The Workshop

I thought it was about time I gave you a lookaround my workshop.

This is the main bench where I do most of my work. I also have two other benches which I use mostly for either sawing, cutting, routing work or simply as somewhere to put instruments when they're clamped up.

This is the place in the room with the most natural light. I also use florescent lighting with a combination of tubes - daylight etc. Most of my small handtools are kept close to hand at this bench as well as oils and cleaning products underneath it.

That's a Gibson J45 on the bench - its just had a neck re-set. Panning round to the right is the computer, the all important stereo and the second workbench. There is usually a vice mounted to the corner of this bench and its where I made nuts and saddles. In the shelves I keep strings, fretwire, books, drills...

Then there's the third bench and more shelving. Under the bench are boxes of parts. Behind this bench is an area in which I plan to build a seperate room to use for dirty, dusty jobs. It will contain a bandsaw, belt sander, buffer etc. and of course dust extraction.

I have only been in this space since January 08 so its still evolving and I'm still finding new ways to use the space I have. Finally, we've come around full circle and this is the room looking across the main bench again but in the other direction. On the wall are various tools and jigs with a rack of clamps below. The shelves are covered in jars containing parts- pots, switches, saddles...

The workshop is at:
19 Khyber Pass Road, Auckland

For any inquiries or comments call on: 021 912 678

glyn@mrglyn.co.nz

www.mrglyn.co.nz

What my Customers Say

Here are some emails I have received from happy customers.

Its great to have feedback like this and so nice of people to take the time to email me:

"Hi Glyn used my Epiphone LP at practice last night and there is a HUGE improvement in tone-more clarity,more volume and lots more sustain.With the toggle switch set in the middle position I can now get really good clean tones-much closer to the Tele which our singer uses. Just going to have to re-tweak the patches on my Line 6 now to match it...Thanks S."

"Glyn how goes it? Just to say fantastic job on the Hohner jack. I want to bring in the other bass you did for me and have a new bridge put on it.Cheers A."

"Hi Glyn. I have received the strat and it sounds and feels great. Very nice. Its one of the best SRV sounding gats ive ever heard (dunno why the highway series get such a bad rep) I will send another up next week if your not too busy. Cheers P."

"Hi Glyn, I've enjoyed visiting your site a few times, I enjoy your repair blog =) Have also heard several reports of the high standard of your work, it's good to have reliable people to direct people towards when they ask. D."

"Hello Mr Glyn, I enjoyed your blog, it is fantastic to see a craftsman proud to display his talent for all to see. Thanks."

"Hi Glyn, just wanted to drop you a line to say thanks for doing such a great job on my guitar, it is like a new instrument and i didn't know how good it could sound or play, Thanks I."

"Hey Glyn, The OLP is fantastic. It's amazing how many different sounds we can get out it now, and the action is the lowest I've had on any guitar. Henceforth I shall refer to you as 'the guitar whisperer'. R."

"Hi Glyn If you think a compound radius will look better I am not going to argue with you, do it as you think it will be best,you know way more than me and I have complete trust in your work. L."

"Just a word of thanks. Very nice job on my gibson (black custom re-fret), we've been rockin almost fulltime, it sounds scary!!!!! Will bring sum more work shortly, my squire needs help (badly), might have a 50's f-hole acoustic (not a big brand but an inheritance), when I get it back from the south Is. Has done 4 gens. of parties so gets tired fast all the best, P."

"Hi Glyn, Just wanted to drop you a line to thank you for dialing in my Les Paul - it's mint, as is the SG you re-set the neck on last year. It's re-assuring to know there's a craftsman out there that really knows what he's doing. Is there anything you can do with acoustics? - I've gota 70's Takamini that's sounding a bit dull - can you give it some love? Cheers A."

"Hi Glyn, Guitar is great thanks! here's a link to our MySpace site - i'll bring you a copy of the album next time I see you. Cheers A."


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Feel free to contact me about repair work (if you are in NZ). I only check emails weekly so the workshop phone is always the best 09 307 6501.

Workshop Hours

Mon……. 8-6
Tues……. 8-6
Wed…….. Closed
Thurs …..8-6
Fri ……….8-6
Sat/Sun ..Closed

Mr Glyn’s Guitars

  21a Khyber Pass Road

Auckland

New Zealand

http://www.mrglyn.co.nz/

glyn@mrglyn.co.nz

www.facebook.com/MrGlynGuitars

www.mrglyn.blogspot.com

09 307 6501, 021 912678

Harmony 1930's

This is a very interesting old Harmony guitar made sometime in the 1930's.

I am certainly no expert on these guitars - its not often I get guitars in of this age to look at.

There are no markings on it anywhere to indicate a model but I'm sure there's someone out there who can help with that.

