Remember the Les Paul Professional from our first post? If you will remember we stripped the parts and gave it brand new frets. It was sent off to get a shiny new finish and here are some pics after it ended up back in the shop for the final build. (No pickguard was installed but we may custom fabricate one at a later date.)
Back on the bench
So clean!
New hardware!
Broken Arrow's own JD McPherson has been tearing up the road with some great vintage tones for a while now. We recently had the privilege of installing some custom parts from TK Smith for JD on a brand new tele including an inlaid pickguard and a Charlie Christian pickup. TK did a great job with the parts and JD came to us to have them installed. After the new parts were installed, we did a full setup to deal with some playability issues. JD took it out on the road and after talking with him this morning he says this Tele is his new number 1! Thanks JD.
Check out TKSmith.net for some really cool custom parts and guitars.
Catch JD this Friday, May 9th in OKC at the Performance Lab JDMcPherson.com
The original pickup and guard.
Original routing.
A big cavity for a big pickup!
Looking good!
We have been so busy at the shop! We have been fixin' so many guitars, we haven't had time to make blog posts about them! But if you would like to talk shop with Jess and Brad, head over to The Woody Guthrie Center on Saturday. This Guitar Care Workshop will cover some basic setup and evaluation concepts and general care of your instrument. The presentation starts at 2:00 P.M. with question and answer session to follow.
Those details again:
The Guitar Care Workshop
with Brad and Jess from GTS
Saturday, March 29th
2:00 P.M.
Free with admission to the Center (Adults $8)
When the Woody Guthrie Center asked Brad to come and consult with them on how to best care for some of the historical instruments in their collection, he was honored. Here he is inspecting a 19th century Martin that belonged to iconic photographer, musicologist, and member of the New Lost City Ramblers, John Cohen. He also inspected a Gretsch that is pictured below with Ramblin' Jack Elliot.
A very important part of any stringed instrument is the string nut. This valuable piece of hard material holds the strings at a certain height above the fingerboard and frets and sets the spacing of the strings over the neck. Slots are filed into the nut to guide the strings and must be critically adjusted to the right angle, width, and depth. The strings must be low enough to be comfortable, but not so low that the instrument buzzes when open strings are played. The slots may buzz or bind the strings causing tuning problems if not filed correctly. Traditionally the nut is made from bone. Plastic, synthetics, and brass are other materials sometimes used. At GTS we believe bone is the best material for adjustment and long life. Every instrument is different so we prefer to make them custom. Molded replacements are rarely the correct size or spacing. Even the molded nuts will need adjustment. So here is a step by step in pictures of a bone nut being installed.
Fitting the bone blank
Here the bone blank is sized to fit snugly in the nut slot and flat to the bottom of the slot. A radius is shaped into the blank if the nut slot has a radius like on vintage Fenders.
Cutting down the height of the blank
After taking into account the height of the frets and the size of the strings that will be used, some of the excess material is taken off the top.
Filing slots for the outside strings
Then the 1st and 6th string (high and low "E" on a guitar) are installed and their slots are cut taking great care in their position over the frets. They must not be too wide or the player may "fall off" the end of the fretboard while playing and they must not be too narrow or the string spacing will be cramped.
Cutting the rest of the slots with equal spacing
All music is mathematics and so is a lot of a luthier's work. After the outside string slots have been established the remaining strings are installed and slots are cut so that the SPACE BETWEEN the strings is equal. Since the strings all have different diameters some math is needed to calculate where their slots should be cut to achieve this. If you were to simply divide the space between the outside strings without taking the diameter of the strings into account, the strings on the bass side would be more crowded than the treble side. So the space is measured, the inner four string diameters are subtracted and this is divided by 5. We are left with a measurement that we can dial up on our calipers and use to place the strings with equal spacing. This makes for a better playing instrument.
Slots are cut to depth, ends are trimmed, nut is shaped and polished.
After the spacing is correct, the nut slots must be cut to the correct depth, angle, and slot width. Special nut files are used for each string. Errors here can cause buzzing or binding strings. This work takes much patience and practice. Once all of the strings are at the correct depth the ends of the nut are trimmed flush with fingerboard. More material may be removed from the top for correct exposure of the strings. Then the nut is shaped and polished to be comfortable and beautiful.
(Both pieces pictured made by your's truly, Jess DiPesa)
Here are a few very flashy cool guitars that have come through recently, let's start with this Ernie Ball Musicman Stingray Bass in cool flakey metallic blue with gold hardware. We did a setup and softened up the sharp fret ends on this one.
Even Gold Poll Pieces!
Now this next guitar is the epitome of glam! Check out the sparkly orange sunburst finish with flamed maple showing through on this Gibson SG Deluxe. Wild! Also check out the Vibramate Spoiler that Brad installed for the customer to make string changes on the Bigsby vibrato easier.
Can you see Jeff in the reflection!
Vibramate Spoiler alert!
