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

[edwardofhuncote]

Nothing much exciting on the Mossman, mostly rinse-n-repeat. I think every single back brace was loose at least somewhere along it's surface. I've still got the deepest one to go. It's loose at both ends, and somewhat sprung, which at least makes it easier to get the glue where it needs to go. Some of these in the upper bout I've had to pry open with small wedges to inject the glue, then pull the wedges. Mop the excess squeeze-out, then clamp. If you're curious, rosewood is oily. I believe that allows the glue bond to let go easier from the spruce braces. This one was especially tricky. I had to be careful not to get any glue on the paper label, and the bracing directly above where my scissor-jack would be pushing was a bit crowded. I had to place another shim on top to keep from crushing them, as well as the wedged flat caul underneath pushing down on the brace. As before, a cam clamp and flat cauls on the outside.

For my next trick... I've found a little scrap of rosewood that I believe will be good enough for plugging that now-vacant jack hole.

[edwardofhuncote]

I had to modify the scissor-jack clamp jig for this next brace glue-up.

Mossman guitars for whatever reason are overbuilt. They have six transverse spruce braces across the back, which is just overkill. Just my opinion. Four is plenty, five if you have special circumstances. They have six in this Dreadnought pattern. If there's another made like this, I haven't seen it.

Anyway, the last brace in the lower bout is right at the very limit of my reach through the soundhole. I tested with a dry-clamping first. I could place the caul and the jack, but I could not turn the knob to tighten it. Fortunately, Stewart MacDonald knows way ahead of time you'll encounter this eventually so they sell a [drum-roll] flexible extension! It fits a common nut driver size, and you can put a fair amount of torque on the extension before it kinks. More than enough for this job. Indeed I have one. 

So I've taped my scissor-jack to the wedged caul at an angle that gave access to finagle the flexible extension onto the adjusting nut. After testing, I heated up some water and glue, and started working it under the brace. Cleaning up the excess was a trick too. I used some cotton swabs soaked in hot water, and followed with cloth sopping to dry. Slipped the wedged caul with the taped-up jack in place, then cranked it up. Snugged a couple flat cauls on the outside, annnnd... that's all for today. I'll do the other side tomorrow. This represented about an hour, from jump to done, if you're curious. Most of which was setup time. You have to work pretty quick with glue. I get about 15 minutes. This was the 9th glue-up, with one more to go. Most were much easier. 

[edwardofhuncote]

I glued-up the last of the back braces yesterday evening. All six were loose at least partially. I'm going to put a spruce cleat behind that kinda' rough crack below the pickguard... I notice it flexes some. That'll be an easy one, just work some glue in it, and I'll probably use a magnetic clamp jig to cleat from the inside.

I made a template for the new pickguard too, here... I have to run a couple jobs back to the store today, so I'll dig around and see if John has any suitable pickguard material in the back. I know it didn't come with it, but some firestripe tortoise would look cool. The boss won't care, just so it fits right. Most of what they have there is pre-cut for Martin or Taylor shapes. 

I'll work on that crack, and start plugging that jack hole this afternoon. 

[Artgeckko]

Hello!
Nice work as always!

Curious how well that rosewood jack plate comes out...That's a tough one!
Just finished up a 83 explorer for a friend.  Not sure what somebody did
to it, but wow what a mess! 
Have another buddy that just bought a 77 Alembic s-1 from Ebay...Looks clean.
He said he wants me to refinish it. 

Enjoying my part time gig more than my full time gig!
Hope all is well
Talk soon
E

[edwardofhuncote]

Hey 'Other Ed', always good to see you back around here! Sounds like you got a couple projects going too. I heard about the dust-up at WB and wondered if your group got caught up in that.

Yep that jackhole will be seen no matter what, but hopefully not too noticeable. Put another way; I'm making a good-faith effort at covering it. Anything is better than a hole.

I just got back from the store where I dropped off and picked up another weeks' work. Unfortunately they didn't have any pickguard material for acoustics, just really thick electric stock. So I got the go-ahead to do whatever I thought looked best. Think I'm going with the dark firestripe stuff... I like it better than any of the pepperoni-lookin' tortoise or the splotchy faux tortoise either. It's either that or just black. I get bored just typing it. This guitar is special. It needs a custom pickguard.

Before I left this morning; I scrounged a piece of quarter-sawn spruce out of my scrapbox and shaped it into a cleat. Because my main gig in here is upright bass setup, there's a never-ending supply of the cutoff pieces of spruce from soundposts. They can be resawn into perfect little repair cleats like this. Since it was easy to access through the soundhole and really didn't need clamp pressure, I've opted for rare earth magnets to hold the cleat in place until the glue sets. I worked some glue into the crack until I started seeing it come through, then cleaned the excess with a damp cloth. I placed a layer of low-tack tape over the crack, and placed the magnet (these are marked +/-, and they are very strong) where I wanted the cleat to stick inside. Then applied a squeeze of glue to the cleat, reach inside the guitar... and let the laws of physics do the work.

This little piece of spruce adds a negligible amount of mass to the top, the grain runs the opposite direction from the top, and it will keep this crack from flexing. At least that is the plan...

[edwardofhuncote]

I leveled and dressed the frets on this Mossman guitar this morning.

