Stainless Steel Fretwire

I get often asked 'what's the difference between normal frets and stainless steel?'.
I first used stainless steel fretwire in '08 when a customer requested it and now offer it as an option when re-fretting.
 For most players new frets will last decades but some can get through them in a couple of years.
The subject came up again recently when asked to re-fret a couple of Maton guitars by Sydney based guitarist Gavin Locke 
http://www.gavinlocke.com.au/
Gavin wears frets out at an alarming rate - he plays for hours every day and it certainly takes its toll on his instruments.

This is his main guitar, the one pictured on his website. It's been re-fretted before at least once and there's a lot of wear again.
 He'd heard about stainless steel frets and wanted my opinion on them.

Most quality fretwire is called 18% nickel silver (it consists of 62% copper, 18% nickel and 20% zinc). This is standard in most guitars except for the cheapest. It comes in a variety of sizes and profiles to suit every player and playing style.

  Stainless steel is harder, a lot harder. It doesn't come in such a large choice of sizes but enough to please most players.
The advantage of stainless is it lasts longer. How long exactly I can't say - I haven't seen any worn out yet. But going by how hard it is to cut I'd say it will out last 'normal' fret wire a few times over. I'm hoping Gavin with his playing regimen will destruction test it for me.
The disadvantages are mainly for the luthier. It is harder to work with. Difficult to cut, time consuming to file, harder to seat, very wearing on both tools and hands.
A lot of luthiers don't like it and I can understand why. I charge more for a stainless steel re-fret to make up for the extra time and tool wear.

The big controversy is with the sound. Intuitively you would expect a harder material to sound harsh and metalic and there is plenty written on forums to back this up. I haven't found this to be the case. I ask every player to report back their feelings on it (it's their opinion that counts) and everyone has liked it. Gavin was delighted and somewhat disbelieving that his guitar sounder the same.
So for me it's a big thumbs up for stainless steel frets.

  Glyn


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I am no longer repairing guitars - since covid 19 I now work full time making pickups

www.mrglynspickups.com

A Look at a Pro's Guitar

This time I'm looking over a Pro guitarist's highly modified Stratocaster and his set up preferences.
Warren Mendonsa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstratblues)
is known as a Strat player though he is certainly not a traditionalist.
 He 's brought his Strat in primarily for a re-fret but I've taken the opportunity to to take a few pics and have a good look over her too.

 She has an alder body and a maple neck - a great combination for a warm, loose strat sound.
From the serial number you can see she's a 1997 Strat. Fender started this dating system in '76. The N7 represents '97, if it was an '86 it would say E6 etc.

 
With the neck off you can see the guitar's exact 'birthday' and the stickers and stamps from when it was put together. The large round metal thing is the truss rod anchor. This guitar has the neck micro-tilt system and the anchor doubles up as a plate for this to push against.

 Warren favours a bone nut lubricated with graphite.

He's had some string buzz on the open D string at some point and has put a small piece of guitar string in the slot to raise it up. I'm going to make him a new bone nut. All the slots in this one will be too low when the new frets are in.

The bridge saddles have been changed for Graphtech Stringsavers so I can assume he's had string breaking problems in the past. The front of the trem plate is butted up against the pickguard so I'm going to remove a little bit of the plastic to relieve this. Everything needs a good clean and lube - it gets a lot of use.

 He doesn't use the trem so has 5 springs in the back. You can clearly see here that this strat has been re-finished at some point. He's a big fan of fat steel trem blocks (me too). A fat, heavy block can add quite a bit of life to a Strat.

The jack socket is dirty and needs a clean or I may even replace it.

The strap hooks are a disgrace - he's filled the holes with matchsticks but that is only ever a temporary solution. It can be pretty unpleasant if these fall out on stage.
I drill both strap hook holes out to 10mm, plug them with maple and screw the hooks into the them - that should last him.

 The body has what is known as the 'swimming pool' route as a pickup cavity. This is frowned upon by purists but this Strat sounds great...

The back of the neck has seen some action but he's happy with the feel so there's no need to do anything about that.

