Fender F 48, Steel Resonator Guitar Repair

"A dog knocked the guitar over and this happened"

A short grain break, previously repaired with hide glue by a well known Luthier,
the problem here is that the hide glue had filled the grain making reassembly a nightmare.
The repair failed due to the guitar being hung by its peg head in a hot tin shed over summer.
The glue became soft and the heavy guitar was found hanging by its strings!

I was forced to pick out as much of the hide glue as I could from the fractured grain and then
refit the the broken components. I used my fret caul clamp and two wood screws to hold the
repair whilst it was curing. I use marine epoxy for this kind of repair.
Who wants it to fall apart again?

Another view of the fret caul clamp in action.

Once cured I removed the clamp and wood screws and sanded the repaired area smooth.

Here you can see that the screw holes have been counter bored with 5 mm holes. I have inserted
two 5 mm carbon fibre rods glued into place. These rods splint the short grain break to ensure
that it is adequately reinforced.

I had already planned to conceal the reinforcing rods with a mahogany veneer patch.
There is a line on this guitar where the neck stock is scarf jointed to the peg head just visible
below the lowest tuning machine holes on the margin of the sanding line.
My plan was to use this line as the margin of my additional veneer patch.

I fitted a 320 grit sand paper sheet around the outside of this stainless steel container
which was the ideal radius of the curved neck/peg-head junction.
It also served as the clamping caul for the glueing of the mahogany veneer patch.

This is the veneer patch trimmed and sanded ready for stain.

Stained and one coat of gloss lacquer.

After multiple coats of gloss lacquer the hardware is ready to fit.

Some minor cosmetics to address on the front face of the peg head around the nut slot.

I removed the resonator which looked like the inside of a poorly maintained vacuum cleaner!

I put some time and energy into cleaning and polishing the metal body which was covered in DNA
and corrosion spots.

It cleaned up pretty well!

The string spacing is way too close for my taste. The confinement is created by the
narrow wooden saddle on the resonator cone. It plays really loudly. I'm so accustomed to
The beautiful tone of wooden instruments that this was a bit of a shock!

I levelled, crowned and polished the frets as well as setting action and intonation.
The customer was amazed at the result, it looks as good as new and the repair cannot be seen.

Fishman Loud Box Mini. Vinyl covering problems and restoration.

Here we see my wife Julie"s Fishman Loudbox Mini.

We love the amp but the cosmetics let this great product down BIG TIME!

Where did Fishman source their vinyl? It is easily the worst quality covering I have ever encountered.

The slightest abrasion causes the vinyl surface to come away like sunburnt skin.

It was time to address this problem as it was getting more and more unsightly.

We sourced some great covering material at a local fabric outlet store. It is an animal print which my wife favours. I have to agree with her that the result is far better visually and a great improvement on quality and durability over the original finish. It took me half a day and one can of spray adhesive.

Peeling off the already badly peeling vinyl.

This is the panel under the handle.

Peeling in progress. About and hour's work all up.

Freshly peeled. I chose to leave the thin, grey, neoprene foam under layer in place.

All the vinyl removed.

Component parts.

The amp.

Handle panel was the first and easiest component to cover.
It gave me a feel for the balance of the project.

Straight out of the workshop. New covering in place and ready for re assembly.

Newly assembled.

We love the new look Fishman Loudbox Mini.