Braces part 1

So I decided to go with hide glue for doing the braces instead of my usual Titebond.  Instead of buying an expensive gluepot, I just got a hotplate and used a soup pan and a pyrex measuring cup.  One thing I learned, is that this stuff smells awful.  I also learned that i need an inspection camera.  These mirrors are a pain to work with.  Plus my pictures this time around suck.  Anyways, I glued up 1 brace, using thumbscrew jacks and my magnet clamps to hold em down.  It worked pretty well, I just need to add a couple drops under one end to secure it down.  Hoping to get the 2nd bottom brace done later today.

1952 Gibson Southern Jumbo - Progress

So I got a little sleep after making my magnetic clamping cauls, and after cutting a license plate off of my sister's car and putting the new one on, I got back to work.  I had shown in a previous update the mahogany strips I had cut to replace the brittle balsa strips that fell out, and glued 3/5 of them in place using my new clamps.  They ended up working pretty damn well, and even better, the color and grain of my new strips matched up really well with the mahogany back of the guitar.  Waiting until I feel comfortable taking the last clamp off, and then I'll reglue the 2 back braces, and add the last 2 strips.

Stay tuned...

New DIY tool

Awhile back I had read about magnetic clamping on frets.com, and decided this gibson would be perfect to try it out on.  I bought 50 1/2"x1/8" Neomydmium/rare earth magnets on ebay for about 20 bucks.  These little fuckers are pretty ridiculous.  Just one is enough to hold up a steel hammer. 

Instead of wasting precious time casting liquid acrylic into molds for this, I just bought an 18" 1x1.25" scrap of plexiglass and cut and drilled it myself.  Took about an hour total to make 3 pairs with 6-8 magnets per caul, and since these are permanent magnets and don't wear out like Alnico, these will surely be used in many jobs in the future.

1952 Gibson Southern Jumbo - Assessment and start

So I finally got off my ass during the Cubs rain delay and took the strings off and got started figuring out everything I need to do.  The first thing I did was take the fallen braces out of the body, at which point, some Balsa strips running up the back all fell out. 

I had some scrap mahogany laying around, so I used my hobby/framing table saw to cut some new strips and cut em down to size.

For some reason that pic won't post in landscape format, but I numbered the strips so I won't have to fumble around figuring out which one is which when I glue them down.

At some point, the original saddle was replaced with what appears to be some random piece of plastic, and it was glued down, so I may have to cut it out since it won't budge.

Aside from that, there's a loose piece of binding at the heel end of the fretboard.  Shouldn't be too difficult, just slow and tedious work making sure I place everything correctly.

I need to go pick up a couple things in the morning so I can mix up some hide glue for the braces, as well as some stuff to use as brace jacks, and I'll be off to the races.

1952 Gibson Southern Jumbo

Just picked this one up today.  My mom works at a dentist office and last week overheard a patient complaining about a shop wanting to charge him 3 grand for a repair, so she yelled out that I do repairs.  She had him give me a call and arranged for me to come look at it when he picked up his teeth today.  I took a look at it while he was being examined by the dentist.  3 of the braces are loose or fallen, there's a split in the top, and it could use a new saddle.  I quoted him a fair price, told him I'd need a few weeks to order a couple things and work carefully, and he excitedly handed it over.  Checked it out on ebay, and there's one in similar condition selling for twice what the shop told him its worth, so that'll probably make him even happier.  Can't wait to get started.

Personal project

So 10 years ago I got an Aria Mosrite copy.  At some point during high school, my mom was throwing a temper tantrum, presumably about my grades, and decided to kick it over to teach me a lesson.  Broke a few of the original tuners, and the vibrato tailpiece.  After high school, I replaced the tuners and made do with the lack of a working trem, it still held the strings in place, but I decided to just go ahead and try my hand at restoration.  I filled the trem pocket with bondo, drilled it for a les paul style bridge, and painted the whole thing green.

I also had cut a new pickguard and replaced the pickups and electronics because they were all pretty much shot.  However, once I started to go to school for guitar repair, I realized something I had never taken into account.  Bridge angle, and scale length.  No wonder it never tuned right.  So I pretty much just let it sit for the last few years, occasionally tuning it down for "the rain song" by Zeppelin.  Over the winter I decided to strip 'er down again, and filled all the holes...again.  I primed up the body with some flat black, and was going to repaint it black this time, but the paint reacted with the primer and started bubbling. 

Well, I couldn't let it stay looking like that and have it show through the final coat of paint, so now i'm stripping it yet again, and probably just gonna leave it natural, with a bigsby/wigsby trem on it to cover the bondo.

This time I used my heat gun, and it went so much more smoothly.  After that I used paint stripper, and it'll still need some sanding before I can do anything with it.  I'll post more when I have time to work on it, I just wanted to get started before my next paying repair job comes in on wednesday.

Ukulele wood came in today

Just got this pile of walnut in for some ukuleles.  These sets will probably be good for soprano size.  The bookmatched pieces are already spoken for, but I can get more if anyone is interested.  Tons of other wood selections available too, just ask and I'll send a price list.  I also have some sapele and mahogany in stock, as well as some flamed maple that could be used as neck wood.

Finishing up the Regal

Took off all the clamps this afternoon and got to work cleaning up glue drops and making sure the sides were as even as possible.  Feels solid as a rock now.  A far cry from the warped, delaminated pile of crap it was when it came in.  I don't do painting here, don't have the room for a spray booth, and Lou is an accomplished painter, so I'll let him take care of that if he chooses.  My job was to make it playable and sturdy, and I feel I've done well on this one.

Closer view of the sound hole to show the new bracing.  I wanted to try to find him a new label to replace the original which was in poor condition, but I haven't had any luck yet.

Can't wait to hear some slide on this one.

Almost done

Got the bridge doctor support system and the bridge itself installed last night.  Today I decided to put the back back on.  Went on almost as easy as it came off.  Looks like the only uneven spots are where the wood was chipped/worn away, aside from that its lined up perfectly.   I know when people see this they'll probably think "damn thats a lot of clamps!" but I actually would've prefered to use a few more, that was just all I have at the moment.  Anyway, sometime in the next few days I'll post pics of it finished.

Quick Update

So the other day I worked on the bridge plate/brace.  It was surprisingly very straight considering the overall condition of the rest of them, but it was placed off-center and the string holes were on the edge of it.  I cut out the damaged section, and added a sturdier piece of maple scrap to it.  Last night I popped the bridge off since it was hanging by a thread anyway and it will be easier to do it this way as opposed to trying to get enough glue underneath it.  I got the brace placed where I needed it, and used some screws through the string holes to keep it in place, and then set up a makeshift gobar deck for the edges.  Looking pretty sturdy now.  I'll be reinstalling the bridge in a little while.