Vintage Aria 1820 Restoration: Part Two

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Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

This is the second post in an ongoing series concerning the restoration of a vintage '70s Aria 1820 Short-Scale Bass. In this post we will look at hardware removal, tuner test-fitting; and also headstock finish repair.

We'll start off with the bridge, then. Everything was frozen in place, the twin saddles, the slotted height adjustment screws; as well as the intonation screws. To make matters worse, the heads of the six screws securing the bridge were so rusty that they had disintegrated; making removal with a screwdriver virtually impossible.

The only alternative was to drill off the screw heads using my drill press, remove the bridge, and then utilize a hollow punch drill bit to drill around the embedded screws. This would create isolated wooden "plugs" around each screw, which could then be pried out.

Everything went along as planned, and the embedded screws were successfully removed without too much fuss. Following this, the gaping holes were plugged with wooden dowels made from sawed-off sections of drumsticks. Oh yes, maple makes for a good plug, I tell you. These plugs were then trimmed flush with the surrounding wood.

The next task was removing the neck so I could i) work on the body separately, and ii) adjust the neck pitch. To my dismay, the neck mounting screws would not turn at all despite my using a T-wrench screwdriver. I tried and tried, but only succeeded in breaking the screwdriver.

Left with no choice, it was back to the drill press. The mounting screw heads were all drilled off; and the neck plate removed. Now I was left with headless rusty screws that were still refusing to budge. It seemed that they had rusted off inside the wood and were permanently stuck in both the neck pocket and heel.

Out came the hollow punch bits, and eventually the neck was separated from the body. The screws were still stubbornly embedded in the neck heel, so the hollow punch bits were once again used to create plugs around the screws; as had been done while removing the bridge mounting screws. 

Sure enough, these stubborn neck mounting screws were finally removed, leaving gaping circular holes that needed to be plugged. And plugged they were, with wooden dowels and wood glue. The oversized holes in the neck pocket were also plugged in a similar manner; and trimmed flush.

Meanwhile, I was also working on fitting new tuners as the stock ones were unusable. Every few turns, the gears would slip. Besides this, the tuner posts were awful "wobbly," for lack of a better word. They had to be replaced, no doubt about that. Unfortunately, generic Fender-style open gear tuners would be too large for this headstock, and protrude over the top if installed.

The only alternative was to install Ibanez-style tuners, which had a smaller housing. As luck would have it, the existing tuner post holes were way too small to accommodate the Ibanez-style tuner posts. Enlarging the holes with a reamer did the trick, and the tuners were test-fitted. Of course, the 16 old tuner mounting screw holes were not left just like that. They were plugged with bamboo dowels and super glue.

The issue of the damaged finish (lacquer, perhaps?) surrounding the black "Aria" lettering also needed to be addressed as it was cracking and flaking off; exposing the precious lettering to damage. As it stood, exposed portions of the lettering had already started to fade. The solution? Super glue, of course!

Super glue was applied thinly in successive layers to the lettering and surrounding lacquer, making sure that it seeped underneath the edges of the flakes and into the cracks. In time, this would help seal the cracks and secure the flakes to the headstock, thus preventing further deterioration. The process was terminated once the super glue buildup had exceeded the thickness of the existing lacquer; as it could now be sanded flush.

The super glue layer was carefully wet-sanded using successively finer grits of abrasives until it was level with the existing lacquer on the headstock face. Following this, the entire headstock face and back were scuff-sanded in preparation for the final step; sealing with Tru-Oil. The application of Tru-Oil served well in blending the super glue and existing lacquer into one adequately-smooth layer, which was then waxed with Birchwood Casey Gun Stock Wax and buffed by hand.

Of course, one can still see the patch of super glue upon close inspection. However, as the objective of the exercise was to repair the finish damage and protect the valuable "Aria" lettering; I believe we should be satisfied with the outcome. That's about it for this post, folks. There's lots more that needs to be done, and these will be covered in upcoming posts. Till I see you again, stay home, stay safe, keep on rocking; and God bless :)

 

RC Stromm Acoustic Guitar Headstock Repair

This acoustic guitar came in a few years ago for a headstock repair. I used a nyatoh backstrap overlay to repair the damage, and it has held up admirably all this while. That was until one of Che'gu Awal's guitar students carelessly dropped it after a private practice session. This time the crack was in a different location and even more severe, which led me to suspect that there was a problem with the wood of the neck itself.

After the back of the headstock and neck was shaved down, I decided to remove wood from both sides of the crack; and glue in rectangular blocks of wood for reinforcement. Upon chiseling out wood to form channels for the wood blocks, my earlier suspicions were confirmed. Wood on either side of the truss rod, especially in the truss rod area; was rotten. So rotten, in fact; that some sections looked as if they'd been eaten by termites.

Once the wood blocks had been glued in, the back of the neck was shaved to accept a backstrap overlay. This time, the backstrap overlay consisted of a "sandwich" of pine and chengal. And instead of bending the overlay, an extra-thick slab of pine was carefully shaped to conform to the profile of the shaved headstock/neck area.