She belongs to a well known Kiwi songwriter and performer and I'm pleased to say she gets gigged regularly. So many vintage guitars never get played and I feel its a real shame - they're not ornaments! He's brought me the guitar for me to check the electrics out before it goes on a US tour with him. There's no actual fault with it but its prudent to get it checked in case any wires are just hanging on by a thread. Equipement failiure on stage is rather embarasing.

It has two pickup systems fitted. The bridge is wooden and has a piezo pickup built into it. This is great at picking up the higher frequency more percussive aspects of the tone but as it's only really 'hearing' vibration from the strings doesn't give the full picture.

The under saddle pickup is run through a Barlolini preamp which has a fixed eq setting. Its a great little system and it warms up the otherwise harsh piezo sound nicely. All the wires going to it are sound and have heat shrink over the connections which helps prevent bad connections.

Undersaddle pickups have a sound which tends to be all top and bottom. They have a jangly sparkle at the top end and preamps give thay a boomy rich bass but they can lack mids. So this guitar has a magnetic pickup fitted accross the soundhole. This gives a good midrange sound although can sound too much like an electric guitar at times. The guitar is fitted with a blend control so you can decide how much of each pickup system you want, and a volume control. The volume and tone are the most likely places for bad connections.

I took both the potentiometers out and removed all the connections, cut and stripped back the wire and re-soldered them all. I applied heat shrink to all the connections as well. Its important to tin the wires before connecting them.

This is simply applying solder to the bare wire which insures a thorough and deep solder joint. If the wires aren't tinned first it is more likely that there'll be a 'dry joint'. This is simply a joint that although looking ok is not connected properly. Dry joints are harder to track down than broken joints which is why I'm replacing all the soldering on this guitar to make sure its all sound. Since starting this blog I've heard the U.S. tour went well and they're touring Europe now. I'm still here though.

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

www.mrglynspickups.com

Guild D40 bridge saddle

This is a beautiful Guild D40 from 1977.

The customer is a pro player and bought the guitar new in Sydney. It hasn't been played a huge amount and its in great condition.

The problem is with the intonation - its not out a huge amount but enough to annoy the player who has a very sensitive ear.

So we decided the best solution was to fit a compensated bridge saddle. I also suggested a compensated nut but he doesn't like the look of them.

String compensation and tuning can be a complicated and frustrating subject so I'll save the details for another time and just give a simplified version. All guitars (especially steel strung) need at least a little bridge compensation to play in tune. The reason for this is in the playing action. To play a note (other than open) you need to press the string down onto the fret. Lets say the string is 2mm from the top of the fret - you bend the string (sharp) by a distance of that 2mm before you sound the note. Try fretting a note then bending the string by 2mm - you can hear it. So to compensate for this the string length is made slightly longer by moving the saddle back thus putting the note in tune again. Its made slightly more tricky by the fact that bending a thicker string by the 2mm will sharpen it more than a thinner string - so thicker strings need to be compensated more. Also wound strings react differently to plain ones. So if you change your action, string gauge or tuning you'll need to change your intonation. Another thing worth remembering is its all just compromise, you cannot play exactly in tune - there is no exact - with the limitations of action and equal tempered tuning you can get pretty close but never exactly in tune in all keys. I'll go on about this more another time because its a bit of a pet subject of mine - but anyway, back to the Guild.

The original saddle is straight and made of bone. It is a little too low to be used again so I'm going to make a new bone saddle. Bone is the best material for saddles, I get mine from guitarparts.co.nz usually, its at the right price, he nearly always has stock and it arrives the next day. Bone is certainly not the easiest material to work with, it's very hard and the dust isn't too pleasant. I always wear a mask when working with it. This is partly because the fine dust can be harmful and partly because it is exactly the same smell as when the dentist is drilling your teeth. Not something I want to be reminded of.

I start off by cutting the saddle to length with a junior hack saw. I cut it close to the vice jaws to lessen the chances of the bone snapping. Bone it brittle stuff. I leave it slightly oversize so I can sand it to an exact fit later.

To sand the saddle I use a sheet of abrasive paper (about 80 grit) attached to a piece of mdf with double sided tape. The mdf has a kind of handle built in so it can be easily clamped to the work bench. With this I can get the bottom of the saddle flat and true. The bottom must be a right angle to the side for the saddle to connect properly with the bottom of the saddleslot and therefore to the guitar top. This is especially critical if there is an undersaddle piezo pickup fitted.The saddle must be a snug fit in the slot so it doesn't leanf orward under string tension. If it is too tight a fit it can get wedged in and not connect properly with the bottom of the slot. Its worth spending time on the fit of the saddle.

