Seven Tones GA141 Acoustic Guitar | Part Three

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Part Three: Finishing Touches

Hi there. Glad you could join me for the final post on this gorgeous yet virtually unknown Seven Tones GA141. By now, matters relating to the fretboard had been adequately addressed; and it was time to wrap things up.

Once the orange tape had been removed, the fretboard was cleaned with 0000 steel wool and Zippo lighter Fluid [naphtha]; and reconditioned with a couple doses of lemon oil. As luck would have it, the genuine bone saddle and bridge pins had arrived; courtesy of Reco Music. I must say that the bridge pins were a bit pricey, but as Reco guarantees the authenticity of its merchandise; Acit was more than happy to part with his hard-earned cash.

The new bone saddle was all I'd hoped it would be; albeit a little on the tall side. To determine optimum saddle height, the stock saddle was used as a lab rat. Once I'd lowered it to the absolute minimum height, it was used as a template for the new saddle. The new saddle turned out to be way too tall to lower by mere sanding, so the first step was cutting, or rather sawing off part of the bottom. Once this had been taken care of; the desired height was reached after a few minutes of sanding.

The bridge already had ramps cut into it, but these were deepened and widened further to accommodate the lowered saddle. Here, once again, I'd like to remind readers that maintaining a sufficiently-sharp string break angle over the saddle is critical for optimum energy transfer and tone. After ramping the bridge, it was cleaned and reconditioned. No more dryness, and the purple-streaked wood came back to life.  

Meanwhile, a new set of Derjung DJ333C-M9 tuners was installed. These tuners were as smooth as could be; and that pleased me greatly. They were certainly light years ahead of the stock black-painted tuners, which had already started to corrode, felt gritty; and did not turn smoothly. 

A word of advice here, boys and girls. Kindly avoid cheap colored hardware as it's more often than not simply a thin coat of paint. That paint will peel off and/or disintegrate in no time at all, creating a rusty mess. The exception here is powder-coated or baked-on colored finishes; such as "Cosmo Black" offered by Ibanez. It would be fine, I suppose; as long as you can afford the asking price and the parts are compatible with your instrument. However, if you're on the hunt for affordable generic hardware; go for nickel or chrome plating.

Now everything was set for restringing and final setup. Acit is a fan of the resonant tones of bronze strings; and had provided me with a set of Martin MSP6000 80/20s [10 - 47]. Oh yes, these Martins were loads richer tonally than the Alice A306-XLs I'm familiar with. Loads more expensive too, I'm sure. All said and done, when Acit came to try out his newly-upgraded GA141; he was pleasantly-surprised at the huge improvement in tone, clarity; and playability. 

Well folks, this all goes to show that the care and feeding of your precious instrument is not something to be taken lightly. What you give your guitar, it will return ten times over; believe you me. And if you, like Acit, have unintentionally allowed your pride and joy to fall into decay; fear not! I'm here to help. Give CA Guitar Repair a call, SMS or WhatsApp message at 012-9855262. I cannot entertain walk-ins like I used to, thanks to the pandemic; but you can always book an appointment for a free consultation. Cheerio, see you soon.

 

Seven Tones GA141 Acoustic Guitar | Part Two

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Part Two: Fretwork

We'll start off with the cracked rosewood fretboard of the GA141, methinks. The crack was quite deep, so I filled it layer by layer with a mixture of rosewood dust and super glue. Once the hardened mixture had built up to a sufficient height, scrapers and abrasive paper were used to level and smoothen out the filled area. And, as you can see in the pictures below, the repair ended up being hardly noticeable.

On to fretwork then, more specifically; fret leveling and recrowning. For those unfamiliar with this procedure, the process of leveling and recrowning previously-installed frets is known as "fret dressing." The frets of this GA141 were dressed because Acit had complained of sporadic fret buzz throughout the length of the fretboard; especially in the higher registers.

First of all, the truss rod was tightened so that the fretboard was flat; that is with zero relief. This had to be done to ensure an accurate assessment of fret height later on. Once I had the fretboard as flat as I had intended, I used a Fret Rocker to gauge the height of the frets, three at a time. As it turned out, there were just too many high spots to deal with individually; and it would be more practical to simply level all the frets.

After protecting the soundboard with sheets of clear plastic, the fretboard was masked off with StewMac Orange Multi-Purpose Tape. Black permanent marker was then used to mark the whole length of each fret top. Following this, the frets were leveled in stages using diamond leveling blocks of various grits.

As can be seen in the pictures below, the first few passes revealed lots of black marker in the low spots. With successive passes, these black spots gradually started to disappear, indicating that the frets were closer to being of a uniform height. Once there were no more black [low] spots left, the fret tops were again carefully checked with the Fret Rocker to determine if there were any more high [and low] spots remaining. I'm glad to say that no more high spots were found, and I was able to proceed to the next step of the process.

The next step was recrowning the fret tops. This had to be done as after leveling, for the fret tops were as flat as an airstrip. Once again, the fret tops were marked with black permanent marker. Following this, the frets were recrowned using a combination of fine-toothed three-cornered files and a StewMac Z-File. The final result was a narrow black line down the middle of each fret top; which represented its peak or "crown."

So now we had frets that had been leveled and recrowned, but full of scratches from all that filing. To reduce these marks to the bare minimum, the frets were abraded with 3M Scotch-Brite Pads, 0000 steel wool; and 3M Flexible Polishing Papers. Finally, as a finishing touch; the frets were polished with Autosol Metal Polish. And with that, I humbly conclude this post. Thanks for visiting, and I'll see you good people real soon.