The backstrap overlay was glued in with Titebond III, clamped; and set aside for a week. Once the clamps were off, it was time to trim the overlay to size and reshape it as necessary. As it turned out, most of the chengal ended up being sanded off completely; leaving just two small areas near the end of the headstock and volute. Yes, I added a volute because I believe it adds strength to the weakest areas of the headstock/neck joint.

Following this, the entire back of the neck was sanded down, and refinished in Tru-Oil. About 10-15 coats were put down, with some steel-wooling action going down every three coats or so. The final coat was considerably thinned down with naphtha; and left to cure for about a week. As a finishing touch, Birchwood Casey Gun Stock Wax was applied to the entire back of the neck and headstock; and the area buffed by hand.

This RC Stromm Acoustic Guitar came in at the end of July, and the job was only completed yesterday. This means that it took about five months for this repair, imagine that! I sent the guitar to Che'gu Awal earlier tonight at RF MusicWorks. While he was trying out the guitar, I recorded a short video (with his permission, of course). I've also put together another video that summarizes how this repair was carried out. Here are the videos, then. Do check them out:

RC Stromm Headstock Repair

RC Stromm Acoustic after Neck Repair

With that, I humbly take my leave. Thanks for dropping by. Stay home, stay safe, and God bless :)

 

Taylor 150e 12-String Dreadnought Bridge Repair

This post details how I went about repairing the lifting bridge on a Taylor 150e 12-String Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar featured in a previous post. First of all, let me share with you that a lifting, or completely popped-off bridge is not an uncommon occurrence where acoustic guitars are concerned. And it doesn't only happen to the cheaper no-name ones; even those from big names are not spared.

The main cause of this malady is, as I see it; lacquer or varnish under the bridge. On lots of guitars I've repaired, the area under the bridge was not lacquer-free. In fact, there was no difference between this area and the rest of the top (soundboard). So, in effect, since the bridge was initially glued on, the glue on the bottom surface of the bridge had been adhering to a thin layer of lacquer/varnish; and not wood.

Given this scenario, it would only be a matter of time before string tension proved too strong for the thin layer of finish to handle, and the bridge would pull off the soundboard, taking with it a couple slivers of spruce; or whatever wood the soundboard was made from.

For a strong and long-lasting cohesion between the bridge and top, the bridge must be glued to bare wood. This can be achieved by taping off the area that would be under the bridge before applying lacquer or varnish (ie finish) to the top. Then, it would be a simple process of removing the tape, and gluing on the bridge. But perhaps this process consumes too much time, labor and dinero; hence the reluctance on the part of certain manufacturers to do it right.

On this particular Taylor 12-string, the majority of the bridge bottom-soundboard contact area was free of varnish. However, they'd retained a narrow band of varnish all around the inner perimeter of the bottom of the bridge. I guess that this was done for aesthetic reasons, ie to eliminate a visible "border" between the perimeter of the bridge and the varnish on the soundboard.

All fine and dandy, except for the fact that while the main area of the bridge bottom had been firmly glued to the bare spruce top, the perimeter had merely been glued to the varnish. That's a sure recipe for disaster! And so, string tension, compounded by a "bulging belly;" finally caused the bridge to lift from the soundboard.

After meticulously scoring the outline of the bridge (to minimize finish chipping), I carefully prised the bridge loose with a heated spatula. Much to my surprise, the bridge came off without much ado. Following this, I carefully scraped the old glue and varnish off the exposed wood, and leveled the area with sandpaper. I also scraped and sanded the bottom of the bridge clean of any glue or spruce remnants, made sure it was absolutely flat; and roughed it up a little with 180-grit sandpaper.

Now, since the Taylor was also suffering from a bulging belly aka acoustic belly bulge, I needed to address this problem before regluing the bridge. I'm happy to say that two few weeks of of humidifying, dehumidifying, and judicious clamping got the soundboard sufficiently flat again (I checked with a spirit level).

That having been taken care of, it was time to reglue the bridge with Titebond III Ultimate Wood Glue. A dry test run was carried out with suitable cauls and clamps so I would know exactly what to do before any glue was applied. As it turned out, I needed four StewMac Soundhole Clamps for the job.

I dispensed with the original tiny plastic bridge locating pins since they were terribly bent out of shape. Instead, I used two old bridge pins to ensure the bridge was properly aligned and positioned.The clamps stayed on until the glue squeeze-out turned brown, indicating that the Titebond III had dried and cured completely.

Once the clamps were off, it was time to clean up dried glue squeeze-out and any residue. There was also the extremely tedious task of cleaning dried glue from twelve bridge pin holes, as well as three holes for the ES2 pickup sensors. The repaired areas were then waxed with Birchwood Casey Gun Stock Wax, and gently buffed.

I also treated the bridge to some Dunlop Formula 65 Fretboard Ultimate Lemon Oil as it was looking kind of dry and thirsty. The fretboard was cleaned and rejuvenated with the same magic oil; and the frets polished to a high lustre. As per the owner's instructions, this Taylor 150e was strung to pitch with a set of Elixir 11152 Nanoweb Lights. I also sanded the bottom of the saddle a tad to reduce the action at the bridge slightly.