Dear Readers,
Tomorrow (30/06/11) will my last day at Maestro Guitars. I’ve had a largely wonderful time here and I will be moving on to something else.
I wish everyone at Maestro the best and wish them success in their continued expansion of the company.
Regards,
KC
http://www.facebook.com/tan.kaichin
Admittedly I hate to do scalloping, it’s time consuming and I never liked the feel of a scalloped neck. However, as a service provider, it’s our duty to meet guitarists needs regardless of our own biasness. Here’s how it turned out:
A tremolno system was installed. This device allows the trem to become a fixed bridge by turning a few thumb screws. Very useful
A look at the scalloped neck.
The upper frets.
It was a frustrating, time consuming process. The reality of being a guitar tech. Not every job is fun but when it’s completed and the customer is happy, that’s all that matters.
Ok I’m kidding on the headline 
Here’s a blueridge guitar which needed a neck reset. Here’s how it went:
Removing the 15 fret, and drilling a hole so that I can ‘steam’ out the neck.
Attaching the neck removal jig, afterwhich the neck is clamped to a vice and steam is shot into the hole at the 15 fret.
Neck came off smoothly. No major paint damage.
I had to drill another hole on the bass side as it was a stubborn neck to remove. No worries as I can fill it up with a rosewood dowel.
Holes filled up and fret put back in place. The repair is near invisible.
No gaps between the neck and body.
No gaps here either.
Guitar is strung up and setup. You can see a healthy saddle height coming above the saddle slot now. The paint blemishes you can see were deliberately left there as the customer didn’t need it to be touched up, saved some time and more than a few $$$.
On a final note, the client was so delighted with the job he wanted to pay me more for it. I declined politely however.
Pot shafts sometimes break and if the pot is a good quality one, why not repair the shaft instead of replacing it?
Here’s how it turned out. I broke off the shaft from an old pot and attached it to the new one. To make it rigid I glued in a wood veneer between the shaft and it’s as good as new. I tested it out using it’s original knob and it works perfect. Faster and cheaper than replacing the pot.
Thanks to Rob Humphrey’s for choosing a Maestro Singa (Flame maple ) medium jumbo. Looking forward to the hearing it on the new material!
The original Tom Anderson Crowdster is a single pickup guitar meant to have both electric and acoustic sounds. Here is the process of converting the Crowdster to a ‘plus’.
Neck Cavity cleanly routed.
Nicely aligned with the bridge cavity
Don’t you just love the headstock?
Guitar is stringed up and it really does electric and acoustic tones well!
Finally, I got to try one these custom instruments assembled by a fellow local luthier Malcolm Tan . Indeed the guitar did not disappoint (nice work Malcolm!) but the owner wanted to get some copper shielding and a setup done. Also he wanted to replace the bridge pickup with one from harmonic designs
A look at the Nosnuma Neck pocket.
Budz pickup and aluminium shielding. Aluminium shielding works but they cannot be soldered together hence continuity issues might develop with age.
Copper shielding is done and the sheets soldered together.
Pickup is installed and the guitar is setup. A sweet sounding guitar, that plays like butter.
KC
Here is a HSH gibson scale warmoth strat waiting to be assembled. It looks pretty and I can’t wait to hear how it sounds.
Zebrawood top and mahogany body. Rosewood fingerboard and 1/4 sawn maple neck.
This Cort guitar has split at the saddle slot and after some consideration, I decided it was best to make a new bridge from a rosewood blank.
Dodgy piece of wood. You can see the grain ‘run out’.
The blank is traced with a white pencil.
The plane goes to work. Sharp tools make quick work of it.
After some planing and shaping with a rasp, the rough shape is out.
The bridge is reglued then the saddle slot routed. Now the guitar is better than before.
KC
A Piezo on a hollowbody is a great addition for contemporary music. Blend in some piezo signal and you get great definition for fingerstyle work. Use the piezo alone and you get a believable acoustic tone. Of all the piezo systems I’ve used, the graphtech ghost for me is the most natural sounding piezo system out there for electric. On top of this, the saddles are fitted onto a very resonant and lightweight ‘Resomax’ bridge which to me possesses the overtones of an ebony bridge albeit ‘livelier’ and more defined.
Here’s how it went:
Original state
Original bridge needed new studs to fit the new Ghost bridge
The studs are measured with a vernier caliper
The correct size drill bit is selected and if you noticed, the drill bit nearer to you has been modified. Both are twist drill bits for metal and they would tear into the wood if the tip wasn’t ground off using a grinder. This simple mod allows my twist metal bit to enlarge existing wooden holes cleanly with no tearing.
As the new studs are too tall for the wooden base, I had to file them down. After some thought, I figured out a way to clamp down the small object for filing.
There wasn’t much space under the guitar pickguard so I had to rout out a cavity with my dremel to allow the preamp to sit deeper.
Preamp sits nicely.
After soldering, the cables are arranged with an adhesive clip.
Here you can see why the routing was needed. Everything fit, barely
A new neck pickup was also installed and the owner is now enjoying all the new sounds this hollowbody can conjure.
KC