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

[David Houck]

How old is that banjo?  Looks like it's missing a bit of fingerboard as well.

[edwardofhuncote]

How old is that banjo?  Looks like it's missing a bit of fingerboard as well.

It's 100-110 years old, Dave. The SuperTone brand was sold by Sears & Roebuck, this 'Graduate 410' model was a better student grade banjo most likely made by Rettburg & Lange. It's got a number of issues to address. I've already disassembled it and begun. The hardware is soaking in my parts bath to dissolve some rust and corrosion. I've cleaned up the spun-over rim. Thankfully the old hide is intact, so I'll reuse it. The headstock had a split developing at the 4th string peg, so I've glued and clamped it, and set the neck aside to ponder the next steps. The binding and little bits of missing fingerboard are relatively easy to fix. This banjo was never designed for the tension of steel strings, but it's been strung up with them to pitch so long that the dowelstick is warped beyond use. Worst of all, it isn't a separate piece of wood that can be steamed out and reset; it's an integral part of the neck. I don't think I can even split, and flip it over and correct the draught angle enough. I may just amputate it, and install an adjustable coordinator rod. That's a more permanent solution, that does detract from originality, but does get us a playable banjo for another 100 years. Here's a single rim-rod set from Stew-Mac... I've done it quite a few times. https://www.stewmac.com/video-and-ideas/online-resources/hardware-installation/single-rim-rod-set-for-banjo/


I've got time to think about it. Going to work on the Ovation 12-string a while.

[edwardofhuncote]

I went by the store yesterday to drop off and pick up work... I turned repair tickets for the Aria guitar and the Ovation 12-string. I went a little overtime on the Aria, and a little under on the 12-string. The Aria needed fretwork bad. I replaced 7 frets, and dressed them. Then when I strung the guitar up, it developed a ski-jump from the 14th fret (where the neck joined the body) on up. Not a bad one, but I had to fudge a little on those last 7 or 8 frets... and those are a big ol pain in the butt. Easy enough to level off, but crowning them is extremely tedious and time-consuming. And I coulda' left it... that guitar was somebody's 'first guitar' that was getting fixed up for sentimental reasons. I couldn't send it back with buzzy frets when another hour would make it right. I comped the hour, and felt good about it. That fairly cheap guitar played great when it went back.

Meanwhile, back on the SuperTone banjo...

I decided to amputate the dowelstick completely and install a single coordinator rim-rod through the shell. I have (so far...) cut off the stick, flushed up the heel, plugged the square hole in the shell, and ordered the rod set. (It may arrive today) I replaced the missing piece of binding, and glued a couple other places where the original binding was loose. The repair will be seen, but not likely noticed. Finally, I have filled in the chips in the end of the fingerboard. It's epoxy, with very fine wood dust from my belt sander for body, and some black pigment for color. The trick here, will be getting the texture to blend right.

[edwardofhuncote]

I put the SuperTone banjo aside for a while to work on a Yamaha FG-375S guitar. It belongs to the customer who I worked on the HD-28 and HD-35 for upthread a little. It was his brother Dickie's guitar. I knew Dickie well, grew up playing music around his circle. He was killed in a logging accident, back in 2011, and as terrible a way to die as that might be, it was not his first. Dickie had driven a pulpwood truck his whole life, and hauled wood to the WestVaCo paper mill in nearby Covington, Virginia. He was a simple salt-of-the-earth, hard-working man until that fateful day a log of timber crushed him to death. He was mostly a mandolin player, but could also grab a guitar and sing a harmony part too. You can tell he played the living daylights out of this guitar. He was always kind to me when I first started playing bass. If you've ever noticed a little memorial flier over my workbench, that's him. There are a few more folks up there too. Anyway, I set up Dickie's old Yammy-haw this afternoon. (I'm lookin' at you Joey!) A fine example of early 80's import guitar, if ever there was one. I left the odd 6th string bridge pin just like it was, because I remember it being that way... though personally that would drive... me... INSANE. 🤯

[edwardofhuncote]

I hate doing fretwork. I like it better these days, now that I get paid better to do it... but I still don't enjoy it. Ward laughs at me. Man, you're gonna' wish for days you could sit on your ass and level up frets... Yeah, probably so. His fretwork is beautiful. Probably why I got him to do both of my Series basses. Anyway, I'm stalling a fret job. But it ain't like I'm just up here wasting time...

I just finished gluing the top back on a fractional-sized carved-top Framus bass, that wasn't the easiest repair job. The solid spruce top had split open from the tailblock up, on a diagonal, until it finally reached the centerseam, where it continued. And it had been open for quite a while, under tension, so it did not want to line back up for a nice, clean glue joint. I thought I'd probably have to do a spline repair, but really couldn't tell until I got the thing apart to more easily manipulate the pieces. Getting it apart wasn't too bad. I was worried, because it had been apart and open at least once before as evidenced by the "repaired by" note from June, 1969. Thank you Mr. A.B. Seaboldt, for leaving the hide glue door unlocked, and not epoxied shut. I have honored your work, and left my name under yours, these 55 years later.

