Thursday... Turkey day... (not THAT turkey day)

[ChrisPcritter]

I wanted to BBQ today for lunch but I'm trying to loose a bit of weight so a protein shake and oatmeal is what i'm having all day.. So why call it turkey day.... because it's try to get healthy day for me, turkey is healthy for you and protein shake and oatmeal day doesn't have t good ring to it..


Topic of the day.... Guitar tech / repair..

# 1 do you primarily work on your own or have a tech
# 2 at what pint do you bring in a tech / luthier.

I've done my own setups etc since 1991 due to the bad setup job I got
at a guitar shop when I was stationed in Alaska. When you make $600 a
month, paying $50 for a guitar setup is painful. When they do a piss poor
job it just adds insult to injury. So I got out the little book that used to
come with the fender strat plus and learned to do it. Over the years I've
learned to do more and more.

Recently my daughter had a mexi strat that had been tossed out the front
door by a "friend" that was pissed at her. it broke the nut. I went to the local
shop and bought a tusq blnk and got out the nut files I recently bought and
started working on it.. It came out pretty darn good for my first attempt at
slotting a nut. especially since the nut started as a 1 7/8" and I had to shorten
it to about 1 5'8".. The guitar got sold and I only had an extra $10 in it.. The
guy that got it was a good player and thought it played great. I mentioned in the
add that it had a new nut but not that I put it in myself.

Last week I posted here and called and spoke with
chris at G&L that my Z3 is too bright sounding, not
only for my taste but when I use it when I'm swapping
out other gutars as well it just doesn't make it easy.
I got a reply from G&L
Hi Chris,
The easiest way to address this issue is to place a .001mfd capacitor across the volume pot. One leg of the cap solders to the hot side of the volume pot and the other cap leg solders to the back of the pot.

I'm gonna follow their advice but I'm gonna start
by attaching from the back of the pot to the spot
on the toggle switch where the bridge pickup connects.
It's mainly just the bridge pickup that is a "problem".
I'll keep you all updated on my findings..

Bottom line for me is..
when the removal of wood is ivolved in
a place not covered by a plate of pickguard
then I leave it to the pro's, Otherwise I fix it
myself..

I did however have an Ibanez 7 string that had
a very wide back of neck surface. Not wanting to
pay the $150 I was quoted to reshape the neck I
got out my snowboard scraper sanding blocks and
5 types of sandpaper and went to town on it... Unless
I point it out most folks can't tell it's not a factory
job... I used tongue oil on the back after words to
seal and give a satin finish..

Some times you just have to think
WWLD (what would Leo do?)




.

[darwinohm]

One of my favorite topics today Chris. I had a sandwich for lunch today. It was okay but not terrific!


I do all my own work and and am going to buy nut files and fretting tools. I do my own paint work. I recently took a neck in to have steamed and that was the best $20 I have spent in a long time. The main reason for doing my own work, is in addition to enjoying it, I know that it is done right. I like to do all my own work on everything. Today I took my 93 Olds in for an oil change and asked how much they wanted to replace the O-2 sensor. They wanted $204 for labor and the part. I declined and stopped at an auto store 1/2 block down the street. The part (Bosch) was $42 and the special socket to remove it was $15. It took me less than 15 minutes to change it. I saved $144 and the rest of the story is obvious to most of you. I explained to Ginny how I had save $144 for my next guitar. I am keeping this Olds in top shape in case Blarg ever drives it back to the land of OZ. -- Darwin

[zombywoof]

I also had a sandwich - really good home made bread and boring nothig to write home about filler and fixins.

I don't know why but I work on my acoustics far more than my electrics. Even repaired a broken neck and broken bridges on acoustics. About all I do with electrics is deal with scratchy pots and such.

[repoman]

Lunch was a sandwich wrap. Nothing exciting but it did the needful.

I haven't had to have a lot of work done. I had a couple of "pro" setups done but can't say that they were any better then me tweaking the truss rod or adjusting the action myself. I have been thinking about getting a new nut cut for my S500. I've never attempted that and don't have the files. So I guess it will probably go to a tech some day.


Jeff

[zapcosongs]

Lunch today was breakfast. Good toasted "Black & White" bagel, Olivio and a chunk of cheddar cheese. Banana. Water.

