The good Guild being my 2000 or so Starfire III with P90s. A lucky find in many ways, beautiful and toneful instrument. Yet as good as it sounds, the playability was not quite quite where I want it. Not bad, just not exactly right.
A couple months ago, I reconnected with an old blues jam acquaintance, guy named George Goumas. Who is a talented and interesting musician. Has played with some well known blues heavies, done guitar tech work for many others. I'd never played anything he had worked on. Stopped by his house, and he pulled out this early 60s ES-330 he'd completely restored, included resetting the neck, putting on a new fretboard, new frets, all that. It felt REALLY good. I owned one of those, played several others. None of them played like that. It was hard to put down.
Which got me thinking. So today I took the Starfire III down for a look see, expecting it would need fret leveling, something drastic. Not so. George:
- Recut, deepened and evened up the nut slots.
- Took out most of the relief I had added, trying to get the action right.
- Lightly dressed the frets.
- Unscrewed the screwed down Bigsby bridge. Moved it a fraction to the side to get the strings centered.
- Checked string spacing, adjusted the high E outward, recutting the bridge groove.
- Lowered the action.
I could not be happier with the results. Not a subtle difference at all. It feels like a different instrument. Now it's right. If you're anywhere near north NJ (George is in South Orange), you might want to give this guy a call:
http://thefretworks.com/
MD
A couple months ago, I reconnected with an old blues jam acquaintance, guy named George Goumas. Who is a talented and interesting musician. Has played with some well known blues heavies, done guitar tech work for many others. I'd never played anything he had worked on. Stopped by his house, and he pulled out this early 60s ES-330 he'd completely restored, included resetting the neck, putting on a new fretboard, new frets, all that. It felt REALLY good. I owned one of those, played several others. None of them played like that. It was hard to put down.
Which got me thinking. So today I took the Starfire III down for a look see, expecting it would need fret leveling, something drastic. Not so. George:
- Recut, deepened and evened up the nut slots.
- Took out most of the relief I had added, trying to get the action right.
- Lightly dressed the frets.
- Unscrewed the screwed down Bigsby bridge. Moved it a fraction to the side to get the strings centered.
- Checked string spacing, adjusted the high E outward, recutting the bridge groove.
- Lowered the action.
I could not be happier with the results. Not a subtle difference at all. It feels like a different instrument. Now it's right. If you're anywhere near north NJ (George is in South Orange), you might want to give this guy a call:
http://thefretworks.com/
MD
