Hi Folks,
I bought a 'fixer-upper' '69 D-35 from a friend. Right now, it's at the repair shop, where they are addressing a variety of ills and ailments.
Part of the 'current repair scenario' is that the guitar needed a neck set and was taken to a repairman in another part of this state (sounds ominous, don't it? It doesn't? Well, it should!!).
You see, the repair-guy had a hard time steaming the neck out. Apparently, the back sides of the neck heel (you know, the unfinished sides that sit flush to the body on either side of the dove-tail) were having a hard time coming loose. It turned out that somebody had pulled the neck before and gone back with loads of glue, plastic shims and a strange green plastic filler around the dove-tail, all of which combined to make the 'next job' a disaster waiting to happen.
The thing about steaming a neck out is that, if it doesn't come out pretty quick, you're usually in trouble. The longer you steam it, the more the finish has a propensity to fall off from the upper shoulder area, etc. It's a race to see what comes loose first, the neck or the finish, kerfing, braces, neck block, etc.
Anyway, the poor frustrated repairman finally gave the neck a 'mighty wrenching'. In one fell swoop, he managed to a) remove the neck, b) split six or seven inches of the bass side of the body and c) partially crack the neck block!
[Before you come down too hard on the repair-person, let me say that he felt so bad that he gave the (then) D-35 owner a Martin acoustic/electric equipped guitar that was worth about $6-700 dollars for compensation. Anyway, everybody is happy, including me, 'cause I wound up with the corpus delecti.]
Under the 'new, improved repair regime', we're fixing the side and the block, re-setting the neck, planing the finger-board, re-fretting the neck, throwing on a new bone nut, fixing some side cracks and adding a slightly wider saddle slot to a replacement bridge made from Honduran Rosewood (the old Brazilian bridge had been cut down long ago and the prior owner wanted to try out the acoustic properties of this type of Rosewood. Me too, so we left it on there. ! I'll let you know how it goes!).
In all candor, the costs of the repair are adding up! Also, this guitar was pretty beat up before the side and the block split; so I don't think, money-wise, that this is a break-even situation.
Still, three friends of mine have been passing the guitar back and forth for about 30 years. They describe it as having a dry, crisp, woody sound that isn't particularly loud, but is nevertheless 'really nice'. So, even though the guitar may not now be technically 'worth the price of repairs', it's a good guitar and probably worth fixing in the long run.
So now we come to the big question! My luthier wants me to get some new tuners. He says the original Guild three-on-a-plate tuners are beyond shot.
I have a few sets of Grover Rotomatics, but I'm wondering if anybody has had any luck with other types of tuners that aren't as heavy. Anybody got any suggestions??? Will kluson-type Gotoh three on a plate tuners fit? Schallers? What do ya' think?
gilded
I bought a 'fixer-upper' '69 D-35 from a friend. Right now, it's at the repair shop, where they are addressing a variety of ills and ailments.
Part of the 'current repair scenario' is that the guitar needed a neck set and was taken to a repairman in another part of this state (sounds ominous, don't it? It doesn't? Well, it should!!).
You see, the repair-guy had a hard time steaming the neck out. Apparently, the back sides of the neck heel (you know, the unfinished sides that sit flush to the body on either side of the dove-tail) were having a hard time coming loose. It turned out that somebody had pulled the neck before and gone back with loads of glue, plastic shims and a strange green plastic filler around the dove-tail, all of which combined to make the 'next job' a disaster waiting to happen.
The thing about steaming a neck out is that, if it doesn't come out pretty quick, you're usually in trouble. The longer you steam it, the more the finish has a propensity to fall off from the upper shoulder area, etc. It's a race to see what comes loose first, the neck or the finish, kerfing, braces, neck block, etc.
Anyway, the poor frustrated repairman finally gave the neck a 'mighty wrenching'. In one fell swoop, he managed to a) remove the neck, b) split six or seven inches of the bass side of the body and c) partially crack the neck block!
[Before you come down too hard on the repair-person, let me say that he felt so bad that he gave the (then) D-35 owner a Martin acoustic/electric equipped guitar that was worth about $6-700 dollars for compensation. Anyway, everybody is happy, including me, 'cause I wound up with the corpus delecti.]
Under the 'new, improved repair regime', we're fixing the side and the block, re-setting the neck, planing the finger-board, re-fretting the neck, throwing on a new bone nut, fixing some side cracks and adding a slightly wider saddle slot to a replacement bridge made from Honduran Rosewood (the old Brazilian bridge had been cut down long ago and the prior owner wanted to try out the acoustic properties of this type of Rosewood. Me too, so we left it on there. ! I'll let you know how it goes!).
In all candor, the costs of the repair are adding up! Also, this guitar was pretty beat up before the side and the block split; so I don't think, money-wise, that this is a break-even situation.
Still, three friends of mine have been passing the guitar back and forth for about 30 years. They describe it as having a dry, crisp, woody sound that isn't particularly loud, but is nevertheless 'really nice'. So, even though the guitar may not now be technically 'worth the price of repairs', it's a good guitar and probably worth fixing in the long run.
So now we come to the big question! My luthier wants me to get some new tuners. He says the original Guild three-on-a-plate tuners are beyond shot.
I have a few sets of Grover Rotomatics, but I'm wondering if anybody has had any luck with other types of tuners that aren't as heavy. Anybody got any suggestions??? Will kluson-type Gotoh three on a plate tuners fit? Schallers? What do ya' think?
gilded
