Mobile Guitar Repair Story in New York City
Glancing down at my speedometer, I noticed the shop was rolling along at sixty-five mph. Fully loaded, heading east on Interstate Route 80, the countryside was in my mirror and the big city straight ahead. I was off on what seemed to be a usual service call originating from my shop located about one and a half hours west of New York City. While looking at the world through my windshield, I spotted the car positioned in the center lane next to me had Bob and Cindy Benedetto in it. As we maintained our speed, we exchanged beeps and waves over the next twenty minutes till it was time to make my exit. Today was certainly starting off on a nice note, little did I know what was in store for me further on up the road.
Shortly after backing my van into my customer's driveway, a dirty blond necked stratocaster was handed to me along with the comment "People have told me that my guitar is offensive to them!". Just one brief look was all that was needed to realize this guitar was never cleaned. Luckily the smell of the smoked out guitar case overpowered the "vintage bouquet" of the strat. I suppose the look on my face must have inspired the next statement " Honest ,it really is the color white." Followed up with, "Is there any hope for it?" Thoughts about how much to charge for this clean up were outweighed by my concerns over what kind of respirator and safety gloves to wear. The seasoned session guitarist, who has played with artists like Ben E.King and others , went on to say " This guitar has been everywhere I've been since 1970 when I bought it." I assured him not to worry and to come back out in an hour. I proceeded to put on my latex gloves, open the back door to my van and turned on a mini fan blowing across the guitar on my bench and out the door. It was time to get to work by creating a checklist of the present condition of the guitar. At pitch, all attention was given to truss rod / neck tension and condition of all the bridge components. The guitar was briefly played to test out the electronics , existing action and fingerboard trouble spots. Notes were made , along with a little drawing of the side view of the fretboard and a straightedge. Strings were removed and the instrument was cleaned. Surprisingly the guitar started to show some promise just by using guitar polish. When most of the chunky dirt was removed, I began to notice that I was actually buffing the grime to a very nice satin finish. Below the matte, tobacco road driven surface was little hints of white paint! Further cleaning revealed more and more of the original white finish. The same results were achieved on the maple fingerboard that looked more like an ebony board. Every position had worn spots on the fingerboard compared to the newly installed frets. After an hour of applying pure elbow grease and a mild solvent, the guitar was spotless with all of its vintage qualities safely intact. I was finally able to open my tool box and start setting up the axe at hand. As with any repair, it is imperative that the guitar is fully inspected prior to continuing with any further work. A good technician must familiarize themselves with the instrument. It is a simple concept, the more you play the guitar, the more you will learn. Measure everything from string height, truss rod response and saddle position, along with notes on what is properly adjusted or off at the time. Once you get started, treat the most minor repair as a major effort with no room for error. In this month's example, this vintage strat had a heavy oxidization problem on most it's hardware. Something as minimal as turning a bridge screw on the saddle led to an exasperating dilemma when the old allen head screw broke. The best solution to this problem, extraction and replacement of the screw then replace with a similar part. A new shinny screw would just stand out on a vintage axe, always save decent hardware from other replacement/upgrade jobs for repair such as this one. As you move through the setup, measure the fingerboard with tension on the neck and again without string tension.
Usually, the fingerboard will revert to another position without tension, which indicates the truss rod is doing its' job as the backbone the neck. Ex. With strings on and up to tension, the fingerboard "may" appear to be concave, but with tension removed the same neck will usually become either flat or even convex. If the fingerboard is slated for a fret dressing, it certainly be best to have the neck flat for proper leveling of the frets.. Otherwise, I would prefer not to make any truss rod adjustments until the new strings are replaced and at pitch for a minimum of one hour or more. The neck may go into shock when all the tension is removed and will need time to settle down. In our line of work, we have no choice but to remove all the strings to accomplish the repair work required. Always check the truss rod for free movement, primarily to see that your customer didn't over tighten with their wonderful little truss rod wrench that some manufacturers insist on supplying with new instruments. Learning how to understand individual truss rod systems will come with repetitive experience. The rule in my shop is to never turn a truss rod more than one eighth to a quarter turn in either direction.
Always measure the response with a precision ground straightedge, repeat as needed. With the straightedge gingerly placed on top of the frets between the "D" and "G" strings, visually inspect the amount of clearance between the straightedge and the top of the frets. A light source behind the straightedge will help you measure the taper of the fretboard, paying close attention to where bowing or counterbow starts and ends. Imagine an adjustable truss rod as a long bolt with secured nuts on each end, when the bolt is tightened the threaded area becomes shortened between the nuts. Likewise, if the fingerboard is concave with tension, tightening the rod will assist the fingerboard to move upward towards a flat plane. Using the same example except loosen the long bolt to expose more thread between the fixed nuts, any tension would be relieved to a point. This rings true when adjusting a neck that is convex, providing relief and allowing the strings to pull the board toward a slightly flatter position. Final truss rod adjustments will vary based on saddle height and the condition of the frets.
Adjustments to the bridge should start by achieving proper saddle height otherwise if the action is set too high , the note will seem to be sharp and an inexperienced tech might be prone to move the saddle horizontally in an attempt to compensate. Acoustic guitars are a bit more difficult to intonate primarily due to the fact that the saddle slot has been pre set to a specific nut to saddle length. In this situation, height adjustments allow for minimum changes in setting intonation and usually insufficient. One of the only solutions, without filling and repositioning the slot, is to make a compensated saddle. This is a topic that requires more information in greater detail than space allows in this issue. Electric guitars have an adjustable bridge that provides easy adjustments once the action is set. A tuning fork and a good ear are the old proven method, but an accurate electric tuner is the best for visual test methods. Always play an open string note and then compare to the note on the twelfth fret on each string, then move the saddle horizontally to correlate both notes and repeat till perfection is achieved.
The reward for a good set up is to play the guitar and enjoy it as if it was your own. Even though I have played the guitar since the early sixties, my primary instrument is the bass, so when a guitar can make me sound better you can bet I did a great job setting it up!!!
PIC'S QUICK FIX:
Don't throw out those empty string packages, you can recycle them in many ways. My favorite choice is to use the envelope to store floppy disks for my computer. Each envelope can hold up to two disks for storage or transporting. There are many other uses such as masking three around the bottom of the fingerboard with tape, protecting the body of the guitar during a fret dressing and so on.
Bass Guitar Amp