Seven Tones GA141 Acoustic Guitar | Part One

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Part One: Introduction

I could not find any useful information about this Seven Tones GA141 on the web. However, based on the model number and soundhole label [Designed and Established in Malaysia], I believe that Seven Tones is one of the house brands of L. Luthier Guitars. Well, as luck would have it, good buddy Thomas Yeoh was kind enough to contact L. Luthier. The information he received confirms that Seven Tones is a "sub-brand" of L. Luthier. However, they "no longer produce it." Muchas gracias, Thom :)

Beneath the dust and grime, this GA141 is a gorgeous and stunning instrument. The striping on the back and soundboard are to die for; I tell you! It belongs to Acit Sokalov, a cheerful young man who is into the more tender side of Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton and Peter Pan; amongst other musicians/bands. However, he'd been neglecting the upkeep of his instrument for far too long; and decided it was time to set things right.

As you can see in the pics below, dirt, grime and crud had taken hold of the GA141 and frankly; I was at a loss as to where to begin. After some serious discussion with Acit, we decided on a few matters. For one, the guitar needed deep cleaning and reconditioning. The fretboard and bridge had turned a chalky shade of grey, indicating extreme dryness. The wood was so dry that a crack had developed right where the nut met the fretboard end.

Now, the GA141 also needed fretwork and suffered from  uncomfortably-high action; so these issues would be given top priority. Next, Acit confided that he would like to upgrade his baby with a genuine bone nut, saddle and bridge pins. I had bone nuts in stock, but no saddles or bridge pins. These would have to be sourced online. Besides this, he'd noticed that the stock black-finished tuners were already rusty, and needed to be replaced. Once again, it would be an online store I would turn to.

That's about it then for this introductory post. Remember, there are two more posts on this GA141 for you to enjoy. And, as a bonus for this blog's faithful readers, Acit has also recorded three videos of himself playing his beloved guitar [after servicing and upgrades, of course]. I've uploaded these to YouTube as I believe this man is really talented.

100 000 Hits ~ Thank You Everyone

 My very first post on this blog was on Friday, December 23, 2011. It was entitled "Che'gu Awal's New Studio" and was all about, well, Che'gu Awal's new studio; RF MusicWorks. Now, some 10 years and 382 posts later; the number of visitors to this blog has finally  hit the 100 000 mark. I cannot thank you enough, my dear readers; for your steadfast support throughout the years. Reaching this milestone certainly inspires me to work even harder and upload new posts as often as I am able to. Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart :)

Image Credit: Damir Idris/Aduka Sariat

   

Cort AF510EOP | Part Four

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Fretwork: Spot Leveling

So far, we've seen how soundhole repairs, bridge ramping and saddle lowering were carried out on this Cort AF510EOP. Now it was time for some fretwork, more precisely; spot leveling of the frets. 

I needed to do this because Bro Eddy had complained of buzzing when playing in the higher reaches of the neck. This could only mean one thing, that there were high spots on the upper frets. And the only remedy for this malady would be spot leveling. 

First of all, the high spots were identified using a four-edged tool known as a "Fret Rocker." Basically, you place one edge of the tool so it covers only three adjacent frets. Then you try and rock the tool with the middle fret as the pivot. If it doesn't, all is good. However, if it rocks; then you have a high spot.

In this way, I was able to identify high spots on the 14th to 19th frets. These high spots were then marked with, you guessed it; a marker pen. Following this, a fine-toothed three-cornered file was used to carefully level the high spots. After every few strokes of the file, the Fret Rocker was used to gauge progress. If it still rocked, I needed to file some more.

Finally, all the high spots had been leveled and the Fret Rocker rocked no more. Yes, indeed; another sad day for rock and roll. But I digress. The fret tops were now level, yes; but they were as flat as a landing strip. And so the next step was to recrown the fret tops. I used a combination of three-cornered files and a StewMac Z-File to get the job done.

Now the frets had been leveled and recrowned, but tops were marred by lots of unsightly scratches and file marks. To remove these marks, 3M Scotch-Brite Pads, 0000 steel wool, 3M Flexible Polishing Papers and lots of elbow grease were used. The last step was a little gentle polishing with Autosol.

Before final setup and restringing, the whole guitar was given a thorough cleaning; followed by a couple applications of Gibson Guitar Polish. Besides this, the Merbau fretboard was degrimed and reconditioned with lemon oil; and all the frets polished. Well, that about wraps up this post; and my four-parter on Bro Eddy's Cort AF510EOP. Stay home, stay safe; and keep on rocking the free world!

Cort AF510EOP | Part Three

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Modifications and Repairs

Bro Eddy brought his Cort AF510EOP in recently for soundhole repairs, bridge ramping, saddle lowering; and fretwork. It appears that rats had somehow gotten into the guitar and chewed up the edges of the soundhole pretty badly. After sanding down the ragged edges of the soundhole, the exposed surfaces were sealed with super glue. After the super glue had dried, the sealed surfaces were gently smoothened with 3M Flexible Polishing Papers. 

Now, with regard to lowering the string action, it involved modifying both the Merbau bridge and synthetic bone saddle. The saddle height was carefully reduced in stages from 7.96mm to 7.05mm. I used a small steel rule, digital calipers and a diamond sharpening stone to get the job done.

Next, to ensure optimum string break angle over the lowered saddle, "Bridge Ramping" was carried out. This process involves cutting slots into the bridge where each string exits its respective bridge pin hole. I've included before and after pics below to illustrate the procedure.