In The Workshop Recently......

A brace of Teles to start with. The first is a hybrid belonging to Kit Kinrade. It was recently in for some mods and a set-up

and is now back to have this Seymout Duncan Little 59 fitted in the neck position. This needed some routing work as this

is normally a bridge pick-up. Sounds amazing though. Second one is a very pretty Tele Custom in for a set-up

Another of Kit's guitars, this fantastic old Roland Guitar Synth ( I think this is the Mark II ) was in for a set-up. Must be

pretty rare these days. Another classic visitor and one of my favourites was this Yamaha SG in for a set-up.

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This fantastic vintage Paramount (1930's ?) was in recently for a new scratchplate and pickup. We ended up building a

pickup from parts to get one thin enough. The Strat is was built around a lovely Fender custom shop neck with a new

body and hardware.

This Ibanez GRX was given a major facelift similar to the original AT100 built for Andy Timmons. It even features the

correct Di Marzio pickups.

The 12 string Guild had an unplayable action and a loose bridge. We corrected this by lifting the end of the fingerboard

where it had sagged and adding a belly brace to bring the bridge back level. A fret dress completed the overhaul.

No major work on this lovely PRS, but worthy of a mention. It was used on tour by none other than Joe Walsh, and was

signed by him at the end of the tour.

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Some lovely classics recently. This Gibson J-45 was with us for some repair work. The top had cracked and the

scratchplate had distorted badly. The top was stripped back to bare wood, the crack repaired, and the top re-finished.

We also replaced some worn frets, and made a new bone saddle for the bridge.

This Hofner Verithin is the 1966 model. The neck needed resetting, and we also repaired the worn lacquer on the back

of the neck. This really is a lovely guitar.

This very old Zenith archtop needed it's bracing re-glueing as the top had sunk badly. The Framus Star Bass is a 1964

model, and needed a complete re-build. We even had to make some of the missing pieces from scratch.

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They say that variety is the spice of life........this upright Bass visited the workshop recently for a modification to its side

stand. The Lovely Faith acoustic was in to have its action lowered.

Sadly not an uncommon problem, this Les Paul was in to have it's headstock re-attached. The result was an almost invisible

repair.

This handbuilt guitar from Colin Evans was in for some finish. He decided on a vintage Amber colour with clear lacquer.

And as promised, here are some pics of the finished Mandolin. Look out for more news on this one soon.

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The ML featured last time has now been completed and is back with its owner. Next upgrade for this may be a Rosewood

neck, watch this space. Another project that has been kicking around the workshop for a while is this solid bodied

Mandolin. Check back for more news on this one.

Recently with us was this SG. The owner plays in a Who tribute band, so wanted P90s for the authentic sound. A nice

pair of Bare Knuckle P91s and a custom scratch plate completed the upgrade.

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Finally, the Guild Songbird has had it's last polish and assembly. Very nice pre-amp on this one, has a very good tone

for such a slim body. The 'Black Special' is progressing nicely, most of the stain now removed. Next will be filling in the

cavities for the new trem and bridge.

And new into the workshop is this Chapman ML. The owner decided on a new Swamp Ash body with Di-Marzios and a

new hardtail bridge. It will also feature a 24 pole 5 way switch for some interesting tonal variations.

Another Squire for Paul Stevens. The body was routed out for a Kahler Trem, and re-finished in Black with a set of EMG

SAs and a new custom scratchplate.

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The Guild Songbird is now nearing completion. Ths picture shows it will the colour now applied, but since then it has

had the final coats of lacquer. Should be completed for the next update. Latest project is this 'Black Special' back from

Jersey for a visit. The owner has decided on a different trem and a natural finish for it. So plenty more rubbing down to

follow.

Also visiting recently was this Ibanez RG. The owner wanted the body modifying to accept a Fernandes Sustainer. This

model originally had only a single pickup, so it was routed out for the Sustainer, the circuit board and also the battery box.

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Work has been progressing on the Thin body Guild, it is now down to bare wood, and will be getting some colour soon.

Plans have changed slightly from the original, so look out for further developments.

Also, this lovely Gretsch came in for some fret work and a set-up.

This was followed by this rather unusual Hohner electric which features a Steinberger trem, requiring a set-up.

And finally this Squire with EMGs was in for some tweaking. A previous owner had fitted the Kahler trem, but it was too

near the neck, and the height meant that the neck had to be angled back. To get round this, we routed the body to lower

the trem by 3mm, and moved it further back.

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Things have been pretty hectic here recently, for all the wrong reasons, so a bit of catching up to do.......

This interesting custom has been with us for a while. The owner wanted a new look, and a few improvements. The

scratchplate was replaced with a nice Birds Eye Maple item, inlays added to the fingerboard and some side markers

also. The bridge was also raised up with a Mahogany spacer.