Once I'm happy with the way the saddle sits in the slot I can shape it for height to set the action. As I am replacing a perfectly good saddle I have one to copy. So I sand the new saddle to be about 1/2mm higher than the old one. Then its a case of filing the top of it to achieve the compensated intonation. The 6th string (bass E) is set to the back of the saddle (maximum string length) and the G string to the front with the D and A set in between creating a smooth line on the top of the saddle.The B is set back and the 1st string forward.

Once the filing is finished I sand any scratches out of the bone with 800 wet'n'dry and then 1200 after which I polish it up with some burnishing compound. I love polished bone, it brings out the warm colour of it. The player uses D'Addario 12's which are great strings. I get a lot of my strings from http://www.guitarstuff.co.nz/ they do a really good range at an amazing price. The delivery is cheap and next day. It means I don't need to leave the workshop to get them too. The last thing is to tune her up and check the intonation. Its a lot better than it was according to the Peterson tuner and to my ears. The customer was very happy with it though I still think it needed a compensated nut as well - ha ha

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

www.mrglynspickups.com

Gibson ES125D re-fret

This is a continuation of my post describing a re-fret. This nice old Gibson is from 1966 and had such fret and finger board wear that I just had to show you it.

The serial number isn't too clear in the photo but its 433265 and according to Gibson's website thats 1966.

This one's been re-fretted before a long time ago. Its had some 'rising tongue' which is the end of the board raising up ski jump style. Someone has tries to cure this by filing away the frets at the end of the neck.

As you can see there's almost nothing left. Certainly not playable here.

The board had such a lot of playing wear it was worth taking this photo. The whole board had wear like this all over it! Wow what a player! As you can just see in this pic when I took the frets out the board started to crumble so it took a lot of care and many little repairs to get it ready to take new frets. Leveling a board like this is a big job.

To ensure I didn't sand through the marker dots I took them out and put them back after. The rest of the job was straight forward (see Maton Re-Fret). Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of the finished instrument - the owner was very keen to get his hands on it.

………………………………………………………………………………………….

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

www.mrglynspickups.com

Shipping a guitar

No photos of guitars showing their intimate bits this time I'm sorry to say. I've been asked a lot recently about the best way to ship a guitar. Airlines can cause a lot of damage and although it keeps me in work its often very sad to see the results. If you don't have a hard case for you guitar - get one! Airlines don't let you take guitars on board with you anymore so they've got to go in the hold - a gig bag simply isn't enough protection. Make sure the end of the headstock doesn't touch the end of the case. If your neck is mahogany (most acoustics, gibson style elecs, basically almost any guitar with an angled back head) slacken off the strings. The reason for this is that mahogany can shatter with sudden impacts resulting in a broken neck. The string tension makes the neck more rigid and increases the chances of a breakage. If you have a maple neck (Fender type) there's no need to slacken the strings - maple has such a flex that it can withstand almost anything.

Watch Hendrix, SRV, Richie Blackmore - ever see them actually manage to snap a Fender neck? Wrap the guitar up as much as possible - clothes are good for this. It will help lessen any damage from impact. Make sure the pocket inside the case can't open - a capo and a tin of fast fret can cause some pretty big sctatches! Once its all packed properly take a trip to you local music shop and get a large rectangular cardboard guitar box to put your case in. These boxes are what guitars come from the manufacturer in and shops are usually pleased to get rid of them.Tape it all up securely, use 'Fragile' stickers and say a little prayer to whichever god you feel is looking down on you. Maybe help an old lady accross the road to gain a few Karma points. You've done all you can. Most airline damage I come accross (as I see a lot of it) involves bad packing.One other tip - if you play a bolt on neck electric take the neck off, put both parts in a bag and take it on as hand luggage.

………………………………………………………………………………………….
Feel free to contact me about repair work (if you are in NZ). I only check emails weekly so the workshop phone is always the best 09 307 6501.

Workshop Hours

Mon……. 8-6
Tues……. 8-6
Wed…….. Closed
Thurs …..8-6
Fri ……….8-6
Sat/Sun ..Closed

Mr Glyn’s Guitars

  21a Khyber Pass Road

Auckland

New Zealand

http://www.mrglyn.co.nz/

glyn@mrglyn.co.nz

www.facebook.com/MrGlynGuitars

www.mrglyn.blogspot.com

09 307 6501, 021 912678

Maton 'Phil Manning' Re-Fret

I get a lot of enquiries about re-fretting - what's involved, how does it affect the guitar's sound and playability? So when this rather nice old Maton came in for a re fret I took the chance to take a few photos.