As a moron, I don't trust myself to work on my guitars. I've recently been giving them to Bassman to tweak. For a few bucks and a beer, it works for me - and he doesn't seem to mind. - ed

[sickbutnottired]

Lunch - Left over stroganoff. Somehow the comfort food was more comforting last night.

I do a huge amount of my own setup, and like Darwin I do a lot of my own maintenance on almost everything. I have never cut a complete nut, but I have used my brothers files to improve a few. My brother has a pretty slick set of farmer tools for dressing up frets. But I am going to have pro do a refret, because I just will never do enough to get setup and learn to do it.

I am very comfortable with electronics mods, with careful planning. But if he has time I get my brother to do the solder work, because he is amazing and I am kind of a globber-oner.

Darwin, hold onto that socket. With that and your multi-meter you can help out all your friends, and should get a nice supply of brews out of the deal. I bought an OBDII sensor and can only think of 1 time, out of about 10 when I wasn't able to fix a check engine light by finding a bad sensor. Could just be coincidence, though.

[Sprinter 92]

Topic of the day.... Guitar tech / repair..

# 1 do you primarily work on your own or have a tech

I'm doing almost all of my own work. I've been acquiring luthier tools over the past few years.

# 2 at what pint do you bring in a tech / luthier.

Re-fretting and finish work are the two things I'm not doing myself. I seldom need to do re-fretting or finish work so I can't justify buying the equipment to do it.


Sprinter 92

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

Coincidentally, I had oatmeal sprinkled with fresh blueberries for lunch. Dinner was greasy mini tacos and an icy Fosters.

I have not done a set up. I am in the process of taking my time acquiring the tools for basic set ups. I still need a couple of things. I plan on pulling out the PUPS and soldering in a noiseless set.

Back before I stopped playing for years I changed the PUPs on my brother-in-law's Charvel but I had a luthier do my Les Paul Custom because I wanted a coil tab toggle put in. I did not want to drill the hole in the finish. He asked me where I wanted it placed. I pointed to the spot and he promptly marked it with a ballpoint pen to my horror. However, he knew what he was doing, right??? ...so I thought. When I picked it up the switch was off-center but it operated properly.

People to trust in their work are getting rare. I am fortunate to have located a decent mechanic. I'd have him work on my guitars if he knew how.

[louis cyfer]

i do my own action, trussrod, intonation, but i go to my tech for everything else. i used to do it all myself, including refrets. i refinished and refretted several guitars. they played as well as other guitars i had seen. then i played a guitar that this guy did. it blew my mind. i also realized that most guitar players have not even experienced a properly setup guitar. i know in the 17 years i had been playing i haden't. btw, g&l used to send necks to him to fret when they needed a fretsize they didn't offer. people bring michael tuttle fretjobs to him to get them fixed. also some of the biggest names in guitar send the guitars to him. quite a few big companies send guitars to him before they go out for reviews.
he takes every guitar apart to its last little piece and puts it back together. the results are unreal. i have never seen another tech that even comes close, most techs just do a so so job, it's good enough they figure. but even he says that an average player has no need for his services, they will not be able to appreciate the difference in playability. he prides himself to satisfy the pickiest sob's out there. he doesn't like it when someone doesn't exactly know what they want from their guitar, relief, action, fret end angle, neck offset, etc. he likes it when the customer is very detailed and precise in what they want accomplished.

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

i do my own action, trussrod, intonation, but i go to my tech for everything else. i used to do it all myself, including refrets. i refinished and refretted several guitars. they played as well as other guitars i had seen. then i played a guitar that this guy did. it blew my mind. i also realized that most guitar players have not even experienced a properly setup guitar. i know in the 17 years i had been playing i haden't. btw, g&l used to send necks to him to fret when they needed a fretsize they didn't offer. people bring michael tuttle fretjobs to him to get them fixed. also some of the biggest names in guitar send the guitars to him. quite a few big companies send guitars to him before they go out for reviews.
he takes every guitar apart to its last little piece and puts it back together. the results are unreal. i have never seen another tech that even comes close, most techs just do a so so job, it's good enough they figure. but even he says that an average player has no need for his services, they will not be able to appreciate the difference in playability. he prides himself to satisfy the pickiest sob's out there. he doesn't like it when someone doesn't exactly know what they want from their guitar, relief, action, fret end angle, neck offset, etc. he likes it when the customer is very detailed and precise in what they want accomplished.