What you're seeing here in the pictures, is a creative way to draw the longways cracks together, and bind them front to back. After they were closed and solid, the seam and cracks were reinforced with spruce cleats. Note the grain of the quartersawn spruce is turned the opposite direction of the grain of the top. Once glued in place, these cleats help bind the two (or three) pieces of the top together.

Of course, gluing the top back on... same routine as usual... lots of clamps. Used hide glue. So 55 years from now, someone can put their "repaired by" next to me and Mr. A.B. Seaboldt of Pontiac, Michigan here.

I gotta' get back to dressin' on them frets...

[edwardofhuncote]

The Framus bass is done. I cleaned the strings, oiled the fingerboard, shined it up, set the soundpost and restrung it a few minutes ago. Will watch it for a day or two, but that fix ain't goin' anywhere. I'll return it this weekend, probably Friday after work. (the client happens to live near one of my Water Treatment Plants in town...)

I really enjoyed this one. It's a fine instrument. Challenging repair, with satisfying results.

*and FWIW, the fret dressin' job went back Monday night.    Tweren't nuthin' worth picture-takin'...

[cozmik_cowboy]

I assume that's Mr. Monroe in the purple suit?

Peter

[David Houck]

... I really enjoyed this one ...

   

[edwardofhuncote]

I assume that's Mr. Monroe in the purple suit?

Peter

It does look purple I guess... a combination of the colors being washed out and faded, and the auto filter on my phone's camera under the weird lights in the shop.


Like most things hanging up in there, it's a souvenir. That particular poster was a Gibson promotional thing that Bill used to autograph for folks at shows. He'd always have a stack of them at the record/merch table. Long story short, the very first band I was ever in got to "open" for Bill Monroe & the Bluegrass Boys, and Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys at Floyd County High School. I forget exactly when, but sometime in 1989. (we basically rung out the PA for the FOH guys, but the hometown folks thought it was cool...) My Dad got me an autographed poster that night... and that's it. I finally framed it.

[edwardofhuncote]

The Framus bass went back home Friday, and I picked up two more jobs from the store to work on. Neither is anything interesting... a fairly cheap 5-string banjo from the 70's, in need of some repair and setup, and the other is an HPL Martin with loose braces and seam separations. This is my paycheck this week... both are easy work to turn around.

I'm still working on the SuperTone banjo, little by little. Not much left to do before reassembly, but I had backburnered it to catch up on the aforementioned easier work and that Framus bass. I just filled a couple more little places in the fingerboard. Next, I'll drill it for the coordinator rods.


*forgot to attach the pics...

[David Houck]

You may have discussed this before and I just don't remember, but what do you think of HPL guitars?

[edwardofhuncote]

You may have discussed this before and I just don't remember, but what do you think of HPL guitars?

They have their place. Martin kinda' went overboard with the idea for a while in my opinion.

HPL, high pressure laminate, is basically like a wood-grain formica... it has a rubbery fibrous core with a matte finish hard plastic exterior. I have one of their X-series guitars; a DC-X2E. That would be a Dreadnought with a Cutaway, 2nd generation (solid-spruce top) X-Series, with Electronics. I bought it as a shipping-damaged throwaway, fixed the busted parts, and then converted it into a 25.5" micro-scale bass guitar. It has HPL back and sides that look like Ziricote.

It was a fun project, and worked out pretty well. Makes a nice porch bass, or you can plug it up and gig with it.

I have fixed several HPL Martin guitars... most of them are borderline "repair exceeds cost of replace" cases, but if it's do-able, I'll try. You have to use CA glue or epoxy on HPL.

[kilowatt]

Don't know how that Martin plays, or sounds, but you made it into a good looking instrument. Nicely done!

[rv_bass]

Those are some very cool clamps on that bass a few posts up!

[edwardofhuncote]

Don't know how that Martin plays, or sounds, but you made it into a good looking instrument. Nicely done!

I think it's somewhere waaay back upthread... it was a worthwhile thing. Plays and sounds fine. I knew ahead of time it would work theoretically, but at the time it hadn't been done, at least not with a Dreadnought guitar. Since then, Martin has intro'd a line of micro-scale basses.

Those are some very cool clamps on that bass a few posts up!

Most of those are modified spool clamps, I fitted cork jaws to the curves of a generic bass shape. The rest are cam clamps and a  couple furniture clamps. Anything to spread out the pressure.