This is not too good a picture of it but its gives an idea. The guitar is from the mid 70's and its been used a lot. Usually I find guitars like this one that show evidence of a lot of playing are good ones. Bad guitars just don't get played as much! The bridge isn't original and touches the bridge pickup so that's getting replaced too. I get a lot of my parts from http://www.guitarparts.co.nz/ - Iain who runs it is a lovely bloke and always gets stuff to me the next day. He does the 'Allparts' range which I love.But the main problem with this guitar is of course the fret wear. Not only are there deep dents in the frets around the open D chord but lots of wide flat areas all over the neck. I can tell its been owned by a pretty good player - blues/rock style I'd guess by the wear from a wide vibrato and string bending.If the wear isn't too deep it could be fret stoned out but with this one there's no chance of that. When the frets are this flat the guitar always sounds dull and lifeless. With a rounded, polished fret the string has a 'point' it can vibrate off instead of an indefined flat area.As frets get older their seating in the slot can get a little sloppy and absorb instead of transmit string energy. A lot of 'dead spots' on necks that get blamed on inconsistancies in the wood are really just loose frets.

Re-fretting always makes a guitar sound better.The first part of the job is to remove the old frets. I do this with a pair of pincers that I've ground to be flat on the face. This means I can get right under the fret more easily. Its quite a delicate operation because I don't want to pull any wood up with them. These frets are still well seated which is nice to see considering they've been in there since the mid 70's.

The nut needs to be removed and in this case replaced. These days I often use to use 'Graph TechTusq' for nuts and acoustic saddles. Their 'string saver' saddles are excellent too. I remove the nut with a thin, narrow (1/8") chisel I made specially for the job. Its a tool I made when I was in college about 15 years ago and its served me well. This bone nut isn't held on too tightly and comes off easily.

So the board is now fretless and ready for leveling. In this pic you can see how dirty the wood is from years of playing and some of the dents in the board from long fingernails. I level the board using a glass plane. This is a sanding block made of toughened glass so its pretty flat. Different grades of abrasive paper can be attached to it to sand the board level.

This is an essential part of the process. If the board isn't level then when I do the final skim of the fretshave to take out any unevenness on the frets. I don't want to put wear into new frets. This pic is taken half way through the leveling - you can still see wear in the board.

I sand through the grades of paper all the way to 1000 grade. Between sanding I wet the wood with water and leave it to evapourate. This 'fluffs' the grain out and gives a finer finish. After 3 or 4 times the wood doesn't expand any more and its oh so smooth!

The final stage before actually fretting is cleaning out the slots.I use a little saw that I've added a depth-stop to so I only go as deep as I need to. Maton have used a glue in the fret slots which needs cleaning out. Its a method I prefere to use myself and its good to see them doing it - most manufacturers don't bother. You can see how much better the board looks after its sanding.

Fretwire comes in a lot of different sizes. After a long discussion with the owner of this guitar, playing his rather nice Thinline Tele and having him play my Strat he decided on narrow jumbo wire. Its the same width as old style Fender wire but its higher. He's a good player and likes to bend strings so high wire is a good choice. With high frets your finger tip touches less wood which makes string bending a lot smoother.

A lot of players like high frets - I'm one of them. As I mentioned earlierI like to put glue in the fret slot. I use an alaphatic resin (Titebond). Its a water based wood glue that goes brittle hard when set. Now I'm not trying to glue the fret in - sticking wood to metal using wood glue is a dead loss. I do it to fill any gaps there might be under or around the fret with something hard. When the fret goes in on top of the glue it pushes it into every gap including into the wood end grain inside the fret slot. This gives the fret a very firm connection to the wood of the board and to the neck and of course makes a difference to the tone. The better the fret is seated the more lively and responsive the guitar is.

Ok so here's the fun bit! I put the frets in by the old method of tapping them in with a fret hammer. I first curve the fret to a tighter radius than the board ( so the ends sit down nicely).I very gently tap the ends into the slot just enough to hold the fret in.

I use a fret drift (block of mild steel) to even out the hammer pressure. The neck is supported with a neck rest that has a leather pad to protect the finish. I do this over the most solid part of the work bench (over a leg) so the hammer blows are 'dead'. If you have to hit the fret more than a few times then you end up loostening it. You can hear when its gone in true - there's a lot of experience and feel involved.

I leave the glue to dry for a few hours and then cut the fret ends off using my pincers again. Then its a case of filing the fret ends. This is one of the most time consuming and fiddly parts of the job and the hardest to describe. Not only does the angle need to be cut but the ends filed smooth so there are no sharp edges. And of course there are usually 44 of them. Then its a fret stone (http://mrglyn.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/fret-stone-fender-stratocaster.html), oiling the board and setting the instrument up. I use "Luthiers Fines' fretboard oil - www.luthiersfinest.com it's available through me at my workshop or www.guitarstuff.co.nz

There's a lot of work in a refret but the end result is a completely new playing surface, better tone and response and of course giving your instrument many more years of service.

      

………………………………………………………………………………………….

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

www.mrglynspickups.com