Repairs gallery
Fretwork
Broken and cracked wood
Electronic repairs
Pickup modifications
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The owner of this instrument complained about buzzes on the frets at the center of the neck. The frets were worn a bit already. The neck seemed to be not straight when adjusted, wich could cause the fretbuzz in the center of the neck. We decided to do a refret and and a fretboard correction.
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On this picture, the frets are removed carefully with a plier. The frets are pre heated with a soldering iron. When doing so, the frets are being removed with as less s possible damage on the fretboard.
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After the old frets are removed, the fretboard is cleaned with sandpaper. Now the curve of the fretboard can be corrected. Blocks with a suitable radius are used (shown on the picture) as wel as long straightedges with sandpaper, to get the fretboard straigth.
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The fretboard has been sanded, until a fine grit. It is clearly visible, that the fretboardd is corrected, but also is clean and free from damage and dirt build up by years of playing.
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The new frets are hammered in the fretboard with the use of a special hammer.
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The ends of the frets are beveled with a special block. By having the right bevel, the neck playes comfortable, and the high and low E string don't slip quickly from the fretboard while playing.
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Just like the fretboard, the frets are also leveled after installing. The tops of the frets are sanded of with a special straight edge with sandpaper.
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The frets are recrowned. This is done with a diamond file with a suitable radius profile for the right type of fretwire. The crowning is very important. The guitar wil play comfortable, you don't hear much fret buzz, and the notes will be clear in pitch. A non crowned, flat fret will produce a bad tone, with a slightly higher pitch.
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Sharp edges are cleaned with a special prepared file, to not damage the fretboard wood.
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The frets are finished with sandpaper, fine steelwool and polish paste.
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The fretboard is finished with oil. The frets are now ready to use.
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The result is a vintage guitar with the playability of a brand new neck!
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Cracked head of a Hofner Club guitar. After the crack, relax the string tension, gather splinters of broken wood and store the guitar in a case if you can. A clean crack like on the picture always gives a good result after repairing.
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Simon & Patrick acoustic guitar with a cracked head and neck. You can see the truss rod sticking out even. Much care has to be taken to keep the truss rod in good condition. In this case the truss rod was protected with some non sticking paper (like used for backing a pie!) The paper was removed from the headstock after glueing. After the repair, the neck was still very wel adjustable.
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Dramatic moments with an Ibanez Artcore semi-hoolow electric guitar.
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Even this broken head can be fixed with good results. The guitar is kept a few days more in the workshop to check if the head keeps well under string tension. Damaged laquer is not retouched, but all parts are sanded and polished to level, so the guitar playes just like it did before the accident.
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This telecaster needed to be as noiseless as possible with the current pickups. The electronic was rewired completely, and the cavity was covered with metal sheet.
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The metal sheet is put in the cavity. So all components will become in a grounded metal box.
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After rewireing, the guitar is indeed a bit more silent. It is also a bit more clean and clear if a future repair should be taken place.
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The standard single coil neck pickup of this telecaster will be replaced by a Seymour Duncan Seth Lover humbucker.
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The neck is released from the body, to have more space at the neck position. All old parts are removed.
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With a router and a template, the cavity is cut for the new and bigger pickup.
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The new pickup fits nicely in the body. The pickup fits just deep enough in the body as needed, so a just as less as possible amount of wood is removed from the body.
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A bigger gap is made in the new scratchplate. The humbucker floats on two bolts and can be adjusted to the right height.
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The guitar after the modification.
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The owner of this bassguitar came to the workshop and told he sometimes hits the pickup at the end of the fretboard while playing the instrument. The pickup than becomes loose and doesn't work properly.
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The pickup contents of four small pickups that transduce a single string. It was just glued to the wood with second glue, and was indeed very easy to remove.
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A housing has been made from a piece of zebra wood. The housing has the height and radius of the fretboard. The small pickups are fixed into the wood, and the complete thing has been screwed firmely into the instruments body.
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Nederlands