PRS SE Hollowbody Fret Stone and ‘Sitar-esque’ Sound

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

This was an interesting repair to do. Not only was the fretboard in serious need of a fret stone/re-crown and set-up, but the instrument was also creating a sitar-type buzzing sound which was less than pleasant!

The fret stone was straight forward, taking out some fairly serious pits, then re-profiling and polishing to a crowned, smooth surface.

The next job was to fix the buzz. Typically, these sorts of sounds are generated by problems with either the nut or the bridge, and can be narrowed down by process of elimination.
The sitar sound was continuing to be created when any note was fretted, however it was eradicated when picking between a fretted note and the nut. Therefore, the bridge was the problem.

This was a pretty simple job to ultimately fix, and the guitar is back on the road and ready for action!

Assorted Jobs – Ibanez Switch Replacment, Overwater Setup, Tangelwood Fret Stone

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

It’s been another busy week here at Aylesbury Guitar Repair, with an interesting mixture of jobs required to be done.

The first was a rather sorry, 30yr old Tangelwood acoustic, whose frets were in appalling condition littered with dents from strings, bizarre diagonal ‘grazing’ and one or two frets with flattened edges under the high E string. Furthermore, the bridge saddle was so low that the guitar was more or less completely choking out around the 5th fret up, and as such was more or less unplayable!

The owner just wanted a basic setup, so the guitar could be played along the length of the neck – not the most demanding of requests on the face of it, although the work to get it there was fairly substantial!

I started by levelling the neck and fret-stoning and re-crowning the frets, then polished to a high shine.

Next, I set about cutting a new bridge saddle from a bone blank, only this one was about an extra third deeper than the original to get sufficient clearance, but with a friendly action to aid playing.

Once the new strings were added I checked the string spacing, action, the intonation, and once satisfied I polished the guitar to finish the job.

This is a completely different guitar from when it arrived, and was very fun to do. Delivering a like-new instrument is always a buzz for me, and I know there will be many hours of enjoyment as a result of the work that was carried out here.

The next guitar was an Ibanez whose pickup selector switch was malfunctioning – there was a spot between positions 1 & 2 where the guitar cut-out completely, and would often get stuck there mid-performance. This was clearly unideal, so a replacement was required.

The switching for this guitar is quite complex, utilising an OTAX VLX91 switch that has double the number of contacts available to create many interesting pickup combinations when using 4-conductor cable.

A a H-H equipped guitar, the sonic options for this guitar are very varied with the following…

1. Neck wired series
2. Neck wired parallel
3. Neck and bridge together
4. Inner coils
5. Bridge wired series

With this you can get some lovely warm tones, powerful ones (courtesy of the DiMarzio Evolution pickups) and single coil out-of-phase-type scooped ones.

The wiring was a little bit tricky in places – quite precise and fiddly – but the job was done first time and the owner is super happy with a more taut switch, minus the unwanted killswitch bonus!

Another job that took place today was a setup on an incredible Overwater bass. This is a custom-made instrument that needed thicker strings to accommodate the new owner’s preferences in feel. The action needed to go too, and this was helped by the increased gauge, and then the intonation needed some adjustment.

I typically find that 5-string basses are quite challenging to get perfect on the Low B, but the Hipshot bridge on this bass was fantastic and settled really well! Highly recommended.

What was interesting on this instrument was that the fretboard was so flat – there was minimal radius in the fretboard, but it was wonderfully playable!! An all-round beautiful instrument!

Ibanez RG3120, Assorted Basses and the Martin

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

So the Martin got finished beautifully – the action was so good that any electric guitar would be proud to bear it, and it really plays effortlessly.

I’ve since received some school basses that have a myriad of different issues, including missing jack sockets, missing pickguards and exposed wiring, and intonation issues. They need some serious love but I’m sure the results will make them a real joy to play in the end!

Next, this Ibanez walked in. It needed a fret stone, re-crown, setup and also needs it’s switch replacing as there’s a spot on it where the signal cuts out completely!

I started with the fret stone and re-crown so that I could batch some soldering together once I get the go-ahead on the basses.

The pits that were present in the frets came out really easily, and they polished up beautifully after lots of elbow grease! Once that was all done I set about lowering the action (came down by a 3rd so is now mega-low!) and now it’s so easy to play. Unreal, and so exciting! It’s a new guitar. One tweak of the intonation on the high E string and it was good to go!

Fenix Strat and Yamaha RGX

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

Yamaha RGX

This fella needed some real TLC. It arrived to me with a couple of strings on it, (which were totally corroded) and the wiring was problematic – no signal coming out of it.

The body was covered in dust, and the fretboard was caked in gunk… Nice! Strangely this is a job I quite like doing because the reward is a fresh, brand new-looking fingerboard that it’s owner hasn’t seen on this guitar for quite some time!

After a complete clean up, tightening of nuts and simple wiring fixes, the guitar was ready for a regular setup and now she plays like a dream!

Fenix Strat

This Fenix Strat was an interesting guitar indeed. Made by Young Chang in the 80’s, it has a great weight, feel and finish.

I was originally asked overhaul the electrics on the guitar, however upon inspection they proved to be in a good state of repair so my attention turned to the condition of the frets.

On the top fret there were a couple of dents from where there had been an impact with the strings, and some wear near the nut from general playing. To remedy these I applied a fret stone and re-crown, polished them up and then she was good as gold!

I had to give the high E string but slot a bit of attention as it was fizzing, but once this was fixed, intonation and action set, it was time to plug in and do the final checks. Lovely!

Crafter Acoustic Setup

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

This little baby is amazing! It arrived with a reasonable action but it had room to come down and that’s exactly what I did.

The truss rod had room to be tightened to encourage the neck to straighten, and this helped me keep the action down across the length of the neck.

I took about 1.5mm off the base of the bridge saddle, sanded it smooth, replaced it and then checked the resulting action.

It came out wonderfully, measuring 1.5mm at the 12th fret. There’s no buzz whatsoever and it almost plays itself!

Fender USA Deluxe Jazz Bass

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

This was a lovely instrument to start the day with! She just needed a little attention to bring the action down a touch to make her easier to play.

The truss was already pretty taut, so straightening the neck further was tricky and I was naturally reluctant to push my luck!

Despite still having a some curvature (probably the right amount to be fair!) I set about lowering the bridge saddles.

Overall everything was able to come down by about a third, meaning there should be a marked difference in the feel of the bass when the player gets it back. I’m excited to see what they think!

Once the intonation was done, she got a good polishing and then back into the case to await collection. Done, done, onto the next one!

Reverse V Gauge Change, Jazz Bass and Tele Set-Ups

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Aylesbury Guitar Repair

Have you ever seen one of these before? This is a Gibson Reverse V guitar, which was released in very limited number in 2008, and the owner wanted the strings changed up from 10’s to 11’s.

It was an interesting guitar to work on, although a little unwieldy as it pivoted on the bridge end of the body. Great instrument, though!

Once that was done it was onto setting up a Fender P Bass – nice and straight forward, and cleaned up really nicely – and a Telecaster. Both of these were left-handed instruments.

The Tele ended up needing an extra bit of attention since the high E and B strings were ‘fizzing’ in the nut, but after a little attention and fettling they were good as gold again! What will come through the door next?