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Guitar Repair #22 - Setup - Manuel Rodríguez e Hijos Model E Rio Exotic - Classical

5/11/21
I was going through my repair blog entries.
Many early guitars like this wasn't documented properly, if at all.
I wish I did.

Guitar Repair #21 - Setup - Manuel Adalid - Classical

5/11/21
I was going through my repair blog entries.
Many early guitars like this wasn't documented properly, if at all.
I wish I did.

Guitar Repair #19 - Bridge Reglue/Soundboard "Winter" Crack /French Polish-Soundboard - '93 John Hall - Classical


1993 John Hall

Handsome Acacia wooden case

Carbon fiber braces

Bridge was reglued after soundboard was sanded down



French polishing the soundboard - 1st session

Problems:-
  • Top centerline crack throughout
  • uneven frets. they move somehow with fingerboard from 11th fret onwards (buzzing on most frets before 11th fret)
  • client wants to restore as much, including french polishing for whole guitar, but i suggest just the top and freshen up sides n back
  • tuners slip for 4th and 3rd string pegs.

Guitar Repair #18 - New Nut For Smaller Hands! - Yamaha CG-130A - Classical

Alice wanted to buy a guitar for her daughter, a size bigger than 3/4 but smaller than a standard size. That sounds like a 7/8 size guitar. So I suggested to customise the nut instead for a closer spacing of 37mm, to feel like a 7/8.

Too bad, I haven't got photos to show here.

  5/11/21
I was going through my repair blog entries.
Many early guitars like this wasn't documented properly, if at all.
I wish I did.
Photo taken from Guitar Repair #539


wondercurl top sets arrived...

today came home to see my wondercurl arrived!

it was only a day before when i paid the shipping to vpost!

vPOSTUSA Base Charge - (SGD) 12.40
Weight Charge - (SGD)17.20 (actual Wt 2 kg; vol wt 0.8Kg) (Chargeable Wt 2 Kg; min 0.5 kg)
The tonewood costs me usd200

it's my first time using vpost and it's pretty cool and economy!

luthiery wisdom from piotr mazur

piotr mazur, my 2 day old myspace friend, who added me wrote:-


Hi Mr. Ngoh
My message has been partialy lost...well,I'm just a guitar player,have never studied
music at school,yet manage to learn couple of things here and there.I've worked
for twenty years at local music store,met many great musicians there and Remi
is one of them(You sure know his taste for flat picks glued to his thumb,we would spend quite some time browsing trough my stock to get the right one...)As for the paulownia wood it's my couriosity and amazement of "how do they do that"that make me discover it:half a dozen of my friends are guitar makers,yet some questions are left without the anwers.One of them is the relation between wood density and its tonal character.Searching trough different web sites specialized in wood I found about the paulownia wood being used in making of some traditional chinese instruments;next question was is there anybody makig guitars out of it and there was a blog with some guys talking about wilde cherry first and than your statment about paulownia.And finally what was I about to say is:your paulownia guitar may suffer from its ebony fingerboard.I asked once a violin maker why do we use
the ebony for violin fingerboard and the guy told me that it's not only because of its nice apparence and wear resistance but because it dampens the instrument thus making it more easy to control its sustain:"we do not want violin to resonate after we stop the bow movement"...when I heard that I thought of one of my guitars with ebony fingerboard having great attack and missing some sustain...than I checked what google says and found somebody talking about fixing a benedetto guitar and how it got much better sounding when replaced its ebony tailpiece with a metal one.Just put in Google "ebony dampens"and you will see what people says So,maybe your guitar will shine with a rosewood fingerboard?Hope it was not to boring.Keep building them guitars!!!
Piotr
p.s.by the way I'm pretty sure you do know how your guitar should sound,I heard you playing....bravo! send some more!!

Guitar Repair #17 - Finish Chipped - Craftsman - Electric


The thick black plastic finish gave way in 2 places
on the lower bout, revealing the light colour bodywood

Epoxy applied.

Though not matched in colour, it's smooth to touch,
as client's only requirement

A black marker is closer in colour. Why not.
Sal's Flamenco - gluing the fingerboard: I used to round the soundhole by hand with a file. Now, I make a round .. http://bit.ly/nRoay

Sal's Flamenco - gluing the fingerboard


I used to round the soundhole by hand with a file. Now, I make a round disc to fit my soundhole, fit it with sandpaper, hook it up on the drill and let it trim out a perfect circle.


The fingerboard is being glued on.

Guitar Repair #16 - Setup - Alvira EX200S - Classical

Alvira EX200S

Guitar Repair #15 - Setup - Ritmuller C-18 - Classical

Ritmuller C-18

Luthier Learning Center Build # 4

joined this forum after they closed it (locked forum).

Now, M A R I O says to pay Michael Lazar US$100 for access!

What to do. Nevermind lah, take it as my first luthiery tuition!

Sent money today with my new GO card through paypal!

Guitar Repair #14 - Soundboard French Polish /Setup- 1993 Sonora "Cordoba" by Cuong - Classical

1993 Sonora "Cordoba" by Cuong

Dinks all over...

Lacquer crazing...
Soundboard crack

Lovely classic rosette
One of two major soundboard wear
Other top wear
Dinks & finish crazing...
More crazing...

Stripping the finish on the soundboard with #80-#240 garnet.
...first session of shellac...
...after 4 sessions and glazed with Meguiar's #7
...dents are gone...
...here as well...