You can see where he's worn the lacquer away on the edge of the fretboard. When I re-fret it Warren wants me to leave the finish as it is - he's earned that wear.

On the subject of wear - this is why the guitar is on my bench. It really does need a re-fret. He favours jumbo frets (Dunlop 6100). Again, not traditional. The board is the stock 9 inch radius.
These frets give a modern feel. With frets this high his finger tip will barely touch the wood which gives more controlled vibrato and string bending. There is barely any wear to the lacquer on the face of the fretboard. Check him out on youtube or buy the album - such a controled left hand.

He's using Seymour Duncan pickups - a SH-AH1 Allan Holdsworth Humbucker in the bridge and STK classic stacks neck and middle (both neck pickups). These are wired into cts pots with Orange drop tone caps.n The pickguard is an aftermarket and by Allparts.

On removing the frets there was a fair amount of muck but the slots have fared well (this is not her first re-fret).
I'm not going to go into any detail about the re-fret, I've done that before (http://mrglyn.blogspot.com/2008/11/maton-phil-manning-re-fret.html)

 He uses D'Addario 11's (to "slow him down"!) in standard A 440hz. His truss rod is set almost flat (barely any relief), the nut low and an action at 12th fret of 1mm on the treble to 1.2mm on the bass side - extremely low.

  I've enjoyed working on Warren's Strat and having a chat with him. You can check him out at
http://www.blackstratblues.com/

 Glyn


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I am no longer repairing guitars - since covid 19 I now work full time making pickups

www.mrglynspickups.com

New Dot Markers

George is a 'Man Of ROCK' - as a result he has problems seeing his position markers at dark gigs.
 His bass is black and the markers small, not a good combination.

So when he brought his bass in with a broken headstock (I told you he's rock'n' roll) I took the opportunity to replace the side dot markers with slightly larger ones.
 I've decided on 3.2mm white plastic markers.
 I custom make dot's using the drill press.
 The first stage is to grind the butt end of a 3.2mm drill bit flat.

I clamp a block of mild steel to the drill press base and drill a hole in it using the drill bit.

Then without moving the steel block I take the drill bit out and turn it around so the butt end is facing down.

 The drill is an exact fit in the hole and lines up perfectly. You can see I've used this block before.
 I've made a press to punch out dots.

I use an old piece of pickguard material. While I'm about it I punch out 50 or so - won't need to do this job again for a while.

I enlarge the existing holes in the guitar and glue the dots in with superglue gel.

When the glue's dry I shave it flush with a sharp chisel and the job's done.

With any luck he'll be able to see what he's doing now.

George also runs The Killingroom rehersal space here in Auckland - www.thekillingroom.com - my band uses it, why don't you?


Cheers
    Glyn



………………………………………………………………………………………….

I am no longer repairing guitars - since covid 19 I now work full time making pickups

www.mrglynspickups.com

Guitar cutting out

A number of things can cause your guitar to cut out but the number one most likely is the jack socket.
 If a guitar hasn't been plugged in for a while or been left in a damp environment it can often develop electrical problems. Electrical component can oxidize and cause contacts to become intermittent or fail completely. The most common problem is with jack sockets.

The inside, ring part of the jack becomes 'dirty' with oxidization and no longer makes correct contact.The result is loud humming, crackling or cutting out.
 The answer is very easy:
 Take a rolled up piece of wet-n-dry paper (about 600 grade) and clean the jack with it.

You can see dirt that came out of this Les Paul's jack.
 The process can be made a little easier by spraying contact cleaner into the jack as well to help dissolve the dirt.

Contact cleaner dissolves the 'poo' and then evaporates away so as not to attract dirt.
 The job is quick and easy. I always keep some 600 grade in my gig bag just in case - it could save a lot of embarrassment on stage.
 All guitars are susceptible to this problem - it doesn't matter if you play a vintage Strat, a new Les Paul or a real cheapie, eventually the jack will need a clean.
 If symptoms persist get it checked out - the jack may need replacing or there could be another fault.

Cheers
    Glyn


………………………………………………………………………………………….

