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

[rv_bass]

Very nice looking guitar!

[cozmik_cowboy]

Yeah, that bridge looks well and truly cracked, alright.
I'v only laid hands on 2 or 3 Blueridges, but they seem to be a darn good guitar for the price.  They're made by Saga, who also makes Regal resophonics - one of which is a short reach from this chair, and is, I must say, to my satisfaction.

Peter

[pauldo]

Incoming silly question time.

Doesn’t most wood glue bound stronger than the wood itself?  The bridge crack, albeit in a bad place, looks ‘clean’.   Wouldn’t bridge removal glue/ clamp and then reinstalling it work?

[edwardofhuncote]

Incoming silly question time.

Doesn’t most wood glue bound stronger than the wood itself?  The bridge crack, albeit in a bad place, looks ‘clean’.   Wouldn’t bridge removal glue/ clamp and then reinstalling it work?

That's actually a pretty good question Paul, because it gets repeated a lot when talking instrument repair.


This bridge is ebony, which has very small pores. It's a very dry, brittle wood to start with. It will take glue, but not well. Gluing it to something is easier than gluing it together. Like for instance, gluing an ebony fingerboard to a mahogany neck. Flat surface to flat surface... that works out okay. Not so much for little tiny surfaces. To make it this piece of ebony into a bridge, we drilled 6 holes in it, perfectly parallel to the grain further weakening it. Then the strings pull upward through those holes, and bend over a saddle putting stress right at its weakest point. It's an elegant but terrible design that works 98.4% of the time. Most of the time when they fail and split, the crack only appears between the pinholes. This one is an extreme case though... as you can see, the crack has run out all the way into the bridge wings. That's both rare, and the decision-maker for me. I could, and have successfully hydrated and reglued ebony bridges that split between the pinholes, even inlaid ebony in a couple to save them. Those guitars were cases where originality was a bit more of an issue.

For less than the amount of time required to remove the bridge, fix it, and reglue it, I can simply replace it, and not worry about whether the repair holds. Does that kinda' 'splain it? 


*The HPL Martin job is going well... updates later.

[edwardofhuncote]

Time for post-game on the GPCPA5K...

After finding and fixing all the loose braces, I glued and cleated the top cracks. They had mostly swelled shut (because there's about 200% relative humidity in the air here in Virginia right now...) so a little squeeze of glue worked in and a pipe clamp spanning the top overnight. I glued-in a couple little spruce cleats to help bind it.

The ugly holes punched through the top and back were last. Spruce is a soft wood that carves like soap. I found a scrap of it in my box that was big enough to cover the damage, and close enough that someone could tell some effort was made to fix this poor guitar. Once shaped, I cut the hole out to an angular shape that matched the repair patch. I glued-in a backing veneer piece inside the guitar to give it a little more support and... well... there it is. There is no way to hide something like that without some radical finish work. I just tried to 'dirty it up' some to match the rest of the spruce top.

Fixing the shattered HPL was a little harder. I didn't really try to document this... it was aggravating and tedious, and I just wanted to get it done. Getting the misaligned pieces that were still intact was step one, then I used the Dremel router base and a downcut bit to trim out a semicircular cut. (it's a 1-3/4" dia. if you're curious) I made a patch out of plastic and some brownish walnut veneer. Again, no earthly way to hide a repair to formica... just make it a strong stable fix, and as neat as possible. The only thing to glue this stuff with is CA glue.

I came in right about where I thought... 6 hours, and a set of strings. I'll run it by the store in a little bit.

[David Houck]

     

[pauldo]

That looks great.

[edwardofhuncote]

This year is going by in a flash... and I kinda' knew it would be this way.

I'm completely consumed with the final chapter at work, training my replacements. The three of them are going to be taking over very soon, and they're doing great. I'll basically be done working by the end of October and using up paid leave in November, just answering the phone for emergencies. My last official day is 12/1/2024, but that falls on the Sunday after the Thanksgiving holiday. The last two days I'll report for duty will be Monday and Tuesday 11/25-26. I'll turn in keys, uniforms, and turn my service truck in to the Garage for inspection, and clear out. I plan to catch a ride home with the guy who hired me 20-some-odd years ago. We live pretty close... and we are close.

