Saving an HIH Acoustic Guitar

It just warms the cockles of my heart whenever a guitar is loved and regarded as a family member. One sweaty morning in the Age of Covid, a pleasant young man and his mom brought in two guitars in need of repairs: an HIH acoustic and a Yamaha C-80 classical. The HIH was his dad's, while the C-80 was a recent yard sale acquisition. As dad was too busy to bring in the guitars himself, mom and son decided to jointly shoulder the task. I found that very touching. Although keeping costs down was a major consideration (as always); both of them politely requested that I do my best as the HIH had "been in the family" for a long time. 

The HIH was dusty and grimy, clearly well-used; and had on five rusty strings. The major issue was, however, the unsightly crack between the neck heel and the body. In effect, the neck heel had completely separated from the body and was just held on by the fretboard. This really surprised me until I forced the crack open and found that only one measly wooden dowel and glue had been used to "join" the neck to the body. No siree, it would have cost too much to fashion a dovetail joint, so this is the path HIH chose. Way to go, HIH! To minimize cost, I suggested that the neck heel be glued back into place with Titebond III and the repaired area touched up; no refinishing would be done. They agreed, and so I proceeded with the task at hand.

The damaged area was thoroughly cleaned of any loose debris, following which Titebond III was liberally applied to surfaces to be reattached. Clamps were then applied, and any glue squeeze-out promptly wiped off with a damp rag. Two bricks in a bag were tied onto the middle of the neck with nylon rope. This was to provide sufficient downward pressure to the neck heel. The clamps and bricks were left on for some 24 hours to give the Titebond III sufficient time to cure.

Once the clamps had been removed, it was time to clean up any dried glue squeeze-out and make the repaired area presentable. After sanding and leveling this area, a diluted mix of various StewMac ColorTone liquid stains were used to tint exposed areas of wood as best I could. Finally, light coats of Tru-Oil were applied to seal everything nicely. Normally I would have refinished the areas in question; but that would have blown the repair budget out of the water.

That issue having been taken care of, it was time to replace the old grimy tuners. One of the tuner buttons was even missing. After removing the old tuners, the mounting screw holes were plugged with bamboo dowels dipped in glue. These dowels were then trimmed flush, sanded; and each sealed with a drop of super glue.

Now, as the replacement tuner posts would not fit into the old holes, a reamer was used to slowly widen them until they could. New tuner mounting holes were then drilled; and the replacement tuners installed. I must say, the HIH headstock looked a whole lot better with these new tuners.

What was left, then, was to spruce up the fretboard and frets, clean and polish the whole guitar, install a fresh set of strings, tweak the truss rod; and call it a day. Which is exactly what I did, by the way. Thus ended another thrilling episode in the life of a guitar repairman. And what of the Yamaha C-80? Well, that is a subject for another post :) 

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 :)

 

Payar Ukulele Bridge Reglue

This cute little L. Luthier Payar Tenor Ukulele was bought used. One fine day, the bridge suddenly popped off, revealing a gnarly mess of dried glue and wood slivers. Obviously, this had happened before and one of the previous owners had attempted to repair the damage. The condition of this ukulele was very similar to the KAK Concert Ukulele I'd repaired earlier this year. I knew that I had to approach this repair very carefully so as not to damage the soundboard any further.

Cleaning the underside of of the bridge was relatively easy. However, cleaning and leveling the area underneath the bridge was another story. The dried glue had found its way right into the wood fibres and would not come off. I decided to use a heat gun to soften the stubborn glue before scraping it off. And yes, I should have been more careful with the heat gun as I ended up scorching the soundboard in a couple of places. Once the glue had been removed, wayward wood slivers were removed with chisels and the area concerned leveled with sandpaper.

With the soundboard sufficiently prepped, it was time to stain the rest of the soundboard with ColorTone Medium Brown (#5033). Following this, the entire body was sealed with a couple coats of Tru-Oil. Once the Tru-Oil had cured, the bridge was reglued to the soundboard using Titebond III, soundhole clamps; and wooden cauls. The clamps came off after four days, and dried glue squeeze-out carefully cleaned off. The ukulele was then strung with a fresh set of strings and tuned gCEA.

That's about it for this post. Thanks for dropping by. Stay home, stay safe, and God bless :)

L. Luthier GA20W Bridge Repair | Part Two

◀ Part One

As detailed in the previous post, the bottom of the bridge and soundboard contact area have already been prepped for regluing. Naturally, the next step would be to reglue the bridge. This I've done with Titebond III Ultimate Wood Glue and StewMac Soundhole Clamps. I dispensed with the lone existing rosewood bridge locating pin and replaced it with two bridge pins; one in the 1st string hole and the other in the sixth. The clamps were removed after four days, which would have given the glue sufficient time to fully cure.

After removing any dried glue squeeze-out, the immediate area around the repair was cleaned. Following this, the perimeter of the bridge was sealed with a couple coats of Tru-Oil. I needed to do this because despite using tape and a sharp scalpel to score the thick finish around the bridge before removing it, some of the finish had chipped; exposing a thin line of raw wood. Sealing these exposed areas with Tru-Oil should prevent moisture from getting into the wood; in my humble opinion.

Meanwhile, the fretboard surely needed reconditioning. The frets and fretboard were first cleaned with 3M Scotch-Brite Pads, after which a generous amount of Dunlop Formula 65 Fretboard Ultimate Lemon Oil was applied. After leaving the lemon oil on for about 15 minutes, any excess was wiped off with a clean rag; and the job was complete. The bridge was also treated with lemon oil as I thought the rosewood looked really dry.

Next on the list was restringing the guitar with a set of Alice A306-XL (010-047) and tuning up. As the relief was just where I wanted it with the instrument in standard tuning; there was no need for any truss rod adjustment. And so, after polishing the whole guitar with carnauba wax; this L. Luthier GA20W was ready to be played once more. Here's a short YouTube Video of yours truly trying out this lovely guitar.

Epiphone Accu Bass Jr Overhaul

There was lots to repair on this Precision-style bass. For starters, the grimy fretboard had separated from the neck; and the nut was broken. The bridge was so cruddy that the saddle height hex screws were frozen in place. As if that weren't enough, someone had decided to "rewire" the electronics sans solder -- a couple connections were just twisted together! In any case, as I'd have to replace the pots and output jack and rewire the innards; that issue would be taken care of.

The fretboard was reglued to the neck with Titebond III and clamped, and all was well after four days. Following this, the fretboard was subjected to a thorough reconditioning; which included a healthy dose of lemon oil right at the end. I eventually managed to remove the frozen saddle height hex screws with the help of heat/cold treatment, and a sturdy pair of pliers. After derusting, servicing and a lube job, eight new hex screws were fitted to the saddles; and the bridge reinstalled.

The high density foam pieces that sat underneath the pickup halves had lost their springiness and were virtually unusable, these were replaced with four springs. All the electronics were removed; Alpha 500K pots,0.047uF cap, and Neutrik/Rean NYS229 output jack wired in.

After installing a new nut, the neck was reattached to the body. The Epiphone Accu Bass Jr was fitted with a new set of strings, and set up to normal specs. I'm thankful I was able to help give this bass a new lease of life.