So if I described what I wanted in my ignorant, inexperienced, unprofessional and uncool words will you translate it so he is satisfied and willing to bother with my guitar?

[louis cyfer]

i do my own action, trussrod, intonation, but i go to my tech for everything else. i used to do it all myself, including refrets. i refinished and refretted several guitars. they played as well as other guitars i had seen. then i played a guitar that this guy did. it blew my mind. i also realized that most guitar players have not even experienced a properly setup guitar. i know in the 17 years i had been playing i haden't. btw, g&l used to send necks to him to fret when they needed a fretsize they didn't offer. people bring michael tuttle fretjobs to him to get them fixed. also some of the biggest names in guitar send the guitars to him. quite a few big companies send guitars to him before they go out for reviews.
he takes every guitar apart to its last little piece and puts it back together. the results are unreal. i have never seen another tech that even comes close, most techs just do a so so job, it's good enough they figure. but even he says that an average player has no need for his services, they will not be able to appreciate the difference in playability. he prides himself to satisfy the pickiest sob's out there. he doesn't like it when someone doesn't exactly know what they want from their guitar, relief, action, fret end angle, neck offset, etc. he likes it when the customer is very detailed and precise in what they want accomplished.

So if I described what I wanted in my ignorant, inexperienced, unprofessional and uncool words will you translate it so he is satisfied and willing to bother with my guitar?

it's not like that. not everyone knows the exact numbers, but they do know what they want. you can describe it any way you want, he will try to translate it into numbers. there is a long wait to get anything done, and he will recommend to people who don't really care about the details or not sure what they want, to go somewhere else, his services are not valuable to them, as a regular tech can satisfy them. he puts it this way, if you have 2 very high performance motorcycles, but one is significantly better set up, a person not pushing them, just driving around town won't even notice the difference, but even if they do, they won't be able to benefit from the improvements. he does like people to appreciate appreciate what he does compared to other techs.

[kakerlak]

Busy, busy week for me, so sorry no check-in, not that my contributions are worthy of much note anyway.

I've always had a pretty good ability to visualize how mechanical things work and how multiple parts work in concert. As such, I've never shied away from turning screws on a guitar and I'm pretty good at keeping them set up to my liking.

I defer to a professional for fretwork, nutwork, finishing and things involving glue. I'm of the opinion that those sorts of repairs require both specialized tools and (usually) practice.

The closest I've come to crossing that line with my own work was dressing the fret ends on a parts tele. The frets were well-crowned and the ends uniformly beveled away from the edge of the fretboard, but there was no transition from crown to bevel. It made the ends of them uncomfortable to slide up and down, though there wasn't any risk of cutting yourself playing or anything.

I eventually got up the nerve (after a few drinks) to take a set of Harbor Freight needle files and round out the transition from bevel to crown. I could have spent hours and hours at it, making each one totally uniform, but I didn't really care. They're all "similar" to each other and feel nice and smooth running up and down the neck. Maybe an hour of filing them round and then a quick buff out with emry paper to clear away the file marks and it's good to go.

I would not trust myself to do actual leveling without a radius block, crowning w/o real fret files, or either without a lot of practice on junk guitars, though.

[Kit]

I am an engineer by profession so I study projects before I start dismantling or tweaking. I'm the same way with guitars. The things I have done to guitars are:
- change pickguard (messier than it appears with a 3 single coil arrangement with 3 pots and a tangle of wires)
- set pickup height
- replaced bad tone pot (only had to do this one time so far)
- set truss rod (fortunately most of my guitar seem to be set fine and are stable)
- shimmed a bolt-on neck to adjust neck angle (did this on 2 guitars)
- adjust saddle height and intonation on every guitar
- set up a dual-fulcrum bridge

I had a guitar set up by a place in town with a great reputation to see what they can do. The result is good, but I conclude that my setup is just as good as what they achieved. I guess if a truss rod doesn't appear to be adjustable then I would take it to a store to get fixed.

Kit