I am no longer repairing guitars - since covid 19 I now work full time making pickups

www.mrglynspickups.com

Battery compartment for EMG's

This is most definitely a ROCK guitar- it's a Dean Dime-o-Flage.
 The owner has decided to swap the stock pickups for EMG's and has gone for the classic 81,85 combination. 

He's going for the 18 volt option which gives the pickups a little more headroom He's fitted the pickups himself and intends to wire in the EMG pots etc. but has a slight problem:

There's no space for one battery let alone two. So he's brought the guitar to me to route a cavity and to fit a battery compartment.
 We're limited as to where it can go. The guitar has a narrow waist and the pickup cavities have been routed from the other side - I don't want to route through to one of those. I need to be able to drill a hole from the new cavity to an existing one to run the wires. We decided to put it just above the string anchor points.

Routing is not a job for the faint hearted  - if you've never used one and fancy giving it a go - get some tuition. I used to tell my students "no one ever had a minor accident with a router", not strictly true but it focused their minds.
 I'm using my 1/2" shank Makita router for this job.

 I'm using a 1/4" cutter and a 10mm guide bush to follow the template. My template is cut 2mm oversized to allow for the difference in size between the cutter and the guide bush.

 The template is made from 6mm clear plexiglass, it's hard wearing and being able to see through it helps with positioning it accurately.

I first route a test run on a piece of scrap to make sure it will be the right size for the new battery box. You can see I've used this piece of scrap before.

Routing is noisy and dusty and there can be flying chips - I never take any chances.

 I put masking tape over the area and mark the exact location on it. I align the template and clamp it in place.

 I check it after the first pass - all looks good. Then it's a case of gradually increasing the depth down to 33mm in this case. This guitar body is made of basswood so it's easy going for the router. I'm quite a fan of the loose, open sound of softer hardwoods like basswood and alder and of course they are kinder on the tools.

It's a big hole.

Here's the finished battery compartment. I've drilled a hole through to the control cavity and fed the wires through. The rest is up to him.


Glyn


………………………………………………………………………………………….

I am no longer repairing guitars - since covid 19 I now work full time making pickups

www.mrglynspickups.com

Gibson Songwriter - neck break

I got back to the workshop after my xmas break, the phone rang and this became my first job of the year.

 Ugly isn't it!
 The head has been broken in a fairly typical way - I see this a lot and it is a routine job.
But this one has been 'repaired' badly and the glue has failed. Then they tried bolting it together and the result is obvious from the photo.

 The bolts were tight enough to crush the face of the headstock - Its all a bit of a mess.

 The unsuccessful repair makes it more complicated. I can't glue it back together - sticking failed glue to failed glue just isn't going to work.
 I decided to cut out the damaged area and replace it with good wood.
 I called the owner with my solution to his problem and he was a little reluctant at first (quite understandable). But in the end he gave me the 'go ahead'.

 I made two saw cuts to define the section to be replaced and started removing mahogany with a sharp chisel. You can see one of the cuts on the left of the picture. I use a Japanese Saw - they're very accurate.
 I'm going to leave the veneer on the front face of the headstock to give extra support and glue surface area. This makes it a lot harder but I think its worth it.

You can see the truss rod exposed in the middle of this picture. Sometimes things have to look worse before they can look better. This is not a job for the faint hearted - it is a Gibson after all.

I carve a block of mahogany to fit the area I have cut out. I glue and clamp it in place.

 

The new piece does look a little incongruous - there's a touch of Frankenstein's monster to it.

Here I've started to carve it. It's a sharp chisel job - it has been pointed out to me how much I go on about sharp chisels in this blog but I just can't help it.
Now its just a case of shaping it so it looks like a guitar neck again.

 So here's the finished article. The owner didn't want any spray job (the cost can be quite high) so I just gave it a couple of coats of clear lacquer to seal it.
 I'm pleased with it - saved a nice Gibson neck from the scrap heap.

   Glyn



………………………………………………………………………………………….

I am no longer repairing guitars - since covid 19 I now work full time making pickups

www.mrglynspickups.com