Fender Stratocaster

This is a genuine American Fender Stratocaster, with an unhappy finish. It looks like someone has covered it in stickers, and then removed them with sandpaper. It's another guitar that belongs to our friend John from the most excellent Straits Fish & Chip shop here in Sheringham.

4 hours with wet & dry, from 1500 to 2500, followed by Farecla G3 & G10, plus a dose of Autoglym and it is right as rain.

Fryer John's Tanglewood

That's not a spelling mistake. John is not of the monastic persuasion, but runs the most excellent Fish & chip shop - Straits - here in Sheringham. His guitar is a Tanglewood 47B Sundance, which had taken an unfortunate excursion from the top of a TV. Not so much of a problem in itself, but the sharp deceleration onto a hard floor resulted in some bumps and bruises...

Nice big crack in the top, at the lower bout. Lots of finish missing

We think it had hit the ground head first, since there is another ding in the corner of the machine head

And then there is this little one:

Lots of reflections and a small gouge in the finish

So there we go. Some interesting little jobs!

A look around inside produces some interesting pictures:

Those dark lines, near the lining on the extreme left of the picture are a crack in the mahogany top

Since the lining to top joint is sound, we cannot achieve anything by attempting to re-glue that joint, and we must treat this repair as a split in the top. To stabilize this we can introduce some CA adhesive from the outside. But fisrt, we must devise a clamping scheme.

Top clamped

We'll use a spool clamp, with a spacer to cause the clamp to tip into the top rather than following the top contour as it would  normally be used. This means the clamp exerts pressure just inside the top to lining joint, effectively closing the crack. Cling film stops the clamp sticking to the glue.

Here is the 'after' shot, showing the glue has penetrated the joint:

Glue penetration through the crack in the top

Next, drop filling, scraping, and polishing

Drop filling almost complete

The peghead has also had a good dose of drop fill and polish:

and the lower bout repair is finished:

Jackson

The father of a school friend of mine was a Cabinet Maker from Ware, Herts who made Radio Controlled models, violins and guitars in his spare time. Here’s his first example – its a maple body, spruce to with a mahogany (?? Can’t see it for the flaking lacquer) neck & rosewood fingerboard.



It needs new topbracing, splits in the top repairing and the neck heel has started to delaminate. It’s going to get new purfling & binding in cherry red padauk, a rosewood bridge & fingerboard & new tuners

Giannini Head Repair

I'm very proud of this one. Neighbour Kier had shut his beloved Giannini in a car door... The head was completely severed, but very fortunately had not been moved, touched or bodged since.

You can see it's broken across the weakest point, in the nut slot. I stripped the guitar down and clamped it to my bench, on a sash cramp. I made a fixture to keep the headstock in the right inclination, and was then able to bring the headstock to the neck with controlled clamping force.

Glue set, it was then a matter of repairing the finish.



Not completely invisible, but it's been playing again for more than 3 years now.

BenAsher Violin

This violin had been in attic storage since 1940’s, and emerged after the owners Father passed away. Typically, attic life is not kind to stringed instruments - the damp atmosphere and temperature cycling opens up joints and warps necks.

This one was not unusual - the neck joint was no longer a joint; and the top joint was open, as was the back. All the hardware was missing. Fortunately the neck and fingerboard were present and in good shape.

The heel joint was remade with Titebond; the top and back joints also. The sound post was replaced and set. We cleaned the finish without stripping – sensitive to the aesthetics and sound quality. The body was refinished with French polish.

The violin was set up with new strings, bridge, tailpiece and chin rest and returned to playing condition, and we now have a satisfied customer!