The Shop is staying busy enough that I believe it'll do what I need it to in the way of supporting my health insurance plan, post-employment. The store keeps me a nice steady supply of work, and they kinda' triage for me down there. I haven't been posting that work for a couple reasons... One, a lot of it is totally boring, just pays really good. Two, I'm busy as dammit, and I ain't got time to do a documentary, then narrate it... just fix it and get the bench ready for what's next. Three, this is a nice, small little internet community made up of folks I mostly know who we are, but it's still part of the larger world of... cyber-whatever. And I've just started having mixed feelings about posting other folks' stuff out there. Nobody ever said anything, and maybe nobody cares, but it seems like there ain't a day goes by there isn't some hacking or mischief somewhere. I don't see how innocently posting pictures of guitar repair could be used for maliciousness, but then I don't have a criminal mind, and I don't even like computers. So I decided to keep what I post confined to my projects or at least projects for people I know don't care.

I'll put something up before long... I've got a Stelling Bellflower in for some fretwork that belongs to a good friend, and Honeytone client. Stelling Banjo Works is O-O-B now https://www.stellingbanjo.com/ but they were major influence in the 70's and 80's... Geoff Stelling put the whammy on Gibson to start build something serious again.

Stay tuned...

[hammer]

Reading over the piece on Stelling banjo made me recognize once again how lucky we are to have Alembic and other exceptional luthiers among us. People who live and work, not to make a dollar but to produce the finest instruments possible that meet the needs of musicians. I hope to never see Alembic and other small shops go the way of Stelling. It frightens me to think of a world where the only option for a musician is mass produced stuff made but AI driven machines.

[edwardofhuncote]

I've never asked Mica, but I bet Alembic has the same if not more difficult job of locating, training, and then retaining the kind of talent it takes to build the kind of highly custom work they do. There's been a lot of talented folks through that shop over the 50+ years. People move on.

Living where I do, I've just happened to know several of the guys who worked for Geoff Stelling. I've often mentioned Ward Elliott on here... one of my closest friends and definitely my top mentor. He built the Stelling mandolins for a time. Ward didn't get his start there though, he apprenticed with a violin-maker in the Pacific Northwest back in the 70's. He doesn't scratch-build much anymore, mostly does repairs, but that's really underselling him... that guy can take a bag of busted parts and produce a vintage Martin from splinters. He doesn't advertise anywhere... 100% word-of-mouth business model. His shop is always busy.

I know both of these guys too, both Stelling alumnus, and world-class builders of guitars and mandolins. (other stuff too...) They probably spend more time just doing repair work these days too. Check out some of their work.

John Hamlett - https://www.hamlettinstruments.com/

David Houchens - https://bryceinstruments.com/index.html?m

[edwardofhuncote]

With about 30 days of duty left to pull at the Waterworks, and that time mostly consumed with intense training for The Greg-lings, my application for State Retirement has been approved as of this afternoon. The only thing left to do (with the State at least) is name beneficiaries. Sad, and pitifully true... I kinda' don't care. Let the State figure it out... if my Parents are living, them, if not, it goes to next of kin. Whatever. Ick. That'll be a sh!tshow I'm glad to miss. Like holiday gatherings.


The Shop... oh boy. I've had more work than I could do. I just finished up a genuine German Hofner with a seized and stripped truss-rod. That was fun. A handful of bridge reglues. Got a D-35 in with loose back braces. Got a beautiful old Czech viola for restoration in. Just finished up a setup on a Chinese upright, and got another upright coming in for bridge, soundpost and strings tomorrow night.


I talked to the local Commissioner of Revenue about a Business Liscense. I talked to the bank about a business account. I think I'll take the Scroll Shop public in January 2025.

[KR]

Greg, Hearing about all that repair work makes me wish you were here in So Cal. Acoustic repairs require skill and experience. Sounds like your going to be busy fixin' and playin'.

[rv_bass]

Congratulations on all fronts, Greg! 😊

[David Houck]

Nice viola!

[edwardofhuncote]

Voila, Viola! Done with repairs and setup. It turned out nice. There is even some 'bearclaw' figure in the spruce top... not much, but it's there.

This one is a gift to Kat, fiddler and bandleader with the Wayfaring Whistlepigs, and she often stands in with New River Bound. We thought a low frequency bowed sound in the mix might be even more interesting.