The Scroll Shop (Ed of H's Shop Thread)

[cozmik_cowboy]

This past weekend's project; EJ-200, the Epiphone import (Korea or Indonesia?) of a maple-body J-200. Huge guitar. Very well-made.

Someone on another forum asked what was the difference between Gibson and Epiphone.  I answered that the Epi EJ-200 was a fine $1500 guitar that you can buy for $750, while the Gibson SJ-200 is a fine $2500 guitar that you can buy for $5500.......

Peter

[growlypants]

Great answer!!

[cozmik_cowboy]

... EJ-200, Epiphone .. Huge guitar. Very well-made ...

That's an interesting looking guitar. How does a guitar like that sound and/or what is its best use?

How does it sound? Listen to Townes Van Zandt's Live At The Old Quarter, most of Pete Townshend's acoustic playing, and pretty much everything by Emmylou Harris.  (They all use[d] the Gibson original, but the Epi is pretty close).
What's it best use?  I'd say accompanying a singer-songwriter; they work well flatpicked, but better fingerpicked or strummed.
I love them (though I do prefer the much rarer mahogany and, especially, rosewood versions Gibson has occasionally made).


Peter

[David Houck]

Thanks Peter and Greg!

[hammer]

Greg


When I read your postings about the reclamation projects you do on instruments in your little workshop, I'm reminded of a book by Matthew Crawford, Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. My son gave it to me as a Christmas gift his senior year of college where he was a philosophy major before deciding that he much more enjoyed building things with his hands (he now has a career as a finish carpenteur). In his book, Crawford details how he came to the realization that pushing papers around as a policy analyst didn't bring him anywhere near the level of enjoyment as using his undergraduate degree in physics to figure out how things (in this case motorcycles) worked and repairing them. So he opened up a motorcycle repair shop in VA I believe. He speaks about how the reactions of customers when he was able to repair bikes that they initially thought were toast far outweighed the reinformcement he got from his previous job. I hope that, more often than not, you get to see the reactions of those whose instruments you repair.

[edwardofhuncote]

It's done, going back to the store tomorrow, just in time to hang up for weekend traffic. They have two more repair projects for me to evaluate while I'm in there.




My shop is an interesting outlet, Brian... sometimes it's as simple as just solving little wooden problems. Other days, it's a refuge from the so-called 'real world'... I can just go up there and tune out. Other days I'm actually trying to meet someone's expectations.

[David Houck]

Looks nice!  Did you play it?

[edwardofhuncote]

Looks nice!  Did you play it?

I did play on it for a while. Mostly to get the action where I wanted it. After initial restringing and assessment, I do a lot of that by measurement and feel. If a guitar still feels a little bit stiff in the first position, I'll put a capo on the 3rd fret, and see how much clearance there is between the strings and the 1st fret, and determine whether the nut slots need some work. If I'm doing one for a specific customer, I'll do it exactly to their requirement. If I'm setting one up for the store, I'll leave the action on the higher side of still comfortable. This one didn't need much... just a little tweak here and there.

I agree with what Coz says; this guitar would be ideal for a strumming/accompaniment stage instrument. I think it would sing played with a set of fingerpicks too, if I had coordination enough for that style. It was really awkward to play while seated, and there was almost too much zing and punch for a flatpick. I had another thought while playing it - if I were going to build an acoustic bass guitar, this body and general design would be a great starting point. Plenty of clarity and volume.

Up next; an early 1900's banjo rebuild. This one is from C. Bruno & Son, New York. It's really nice... very good parts here. The shell is especially interesting. It's a 3-ply maple rim, 10-7/8" dia. with an outer veneer of birdseye maple. The neck is a bookmatch of the same, with a center laminate stripe of rosewood or ebony. Check out the walnut 'cap' on the back of the shell. It has no purpose other than just hiding the glue joint where the rim is rolled, but what a classy way to do it. I like detail like this.

I've already disassembled, and cleaned up the hardware. Waiting on a new head, might be in today's mail. I've got to work on the dowelstick to get the neck angle back where it needs to be, and the rest of the work is just easy cleanup and setup.

[David Houck]

... I agree with what Coz says; this guitar would be ideal for a strumming/accompaniment stage instrument. I think it would sing played with a set of fingerpicks too, if I had coordination enough for that style. It was really awkward to play while seated, and there was almost too much zing and punch for a flatpick. I had another thought while playing it - if I were going to build an acoustic bass guitar, this body and general design would be a great starting point. Plenty of clarity and volume ...

Thanks for the report!

[pauldo]

The banjo wood is beautiful.

[edwardofhuncote]

I got the C. Bruno banjo pot assembly... well... assembled. A new Renaissance head installed, and I am working on the neck tonight.

[cozmik_cowboy]

I second Paul's sentiment; that wood sounds great just looking at the pictures!

Peter

[edwardofhuncote]

Part of what I've been correcting on this one, was an unworkably shallow neck angle. I was about 50/50 on just cutting off the dowelstick and installing a threaded coordinator rod. I opted instead to try this approach... if you look closely at the stick, you'll see that I have split it from the center of the end, up to about a couple inches from the heel of the neck, then joined the cutoff piece to the bottom of the stick. Then I glued a veneer over the top and bottom of the joint. This buys you just a couple degrees of pitch. I've done this stunt a couple times, and it's worked in varying degrees. This one was borderline... worst-case it just failed, and I either made a new dowelstick for it, or went with a coordinator rod setup.

To get a little better fit, I have also made a thin maple shim to go between the upper half of the neck heel and the rim, and glued it in place. Followed up with a little amber-dyed brushed lacquer over all the new, or bare maple to blend back in.

I've still got some fretwork to do. But it's gettin' close to my bedtime. 💤

[cozmik_cowboy]

One of these days I's got to figger out how you banger mechanics works yer majik; I have a certain facility with gitfiddles and electrical basses, but that there just baffles me.

Looking good, though.

Peter

[edwardofhuncote]

I repaired a small split in the fingerboard at the fifth string peg, then filled, and redrilled it for a new 'pip', or fifth string nut. One of my grand-daddies was a locksmith, and left me all his tools, and a giant drawer of tiny brass tumblers for the Yale lock cylinders he worked on. They make a nice pip. Nothing special here... it's mostly about getting the location correct so the string spacing stays consistent with the other four that terminate at the headsock..

Here she is, set up and tuned up... I'm still not completely happy with the action. I'll leave it strung for a few days to settle in, then disassemble and trim the heel to get a little bit steeper angle. It sounds fantastic. I shined up the old finish and left as-is.

I'm working on a 'Baby' Taylor with a busted top and a failed D-I-Y Gorilla-glue and popsicle stick fix. I got nuthin' against either of those products but they didn't work out too well here. It'll be okay, structurally, just not pretty. Maybe we'll just skip that chapter...