I got busy with a tricky bridge removal for re-glue for another customer's guitar yesterday afternoon and didn't get into that jack hole yet. It had some carefully done repairs underneath the bridge I didn't want to re-do, so I spent a lot of care on it. I spent the rest of this afternoon getting the bridge back on there... mission accomplished. I'll restring  it Tuesday or Wednesday.

I don't love fretwork, but this one really wasn't too bad. They leveled up nice and polished out like new. I also scrubbed the fingerboard real good, and lemon-oiled it. Note that it has very little if any radius to the fingerboard... almost flat. I'm getting close to done with the S.L. Mossman. Maybe done this week or next. I need to clean up the shop... it's getting awfully messy in here.

[Nova Constellatio]

Is it flat by design, or has it been refretted and lost its original radius?

[edwardofhuncote]

Is it flat by design, or has it been refretted and lost its original radius?

I don't believe it's been refretted. No telltale chips at all in the fingerboard, perfectly uniform length and geometry. The fret ends all matched well. I really haven't seen evidence of any work ever having been done on this guitar. Lots of neglect.

Looking around online, AGF, Gear Page, UMGF, various sale ads, I see specs all over the place. It's got the slightest bit of radius to it, but mighty flat. My 20" sanding block was about right, but still too much arc. I wound up fudging with a flat file leveler, then crowning them all. 

Back at it today. 

[edwardofhuncote]

Busy day in the shop today. I finished one job for the store and got a good start on another. Finally got around to plugging that unsightly hole in the Mossman guitar too.

I started by making a square backing patch for the plug to seat against. Just maple shim stock for this, maybe 1/16" thick. Flexible enough that it could conform to the curvature of the side, but still support what I needed. I drilled a tiny hole in the center, marked it for orientation and fished a guitar string through backed by a small flat washer. A little dab of glue around the border, and my kinda' steampunk-lookin' clamp jig held it in place long enough for the glue to set. (if you're curious, that's the discarded headstock from a Gibson TB-1... the "stairstep" tuners are offa' a 60s RB-250) 

After that, it was a matter shaping and thicknessing the rosewood piece to fit the hole, ideally so that as much of the dark and light grain lines matched as possible. Where this jackhole had been drilled out, a small chip of the rosewood was jagged, so I peeled it out and glued it in with a drop of dark brown CA.

Once the plug was fit snug, I mixed up some epoxy with rosewood dust, and... plugged the hole. I'll flush it up tomorrow morning and fill any voids with brown CA, then apply a couple brushes of lacquer. It won't be perfect, but it should be a sight better. And definitely a solid repair.

[peoplechipper]

I love that guitar string/headstock jig; reminds me of my bicycle mechanic days and what we'd call 'thin air repairs'; I'm on the side of a mountain and *this* just broke...how on earth do I jury-rig this to get home?!

[edwardofhuncote]

The hole is plugged and leveled flush. I've had to move on to other things as it was starting to get really crowded in my shop, but this will dress up okay I think. 

[Artgeckko]

Hello! That's coming along nicely!
Especially like the eraser sanding block!
Please keep updating - love to see instruments coming back to life!

WB / Paramount -  yeah, been through a few of these being with them for 20 years, and since my shows are still going well, I should be okay?? however, entertainment business is a fickle one, so you never really know...

On other news, received my friends 77 S-1. Headstock had definitely been cracked / repaired in past.
Thankfully, not messing with it.
Outside of that, structurally, it looks good. 
Interestingly, it had been refretted with gold / brass frets?
Not sure if I know the difference by looking.  Frets are in pretty good shape, any thoughts on how to tell what they are?
The other thing was the action was crazy high, neck was out of spec for relief, but we adjusted that and its much better.
The knobs are all really brittle, and one even fell apart.
I ordered some new ones from headquarters.
My friends instructions for me: "do your thing to it".
Will post some picts on different thread once I get going. 
Have some time between shows, so look forward to starting!
Talk soon, keep up the awesome work, and thanks for any and all info!
Ed

[edwardofhuncote]

Yep, Dan replied to you on the other thread. That EVO Gold fretwire is/was super-nice. I had both my Series basses refretted in it. I don't think Jescar offers it anymore, but there are some comparable alternatives. Not exactly the same Titanium alloy. Still very tough. Much easier to work with than stainless steel.

Cool that you got a side hustle there, fixin' up rough Alembic basses! I'm up here this evening working on a couple projects. Today was a game of telephone with chatbots... kinda' put me behind. And in a mood. 

[Artgeckko]

Yeah.  That was great to hear.  I know you liked that fretwire on your basses.

Chatbot...Nothing like dealing with automated AI assistants that "help" to get you in a mood, and not a good one.
Sometimes technology isn't progress, all the while folks are out of work?
Side hustle is cool, as idle hands are a problem for me...
Took it out of the case this am to develop a plan of attack, within a hour got a text from the guy I was fixing this up for and he said he got word last night that his job is possibly phasing out in Sept.
He's clearly upset. Might be holding off on that one.
Seem to be more and more of those calls as of late.
Not great.
Enjoy the day.  Things change fast...


 

[edwardofhuncote]

It's been a little bit stuffy in the shop today. If this little heat wave keeps going I may hafta' put in a small ac unit. It isn't hot enough to stop me from working, but I'm finding myself less able to concentrate. Taking too many breaks that last too long. I'd fire me if I could afford to hire someone better.

*it's crossed my mind to start working nights.