Guitar repair
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This is work to repair an old Gretsch acoustic archtop guitar. The serial number isn’t completely readable, but it looks very much like a SN that would ate the instrument to the 1930’s.
The action was too high, the neck was loose, and the setup needs to be reversed for my daughter. Also, the binding is a mess. It is old celluloid that has shrunk and cracked. What remains on the front is beautiful so, despite the damage, I want to preserve it as best I can. The binding on the back is hopeless. Most of it is gone and what remains is so brittle it breaks apart when you handle the instrument.
I’ve never done guitar work before. We’ll see how it goes. Posting publicly will commit me to seeing it through.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.First up is repairing the neck. The faces of the mortise aren’t planar, aren’t at the right angles, and are too wide for the dovetail tenon. Have a look on youtube for a video about neck dovetails and setting by Blue Creek Guitars. There’s a lot to it.
I transferred the dovetail angle to a block of wood for a sanding block. This will be used to flatten the dovetail socket faces and get them to an angle that matches the dovetail tail. Chalk is used to paint the surface, the sanding block reference face is run along the back of the socket, and the sandpaper cuts the socket cheek. The chalk and paper shows you the high spots. I’m using a mixture of sanding and paring. In the photo, the surface is flat and at the correct angle except for an outer band about 1/8″ wide.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Following with interest!
I’ll be enrolling in a series of acoustic guitar making courses and electric guitar making courses at the local woodworking college starting this fall. Hoping it’s less expensive than my hobby of buying them built by others 🙂 There’s so much to know it can be intimidating.
Note to self: Plan B is to procrastinate and then send questions to @etmo after he takes his guitar classes. Excellent!
At the moment, I’m trying to figure out if it matters what type of wood is used for shimming the neck. I’ll need between 1/16 and 1/32 on each side.
The guitar work was interrupted by needing to carve a chin rest for my daughter. She borrowed a viola to give it a try, but since she plays a reversed position, she needs a left handed chin rest. Rather than disturbing her violin (her main instrument), I carved a chin rest for the loaner viola. The black rest is the model. The carved one is a mirror image and is a bit taller (to fit her better). At this point, there’s dye, but no finish.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Look at the first photo, with the blank, model, and rough layout. The layout was traced by flipping the model upside down onto the right side up blank, so that gives you a reflection in that view. Now open it like a book and trace onto the side. That’s a mirror image of that view. You can do the other views, too.
That all being said, there’s a lot of eyeballing. You need to carve a reflection of the channel where the chin goes. There are sections that get cut away, removing the layout. Many features are intersections of curved surfaces. Once you start cutting, it gets confusing, so you find something that makes sense, do it, then look for the next thing. Finally, smooth it all together.
It’s not a perfect copy, not even close, but it’s in the ballpark, and that’s all that is needed.
5 August 2017 at 9:49 am #314295Hi Ed.
It looks like you’re approaching the guitar project slowly and showing sensitivity to the originality of the instrument. You are also researching the subject as you go, so I predict a successful outcome to this project.
I have worked on guitars in the past, including neck alignment. Remember to think very carefully before doing anything you can’t undo and you’ll be ok. Also, don’t replace anything unless it’s really necessary.
Good luck, and that’s a beautiful guitar BTW.
Steve
Now that the table is done, I can get back to this. @gilessteve can you give me some guidance on binding? The original, on the front, is celluloid that has yellowed. For the back, I could use the cream colored ABS plastic from stewmac, or I could cut wood binding from tiger maple. Any suggestions or hints for which to pick for a beginner? Remember, this is a repair, so I need to be careful with scraping the binding to final size.
17 September 2017 at 11:47 am #315970Hi Ed,
I’m sorry but I haven’t ever had to deal with binding so any answer I gave would be guesswork on my part. The plastic option sounds easier to me though.
Steve
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