The headstock inlay was also renewed, with a Birds Eye Maple veneer and new Black and White pearl inlay.

As this guitar has an LR Baggs pre-amp, we also shielded the back of the scratchplate and the control cavity to keep

everything hum-free.

One of the great things about this job is the wonderful variety of beautiful guitars that come to visit. This Washburn acoustic

and Yamaha Baritone were in for some minor work and set-ups recently.

A major project on the go is this slim bodied Guild acoustic. Another Barry Gibb model, it is in for a complete bare wood

refinish. This may be with us for a little while........lots of rubbing down still to do !

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Two guitars from one of our regulars. Kevin from local band Risky Bizness, brought us these nice acoustics, both in need of

some fretwork. The red guitar is a Guild Barry Gibb signature, the the other is an Ovation Adamas.

This owner of this Washburn wasn't happy with the flat (20" radius) fingerboard on this othwerwise nice guitar. So he decided

to have the fingerboard replaced with a compound radius one in ebony. With traditional clay dot markers, and an LSR roller nut

to keep everything smooth, and Stainless steel frets.

This beautiful Charvel came to us with a major problem. The neck was very unstable, and would not keep a playable set-up.

It was decided that the best remedy for this was to remove the existing fingerboard, replace the truss rod, install 2 Carbon rods,

and fit a new fingerboard in Santos Rosewood. This was finished off with Pearl dots, and some Jumbo stainless frets. We also

replaced the bridge pick-up with a Bare Knuckle Abraxas.

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We had this rather nice pair of Ibanez Jems in recently. The Stunning Blue model was in for a set-up, but the Black one had a

strange pickup selection problem. This was soon cured with a new switch (after a lot of head scratching ! ).

This single cut SE had already visited the workshop for a set up, but the owner decided that it needed a bit of an upgrade.

The machine heads were replaced with a set of locking Schallers, the bridge was also a Schaller item with adjustable saddles,

and the pickups are Bare Knuckle Stormy Mondays, with some new Black surrounds and a pair of matching Chrome Knobs.

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It seems to have been all Les Pauls recently in the workshop.

The Gibson on the left came in for a well deserved fret dress, and a new bridge to replace the worn original. And the rather

pretty Green Epiphone came in for a set-up, but this also needed some fret work to get everything straight.

We also had an Epiphone Les Paul Custom in for a fret dress, and we also changed the pickups for a pair of Mighty Mite

Motherbuckers, as the original bridge pickup was found to be lacking.

And finally, another Epiphone which had sadly sufferred a knock and needed a badly cracked neck/headstock repairing.

Some pictures from the workshop of the construction process,

click on the photos to enlarge................

Washington IV	What happens to all the left over timber that isn't big enough for customer guitars, build one for the boss!  Apart from the top and the fingerboard, all of the wood used in this guitar is from the off-cuts bin.
	Body timbers being glued together before being split to make a book matched pair.		Curly Maple top.
	Neck lamination glued up.		Body cavity initial shaping. The bottom will be cut out and used as the cover.
	body and neck glued together.		cavities in Maple top.
	Matched halves.		Fingerboard fitting.
	Stain applied.		Bookmatched headstock veneer.
	First coat of lacquer applied.
Lucky
	Ethos Guitars' first bass guitar with highly personalised twelfth fret markers		Front side body showing "neck through" and routing
	Rear routing with the smallest amount of wood removed from the body to retain as much tone as possible
Coronet
	Headstock being shaped, routed and drilled		The body takes shape, once more as little wood removed as possible
The Aphrodite
	The first Aphrodite underway		A lovely figured top and deep control routing
	Handshaped upper and lower bouts make all the difference		Some addition of colour
	Back with center stripe and control cavities. Note the deep heel cutaway for easy upper fret access.
The Washington
	This is after initial body shaping, and shows the intial component fit to check tolerances		Bookmatched headstock facing
	You can also see the smooth recessed fit of the selector switch and pots		The picture of the rear clearly show the neck-through-body construction and the excellent access to the upper frets.
	There is no visible gap under the knobs even when the pull switch is operated
The Pumpkin
	Neck Laminated from Maple and Walnut. Headstock drilled for machine heads.		Hand Carved Spruce top made from 2 matched wedges
	The neck-through body construction can be seen here with the Walnut centre stripe visible through the pick-up cavities.		Head stock faced with book matched Rosewood, single binding applied ready for scraping
	Sides fitted and top routed ready for binding.		Binding (made up from 3 separate strips) now fitted and scraped to shape.
	Book matched Rosewood back with centre purfling.		Finished Rosewood back
	Heel detail showing the center stripe		More heel detail aslo showing the depth of the binding
	Painted and ready for polishing, wiring and hardware.		Carved top with paint applied