make this bass with a torty ‘guard but I think that tortoiseshell over 3-tone sunburst is a classic look.

The material is genuine 4-ply cellulose nitrate which smells great when it’s being cut.

Making a pickguard is a time-consuming task. The first step is to make a template from MDF or plywood, sanding accurately to the outline of the pickguard. Once the template is made, the roughed-out  blank is attached and trimmed with a router bit, then bevelled as and where necessary.

Zenith Bijou Standard 21 Archtop

This 50s archtop acoustic is a Zenith Standard 21 “Bijou”. Zenith guitars were made by Framus in Germany and re-badged Zenith by the importers, who were the major instrument distributors Boosey and Hawkes. This one has Ivor Mairant’s signature in ballpoint pen on the label inside, but I don’t know if it is the signature of the man himself.

This Zenith guitar was brought to me by the owner’s guitar teacher for me to repair a split in the top. For a 50+ year-old guitar it is in amazing condition and looks like it’s spent most of its life in the loft. When I received it however it had old, mismatched strings which looked nearly as old as the guitar and it was rather grubby.

I repaired the split and touched in the lacquer, levelled, dressed and polished the frets, oiled the fretboard, lowered the bridge a touch, lubricated the tuners and gave the whole guitar a good clean before restringing with a long-overdue set of Martin phosphor bronze strings and adjusting the intonation.

The owner will hardly recognise it!

By the way…

Paul McCartney’s first guitar was a Zenith type 17, very much like this.