For future abuse, a golpeador (tap plate) is applied
Finished
A 3-week job. Labour intensive but highly satisfying. Given a choice, I will never want to do it again!
Sal's Flamenco - fingerboard - cutting out soundhole end: The ebony fingerboard is indexed to the Spanish Cedar .. http://bit.ly/2uz4V

Sal's Flamenco - fingerboard - cutting out soundhole end


The ebony fingerboard is indexed to the Spanish Cedar neck into pre-drilled holes with two brads, on the first and eleven frets' positions. This allows accurate marking and shaping of the fingerboard on the soundhole end.


With the line as guide, the fingerboard is roughly cut out with a coping saw.

bic membership

bic replied me that i paid for june n july and aug payment "failed".

so made a total payment of S$204.05!!! for 12 lessons!

praise the Lord for the failed august payment...khehehehe!!!
Sal's Flamenco - fret slotting: I'm cutting the 6th fret... all are cut to the depth of 3/32" with a simple guid.. http://bit.ly/115ooK

terminate bic membership

this morning announce to bill n all i'm leaving bic.

also just send out email to them.

but bill looked at my site for first time n commented. here's the chat script on 4th sep'09:-

[meng] bill, the techniques u hv taught thus far, r these the same ones u use to get yr adsense results?
[billmcintosh] yes, & PPC
[meng] ok cool
[meng] bill, it's my last week in bic
[billmcintosh] Oh, I'm sorry to hear that
[meng] i've stretched my budget
[billmcintosh] Anything on our end we could have done better?
[meng] u hv been great....thanks for all the coaching
[billmcintosh] Thanks & you're welcome
[meng] everything's fine on yr side
[billmcintosh] maybe you can stick with the wordpress club if it's in your budget. If not, I'll be there on my free broadcast
[meng] just that it din work too well yet on my side - not much increase in traffic
[billmcintosh] that's a bummer
[billmcintosh] which site?
[meng] maybe i should apply those techniques in other sites.
[meng] http://ngohguitars.blogspot.com
[meng] still here?
[billmcintosh] sorry
[meng] ok
[billmcintosh] It's a little rough to make a blogspot blog work to sell products. You're trying to sell the guitars... correct?
[meng] well yes eventually
[meng] trying to get some traffic for a start
[coop] Would definitely suggest wordpress with a .com
[meng] n build some awareness
[meng] ok
[coop] Your making all of your efforts work double time to be able to sell something on a blogspot domain.
[billmcintosh] I'd probably do a simple wordpress blog on your own .com & use youtube videos
[meng] oh
[meng] good thought coop
[billmcintosh] then you can at the bare minimum put a contact us form for people to enquire about buying
[coop] ^
[meng] ok bill
[meng] i plan to hold youtube guitar contest, to give away one of my custom made guitars
[billmcintosh] That's a great idea
[billmcintosh] I think content videos of how you make guitars would be cool too
[meng] ok
[billmcintosh] I'd watch them
[meng] ok!
[meng] u would?
[meng]
coop would
[billmcintosh] sortof a behind the scenes look at a craftman/artist at work
[meng] yes, it's on one of my to-do list
[billmcintosh] you could even go step by step on a single guitar & then offer that guitar for sale <--------this is a great idea!!!
[coop] An affiliate program might help too. Have other people sell your guitars for you.
[meng] ok
[meng] it's been really cool to be here, n thanks for all the sharing, bill
[meng] i wake up 4am every week for this
[meng] coop, all the best to u. keep n touch!
[coop] meng - this is your last week? How come?
[meng] i've stretched my budget thus far
[meng] n waking up 4am once a week is taking its toll on me...lol
[meng] i'll try stay in touch in the free trg
[meng] bye bill, coop n all
[coop] See ya.
[meng] bye coop
[meng] nice talking
[billmcintosh] Sorry meng, was on several IMs at once
[billmcintosh] I'm glad you could join us here up till now. Hopefull you'll be back after the site builds up for you
[meng] no problem
[billmcintosh] I'll see you on the Tuesday shows for sure.
[meng] yes i hope so
[meng] so do i get to lock in the price i got in? khehehe
[billmcintosh] Let me know when you want back in... I'm sure we'll work out something
[billmcintosh] [smile]
[meng] oh sounds good
[meng] ty bill, i'm going for breakfast
[meng] hv a great weekend
[billmcintosh] Bye!
[meng] bye

Sal's Flamenco - fret slotting


I'm cutting the 6th fret... all are cut to the depth of 3/32" with a simple guide block clamped on the left of saw. It gets a little harder to saw through on the last 1/32", so the parrafin (white) helps lubricate the saw a bit.


After all the 19 frets are cut, the fingerboard is tapered from nut width of 50cm to 12th fret width of 61cm. With the lines drafted, the fingerboard will be carefully planed to them.


Here's work done so far...

2nd custom guitar order!!! chua hock beng!!!

today, met chua after a long time. we had an informal lesson. he came to studio at 9:30am!

we had an early lunch at lor 5 bak chor mee! then we decided to relive old times n go karaoke, sacrificing my making day! but an excuse to 'celebrate' my 2nd guitar order.

he said he'll pay me, but din talk about price. he said use him as 'guinea pig' for customising a guitar to his dimension - shorter scale length!

what the --- may as well put an elevated fingerboard to command a premium!

thank you Jesus!

btw, k-box (toa payoh) is no more. so we had nice snooker session at snooker zone.